Lace Making. 

Lavinia Soul, Alpha Chapter, Great Britain.

The town of Olney near where I live has a long history of lace making. Through the 1500’s and 1600’s Lace makers from the continent settled in the town and taught the women to make bobbin lace.  A cottage industry lasting 300 years and still alive today, but only with hobbyists like myself.

I began making lace when my first son was born. I would meet with a small group of new mothers at the local convent where the nuns played with the babies and supplied us with tea.  Few women could still make the lace and I was part of a small group reviving the craft.  I was interested as one of my husband’s ancestors Thomas Soul was a lace designer in the 18th century. I still own a number of his patterns.

To make lace you need only four things: a stuffed straw pillow, parchment patterns (these are punched with small pin holes in the form of the pattern) wooden or bone bobbins, and linen or cotton thread for the lace.

To make the lace you simply attach a pattern to the pillow, wind the thread around the pins and move the lace over the pillow as the lengths appear.  It can seem rather daunting at first when you see a pillow set up with dozens of bobbins, but when you realise that only four bobbins (two pairs) are in use, and there are only two moves twist and cross that you can do, it is easier.  I have special patterns for making collars.

At the centre of Olney hight street is the ‘Bucks Lace Factory’, now apartments, lace was never made there as it was offices and a warehouse for the industry, the lace was made by the women at home.  The factory was the place where lace was sewn onto garments, handkerchiefs and tablecloth for sale world-wide.

The industry was championed by Harry Armstrong.  When he died in 1943 the industry declined, to be carried on by a few elderly locals who made lace for gifts.  I was part of the revival in the 1970’s when the Olney lace circle was formed.