When I began my Robe a la Francaise I knew I would sooner or later need proper sleeve ruffles to wear with it - my current ones had been made on the early days of my 18th century costume career and frankly did not look so great. Totally unconnected to this issue I had, for a long time, wanted to learn the basics of bobbin lace, as I have always loved lace and wanted to be able to really appreciate how much skill and time went into it. So, when I had the chance to take bobbin lace class I decided to give it a try.

After the rather confusing beginning stage I fell totally in love with bobbin lace, so much so that I got the insane idea to try to make lace for a pair of sleeve ruffles. When I thought about it further it began to appear less insane - after all, I was so enthusiastic about lace at the moment that would want to make something anyway, especially as my darling husband had bought me a lace pillow as a surprise gift.

Sleeve ruffles are also such an important element and an eye-catcher in the look of a francaise that they are worth some effort. Besides, the sleeve ruffles are detachable and will be used only rarely, so they are not exposed to heavy wear and don’t have to be laundered all the time. If I actually wanted to use my laboriously produced lace this wouldn't be half bad idea for it.

Most of the period lace patterns are, of course, insanely complicated and microscopic in scale, quite beyond the beginners level. I did, however, find a lovely pattern called “Caroline” from a book called “100 Traditional bobbin lace patterns” (Stott & Cook 1982). It was very beautiful, technically within my abilities (I had already made a narrow handkerchief edge lace from the same book and was basically familiar with the stitches required), and to my rather inexperienced eye not totally off for the latter part of the 18th century. The book gave no dates for any of the patterns, but obviously the Buckingham Point laces originated in the late 18th century, and while many pattern in the book have a very Regency / early Victorian look I thought that this one might sort of pass for 1760s to 1770s. As you all know, research is not my strong point, and I very often just choose something that suits my fancy!

At first I planned the sleeve ruffle lace project to be an ongoing craft thing which would get (maybe) finished sometime in distant future, but pretty soon I began dreaming of how awesome it would be if I could photograph the grand new francaise with them. At this point the francaise too was at a very early stage, so I thought I could work with both side by side.

After finally finishing the lace I made the ruffles of sheer linen and hemmed it narrowly. I starched both the ruffles and the lace with potato flour and then sewed the lace edge over the hem. On the afterthought I should have made the lace a bit longer so it would have shaped better on the curved edge.

The finished engeantes are also a bit long, but on the other hand this leaves the option to add another layer later. Most period engeantes did have two or three layers after all.