Hi Janice -
Het Lassen is a method of joining the beginning of the lace to the end
of the lace in a manner that is early invisible. It is believed to have
developed in Belgium during the early 1900's when the fashion for
handkerchiefs went from having the gathered corner (where the join was
hidden in the gathers) to having a worked corner, making a join much
more visible.
There are several important things to consider when doing the Lassen
technique. The join is less apparent if you do not chose the exact
center of a side (assuming the object is square or rectangular), and
you also would want to avoid the corners. In addition, if you work the
Lassen in a zig-zag manner, the join is less visible, and it is a great
deal stronger. And when you're chosing the path of the lassen, you
should work with the ground as much as possible, and avoid going
directly through motifs, but instead follow the ring-pair around the edges.
In a nutshell, you line up your piece so that the beginning and the end
overlap with at least an inch of lace on the discard side of the
lassen. Pin the work together on either side of the lassen. Identify
the path of your lassen, and then work from the footside edge out to the
headside, and then turn and come back to the footside again. In so
doing, you work each thread in each "hole" with two wraps of your
joining thread. In some cases, both of the wraps are done on the
outward-bound pass, in some cases, on the inward-bound pass, and often
only one wrap at a time, but once going out and again coming in. Your
lassen thread should be much finer than the thread you made the lace
with - but the same color.So, if you worked your mat in 120/2 (Egyptian
Cotton), then you would use 170/2 or 185/2 for your lassen thread.
The trick is to identify the path in such a way that you don't lose your
place!! One of the students in the class I taught this summer came up
with a brilliant idea! Use a piece of fine filament fishing line that
has a neon color. This way, you'll always see that color, and when
you're finished, the filament will easily pull out of your work.
(Thanks, Barbara S.!!) You're working the threads which define the
holes that that piece of filament has traveled through.
When you're finished, you'll have a fine line of join zig-zagging across
your lace, joining it nicely. The really scary part is picking up the
scissors to trim the waste! Be sure to hold the lace so that the good
lace is tucked under your finger, and the waste is held above it. Trim
as closely as you can to the join. Then, turn your lace and repeat for
the other piece of waste. You'll be thrilled at the results!!
Clay
Janice Blair wrote:
In an attempt to bring the lace list back to lace, I have a question to ask of
our more experienced lacemakers.
I took a beginning Binche class with Anny Noben Sleiger at convention this
summer. I am now coming round to the joining of this small circular lace
piece and I want to know how to finish. In my case I actually started this
piece with pairs of bobbins so I could sew into the starting points similarly
to how I do my buckspoint, but I would like to know more about the overlapping
joining techniques.
Is Het Lassen the correct term for this joint? Does the lace actually
comprise of two ends that overlap and are sewn together at both ends of the
overlap? If so, doesn't that make a thick join? Or, do you make an overlap
and then after sewing both ends together at some convenient point, cut off the
excess on both sides?
I understand that this overlapping technique is good for those of us who make
mistakes in the lace and have a second chance at improving the piece, but in
something that has lots of tallies, I could go on forever and never be
satisfied with all of them. :-)
Janice
Janice Blair
Crystal Lake, 50 miles northwest of Chicago, Illinois, USA
www.jblace.com
http://www.lacemakersofillinois.com
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