Lace Day

What the day is

Lace Day is observed on September 27. It marks the openwork fabric built from thread rather than cut from cloth, and the handwork traditions behind it, which are still practiced by a small and dedicated community.

Origin and background

The origin of the observance is not documented, and no founder or sponsoring organization is reliably known.

Lace as a distinct craft emerged in Europe in the sixteenth century, in two main forms that remain the basic division. Needle lace is built stitch by stitch with a single thread and needle, essentially embroidery in mid-air, and is associated with Venice. Bobbin lace is woven by crossing and twisting many threads wound on small bobbins, worked over a pattern pinned to a pillow, and is associated with Flanders. Both are extraordinarily slow. A collar could occupy a skilled worker for months.

That labor made lace a luxury on the scale of precious metal, and it was regulated accordingly, with sumptuary laws restricting who could wear it and smuggling operations built around evading tariffs. Whole towns depended on the trade, and the work was overwhelmingly done by women and children for very poor pay.

Machine lace ended that economy. Once nineteenth-century machinery, particularly the Leavers machine and the mills at Nottingham, could produce patterned lace at speed, the price collapsed and lace moved from aristocratic dress to ordinary household use. Handmade lace survives today as an art and heritage craft rather than an industry.

How to take part

• Look closely at a piece you own. Handmade lace has slight irregularities and no repeating machine grid; machine lace repeats exactly.
• Try tatting or bobbin lace. Starter kits are inexpensive and the basic movements are learnable in an afternoon, even if mastery is not.
• Visit a textile collection. Most large museums hold lace, and it rewards a magnifying glass more than a glance.
• Care for what you have: wash rarely, by hand, support the whole piece when wet, and store flat away from light rather than on a hanger.
• Ask older relatives what they have put away. Lace is one of the most commonly inherited and least examined textiles.