Machine lace edging

This is an imitation of a Torchon bobbin lace edging, but various parts are made in a different way, which shows that this is machine lace.

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This looks, at first, quite like bobbin lace. You can see the horizontal and diagonal threads as expected. But the whole texture is coggled, slightly. When you look very closely, you can see very thin threads binding everything together. It is most obvious at the top of the fan (top right).

A cynic might say that it must be machine lace, as the half stitch fans are neat and strong! Bobbin lace half stitch fans often seem a bit floppy and distorted.

The pattern near the footside looks a little like rose ground. But the close-up shows that the internal structure is quite different.

In this machine footside, there is only a single thread which runs along the edge. Bobbin lace always works in pairs here. Also, you can see thin threads binding the thicker threads together. Bobbin lace has threads of the same thickness in footside. The passive threads also run either above or below the workers, impossible in bobbin lace.

The overall look is quite a good replica. But there is a coggled appearance to it (because of the thin threads) which hints at something wrong, even before you take a closer look.