Carrickmacross Lace

After my Royal Wedding Extravaganza on Queendom Website, I decided to dig into my Lace Box and find samples of Carrickmacross Lace, primarily because that was the lace on Kate Middleton's wedding dress.

I found several pieces and have displayed them on my website. I began with such a poor example of the craft, a sad hankie with amateur appliques. Carrickmacross is a lace made of applying fabric bits onto net. Whereas the more difficult laces have solid areas created by Buttonhole Stitch, Carrickmacross solid areas are applied fabric. The best part of my coarsely made hankie is that it is easy to understand the technique.

This morning I posted my favorite piece of Carrickmacross, a beautiful 19th century handkerchief of Carrickmacross Guipure. All Guipure indicates is that there's no net. This hankie is such a beautiful example and I have always loved it. I found it years and years ago in a basket on the rainy ground of a large flea market outside London. I had gone there with an antiques dealer friend of mine who was shopping for her own stock.

In future days I am hoping people will find hankies from their moms and aunts and grandmothers and we will look at photos and see what people have. Tomorrow morning or Sunday morning, I am not sure which, I will post a couple of 1950's machine-made lace hankies that borrow patterns from the handmade Carrickmacross Lace.

Gay Ann Rogers
www.GayAnnRogers.com and click on 'Lace Box' on the yellow navigation bar