About

My name is Yvette and I am a New Zealand lacemaker.  I started making bobbin lace in 2010, and since then it has become my passion.

My interest in lacemaking was sparked when I was still in primary school.   Whilst on a family holiday to Franschhoek in South Africa, we visited a local lacemaker.  He was kind enough to show me how to do cloth stitch and half stitch and I was even allowed to work a few stitches on the  beautiful Torchon mat that he had on his lace pillow.

I was mesmerised, and so started a life long love affair with bobbin lace.  That Christmas my parents gave me a copy of Ann Collier’s The Art of Lacemaking.  

At the time lacemaking supplies were not readily available in South Africa, and this was before the advent of the internet.  So, my dream to become a lacemaker was put on hold.  But I was fortunate enough to grow up in a very creative family – we quilted, knitted, crocheted and did woodturning.  So, my love of handmade things was nurtured from a very early age.

When I moved to New Zealand 18 years ago, I started collecting books about lacemaking in all earnest.  Then in 2010 I went along to a meeting of our local lace group and I finally started making bobbin lace (rather than just reading about it and collecting books about it!)

I was fortunate enough to learn from some very experienced lacemakers who were very generous in sharing their knowledge, time and resources.

My lacemaking journey so far has included making Flanders, Binche, Bucks Point, Tonder, Chantilly, Torchon, Bedfordshire and Idrija.

There are some excellent technique books available, and lacemakers are spoilt for choice with the variety of lacemaking books and magazines on offer.  But I realised soon enough in my lacemaking journey that sometimes it is easier to understand a particular technique if someone demonstrates it to you.

Some things (like winding a bobbin, making a half hitch, working a footside edge, laying in a new bobbin when your thread runs out) made so much more sense to me when someone showed me how to do it.  As a beginner I found these things quite daunting!   And so was born the idea of this website and blog.

I feel so blessed to have learnt from the kind and generous lacemakers  that I have met over the last eight years.  I would love to pay it forward by posting some videos and tips about things that might be useful to anyone interested in learning how to make lace.

I hope you enjoy my website and blog – let’s lace!

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