Two lace bands. Top: TRC 2018.3173, bottom: TRC 2014.0921The illustration to the right shows two lace bands of a type that was used as a decoration for traditional Dutch caps in the early 20th century. Both examples follow the so-called Beveren lace design, which is a tulle lace with stylised flower motifs. The ground is made of an hexagonal mesh, often powdered with square tallies. The handmade piece (TRC 2018.3173) is a continuous-thread bobbin lace, and the machine made example (TRC 2014.0921) is manufactured on a Levers machine. Both examples are heavily starched, which indicates that they were used earlier, on another cap.

Filling: The handmade piece has a clear cloth stitch structure. You can see the threads of the filling being irregular, following the form of the gimp, which outlines the flower pattern. 
The fillings of the machine made example are more loose and have a regular and parallel structure with stitches in an obvious V-shape movement. 


Gimp: In both pieces the gimp creates the outline of the floral motif. In the handmade lace it is visible on both sides. The gimp of the machine made piece is only visible at the front. 


Ground: The ground for both pieces looks similar. The machine made lace has a good imitation of a tulle ground. An indicator to distinguish both laces are the stitches forming the ground. In the machine made example one side of the mesh is formed by a V-shaped stitch, while the handmade piece has a twist in the hexagonal structure. 


Edge: Both examples have picots at the edges, but in the handmade piece the edge is created together with the main piece. The edge of machine made lace is produced separately and added later. 


Side: The handmade piece is identical on both sides, while the machine made lace had a visible gimp on the front side. 

Handmade lace:		Machine-made lace:
TRC 2018.3173		TRC 2014.0921