Oval Place Setting
In this case study, Margaret describes how you don’t have to be able to draw to be able to design for bobbin lace, just know the technique of the particular lace you wish to use.

Inspiration
The idea for this particular project came from a colored picture I saw in a magazine. The picture was of an oval plastic picnic mat, a nice change, oval instead of the usual oblong.  I imagined this together with a circa 1910 Maltese lace collar I was shown whilst on holiday in Scotland.  A motif in this collar just lent itself to the oval place settings I had in mind.

First I copied the simple shapes of the motif on to tracing paper.

Laying a piece of tracing paper over the first one, I drew an oval shape around the motif, making sure it touched the various elements. I drew a second line outside of the first.

Again I added another piece of tracing paper. This time I added a second double oval, the left hand side extended beyond the oval, as this trail was to go around the whole of the place setting.

Between this oval and the inner one, I decided, to draw in wheat sheafs, this seemed appropriate as it symbolised food.

Finally I drew connecting lines, joining the various elements of the motif.

The whole design was then tidied up and made ready for a pattern.

The Pattern
The pattern for the oval was transferred to the pricking card using very well used carbon paper, and then inked in.
The trail, around the whole outside of the mat, was a simple whole stitch with the outer edge passive worked in whole stitch and twist.

The thread used was a 30 Bouc linen. The material for the centre was ‘Novelty Weave’.  As the material was quite a large weave, I decided to machine stitch the oval shape onto the material first this, not only gave me a guide to sewing on the finished lace but strengthened what was to become the cut edge. I made a tacking stitch outside of the machined line, this tacking was to be removed once I had attached my lace.

Tearing the paper from the machine stitched oval

The lace was attached with a tailor's button stitch, this has an extra twist giving a much stronger edge, using Clarke’s Anchor thread.