Lace making

Lace making

Picot is the term for a series of small loops (also known as bobs) along the edge of a fabric or piece of lace. Picot can be made as part of the main fabric or produced separately and then sewn onto the ground. The word picot derives from the French pic, meaning to peak, point or prick. Picot is sometimes regarded as a (simple) form of embroidered lace.

Quaker lace is an American term used for darned netting or darned net.

Renaissance lace is a type of tape lace in which the overall outline of the design is made with machine made tape. The name refers to the rediscovery of antique Italian forms in the nineteenth century, and should not be confused with examples of lace from the Renaissance period.

Reticella (Italian, ‘a small net’) is an extreme form of cutwork lace, and thereby classed as a form of embroidered lace. It dates from the late medieval period and involves the large-scale removal of squares of woven ground cloth, usually linen, that are filled in with embroidered patterns. Later reticella used a grid made of thread rather than a cloth ground.

Ruskin lace is a form of embroidered lace that combines cutwork, drawn thread work and embroidered lace. The technique was supported by the English art critic and patron, John Ruskin (1819-1900), from the 1880's onwards.

Sardinian point (lace) is a form of tape lace made from a very narrow, machine made tape. The tape is looped into decorative shapes that are stitched together with a fine thread.

Lace can be divided into various groups on the basis of its production method. This survey focuses on the types of lace that are made with a needle and with decorative stitching, thus excluding many other types of lace, such as bobbin, knotted and looped forms. Please bear in mind that the names of the various lace types may vary and are not always universally accepted.

Tape lace is a form of lace using either a hand made (with a bobbin) or a machine woven tape. The tape is folded into the required design and then fixed and embellished with connecting lace or embroidery stitches of various kinds. Tape lace is traditionally used for the corners, borders and centre piece of a table cloth, as well as for veils, dress collars, parasols, fans, handkerchiefs, napkins, doilies, and so forth.

Yak lace is a form of guipure (bobbin) lace. It was made in England in imitation of Maltese and Greek laces. It was generally made of woollen yarns (certainly not exclusively yak). It became popular from the mid-nineteenth century. For guipure laces, see also Genoese lace, Bedfordshire lace, Cluny lace and Maltese lace.

Page 3 of 3