Antique Lace & Linen Gifts - Customizable for Bridal Showers, Weddings, Favours & Wedding Party

Point de Venise is a beautiful buttonhole hand stitched needle lace. It was sewn onto paper then the paper removed. It is an Italian hand made lace and there is a Belgian Zele lace, that is very similar. It was very tedious to make, and commonly used for trimming antique bed linens, tablecloths, napkins, clothing, pillows, and monograms.

Point de Venice was made primarily from the late 1800s to present time where it is made in China. Often the copied Chinese pieces can be differentiated by the simper designs, larger stitching and less accomplished lace making. The more recent point de Venise laces are made with a cotton thread which goes fluffy on laundering. The highest quality Point de Venise lace made in Italy is made with linen thread which is very hard wearing and looks more shiny.

The beautiful Alencon Lace from France is one of the few valuable machine made laces. Alencon lace was made in the French town of Alencon for the early part of the 20th century in limited high quality machine runs. All the patterns were was outlined with a cordonnet, a thicker cord and sewn on by hand.

Designs often included flowers, sometimes mythical beasts or birds and sometimes there were the rare commemorative tablecloths made. Alencon lace was commonly used for tablecloths and napkins. Occasionally the earliest, finest Alencon lace was used for boudoir pillows and lingerie in the 1900 to 1930's.

Traditionally, designs similar to Alencon is used for bridal gowns and wedding dresses up to the present date. Although, a modern machine made wedding lace it will be a form of Alencon.

Battenburg lace has a bold design and is very easy to recognize. It is also easy to make. The antique Battenburg tape lace was made around the turn of the century. Battenberg lace was used to trim beautiful tulle and mesh bedspreads, and those are very hard to come by in good condition. It has been copied for the last 50 years in Asia, but is easy to spot.

From 1890 onward, Battenburg lace actually also came in kits that ladies could buy to create tablecloths as a hobby. The kits consisted of a pattern on paper, the woven white tape, thread and the material for the tablecloth. All they needed was a little time and a needle. Battenburg was very popular due to the speed and ease of making beautiful table cloths with it. The lace is more expensive than you would think, compared to other labor intensive laces, but it is due to the wonderful patterns.

Beautiful fancy embroidery has been a beautiful affordable collectible. Most countries have their own version. Swiss Appenzell, Madeira embroidery, French and Enlish padded satin whitework, Italian embroidery, Broderie Anglaise, Ayrshire whitework from Scotland.

Ayrshire is incredibly detailed and usually on found on clothing, 1820-60's christening gowns and baptism dresses or girls and ladies petticoats. Most of these are sewn on linen and cotton. Both can be just as valuable. Usually the more figural the design, the more people, lovers, ladies, animals, mythical creatures like unicorns, dragons or even angels, putti or cherubs, the more desirable and sought after the embroidery will be.

Also the longer the tablecloths, the more expensive. Anything over 100" is considered banquet sized and fits more people at the table on grander longer tables, so prices jump at that length. Sets of at least 12 napkins command the most, and sets with napkins missing often sell for much less.

Each of these types of embroidery was an industry at the time, professional seamstresses paid well to do it all day long, Often whole table sets, with 12 napkins were made with many women working on each set. Sometimes you can see slight variations between napkins.

If you like the look of the colored embroideries, Madeira work comes in all colors and is wonderful quality, you can hardly see the stitches. It is usually sewn on linen shipped from Ireland especially for the industry. Swiss Appenzell comes in white or a silvery grey blue. Most of the others, the stitching is the same color as the cloth, white, ivory or ecru (putty-coloured)

Antique paisley shawls are so distinctive and were an incredibly expensive addition to ladies wardrobe. They were work as a shawl or coat over their large crinolines and bustles dresses and some paisley shawls were made 200 years ago. Paisleys were woven in pieces then sewn together to make a unique design in India and Kashmir, or later, woven as whole in Europe especially Scotland. The paisley shawls were enormous, some over 4 feet wide and 8 feet long.

Paisley shawls are made of brilliantly dyed wool and silk, so it is amazing any survive as they can succumb to moths. Traditional colors are red and black with gold, green, white and blue as accent colors. Sometimes the owners initials were embroidered on a corner of the paisley shawl. Their warm rich colors lend themselves well to a winter wedding and make a beautiful unusual Christmas or New Years wedding theme.

English filet crochet linens are an pretty and inexpensive thing to buy and easy to find. They are still simple and elegant in their own way, so I have included them here. Some of the most intricate figural designs ever ere designed by Australian designer, Mary Card from 1920-1940's.

The simple sawtooth designs were typical for edging pillows, and sheets, and petticoats. Even nicer for collectors, tablecloths, are the smaller square supper-cloths, or afternoon tea cloths beautiful and inexpensive linens for covering a small table, for hosting your own afternoon teas and bridal showers.

Cantu is a rare and beautiful hand stitched needle lace. Cantu lace is an Italian hand made lace that is very valuable, rare and sought after. Cantuu lace was tedious to make. It was commonly found on antique bed linens, tablecloths, napkins, clothing, pillows, and monograms.

Cantu was made primarily from the late 1800s to mid 20th century. Quality Cantu is made in Italy with linen thread which is very extremely hard wearing. Figural Cantu lace is even more sought after with mythical creatures, courting couples, cherubs, angels and animals rather that just flowers on it.