Difference between bobbin and machine-made cloth stitch

For a description of how cloth stitch is done, with an animation, click here. The technical description of cloth stitch is CTC, or cross, twist, cross.

Cloth stitch looks very like simple woven cloth (hence the name). However, one row of lace does not use one thread, but a pair of threads. You can see in this example how this pair of threads gets to the end of the row, then both threads turn back on themselves to make the next row. This pair of threads going from left to right, then back again, are called the workers (because they do all the work). The threads hanging straight down are called the passives (because they don't!) The passives on the right gradually join the shape, one pair at a time, making a diagonal edge to the shape, then they leave it one pair at a time, with the diagonal going the other way. This is typical of the Torchon style of lace, although it is used elsewhere. Click here for the whole piece of lace.

Here, the weave is looser (because the threads are thinner relative to the size of the pattern) but it can still be seen. A row is still a pair of threads - the workers. However, a worker pair leaves at the end of each row, and another worker pair joins the lace. The passives stay in the lace. Click here for the whole piece of lace.

Some techniques of bobbin lace use a combination of these techniques.

There are two clues that this is machine-made.

There is only one worker thread going left and right, rather than a pair of threads.

The worker thread is much thicker than the passives. In bobbin lace cloth stitch, both workers and passives have the same thickness of thread.

Click here for the whole piece of lace.

This looks like very closely woven cloth stitch, and that is a clue. Bobbin lace does not weave as closely as this. Even tightly woven cloth stitch tends to have small holes in where the threads cross over. This is machine-made.

If you look closely, especially in the non-cloth stitch area, you can see very thin threads holding the normal threads together. These very thin threads are also used within the cloth stitch, holding the worker threads tightly togather. There are normal thickness passive threads as well.

Bobbin lace is made of one thickness of thread (apart from gimps, which are something entirely different). So these very thin threads betray its machine-made origin.

The hole in the middle is not diagnostic. Cloth stitch areas in bobbin lace sometimes have decorative holes like this, although not usually as neat.

Click here for the whole piece of lace.

The passive and worker threads may be of equal thickness, but this does not look like bobbin lace cloth stitch.

The passive threads move straight downwards throughout the whole lace. In bobbin lace, while they travel downwards inside cloth stitch, they move diagonally outside it.

The passives here are also widely spaced while the workers are close together. In bobbin lace, the workers and passives are evenly spaced.

The passives are also twisted and it is this that holds the workers. Inside bobbin cloth stitch, the passives lie side by side without twisting.

The overall effect of the 'cloth stich' areas is ridged. This does not happen with Bobbin cloth stitch.

If you look at the entire piece, there is also a clue that it is far too big to be hand made!

Click here for the whole piece of lace.

This looks a bit like a densely woven bit of cloth stich, but is made in a completely different way. The passives are strongly vertical, often a clue to machine made lace. But even worse, if you look closely at the middle passives, you will see that there are three threads twisted at the top, which never happens in bobbin lace!

There are threads travelling diagonally, which in bobbin lace are a sign of half stitch. But if you look at the actual threads, you can see that one thread goes over two threads, or under two threads. Again, this never happens in bobbin lace (except for gimps, which are something completely different).

Click here for the whole piece of lace.

This looks like a strip of cloth stitch called a cloth stitch trail in bobbin lace. The workers and passives are the same thickness, and there are a pair of workers for one row - all similar to bobbin lace. However, there is one difference. If you look closely at a row, you can see that a pair of passive threads go over and under together. However, even worse, a worker thread seems to go over all passive threads, while the next goes under them all. That is just impossible - the whole piece of lace would fall apart. In fact, there are very thin threads, just detectable in some places, which go over the worker while the passives go under, and vice versa.

Another clue that all is not as it should be is that we are getting single threads leaving and joining the lace.

Click here for the whole piece of lace.

There are no thin threads in this example, but if you look carefully, you can see that there are pairs of passives being worked as a single thread. This means that the under-and-overs are not regular - sometimes, the workers go over or under two threads rather than one.

Click here for the whole piece of lace.