What Is Torchon lace? 

A bobbin, or pillow lace, torchon lace is a regular, geometric lace that fits loosely into the category of grounded laces. Loosely because, in most of the laces that fall into this category, the ground stitches are simple and are used to accentuate the heavily patterned areas. Torchon differs in this respect, often having less pattern area than ground stitch areas. The reason for this is that torchon lace has a great many traditional ground stitches that are highly decorative in their own right.

Grounded laces are those where the pattern and net areas are worked at the same time, with threads travelling directly from section to section.

Originating in France in the 17^th Century, this lace attained prominence in the 19^th Century. Torchon lace is characterised by both the angle at which the patterns are plotted and worked (45-degrees to the mounting edge) and, in the pattern area, the extensive use of an open weaving stitch that forms diagonally crossing lines of threads. This weaving stitch is called half stitch.

This lace was the simplest of the grounded laces to make and was, therefore, the cheapest of the commercially made bobbin laces. An old name for it is Gueuse, or beggar-woman's lace, referring to the open or 'holey' texture and the extensive use of half stitch in the pattern areas. (Mincoff, E & Marriage, M.S. Pillow Lace - A practical handbook Ruth Bean:Bedford 1981).

At the time, the prized dress laces were exceedingly fine, with very little space between the stitches and with pattern areas worked primarily in an even weaving stitch, that resembles closely woven fabric. This stitch is called cloth stitch or linen stitch. Additional threads were added into the cloth stitch areas to make the work very dense and were discarded when no longer required. Any use of half stitch as a weaving stitch was minimal indeed. torchon lace has always differed from those finer laces, not only because the thread was very coarse to suit its (then) intended end uses but because each torchon pattern requires a constant number of threads in the working. The result of a constant number of threads is a more open texture in the woven cloth stitch areas.

Torchon lace was primarily intended for household use such as table linen, curtains and bed linen, but it was also used by the less wealthy in the population to trim underclothing, night attire and garments such as cloaks. Today, there are no restrictions on the end use of this lace; if you wish to work with heavy thread for a tablecloth there is a suitable thread available and if you wish to work in fine thread, you can draw up a suitably fine pattern. With the ready availability of threads, plain and coloured, fine and heavy, we can design for any garment or other use we wish, on any scale we wish and there will usually be a thread suitable for us to use. If we cannot find a particular colour in the thread size we wish to use, often it is possible to dye the threads ourselves.

Over several years of teaching bobbin lace, I have developed a great appreciation of torchon for the following reasons:

• It offers practical applications well beyond the majority of other laces
• Offers a vast array of decorative grounds that add a range of textural elements to the patterns
• The design possibilities are very exciting.

Of the five laces I was taught to make, torchon lace and Honiton lace, are the two that have provided me with the most scope for original design. I don't mean just building torchon patterns by rearranging the common elements, but using those many and varied elements to achieve intended outcomes and playing with those elements to explore possibilities.

If you are interested in bobbin lace as a possible craft activity, with the intention of using the end product in a range of ways, then I strongly recommend that you learn to make this lace.

Below is a list of items that can be made using torchon lace techniques but, obviously, you must start at the beginning and learn gradually. At the beginning, you will have to learn stitches and work simple pieces, such as edgings for handkerchiefs, tablemats etc. Gradually you will build the skills necessary to work more complex pieces. Later, if you wish to take on the whole complexity the craft offers, then you can start to design your own patterns and who knows where that might lead!

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What items can be made with Lace?

Dress lace

• Collars: one or two piece round collars, square, sailor, upright or shawl.
• Cuffs: deep or shallow, straight or shaped.
• Dress yokes
• Frills or ruffles for sleeves or necklines
• Trimming or insertion lace.
• Lace for lingerie

Household linen

• Edging lace: either straight lengths or worked with right angle corners, for table linen or bed linen, vanity sets etc.. May be narrow or wide.
• Doilies and mats that can be circular, rectangular or square made solely of lace, or as edgings for mounting on fabric.
• Panels for inserting into fabric

Miscellaneous

• Bookmarks, hair bands and other accessories.
• Panels for mounting or framing
• Wall hangings
• Lace patchwork

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What thread can be used?

Threads suitable for making Torchon lace include crochet cotton (No’s. 20 to 100), pure linen thread from coarsest to finest, some sewing machine cottons (No’s. 20 to 80), some machine embroidery threads, some silk threads, and the strong Egyptian cottons intended for lace making.

The thread size is dependent upon the grid size used for laying out the pattern.

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