r/BobbinLace

Hi all, this is my first post in a couple of weeks as I was on a business trip among other distractions! But as I really appreciated what I learned from this community, I’d like to continue to share what my wife and I found at an estate sale. There are some more condition issues here as we’re getting to the bottom of a container where they’ve been stored for a very long time. For those who have mentioned in the past, yes we will be taking these to a textile museum or guild when our travels take us close. In the meantime, I will continue to value any insight you can provide with respect to origin, type, age, use, etc. piece 13 is about 4.5” wide by about 5 feet long. I am assuming it’s intended to be trim but any particular application? Piece 14 appears to be another small collar but is different than the others in the lot. It’s just a bit over 12” in height. Thank you!

Does anyone recognize this pattern or have any leads? All I find is a single image on Pinterest. I guess I could try to reverse engineer it, but I am not quite at that point of my lace journey yet I think​

Hello! I’m working on a cosplay of the doll from bloodborne and I’m having trouble finding a lace collar that looks like hers. Does this design look simple enough I should learn bobbin lacing and make it myself? Or would commissioning someone be the better option

Reference photos

This is my own design from a design course

I was looking through my photos and I realized that I hadn't posted the outcome of the Early Lace workshop that we did at our guild's lace retreat. The linen piece was a sampler with a typical set of stitches. But we could also use metallic threads to try out some of the other patterns. These were from the Renaissance period books.

It was interesting to think about the different kinds of braids/plaits (I'm not much of a braider usually), and also the picots were made with these giant pins that we were jokingly calling the "coffin nails". It was wild to work with them. They are enormous.

Today I learned how to make my own bobbins! A friend showed me the magics of a lathe

Hi everyone! I’m about two weeks into learning bobbin lace and could use some advice about where to go from here.

I started with a beginner kit from Snowgoose (18" cookie pillow) and have been following a video tutorial. Surprisingly, I feel like I’m picking up the actual mechanics pretty well! Cross/twist is becoming automatic, I’m seeing the bobbins as pairs, and I generally understand what I’m supposed to be doing. I’ve also become very proficient at undoing lace when I make a mistake. 😂

What I’m really struggling with is bobbin and pillow management.

Even with my pillow at about a 45° angle, my bobbins roll around everywhere, my working lengths become uneven or too long/short, things get tangled, and then my tension suffers. When everything cooperates I can happily work along, but once the bobbins start misbehaving, everything goes sideways.

I’ve attached photos of my current setup and latest attempt. I’m following a Red Cardinal Crafts tutorial on YouTube.

Would a different style of pillow (bolster/roller/etc.) make bobbin management easier, or is this just something I need to get used to with practice? Does anything about my setup jump out at you as making things unnecessarily difficult?

I also have The Technique of Bobbin Lace by Pamela Nottingham, but I struggle to visualize written instructions, even with diagrams. I learn much better by watching someone and copying what they do, so I’d love recommendations for video courses, YouTube channels, online classes, etc.

I’m really enjoying bobbin lace—I just feel like I’ve reached an awkward stage where the lace makes more sense to me than managing all the stuff required to make the lace. 😆

Thanks for any wisdom you can throw my way!

Got a new bobbin lace pillow today (a proper straw stuffed one off vinted for £8!!!) and thought I would do a third cloth stitch attempt. I think it looks a lot neater than my first two attempts and I’m able to work much quicker now which is awesome!

If anyone has any feedback it is more than welcome :)

I still got it thankfully, missed this.

These are my first tries at linen stitch! One was done with the pattern to pin on, the other was just practice to try to nail down muscle memory

ETA: would love any advice or thoughts

How does it look?