'Torchon Lacemaking' by Jan Tregidgo

It's taken a while for me to form an opinion on this book...... it takes about an hour to produce an inch of lace, and I wanted to be sure I'd given it a fair crack!

A couple of years ago I got chatting to a couple of members of the Lace Guild, the U.K's foremost society for lace-makers. At the time I was plodding through Pamela Nottingham's 1970's classic 'Bobbin Lace Making' (out of print), which I wasn't finding very inspiring. The lace-ladies agreed with me that the Nottingham book had a few shortcomings, including dated designs and an odd layout which put working diagrams and written instructions on different pages. They told me that their teacher, a certain Jan Tregidgo, was about to publish her own beginners' book on the subject of Torchon lace, and that they had been taught by Jan using the techniques she described in her book.
The ladies were so nice, and so helpful, I resolved to buy Jan's book.

One redundancy later it took over a year for a second-hand copy to come up on Amazon for the right price (buying textiles books second-hand is my idea of austerity living....that and wild boar terrine from Lidl). Being me I scorned the idea of starting at the beginning, though the introductory chapter on materials and tools is comprehensive, and the first few designs are attractive enough. No, I wanted to start on page 112, a Spanish fan edging with a Dieppe ground. Thanks to Jan's technique of using numerous close-up photographs of the work, in - shock, horror! - coloured threads, I was able to work the lace quickly and easily, and also able to understand and track individual threads and pairs of bobbins through the work. I was also able to flick back through the text and find instructions for the various stitches and techniques I had been too impatient to learn beforehand.

During the duration of the Lace Guild exhibition of 2010, lots of well meaning lace-makers very kindly gave me old pamphlets or photocopied patterns and instructions, but I must admit I remained mostly baffled and in a tangle. Thanks to this book in just a few weeks I have a decent basic knowledge of bobbin-lace stitches, and a pair of bobbins on every pin. If you too would like to know your footside from your spangle, buy this book. I have really enjoyed it and am sure others will too.


Torchon Lacemaking
Jan Tregidgo,
Crowood Press,2010
ISBN 978 1 84797 201

Hardcover, 240 pages

Cover Price £25
Amazon Price new, £19.50, second-hand from about £15.

Fashion Illustration, 1930-1970: From Harper's Bazaar.

With an eye for a bargain, as well as a fondness for beautiful books, the ever alert Sheila Shreeve spotted and snapped up this treat in her local branch of TK Maxx.

It's not a shop one might think about when a tenner is burning a hole in your pocket, but I've also dropped on some lovely costume books in there. They tend to be tucked away near the gifts and photo albums, though occasionally the dust jackets are found to be a bit tatty or torn.

Sheila bought this book for less than half the RRP of £17.99, and describes it as 'lovely, and the illustrations are wonderful'. Still in living memory, a historical review of this period might make some of us rather feel our years, but be in no doubt those who have lived through the years covered by this book have enjoyed elegant, innovative and exciting fashions, and maybe a few stinkers too, though a small price to pay for having the New Look! This would be a great book for any teenagers studying fashion and textiles, as well as coffee-table-book collectors and costume enthusiasts of all ages.

The author, Marnie Fogg, previously lectured at the University of Nottingham. She now lives in Derbyshire.

'Fashion Illustration, 1930-1970: From Harper's Bazaar'
Marnie Fogg
Batsford Ltd, London 2010
ISBN 10-1906388814
Hardcover, 208 pages

Today on Amazon £11.87

'Paper Fashions : Yesterday' by Jill Sawyer

This is the forth book in the Klutz series of paper fashion books, and the first to take historic dress as its theme. It provides illustrative examples of women's clothing from the 14th to the early 20th Century, and encourages youngsters (yes, 35 is still young..... bought it for the Guides, honest.) to create paper costumes using the accompanying stencils, papers, glue and sequins.
The illustrations have obviously been based on pieces familiar to anyone with the Kyoto or V&A books, and the printed papers include some very nice period prints. There are plenty of different styles of dress, and a good amount of craft materials are included - a common complaint with this type of activity book is that the materials are stingy, and impossible to replenish. Thankfully 'Klutz', the California-based publisher, produces reasonably priced packs of paper and tiny wire coat hangers.
This reviewer thinks that children under 10 might find the tiny stencils and paper pieces a bit fiddly, but older children or those with an obliging grandparent on hand to help, will have a lovely time making little costumes to decorate greetings cards or creating a time-line showing the development of costumes through the centuries.

Paper Fashions : Yesterday
Jill Sawyer (2011)
ISBN 978 1 59174-892-2
RRP £12.99 (Amazon and others may be cheaper - today's prices started at £7.25)