On Making a Piece of Lace:

For me there is something wonderful even after all these years in starting a piece of lace. I am currently pouring over all my pattern book and sketching out new patterns as I look for just the right bit of lace to put on the men’s shirt where the collar had been. I am making over this shirt into a Victorian blouse or shirtwaist.

I will be working this lace in white. It is a white shirt and although I was going to go for black or even a color, what I wanted was gray. I am having more and more trouble getting the threads and tools I am look for then I once did. The factories that once made them have close in these modern times of machine made instant on demand consumerism. So more often then not I am left with white or ecru threads in the sizes I need. Even black is becoming harder to find.

I wish more people kept up the dieing arts and crafts of the past. To know the work and feel of starting from scratch and doing by hand. Quality, experience, pride, accomplishment, worth.

I am starting a new piece of lace work today. There is a bit of excitement every time still. As I take the thread and start to weave it like a spell into something much more then it once was. The thread twists and turns on it’s path through the lace. It wasn’t here this morning. It didn’t exist. I created it with my own two hands. Fancy or plain the experience of making lace is the same every time. Knots and tangles of threads melt slowly into beautiful lace under my hands.

It takes time to make lace by hand. And people just don’t seem to have the time they once had. But it can be found if the interest is there. I have made delicate wedding handkerchiefs that have taken over a month to make. I never know if the wedding couple understands or even appreciates the gift I had given to them. A part of my heart and soul goes into each piece of lace I make. A passion drives me to pick up a thread and make it into lace. Showing nothing more then that some of the best things in life take time and effort but are worth it.