The pattern.—The pattern is one of the most important things in making pillow lace.
The outlines must be clear and exact, as upon that in great measure the perfection of the lace depends.
The drawing transferred to parchment, paper or cardboard, usually of a yellowish tint, should be lined with a very thin stuff such as muslin to prevent its tearing.
A stripe of quadrille, or point paper as it is called, should be laid upon the pattern and then holes pricked with a medium-sized needle at every intersection of the lines.
All the curved long lines of the pattern must first be traced upon the point paper with ink and then pricked.
The pattern should be adapted to the thickness of the thread the lace is to be made of; for a coarse lace large point paper should be used and small, for the finer kinds of lace. The pricking of the pattern beforehand is particularly important in the case of the common torchon lace, where the real beauty of the design consists in its regularity; in the case of fine close patterns the pricking can only be done as you proceed.
Prickers and holders of the kind represented in fig. [782] or very much resembling it, are to be had at every stationer’s shop.
