Welcome to the Lace Guild
Home of both Traditional Craft and Textile Innovation
The Lace Guild is the largest lace organisation in the United Kingdom and is an accredited museum with a large collection of lace and associated artefacts. The Guild produces two quarterly magazines, Lace and Early Days in Lacemaking, and publishes books of lace techniques and patterns.​ Our aims are to:
-
To provide information about the craft of lacemaking, its history and use.
-
To promote a high standard of lacemaking.
-
To encourage the design, development and professional presentation of lace.
Golden Anniversary 2026
Demonstrations, displays and having-a-go
Do you belong to a lace group?
Do you have friends who are lacemakers?
Is at least one of you a Lace Guild Member?
Do you have a venue nearby that might welcome a demonstration of lacemaking? (If it is a National Trust property, then we may have their contact details for you on our list.)
Does the venue generally have a large footfall?
Are you in the process of arranging this and have not yet told us?
We are planning to send out the Press Packs in January 2026 to allow for advertising and contacting your local newspaper reporter/photographer.
Do you have lots of lovely pieces of lace stashed away safely? Then bring them out and put on a display of your work. The public love to have-a-go too, so bring out your spare pillow and set it up with a simple piece of cloth stitch and show them how easy it is to do.
Bobbin lacemaking is on the Heritage Crafts red list as it is now an “endangered craft”. There are too few tutors passing on their skills for it to survive as a craft. It is our responsibility as lacemakers to change this outlook.
If you are a tutor and wish to teach children, many of them will have-a-go on a pillow at an event, then think about having your free DBS check done via The Lace Guild and setting up a small group.
If you have been making lace for a while and think you may like to be a tutor, come to our Coffee & Chat sessions (dates will be released soon) to find out more.
Our Golden Anniversary is a huge opportunity to grow our lacemaking community and share our skills and friendship.
Our Magazines
We offer two quarterly magazines to members of the Guild, published at the end of July, October, January and April.
Lace is the main magazine, 64 pages of articles, community news and patterns.
Early Days In Lacemaking is aimed at novice lacemakers, and contains around 30 pages of mostly easy patterns.
Our Museum and Library
Our Shop
We sell our own books, bobbins and accessories, as well as second hand books and lace equipment and back issues of the magazines.
​
Shop with us online, by phone, or in person at The Hollies.
New bobbins for 2025-26!
Current Exhibition at The Hollies
98 Lace
2 August to 25 October 2025
Members of this national group come from across the UK, and all enjoy designing and making laces with a modern flair using a range of techniques.
Often taking up a thematic challenge or working to imposed design themes, the scale of their finished works ranges broadly from the small to the very large. Because of the limited size of our Display cases, we have requested that their selection of works to exhibit will be subject to a restriction on dimensions to enable a concentration on their smaller pieces.