Let’s see. This is one of the most important pieces. Before they used to make the Tulle on which the Brughes pieces were embroidered to. But, for a little more than a century it has been worked in a mechanic tulle.

It is an important lace, Brussels lace or needle lace because the lacemakers make small pieces that are mounted on the tulle. They embroider stitches of 1 centimeter in length from the motif to the tulle, and it’s difficult to see where they are sewn. These centimeters correspond to 12 hours of work. This is why it’s an important and very expensive lace.

Part 3.

All you need to do to make the bottom part of the spider is to follow the same steps as for the top part.

Pull down all the bobbins of the “milano” or spider and proceed with the “path”

TCTC with the pair on the left, leave bobbins on the left side to complete the “torchón”
Then, take leg #4 and do a twist on the pair of the right (corner of fan). Because each spider leg has 3 Twists, do a cloth stitch with the pair on the right (from the fan or “Plumilla”) and combine the legs with the stitches on the right.

Do TCTC with the bobbins on the fan:

3T 2T

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We need to start to work on the fan again.

The lacemaker says: “Now, we take out some pins little by little and this is an image of the work”.

Part 2.

The sider is a little more complex, she says:

Make 3 twists with each pair (there are 6 pairs in all, 3 on the right and 3 on the left.

1,2,3, twists to each leg.

Then, to make the spider:

First you have to make the first half or the top part of the spider.

CTC pairs 4-1

CTC pairs 5-2

CTC pairs 6-3

After you do this, put some tension on the bobbins (press down) so the legs of the spider get straight. Place a Pin.

To work the fan (the design with which she begins video #1

4 twists to the right or last pair of bobbins

3 twists on the pair of bobbins immediately to its left

Do CTC (cloth stitch) with last pairs and place a pin

close pin with tctc.

To return from right to left, do 4 twists to the right or last pair and 3 twists on the pair to its left.

Do CTC with these two pairs, and repeat steps of 4 twists and 3 twists with the next pair immediately to its left. This is: 3T, 3T, 4T

Finish this row by twisting 2x the pair on the left which comes from the “path” and do another ctc with this pair.

Now, place a pin, and close this stitch with TCTC.

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To make the “path” to the left of the fan or “plumilla”.

She does it in Cloth Stitch (CTC).

Then the last part on the edge to the left is called the headside of lace. It’s called “Torchón” in spanish. It’s made by doing TTC pin TC or whole stitch.

She is working from top to the bottom diagonally.

She is taking the lace to the corner so that she can start to work on the “milano” or spider (araña in spanish). She completed the part of the torchón and the edge.

All three methods shown in this video can work for everyone. The most difficult seems to be the third one, but you could try it with a pin to finish threading the bobbin or if the thread comes loose while you are making lace. I like the clarity of the video.

Each lacemaking country-sometimes each district-evolved its own style of bobbin lace pillow and bobbins. In most cases, the same kind of pillow is used in the same areas today.

The most common pillow used here in Puerto Rico is the revolving bolster. In Belgic, the old Belgian pillow was the bulky rectangular or square desk shape, supported by a wooden stand. Jan Vermeer, in his well known painting “The Lacemaker“, shows this pillow, which was also used in the Low Countries and in Switzerland.

A small drawer at the back held extra bobbins and the lace was tucked into it as it came from the back of the pillow. Another pillow used in Belgium was a simpler, flat, hay-stuffed pillow; this is the one in general use in Belgium today.

European bobbin lace pillows

The Italians, Russians, and Germans generally use a large bolster pillow for all laces. The bolster rests on a stand, either a tall on sitting on the floor or a small cradle for use on a table. These are sometimes called “muff” pillows and may have a hollow center.

The Spanish bobbin lace pillow takes the shape of an elongated bolster, about 26 inches long and 7 or 8 inches in diameter. It is used in an upright position, the lace being worked down the length of it instead of around it. The pillow may be supported by a stand or held between the knees of the worker, the other end leaning against a chair back or a wall.

Today, the newcomer who is beginning bobbin lace and is looking for a teacher to help her will find that it is almost imposible to find one who knows how to make the lace and is willing to teach this ancient art.

Some people call bobbin lace a “lost art” because apparently hardly noone is interested in learning to make the lace and many young people are not interested.

Finding bobbin lace teachers

Bobbin lacemakers are scarse, but in some places in the world, you can find a number of lacemakers living in a single community. In Puerto Rico for example, Moca is a town which is known as “the capital of Mundillo”, or “the Capital of Bobbin Lace”.

This is so due to the fact that this is the only town where most of the lacemakers are found. There is a Museum called The bobbin lace Museum (El Museo del Mundillo) located in Moca in the Northwest part of Puerto Rico.

There they offer bobbin lace classes on Saturdays to whoever is interested and many young girls take the courses to learn. Some historians say that Bobbin Lace was brought to Puerto Rico by the Spaniards in the epoch of colonization and these Spanish lacemakers taught our great great grandmothers and this is the way it was passed on to new generations. Nowadays there are many lacemakers throughout the island who make lace.

According to existent data, bobbin lace was already cited in the industry of the eighteenth century. In France, it was called “dentelles au fuseau” and in Italy “Marleti a poimbini”. By the middle of this century it began to flourish its industry in Europe, where it was very appreciated.

To be able to work bobbin lace, it is necessary to have a pillow to which a pattern (drawing) is attached. This pillow or “mundillo” name in spanish - it’s known in Italy as “tambola”, in Portugal as “almofada” and in England receives the name of “pillouc”, varying its form between cylindric or turning around and oval and fixed, according to the pattern to be made.

The lace is covered with a piece of white material to preserve, protect and keep the work in progress clean and free of dust, if one have to take a break and leave it until the next time.

The pillow or “mundillo” (moon-dee-yo) most used in Spain is 80cm. long. It is stuffed very tightly with straw and covered with cotton material, usually blue or green color.

For hundreds of years, lace has been considered one of the most beautiful and sumptuous things man has ever made.

We call lace a kind of net made of threads of various materials (cotton, silk, wool, rayon) or metal which forms a design by twisting braids and overweaving the threads that form the lace.

Early lace

The oldest laces are nets (Knotted nets) that were used as hair and collar ornaments. Archaeologists have found laces in egyptian tombs from the year 2500 A.C.

During the Middle Age women made laces with their fingers: twisting and braiding the threads which they held between their fingers and so acquiring a variety of combinations.

Up to the middle of the 16th century the laces were not indispensable in the making of clothing. Lace was substituted with golden braids and fancy imagination. The greatest pieces of lace were worn by the clergy, some of the were extraordinarily sumptuous.

A great demand for fine lace started on the second half of 16th century by elegant people, however, the best epoch for lace corresponds to the period of two centuries which begins in 1550 and ends in the middle of 18th century.

Venetian lace

Venetians developed a style of lace called “Reticella” which consisted on taking some of the threads of a piece of material (calar) leaving big rectangles, in which motifs were worked in with different designs.

French people spent such a great amount of money buying Venetian Laces that the prime minister of King Louis XIV created a lace industry in France bringing experts from Venice. The King finally prohibited the import of lace into France.

Types of laces

There are two kinds of Laces: the hand made and the machine made. There are two kinds of handmade laces: needle and bobbin lace. The first ones called needle point is the type developed on the 16th century with only one thread, worked on motifs drawn on parchments.

Bobbin lace was worked on an oval pillow given sometimes the name of pillow lace. The number of bobbins depends of how wide and complicated the design is. Sometimes two to three thousand bobbins have been used!

About this blog

I am compiling information about the history of Bobbin lace from different sources. More information will be added soon!

Please leave a comment if you have something to add about bobbin lace.

In the meantime, enjoy the reading, and thank you for visiting my web site.