Decorating with Lace and Macrame

Lace, a textile used mainly to decorate clothing or home furnishings, was traditionally created by hand by highly skilled girls and women. Technically an openwork fabric, lace was invented around the 15th century in Europe. Though usually considered a clothing adornment, especially for wedding dresses and lingerie, lace often appeared in curtains, on pillows, and in bed linens. While not as fashionable today, It can still bring wonderful period detail to Victorian era homes. Its more textural cousin, macrame, adds welcome texture and pattern to midcentury modern (MCM), coastal, Scandi, Japandi, bohemian, and modern farmhouse interiors. The detailed, delicate, painstaking processes required to make lace by hand make the best laces costly and fragile. These qualities have made lace a highly prized luxury good for centuries. Let’s talk about how you might bring this subtle beauty into your home by decorating with lace and macrame.

Lots of Laces

Lace can be made using a variety of types of thread by any of a number of techniques. The most valuable lace is usually handmade, though very fine French machine-made and hand-finished laces can also be costly. Belgian, French, and Irish laces are still coveted by collectors.

Bobbin lace

Bobbin lace, also called pillow lace, was invented in the 15th century. We know that it was produced in Brussels, Belgium, as well in or near what is today Northern Italy. It is created by twisting linen, silk, or cotton threads from bobbins (long wooden spools) around pins. The pins are arranged in careful patterns on a small pillow. Bobbin lace most often includes geometric patterns or botanical images.

Brussels lace, a type of bobbin lace, is known for is delicacy and detail. It is often a “part lace” made by combining several lacy parts. It includes a background layer and a more highly patterned layer. However, some Brussels lace, like duchesse lace (see below), is created all of a single piece on the pillow.

Needle lace

Another variety of lace known as needle lace or needlepoint lace (not to be confused with the type of embroidery known as needlepoint) was developed in Italy in the 16th century. It can be created with nothing more than fingers, a needle, thread, and a pair of scissors. Needle lace often uses paper as a temporary backing to be cut away when the lace is completed.

Tape lace

Tape lace is made with straight fabric tape that is bent into the position desired and sewn into that shape. Then needle lace is made to fill in the cabs between the shapes. Making tape laces was a popular pastime for Victorian women in Britain, America, and Canada. Books and magazines published popular lace patterns. Various tape laces were developed in the late 19th century, including princess lace (a style favored by Belgian royals), Renaissance lace (which included Italian lace forms), and Battenburg, which is the most popular type of tape lace still made today.

Invented in America by Sara Hadley of New York in the 19th century, Battenburg lace can be made using bobbins and needles, or needle alone. It’s named in honor of Princess Beatrice, Queen Victoria’s youngest daughter, who married Prince Henry of Battenburg. The British royal family later Anglicized the family name Battenburg when Germanic names were out of favor during World War I. Members of the royal family became the Mountbatten-Windsors.

Though less popular nowadays, Battenburg lace was still fairly popular until the the 1990s. It was not uncommon to find household linens that incorporated Battenburg lace trim or edging.

Crocheted lace

Though not originally considered a true lace like bobbin and needle laces, lacy crochet work is now appreciated as worthy to be called lace. Done with fine threads and a crochet hook instead of bobbins or a needle, crocheted lace can be most often found in the lacy doilies that were once so common in 19th and early 20th century homes.

While now seen as unnecessary fripperies by most people, doilies were once practical household items. In the 19th century, men frequently doused their hair with macassar oil to make it easy to sweep back out of their eyes. This oil stained upholstery, so ingenious homemakers crocheted doilies and placed them over the backs of upholstered chairs. Called antimacassars because they kept macassar oil off the furniture, these doilies saved many a chair from succumbing to oily heads. They also appeared at the ends of chair arms to keep grubby hands from dirtying chairs or wearing out the fabric. Doilies even kept tables looking good, since they sometimes served as placemats and trivets to keep dishes and vases from scratching or scorching wooden tabletops.

If you’ve inherited some handmade doilies made by a beloved family member, you might be wondering if there’s anything you can do with them that could make them work in a modern home. The answer is yes! Keep reading for tips.

Lacy Accessories Add Delicacy

Handmade lace doilies, tablecloths, and curtains were once signs of taste and style, but doilies have been out of fashion for decades, and lace tablecloths have been largely replaced by materials that are more practical to use and clean. Lace curtains aren’t as common as they once were, either, but quality lace curtains can still be just the thing in a Victorian house, or in a shabby chic or French country-style home.

Lace is today associated with old fashioned formality and traditional style. But modern crafters and designers have found ways to use lace in clever new ways.

Why not repurpose Grandma’s doilies to create a one-of-a-kind lace doily shower curtain? Or create a wreath using doilies and embroidery hoops? Doilies and lace also make fun trims for throw pillows, and elegant pendant lampshades.

In her Sadie Seasongoods blog, Sarah Ramberg shares a delightful way to upcycle vintage doilies. Sarah dyes them, then sews them together to make lovely spring table runners that add a bit of cheeky fun to a tablescape.

Lace Care & Cleaning

If you have vintage lace curtains that you’d like to hang in your home, resist the urge to pop them into the washing machine. Fragile lace can so easily be snagged that it really should be washed by hand. Some people have luck with putting it in a mesh washing bag and tossing that in the machine. However, even that risks pulling the fibers out of shape.

Often, clean water and time are sufficient to loosen and fade light stains in very delicate lace. Soak lace in cool water for five to seven days, changing water daily. When you remove the lace from the water, do NOT wring it. Place wet lace on a white towel or sheet, reshape it gently, then roll the towel or sheet up with the lace inside. Press to remove as much water as possible. Place on a clean flat surface or a clothes line and air dry.

Stains will often look lighter after lace has dried, so wait until the fabric is fully dry to assess it. Repeat for another week if you see some improvement but still see staining. And don’t iron stained lace or fabric if you intend to soak it longer; heat sets stains. Get lace as clean as possible before pressing it.

Is It Safe to Bleach Lace?

Older lace often yellows with age. Trying to brighten it with acids or salt can damage fibers and can even cause stains to darken. Bleach can cause a chemical reaction that turns old lace yellow or brown.

Rubbing salt and lemon juice on stains may lighten them, but it also abrades the fabric, which can lead to broken threads. Chemicals in dish soap, laundry detergent, and stain removers can also weaken fibers. Even sunshine can break down delicate fabric.

One common solution is to use one teaspoon of OxyClean dissolved in four quarts of cool water to soak stained vintage laces. This is probably fine if the lace is not damaged, delicate, or old. However, in her helpful blog, sewing instructor Amy Alan recommends Orvus Quilt Soap, which professional lace restorers use. This soap is especially delicate and easy on weakened fibers.

Macrame—Lace’s Older, Bolder Cousin

Although lace may be a more recent invention than you expected, versions of macrame, the other major textile created by creating patterns in fibers with knots, have been around for millennia. Babylonian and Assyrian carvings show macrame-like decorative knotwork. They also used such knotted fringe on the hems of their garments.

Arab weavers have long created fringe by knotting the threads at the edges of hand-loomed towels, shawls, and veils. Indeed, the word macrame may come from their word macramia, referring to a towel or decorative fringe. It might also come from the Turkish word makrama, which means “napkin” or “towel.”

Lace and macrame are more closely related than most people realize. Finely detailed macrame became quite popular in Victorian Britain, and was used to edge tablecloths, bedspreads, and curtains. In fact, in 1882, Sylvia’s Book of Macramé Lace inspired many women to create their own laces using macrame techniques.

Hippie hemp art

Macrame was a very popular craft in the 1960s and 1970s. Wall hangings, plant hangers, and belts made of macrame were everywhere. Macrame was the craft of choice for young do-it-yourselfers, and it was largely viewed as a hippie fad by people of older generations who preferred more “refined” home arts.

The return of macrame

This craft, which is usually created with strings of cotton, jute, hemp, or other rather thick or rough fibers, has made a comeback recently. It shows up both in fashion and in the world of home decor. You can make or buy macrame pendant lamps, chairs, stools and ottomans, curtains, and table runners to add a bit of homespun charm.

Macrame adds texture & coziness

Macrame is usually made from undyed natural fibers in neutral colors. It also looks quite dramatic when made with dark brown or black fibers, though the details are less evident with dark fibers. Whatever color or material you choose, the knots adds intricate texture and pattern to monochromatic rooms.

Keep fibers clean & dry

To keep macrame from becoming soiled, make sure your hands are clean and dry when you handle and hang it. Hand creams or body oils can permanently stain it. Keep it out of humid areas like bathrooms, and away from kitchen where food may splash or a film of grease may adhere to the fibers. Fibers also attract dust and soot, so blow them clean regularly with a hair dryer or compressed air. And make sure that planters held by macrame hangers don’t have drainage holes at the bottom that could leak onto and discolor the fibers. Stained macrame is a real bummer.

More About Caring for & Decorating with Textiles

To learn more about caring for textiles or decorating with them, see my other articles on textile arts:

• Caring for Textile Arts
• Decorate Your Home with Fabric
• Decorating with Quilts & Patchwork
• Decorating with Needlework
• Caring for Batik and Other Deeply Dyed Fabrics

At top: Point de Gaze needle lace handkerchief | Cleveland Museum of Art via Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0)