[Illustration: _o._ Pattern from which piqure is made]
Now she commences her work, braiding, twisting, intercrossing the threads in diverse ways, and placing a pin each time the threads must be held in a position which they can not retain without the aid of a fixt support. When she arrives at the bottom of her pattern, with great care she takes out all the pins, and lifts her work to the top of the pattern, replacing the pins so that the lace will be kept absolutely regular. She then recommences her work of braiding or weaving, repeating the same operation till the length of lace she must make is finished. The patterns are usually about a foot long.
The bobbin laces made with continuous thread comprise:
_a._ Cluny and _b._ Laces with a mesh base: 1. Valenciennes, 2. Binche, 3. Malines, 4. Point de Paris, 5. Point de Lille, 6. Chantilly.
The varieties in Group _b_ may truly be called woven lace, because they contain a veritable tissue in which, tho the threads are combined in such a way as to produce more or less open effects, the opaque parts are woven regularly, that is as linen is woven. The pattern of the mesh of each of these laces is different.
Valenciennes (sketch q.). Binche (sketch r and s.). Malines (sketch t.). Point de Paris (sketch u.). Point de Lille (sketch v.).
Further, Malines, Chantilly, Point de Lille, and Point de Paris are characterized by the presence of the _bourdon_, or heavy thread, slightly twisted, outlining all the details of the design.
Grammont, or Chantilly lace, is usually made of black silk thread. The mesh is the same as that of Point de Lille. In it the toile is replaced by the grillé, which adds greatly to the lightness of the effect.
N. B.—To be understood technically, all these laces made with continuous thread should be considered from the point of view of the place they occupy on the cushion of the worker: They are held vertically with the selvage at the left.
[Illustration: _s._ Mesh of “snow-ball” pattern, used in Binche]
It is necessary to mention with these laces, Torchon, the most common of all, which has little artistic value, and has entered more and more into the domain of the machine. Torchon base (sketch w.).
Group _A._—Cluny laces demand great ingenuity in execution. The most simple are made entirely by braiding in such a way as to produce an effect of interlacing (sketch y.). The braids are formed of four threads; when the interlacing is more important they become more complicated. At times the braids group themselves to form the flat surface or toile which later will resolve again into braids. They unite and part, sometimes dividing into strands (brides) of two threads according to the lines of the design. This design should be absolutely precise. And since in it the future employment of each thread must be constantly foreseen, it is quite impossible to compose a Cluny lace pattern without a knowledge of the technique of that lace (sketch y).