Hand done for sure....at least mostly...the lattice background may be machine done but the flowers and leaves are hand made lace.
That's wonderful!!!!
Linda C

Thank you Linda! I thought you might know. I'm clueless about vintage lace, but it had a certain look and feel about it that made me think it's special. The apron is very old, I'm guessing '30s or '40s. I don't have anything else like it. It inspires me to learn more about the different kinds of lace and where they originated. Does anyone have suggestions for websites where I might learn more?

Thanks,
Di

It looks to be tatted lace. My mother used to tat, and I still have her shuttles. When I was a child, I used to see ladies sitting outside their houses tatting. It's almost a lost art.

It's not tatted and likely quit a bit older than 30's or 40's...unless it's European....which it appears it might be. where did you get it?
Linda C

If it weren't for the cloth-like leaves, I'd say it was bobbin lace. My daughter does demonstrations while dressed in period costume. It was a skill popular in the 1600 to 1700s and largely died out today - very labor instensive. A lace maker might produce a strip 1 inch wide and 12 to 20 inches long per day.

Bobbin lace was made using a large, round pin cushion the size of a lap pillow. the bobbins were pinned to the cushion and the lace built on the cushion. Dozens of pins were used to hold the various threads in place while the work was in progress.

Machine made lace soon supplanted this very slow process.

Was wondering about that too. You can insert stumped fabric onto bobbin or tatted lace. It still doesn't look crocheted to me. My crochet skills were never good enough to even consider making doilies or lace, but there is some needlework going on in the pattern not from a crochet hook.

Could be really old or imported lace somebody wanted to salvage, but an apron would be the last place I'd want to splurge with a treasure like that, given it would be used and laundered often. That's another reason I suggested it may be tatted, as it's sewn onto the cloth with a needle, and it was just a common art in the depression era and some tatted work does not look anything like what you'd expect. It was at one time a way to make fishing nets, and open lattice is not at all uncommon. But, I'm not arguing that view at all, just holding open the thought it just doesn't strike me as being typically crocheted either.

It's not tatted...the background is needle lace of some sort...that lattice stuff. the flowers and leaves are of linen and worked around the edge and the connectors ( for want of a better term!) are "worked in air" done with a needle.
As for being on an apron....why not? I have an apron made out of the rudest unbleached muslin with tatted edging all around...and lovely flowers on the front and the pocket worked in I think you call it a weaving stitch...I love it Love it! It's big and has criss-cross straps in back and you can put it on without tying....and I have had it for years...bought in a box of stuff at an auction.
Aprons can be pretty too...I have another packed away....think it has hand done lace at the hem...now that I know more about lace I need to get it out and see...
Linda C

Thank you all for your comments. Appreciate it. I bought a box of aprons at an auction, this was one of them ($3.00 for the box). The lace piece is sewn into the rest of the apron and the edging all around the apron is crocheted (separate from the lace insert). Many eastern Europeans settled in eastern Nebraska so it may have its origins there. I suspect it wasn't designed specifically for this apron, but rather a small piece that wouldn't work for any other purpose and so was incorporated into the apron and kept for special occasions.

I think the lattice is crocheted, not tatted because tatting is typically fashioned from a sturdier thread and results in a tighter design usually in rounds. This is a very delicate thread used to form the lattice. I'm no expert, just going by what I've observed in other pieces. Again thank you all for your input.

Diane

Peachydiva...the lattice background is not crochet I have made crocheted lace and while it looks at first like it could be a very very fine double crochet,,,I don't believe it is.
Would it be too much trouble to ask for a picture of the whole apron? I would live to see it...I kind of like aprons....

I went through the book "Legacy of Lace" ... looks like cutwork. Definitely a little more intense than most American lace ... the lacy area almost looks like drawn work but the more I look at it and compare it to other pieces, it is cutwork.

Love aprons. My favorite is my great-grandmothers. Just a simple muslin apron with white crocheted butterfly lace edging. She never wore it .. it was in her hope chest. We know she got married at the age of twenty ... that makes it 130 years old. Whether she made it earlier than that ... we don't know.

Lindac... I will post a pic of the whole apron when I get home. I'm traveling just now and don't have it with me.

Clink... I love aprons too, I collect them and have lots of very special ones, but none from my own women folk. You are lucky to have your great-grandmother's.