Point Ground Lace 1
Between the later part of the 1700’s and the early 1800’s ladies fashion followed the Grecian style, later to become known as the Empire gown—soft, flowing, high waisted, made of muslin, cambric or silk. The ideal decoration for this style of dress was the soft semi-transparent point ground laces being made in Buckinghamshire and surrounding counties at this time. The lace must be soft enough to be easily gathered or draped.
Point ground lace must be soft and the cloth work open like gauze. The gimp should also be a softly twisted thread, e.g. DMC Coton a broder. Point ground is usually worked on a grid of 52 to 70 degrees, usually 60, never 45. The size of the pricking usually has 13 to 14 pinholes to 1 inch on the footside edge. The thread suitable for this size is Brok 100 or Egyptian cotton 100. For the gimp use DMC Coton a Broder 20.
For stage 1 you will need to show an understanding of the basic techniques as listed on the requirements sheet. Tensioning in point ground laces is quite different to most other laces. Do not pull on the passives, all you need to do is stroke them down. As the lace is very open, and you do not close under the pin in the ground, the weight of the beads on the bobbins is usually enough to pull the threads into place, if not just gently stroke the bobbins.
Picots: Bucks point patterns usually have picots along the headside edge. The picots should be round and sit at a 90-degree angle to the headside. They should not be elongated, (sometime known as rabbit ears) this is a sign of poor tensioning while making the picot. After making the picot, cloth stitch back through the first headside passive, now tension firmly up behind the picot then cloth stitch through the second passive.
Tallies: You are required to do tallies in point ground and in honeycomb. These are square tallies, not oblongs, triangles or diamonds. Again, it is tension that controls the shape. After making the tally work the pair into the ground that does not contain the tally worker. Do as much ground as possible on this side before working the pair containing the worker into the ground. Before starting on your tallies study quite a few photos of patterns containing tallies to get an idea of the size required for the tallies.
Ground: The most important part of any of the point ground laces is making the actual ground. The ground is worked in CTTT pin. Do not do a stitch to close under the pin. Because there is no stitch enclosing the pin the ground tends to move around on the pins. The best way of controlling this is to work in long diagonal rows, down the lace.
It is important to count the number of twists on each stitch accurately. By using three twists on each stitch you retain the leading thread going through the ground. A constant leading thread gives the ground a smooth texture.
In the diagram, the heavy line is the leading thread.
Catch pin: All point ground patterns have a ‘catch pin’ footside. (See the diagram for the correct placement of the pin.) By putting the pin in the correct place, you will have an even row of ‘horseshoe’ shapes up against the footside edge. This helps to even up the size of the holes in the ground.
Point Ground Lace 2
Information Still to Come.
Point Ground Lace 3
Information Still to Come.
In Conclusion
Do not get discouraged, these notes are a guide and hopefully be a bit of help. They have been put together by an ALG Proficiency Assessor.