Lace Curtains The History of Lace

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Lace has been around for a long long time, but it has changed considerably in status since the days of old when it was first created. No one knows for sure when people first started creating lace, but we do know that it reached the height of popularity around the late 1700's, when kings and queens started using it in their castles and wearing it on their persons. At that time, the lace was made completely by hand, and this was an incredibly intricate process that could only be done really well by a handful of very dedicated people. For this reason, lace was very sought after by the wealthy, but in very short supply. If you happened to have a seamstress that was able to create lace, then you held on to her as hard as you could.

Then the technology age started to look, and people put more and more effort into inventing machines that made our lives easier. It was around the early 1800's that the bobbinets was invented, and this revolutionised the world of fabric design, as it was able to create lace in a fraction of the time of a skilled seamstress. The downside was that this put a lot of people out of work, and as factories were built to house these new machines, riots were staged outside by people who suddenly had nothing to do with their skills.

Fast forward to present day, and lace is still in use all over the world, but is available to everyone, regardless of how rich or poor. The two main uses for lace are in clothing and as a window covering. In clothing, it is very fashionable for bridal veils and lingerie, and in the home lace curtains will look great in just about any window (except maybe in your skylight, where skylight blinds are a much more sensible option)

Lace used to be made exclusively out of silk back in the days when it was hand made. Nowadays, however, it is manufactured from cotton or polyester, making it even more inexpensive. Even though it is now affordable to everyone, the delicate patterns still make it a desirable material in any setting. There are groups of people around the globe who are struggling to keep the art of lace making by hand alive and trying to pass this skill down the generations. Let's hope it doesn't become a dying art.