Color in Bedfordshire

Jean Leader

Lacemaker and Textile Enthusiast

Color in Bedfordshire Lace

Bedfordshire lace and other similar laces were developed in the middle of the nineteenth century, all of them inspired by earlier seventeenth laces. Often referred to as ‘guipure’ laces they featured plaits, often decorated with picots, tallies of various shapes, and cloth-stitch trails and motifs. The late nineteenth and early twentieth century guipure laces were usually worked with white thread, either linen or cotton, although black silk was occasionally used. However, portraits and a few surviving examples show that coloured guipure laces, probably made with silk which was easier to dye than linen, were produced in the early seventeenth century.

This video is designed to show how using colours can transform a simple Bedfordshire pattern and, together with some small changes in techniques, provides all sorts of possibilities for experimentation. How to work the first three patterns, two bookmarks and an edging, is demonstrated and explained in detail, and two additional patterns for small motifs provide further practice. The instructions assume some basic knowledge (how to wind bobbins, make a pricking and work the basic stitches) but starting and finishing, working plaits and picots, leaf-shaped and raised tallies, a foootside edge, and adding beads are all explained step by step.

“…Using this DVD will give a student a very sound foundation on which to build more advanced Bedfordshire techniques, as well as the confidence to use colour on other traditional patterns. Playing with colour and beads can be such fun!”
[Lace 178, Spring 2020]

DVD details

Color in Bedfordshire Lace with Jean Leader
DVD or USB drive: Running time 2 hours 55 minutes, with 4 pages of notes and prickings

US: $52.00 plus postage
Available from Hensel Productions

UK: £40.00 plus postage
Available from