#thehistoricalfrog

[thehistoricalfrog]

Bobbin lace sampler

[tattedpetticoats]

hi tattedpetticoats!

i got into making bobbin lace recently, but i don’t know what kind of thread i should use for it. do you have any recommendations? thanks :)

Hello friend!

The short answer is, anything! When you're starting out, just about any thread will give you good practice. Truly, you could use standard sewing thread and it'd still turn out just fine. Colours, so you can track specific pairs? Glitter? The world is your oyster! The only thing I'd say is look out for something with a good twist in it that isn't too fuzzy, so it won't felt and it won't unravel. Maybe some nice crochet cotton? If you have a local craft store, poke around and see what catches your eye! Thrift shops can also be EXCELLENT sources of random threads. I strongly prefer natural fibre, especially cotton, but that's just me.

Now, if you want to get a bit more specific, I have always heard from my grandma that different types of bobbins beget different types of thread. If you're using wooden bobbins with a chunkier bit at the end, those are made so you can tug them and pull your threads into place. Use a thicker thread with these!

I'm more used to English-style bobbins, with spangles (the technical term for the beads threaded on wire). These spangles weigh around 8g each, and they provide all the pull you need when you're using stupidly fine thread. If you tugged on them the way you would European-style bobbins with bulbs on the ends, you'd snap your thread (trust me on this. I know a thing or two about snapping threads). So if you have a fondness for styles like Buckinghamshire Point Ground (what I'm most used to), you want to work up to very fine thread, with a slightly coarser thread on one or two pairs to form the 'gimp' which outlines your patterns.

I personally can't really give you any good recommendations for brands/stockists, because I get thread from my Grandma's MASSIVE stash, but perhaps some other lace maker could help me out?

@thehistoricalfrog, any thoughts?

[awayforanera]

Hi! I just bought my first book on needle lace and my fingers are just itching to get started. There’s not a lot of people doing needle lace on tumblr tho. Do you have any tips for a beginner with the unfortunate habit of starting projects way beyond their skill level? I love your unicorn patch btw!

Hi and congratulations on the new hobby!!

Full disclosure, I have only done Romanian Point Lace which is a little different than other needle laces but there is a lot of similarities. I would recommend looking at @learning-needle-lace and @thehistoricalfrog for more information.

But I completely sympathize with picking complicated projects for beginners, I’m guilty of it, but I feel like it gives me a hard goal.

So i would first look at what you want to make and then pick apart the specific skills you would need to know in order to accomplish it.

For the unicorn patch, I needed to a) make a design that could translate to RPL, b) make the chording for RPL, and C) identify what stitches I wanted to use to fill in the unicorn.

Step A) was a little trial and error and was based on other RPL pattern diagrams. Steps B) and C) I was able to learn from Elena Rugal’s YouTube channel and from her lace kit.

Before making the unicorn, I applied the same skills on a small tulip doily and a few leaf tests. These smaller, more inconsequential, projects helped me build the confidence to make the unicorn

[thehistoricalfrog]

Tatted bookmark

[thehistoricalfrog]

Bobbin lace collar made with metallic thread

[thehistoricalfrog]

Lacemakers of tumblr

Crochet lace - 24.2%, 82 people

Knitted lace - 22.4%, 76 people

Bobbin lace - 20.5%, 69 people

Embroidred lace - 14.3%, 50 people

Tatting - 10.2%, 38 people

Needle lace - 5.8%, 20 people

Cutwork - 1.5%, 5 people

Tapelace - 0.6%, 2 people

Other - 0.3%, 1 person

Around 345 lacemakers voted

The data is from a poll i made last week.

link here-  https://www.tumblr.com/thehistoricalfrog/709634158176223232/favorite-type-of-lacemaking-bobbin-lace-needle?source=share

The poll was to find out what are the lacemaking demographics of tumblr. After it ended i calculated roughly how meny people voted what, and the procenteges (minus the 60% of people who weren't lacemakers) . With that i made two grafs as seen above.

Thank you to everybody who voted! and to the people that expanded in the notes, thank you it was very interesting.

[thehistoricalfrog]

Needle lace fish

[thehistoricalfrog]

✨Bobbin Lace✨

[thehistoricalfrog]

My first try at bucks point lace

The pattern is by Jo Edkins

made out of silk thread and pearl cotton

[thehistoricalfrog]

finally learned tatting

[thehistoricalfrog]

embroidered winter holliday ornaments

[thehistoricalfrog]

Glow in the dark lace

I have been trying new materials to make lace out of and this one was a pain to work with but for the end result it was worth it

[thehistoricalfrog]

Needle lace sampler wip

[thehistoricalfrog]

Midnight lacemaking 💕

[thehistoricalfrog]

18th century pocket

ᵀʰᵉʰᶦˢᵗᵒʳᶦᶜᵃˡᶠʳᵒᵍ

[thehistoricalfrog]

🍄Mooshroom🍄