Renaissance lace

Renaissance Lace is a type of tape lace. The name refers to the rebirth of antique Italian forms to create the patterns of this 19th century lace.

The outline of the design is made of bought tape. Manufacturers produced a huge number of suitable tapes in different widths and sometimes with picots or other decoration. The lacemaker bought the tape and sewed it onto a paper with the pattern. Then she filled up the empty spaces with a needle using a variety of stitches. Finally the lace was cut from the paper. The tape laces varied from well-worked versions with a variety of filling stitches to those where the tapes were simply joined with a few needle-made bars.