If you want to start designing lace but don't know where to start, this might help you.
Print out one (or more) of the designs below. (Either print out the entire webpage, or right click on the design to just print out the part you want). Cut out (carefully) along the yellow lines, and throw away the pale grey part. Some of the yellow lines are not next door to grey areas but apparently within shapes - these need to be cut along as well.
You need two edges for lace, either a footside and a headside, or two headsides or two footsides. So pick one of these, and put it on a flat surface. Then fit the other shapes into it, like a jigsaw, until you finish off with the other edge.
It is best not to have a firm idea of a design in your head to begin with. Play around with the shapes and see what happens. When you get a pattern that you like, then transfer it to one of the Torchon blank grids, and make the lace!
This will not make every single possible pattern of Torchon lace, but it will get you started. It gave me some ideas, and I've been designing lace for years.
The areas marked pale red can be cloth stitch or half stitch. They are diamonds, zigzags and other solid shapes.
There are areas of rose ground. These could be triangular ground instead.
Torchon ground can be replaced with double Torchon ground.
Cloth fan headsides can also be varied by twisting the workers at various points.
You can make the scallops with a more rounded edge.
These shapes should fit together.
There are various types of spiders (pale blue). There are 16 legged spiders, four 8 legged spiders making some spider ground and an 8 legged spider surrounded with Torchon ground.
These shapes should fit together. The spiders are 12 legged spiders, and the other patterns smaller to fit this smaller scale.
Here are various shapes which may not fit together, but are useful. They may need to be combined with shapes from the kits above.
Hearts are fun. You can combine the smaller hearts with the long zigzag below to make a pattern which looks like one zigzag behind another.
The shorter zigzags can be overlapped, with other shapes between. The top two show how. (The bottom one is fitted close to reduce paper wastage.)
There are single units of rose ground, 8 legged spiders, and the same area of Torchon ground - all useful for filling holes in a pattern.
© Jo Edkins 2017 - return to lace index