"Lace" and recent finds

I have been fascinated by Lace since I was a little girl when I first saw Bruges lace on my first foreign holiday with my best friend's family when I was in Belgium for about seven weeks. 

Aunty Iggy (Aunty Marguerite) (my friend's mum) was Belgian.  She had met her husband just after the war and had moved to England when she had eventually married him.  Equally they had a big family seven again all of them girls. Her brother an Architect had built his own home in a village called Maclen outside of Brussels. He had about seven children of all different ages and the house was a four storey one including the basement but quite large.  I was only seven years of age at the time.  Aunt Iggy's and her brother Raymond's mother was in her nineties at the time and was called Mimi.  She frightened the pants off of me as she used to glide into a room without you realising it and then make you jump.  Mimi could not speak English but it did not stop her jabbering on at us.  

Whilst in Belgium with the family I was taken to a lot of places on days out and it is the days out and the family that I remember more than anything else.  Whilst out for the day in Brussels I was taken to museum which had a lot of handmade lace in it and that was where I fell in love with lace.

There are different kinds of lace.  The most expensive being that made by hand by use of bobbins.  I have a lace mat a beginners set which I have not really had a play with yet.  I have had it for many years but I am going to have a play with it - its on my bucket list but that will be a little way off yet and I have also ordered some personalised bobbins as well. Here is the link:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/264132795/painted-bayeux-lace-bobbin-choice-of

Here is a picture of said bobbins.

I am keen to get some vintage bobbins if I can along the way as well.  I thought I would buy one every so often.

There is crochet lace often in the form of what is called filet, there is mass produced lace, nylon lace, cotton lace etc. and even knitted lace.

On of the things I am doing at the moment is buying a few things here and there for next to nothing, noticeably crochet mats of all different sizes  but I have also been buying proper vintage crochet lace to go on my vintage bedding to make it a bit prettier and more shabby chic.

Here are some of the pieces I have acquired so far and there is some more to come.

This is a lovely filet crochet cream panel which is destined for a top sheet of one of my linen vintage sheets.  

When buying crochet piece on ebay be very careful.  Some people are advertising machine made pieces as hand created crochet when in fact it is not and they try and charge an enhanced price for this.  I believe some of this is down to ignorance on their part though.  So I always carefully study the photos blowing them as much as I can.  Proper hand crochet has its own depth and texture.

There have also been some pretty mats turn up in job lots which I am going to recycle in various guises in due course.  These pieces in particular I am very pleased with.

A Hand crocheted table runner the work is lovely on this.  This will look super down the centre of my pine dining table.  There is certainly a lot of work that has gone into it.

A pretty vintage dressing table set which will go wonderfully with the spare bedroom theme of yellow and green and cream.  The green on these photos looks a lot more turquoise than it actually is, but it should go well with the scheme of things and indeed the vintage feather satin bedspread.

A beautiful cut work dresser set.  Funnily enough I have jelly rolls in this colourway to make a quilt. So the basis of another room make over.

Another little dressing table set

A lovely embroidered table centre which is quite pretty.

Some crochet mats.

All of these are lace variants and really look pretty in person.

So there is going to be lots to play with in the long run and I have all sorts of ideas buzzing round in my head.  However I think I am going to have to have a go at making my own filet lace as well as I have the thread and the patterns (I used to collect a monthly crochet magazine on a regular basis and I have a stack of them lurking somewhere.  I think that they are down in the unit right at the back though!  Always the way.

Right had better get a wriggle on am absolutely shattered. I went to bed early last night but did not sleep and I think it was gone three am before I actually nodded off.

Right I had better get a wriggle on.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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