IHS Clerical Cluny Lace Ecclesiastical Vestment Alb

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Source eBay UK

In this auction I have a lovely Genuine Unique piece of White Church Lace. The lace measures 4 metres long. The lace is White in colour and 4 1/2" inches wide. The lace can be over dyed as it is cotton and will take a dye. It is made from strong quality heavy gauge cotton. Perfect for use in making Vestments and Albs. This lace is also used in the world of fashion by top world fashion designers incorporated into many different styles of clothing. All the laces I have listed are still made in England today - by my family of lace manufacturers - Cluny Lace Our company- the last manufacturers of cotton leavers laces in the UK, is owned and managed by the eighth and ninth generations of my family – we were already framework knitters and flax dressers by the 1730s and started making lace when this fabric was first produced by machines in the 1760s, at the start of the Industrial Revolution. Throughout the last one hundred and fifty years our company Cluny Lace has continued to build up a data bank of hundreds of lace patterns. By combining the best of old traditions with new technology we are still able to produce in a wide range of exquisite designs of Leavers Cluny style lace allovers, edgings and insertions and Leavers Fine Cotton Valenciennes style lace allovers, edgings, galloons and insertions. Many of the lace patterns still used today were designed and draughted by the sixth and seventh generations of the family. No other manufacturer in the world produces the same range of patterns and these patterns are unique to us. A Leavers machine is in fact two machines; a wide machine working on the principle invented by Mr. John Leavers in Nottingham, England in 1813, twists together the threads to form a fast net, and a jacquard machine, adapted for use on the Leavers machines between 1836 and 1841, puts in the patterns. The machine weighs 17 tons and twists 10,000 threads simultaneously to make this beautiful lace. The Leavers machine is said to be the most complicated textile machine in the world. When the laces are made on these huge old machines the resulting lace comes off the machine in a colour we call 'greige'. This is the raw undyed cotton which is also fairly dirty from the black lead which is used in making the machines run smoothly. In order to dye the lace to whites (which incidentally there are 120 different shades of!) / ecru or any other colour the lace has to go through a rigorous process of scouring, dyeing and finishing in extreme temperatures and is stretched on large looms to pull the cotton laces back into shape and to set the width. All the laces have a 3 to 5 % composite which is not cotton - usually nylon and occasionally polyester to help the cotton hold in the dyeing process and cope with modern washing machines which would ruin the lace without it! In the 'trade' strictly speaking a garment or fabric can be called cotton as long as it has at least 95% cotton composition - which all our laces have. ****Please ask as I am always happy to combine multiple purchases to reduce postage / shipping costs.**** N.B I can send by courier a parcel weighing up to 10 kg for £9.05 postage. If you have multiple wins and if you let me know - bidding over a few weeks to “fill” a box would be fine. This will make the postage costs a lot cheaper - just let me know. Only to mainland U.K (For the Highlands and Lowlands please ask) read more

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