Sadia’s Blog

I have to admit I’m a bit of a obsessive person when it comes to anything vintage, especially vintage laces. The last three days and nights are a literal blur as I was totally engrossed in recreating another vintage lace. One of the vintage lace introduced to me by a dear friend is Irish lace which is world famous for its intricate designs that are formed from very simple patterns. With the help of Ursuline nuns, the women in Ireland learned the art of lace making which became a lucrative money making skill for many of the Irish families. Many of the patterns or motifs were secretly guarded for generations and their techniques were only handed down from mother to daughter verbally. This fine crochet lace came to be known throughout the world as “Irish Crochet Lace”.  It has been my greatest desire to reproduce as close as possible this intricate yet delicate type of lace via machine embroidery. With this in mind, I ventured to recreate the dimensional laces that are so well created by the Irish. The dimensional look is created by several layers of lace created together in the making. This was indeed a tough task and although I’m a bit tired, yet extremely pleased by the results. I may not exactly have the finesse that the Irish crochet lace presents but it is as close as I can create yet have an open weave type freestanding lace that mimics the Irish crochet lace.

The art of sewing is being revitalized by the Home Sewing Association and its various branches. I personally am extremely pleased to see any of the hand sewing, embroidery, knitting etc industries take on again in our world today. However, I have an agenda and that is to recreate the same but via machine. I realise that the present generation cannot sit still long enough to enjoy the peace and satisfaction that comes via any of the hand created arts and that is where I intend to bring to them the same via machine embroidery. Also it is one of my New Year’s resolution for this year to recreate the vintage arts as much as possible….. hence the “journey” of machine embroidery.

Irish crochet laces are similar to regular crochet except they are more airy and have a lot of dimensional objects like flowers, leaves etc…anything nature. The lace I wanted to recreate had to be soft and gentle as well as openweave yet strong enough to withstand time.  I’m still in the process of fine tuning but wanted to share the results so far. The designs are deliberately kept to the 4×4 hoop for now but have extended plans for it later on.