Lace Pillows

All Bobbin Lace requires a firm surface to work on. Pins are used to hold the lace in place as the bobbins are woven and twisted in a pattern across the surface of the pillow. In order for the pins to stay in place, the pillow needs to be pliable enough for the pins to enter and firm enough to hold them in place. Other than that "all bets are off".

Pillows can be any shape or size. Traditionally the pillows were stuffed with abundant local materials. This frequently took the form of straw. It was hammered and beaten with a mallet or stick to break up the fibers and make it easier to insert the pins. The whole thing was covered with a canvas material in a shape determined by local tradition and what worked best for the type of lace made.

Today we can choose from all the pillow forms of the past. From the arched square desk pillow often seen in paintings one of the most common is the "cookie" or "mushroom" pillow developed. It is an all around pillow and makes an excellent first pillow as almost any lace can be made on it but it is best suited for Motifs, collars and doilies. Non-continuous laces find the easy turn-ability of the "cookie" pillow very handy for the constant change of directions.

But if a long length of lace trim is your plan, then the roller pillow is today's first choice. It developed from the bolster pillows, which are found in almost every regions lace history. There are the short bolsters like the Czech one shown here or the long ones found in Spain and Malta. These developed into the rollers with an area to support the bobbins like the French pillow. Some are circles or ovals with a roller mounted in an opening near the center of the pillow. Others are half rounds with the roller mounted further near the back.

Originally the type of lace made dictated the style of pillow. Each region uses different bobbins also and the pillows shape was somewhat determined by the bobbin shape and vise versa. Larger bobbins needed more room or maybe it was the number of threads needed to create the pattern. It is possible to need more than a hundred bobbins to make some laces and more room on the pillow makes this easier. A modern adaptation pillow is the Block Pillow. It is composed of several sections of flat blocks usually made of ethafoam, a modern invention used for insulation. They are held together in a frame and arranged and moved as the lacemaker works around a larger pattern. This allows the working area to stay in the back, and bobbins closer without falling off. This is especially useful for handkerchiefs or larger doilies.

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