About the service
I have been working at the pillow with bobbins for more than twenty years, and every commission starts the same way: we talk about the piece, I draw the pricking, and only then do the bobbins begin to move. The pricking is the paper pattern that every pin follows, and its accuracy decides everything — whether a collar sits properly around the neckline, or whether the border of a tablecloth ripples instead of lying flat. Thread is chosen for the job. Fine linen holds its shape and only grows more handsome with age; cotton is softer and fills small leaf tallies more willingly. We pick the thickness together, because it governs both the density of the pattern and the number of hours the work will take.
I work in both continuous and part lace. Continuous lace suits yardage: edging for a tablecloth, a towel or a shawl, and insertion strips between panels of cloth. Part lace suits free designs, where the cloth stitch carries the outline and plaited bars with picots fill the ground. Collars are made to measurement — I need the neck circumference, the width you want and a photograph of the neckline, otherwise beautiful lace ends up sitting in the wrong place. I also take restoration work: matching thread to old lace, unpicking a frayed section and weaving in the missing fragment so that the join does not read. Sometimes an old piece needs nothing but a wash and fresh starch, and I say so rather than inventing work.
About timing I am honest. Bobbin lace grows by centimetres an hour, not by metres. A narrow edging or a small collar takes one or two weeks, a medium doily or cloth cover three or four, and the border of a large tablecloth runs into months — hurrying shows up immediately as uneven filling. Work begins after a deposit that covers thread and materials; the balance is due on completion. The finished piece arrives washed and starched, with care notes: hand wash in warm water, dry it spread flat on a towel, and store it rolled or interleaved with paper rather than folded, because a crease in lace almost never comes out.
— collars made to the measurement of your neckline, in either technique;
— doilies and cloth covers: round, oval or square, sized to your table;
— edging for tablecloths, towels, shawls and bed linen;
— insertions and panels between widths of fabric;
— restoration of old lace and replacement of lost fragments;
— working from your pricking, or drafting a new one from scratch;
— washing, starching and packing without creases.
I work in both continuous and part lace. Continuous lace suits yardage: edging for a tablecloth, a towel or a shawl, and insertion strips between panels of cloth. Part lace suits free designs, where the cloth stitch carries the outline and plaited bars with picots fill the ground. Collars are made to measurement — I need the neck circumference, the width you want and a photograph of the neckline, otherwise beautiful lace ends up sitting in the wrong place. I also take restoration work: matching thread to old lace, unpicking a frayed section and weaving in the missing fragment so that the join does not read. Sometimes an old piece needs nothing but a wash and fresh starch, and I say so rather than inventing work.
About timing I am honest. Bobbin lace grows by centimetres an hour, not by metres. A narrow edging or a small collar takes one or two weeks, a medium doily or cloth cover three or four, and the border of a large tablecloth runs into months — hurrying shows up immediately as uneven filling. Work begins after a deposit that covers thread and materials; the balance is due on completion. The finished piece arrives washed and starched, with care notes: hand wash in warm water, dry it spread flat on a towel, and store it rolled or interleaved with paper rather than folded, because a crease in lace almost never comes out.
— collars made to the measurement of your neckline, in either technique;
— doilies and cloth covers: round, oval or square, sized to your table;
— edging for tablecloths, towels, shawls and bed linen;
— insertions and panels between widths of fabric;
— restoration of old lace and replacement of lost fragments;
— working from your pricking, or drafting a new one from scratch;
— washing, starching and packing without creases.
