Hello lovelies,

last year was kind of productive, in between a book binding, tambour embroidery class, university and work I learned another new (and unnecessary) skill; bobbin lace.
Years ago I tried to learn bobbin lace on my own as I wanted cute lace for my first 18th century dress but I stood no chance against this craft. It was just too difficult to learn on my own without the help and guidance of a more experienced teacher. But lucky for me, I found a bobbin lace class.
My first session was on a Saturday from 10 am to 5pm and afterwards I had troubles with my back. I felt like an old grandma but it really helped me with the basics and I found out where I made the mistakes. It is still a very difficult craft and I respect all the people who really master it.
The teacher of the class is about 70+ and started bobbin lace when she was in her twenties, I thought this was amazing. It was not a surprise that I was the youngest in the class by far. Most of them were in their 50s-60s as well.

For the class we had to bring a styrofoam plate covered with fabric, needles and thread. I could buy the bobbins in class for 0,70 a piece.
Normally you thread the bobbins together on one string but I didn't know and threaded them separately. The green film gives the paper extra stability because you push in the needles at various points.

There are two basic movements: the cross (c) and the twist (t). Different combinations of these two stitches (ctc, ct, ttt, ctct, cttc, tct) and the placement of the pins create different designs in the lace.
There are two basic stitches: the whole stitch (ws) doing a cross, twist, cross (ctc) and the half-stitch (hs) doing a cross, twist (ct) with four bobbins. - makezine.com

 As you can see top and bottom are two different
My teacher also counts this stitch to the basic ones. I made a mistake in the middle top as I had forgot to twist after pining the needle.

I changed the colour of my styrofoam cover for my second lesson. It was already more advanced and I didn't have time to practise so progress was super slow compared to the second lesson.
But I did my first lace piece! Hooray. I could scale down the pattern and use thinner thread and I'd have lace for my dresses.



The second lace I did included a little twist called the spider. It was not as hard as I thought.




I do hope I have time to continue this craft. My goal is to do the historical bobbin lace I found in the book 17th century women's dress patterns and use it for my costumes.

All the best,

Auris Lothol