A little bit of help when shopping for lace

There are literally thousands of laces on the market, from very cheap mass produced factory made lace - to exquisite hand made bobbin lace.

So how do you know what to buy for your project?

I've broken down the many types of lace that you can buy by the metre in to categories, and will attempt to tell you a little bit more about them. It's impossible to cover everything, but this is a brief guide to laces you're likely to want.

All of the laces I've listed are from bridalfabrics.com and have links to their website - they are a family business based in the North of England, who ship worldwide with no minimum quantity. I've been buying lace from them for years! (Above is a beautiful black Chantilly lace called Nefertari.

So what are the main types of lace available by the metre?

I'd split them in to 3 main categories of how they're made, all of which can then be embellished with beads, sequins, glitter etc...

Machine knitted and woven lace

Bobbin and needlepoint lace first appeared a few centuries ago, there doesn't seem to be exact dates as it's not well documented, however many sources suggest it was in the late 16th century. Machines were developed to make similar style lace in the 19th century, making it much more affordable. Modern machine lace can either be woven or knitted. (Woven being more premium).

This is a woven Chantilly lace. It's called Chantilly as that's the region of France it's woven in, and it's the best quality lace of this kind. The designs are generally quite traditional like this. This design is called Mitzi.

Similarly this Raschel lace is also a very traditional design, although the warp knitted (a bit different to regular knitting) construction makes it much more affordable. This design Maggie has cording too, which gives the design a bolder look.

This is a hand beaded Chantilly lace called Brandy. You don't really get much more beautiful than this. It's definitely a more expensive option, but it's worth it!!

Embroidered Tulle

A different construction method, but just as beautiful is embroidered tulle. This is made by embroidering on a tulle (fine net) base, and is then often embellished with beads. There are endless designs of this type of lace, ranging from very traditional ones, to modern geometrics and beautiful boho florals.

This embroidered tulle is called Pilar. It's very similar in terms of the traditional design on the border to the Chantilly lace, but the way it's constructed means it can have the big open spaces, perfect for a long full skirt.

This all-over embroidered tulle called Presley is just gorgeous! The modern design has no open spaces or obvious borders, meaning it would work well on all sorts of designs.

The great thing about embroidered tulle is that there really are no limitations on the design, and I think this geometric design called Vivienne is just stunning!

Lastly for the embroidered tulles is this heavily beaded 3D lace called Blake. These heavily embellished laces are absolutely beautiful, and Bridal Fabrics have a whole range of designs to choose from.

Guipure Lace

This type of lace seems to be a love it or hate it! I love it! It's made by embroidering on to a dissolvable fabric. Once dissolved, all you have left is the embroidery. They are often heavier than the other laces, although you can get lighter weight ones too.

This guipure lace called Reese is lovely and chunky, and has a very open pattern. They might look like they're stiff, but they actually drape really nicely.

I can't help but love this geometric guipure lace called Gretal as it reminds me of my own wedding dress. My lace was from 1970, donated generously by my mum, but the modern ones look just ass fabulously retro.

As I said, this is just an overview, you could lose hours when trying to decide on your favourite lace, it's hard to pick just one!

If you're completely new to the idea of sewing lace, this video demonstrates a few of the basic sewing techniques you might not have used before.

In this tutorial I show you everything from what to think about when picking a lace and how to cut it out, to how to professionally sew a complete dress.

I hope this has been a good overview, and you're excited to try something that might be totally new to you. Please let me know how you get on!