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What exactly is Nottingham Lace?
Weaving started as a cottage industry in the Irvine Valley in Ayrshire, Scotland around the 16th century. The new immigrants from Europe brought new ideas and advanced methods of weaving on hand looms, which continued until the industrial revolution when the traditional cottage industry gave way to the massive looms in, use today. The traditional weavers' arts were not lost as they adapted their skills to the power driven machines and these skills are still an integral part in the manufacture of Scottish Lace and Madras.
Scottish Lace is manufactured on traditional Nottingham Lace Looms. The fineness of the weave is determined by the number of threads per inch (points) and ranges from 8 point to 14 point. The higher the point the more threads per inch and the finer the weave.
Scottish Madras was originally known as leno weave muslin. The name Madras became generally used at the beginning of the 20th century in recognition of the vast quantities of the fabric being exported to the city of that name in India.
Nottingham, in the midlands of England, has long been famous for its lace, though it has always been machine-made rather than hand-made bobbin lace.
Because the lace machine was invented in Nottingham, it became the centre of machine-made lace. In 1589 William Lee of Calverton (a village about 8 miles Northeast of Nottingham), invented a knitting frame that was used to produce hose. The frame and technique were standard for 200 years
Frame workers wished to imitate more closely the twisted pillow laces. John Heathcoat patented the first successful frame, which twisted together threads to from lace net, in 1809. Many different twist frames followed the Heathcoat bobbin net machine, the most important being the Levers machine invented in Nottingham in 1913 by John Levers. The fabrics produced on the Levers machine were called "bobbin lace." This caused some confusion between the hand and machine made laces. Until the 1960's Levers lace making was concentrated in the East Midlands of England, but the area also had a small percentage of plain net and curtain lace making. The largest amount of curtain lace was made in Scotland and continued to be made there until the end of the 20th century.
From the beginnings of the industry until the end of the 20th century, at least 99% of the lace and net made in Britain passed through Nottingham. It was only natural that lace made on machines in Britain came to be called "Nottingham Lace." The largest buyer of Nottingham Lace was North America. In addition to the lace manufactures, a second group promoting Nottingham as the center of the machine-made lace industry was the machine builders. The Nottingham builders built 99% of the world's twist lace machines and many of the warp lace machines. In the USA the lace-curtain machine was simply called "The Nottingham Lace Machine."
Scottish Lace comes directly to you from Scotland's own Irvine Valley where lace has been traditionally woven on Nottingham looms since the 1870's. This "old-country" weaving method involves intricate steps which not only authenticates the lace, but give its look and feel a certain quality not found in knitted laces also available today.
Nottingham lace is a beautiful loomed lace that is available in 8 point to 14 point density. The number indicates the tightness of weave - 14 point lace has 14 stitches per inch. The cotton for each design is hand strung on the same giant looms that have been producing this wonderful product since the 1870's. It is the finest Nottingham lace manufactured today.
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