Normandy Lace

Lovely, ethereal, lacey, useful and recycled: that's Normandy Lace. What, you ask? Normandy lace is made up of bits and pieces of lace, embroidered white work and the circular back of ladies French Fond De Bonnet cap backs that were worn in the 19th century. When these caps went out of fashion, what did the ladies do with those gorgeous embroidered caps? Being thrifty ladies they re-fashioned them into lace doilies, table runners, tray cloths, bedspreads and other useful items. The resultant items were essentially lace patchwork, hand stitched together pieces of lace, embroideries and needle lace: exquisite, delicate and ethereal. The cap backs feature local French Normandy flowers and leaves in padded satin stitch, eyelets, needle lace, granitos, padded stem stitch or stain stitch outline, and other stitches. All designs on a cotton batiste background and cotton laces. Check out this website for photos of cap backs: https://belovedlinens.net/fondsbonnet.html

Can you imagine embroidering something like these today??? It would take hours and hours. Hand stitching the lace pieces together would not take long, but still, the entire piece of Normandy Lace represents hours and hours of work and thriftiness. They saved all sorts of of little bits and pieces of laces and netting, embroidered batiste and re-used them for these delightful confections.

I wrote a little about this in an earlier blog ( Lace Fabric) when I was making a lace collared dress for the 2022 Holiday issue of Classic Sewing Magazine. But lets delve into this a little deeper! Lacemakers had a set-back after WWI because the flax fields had been bombed and they couldn't get the linen thread used to make laces, so Normandy Lace, i.e., patchwork lace was invented to keep the lace makers and their families in business and fed (Lace Makers).

I own two pieces of Normandy Lace. Let's look at the oval first.

The center flower motif is spectacular!

Look at the breathtaking needle lace fill in the flower center!!! And then the needle lace in the lower petals from left to right. Sumptuous! The padded satin stitch leaves right below the needle lace rows feature Ladder Stitch (those rows of holes).

Next look at this chrysanthemum embroidery and needle lace on netting. I can't imagine trying to do this embroidery....

The double eyelet in the center of this motif above caught my eye.

Look at the embroidered flowers on either side of the eyelet 'daisy': they are filled with seed stitch.

The rectangular piece is not as intricate as the oval but still an outstanding example of patchwork lace.

The Fond De Bonnet cap center motif features daisies with needle lace centers and lots of padded satin stitch leaves and vines. There are also six more smaller daisies with tiny needle lace centers inside an eyelet.  The 'granito chains' (my description, not a technical term) are not symmetrical or balanced. My thought is the round cap center is set sideways from how it was inserted into a cap. Below are the smaller daisies of the cap center which measure 1/2" across. The center daisy measures one inch.

The corner motif below reminds me of wisteria.

End strips on the rectangular Normandy Lace have this lovely chrysanthemum flower spray featuring needle lace.

Two lovely pieces of Normandy Lace that reflect ingenuity, resourcefulness and beauty!