Machine lace (Barmen machine) does have pairs of "workers", but my feeling is that this is hand made BL, Russian or other Eastern European. Looks as though there are lots of sewings joining the braids together, that's not something that the Barmen machine can do.

Yes Clay, I do think that it may have been Great-Grandmother's prized banquet-sized tablecloth, or maybe a bed cover or curtain that was used with a regular dressmaking pattern.

Brenda

On 19 Nov 2006, at 21:44, Clay Blackwell wrote:

Yes, I agree that the close-up pictures allow us to see that the workers go in pairs. On the other hand, I am also surprised to see darts and pin-tucking in lace!! Usually, lace is worked with more finesse in a fine garment (re the darts) and the pin-tucking is just awkward, IMHO. I believe this might have been a gown which was made, using a pattern which had not been designed for lace, and using machine-made lace which would not have been terribly expensive but would have seemed elegant to the people who were making/wearing it. Of course, there's always the possibility that someone inherited Great-Grandmother's prized banquet-sized tablecloth, and having no idea what they had and no table to lay with a tablecloth like that, they chose to use it in this gown (shudder....)

Clay

Cindy Rusak wrote:
Hi Alice,

I would tend to agree about the lace fabric suggestion until I look closely at the picture that has the best close-up. If you click on 'larger image' it looks to me like there are two workers passing in and out of the cloth stitch areas and I thought machine lace tended to use one worker. Also it looks like handmade lace sewings between the undulating 'tapes' as they tend to be closer to one side which is typical when sewing to a side that has already been pinned - at least when I make mine. These observations are based on the machine laces I have seen so I may be incorrect in my assumptions.

Thanks for you input,
Cindy

At 02:10 PM 11/19/2006, you wrote:
Considering the style and time period, it was made at
the peak of machine lace development, and at a time
when handmade lace making was minimal.  The dressmaker
used the lace as fabric..cutting and shaping it to the
dress style.  I think it *was* lace fabric -- made by
machine and available by the yard.  The lace style may
not be Russian.  It seems to me to be more similar to
some old Hungarian or old Flemish samples I have.  If
it is machine made, the designer could have used any
type of lace as a guide, or even combined styles.

Handmade lace clothing that I've seen usually has the
various parts made to size.  This dress has been
fitted and shaped with tucks and gathers in the lace.
Tucks in lace????  Not normal.
Alice in Oregon

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Brenda
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