I have put hand made bobbin lace on some dresses and blouses that go in the washing machine, and washed them many times without any problems. All of this lace is torchon or tape lace, made in a fairly thick cotton. Some is Filatu di Cantu, which washes extremely well. The lace needs to be eased into shape a bit when it is damp, but is otherwise fine. I do not machine wash Bucks or other point laces. These are stitched / tacked on to garments, so that they can be removed before laundering.
In all cases where I have washed garments without a problem, the lace was cotton or silk (personally I don't much like linen). I once made a motif from a Lace Express magazine, in synthetic threads (machine threads, may have been Sulky, but I'm not sure now). I stitched this to a t-shirt and put it through the regular wash, then tried to stretch it back to shape as I would with cotton or silk. Almost all the connections snapped! So I will not be working in synthetic machine threads again! The colours were perfect for what I wanted, but the t-shirt is now a disaster! Sue Babbs (Still in the UK, but flying back to Chicago tomorrow) - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
