Fabric Definitions — definitions of fabrics, cloths, laces and textile materials from Apparel Search
Inishmacsaint lace is worked in fine linen thread. It is a raised needle lace, similar in method to the flat Youghal needle lace, but the raised effect is achieved by additional outlining sewn on to the lace after completion — usually around the outside of flowers and other important parts of the design. The outlining is the cordonnet, a thickish cord that can be further elevated by couched padding oversewn with buttonhole stitching, giving the finished lace a raised, three-dimensional appearance.
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The definition of Inishmacsaint Lace has been provided to Apparel Search by The Sheelin Antique Irish Lace Museum.
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Inishmacsaint reverses an expectation: in most laces, the pattern relief is built during the making, stitch by stitch. Here the needle lace ground is first completed by a method close to flat Youghal work, and only then does the defining step begin — outlining. The maker lays the cordonnet along the contours that matter, chiefly flower outlines and other principal motifs, couches it down, and where greater height is wanted builds padding beneath it before oversewing with buttonhole stitching. The result reads almost like sculpture at textile scale: flat stitched grounds, then a corded ridge rising around the flowers, casting tiny shadows and catching light differently from the ground. That two-stage making is also an identification key. A raised Irish lace whose relief sits only on the outlines, in a visibly corded line, over an otherwise flat needle-lace fabric, is showing the Inishmacsaint method; laces raised throughout their motifs were built differently.
The Irish lace industries of the 19th century each fixed on a distinguishing technique, and Inishmacsaint distinction is relief. Youghal pursued flat needlepoint fineness; Kenmare developed its own needlepoint school and design tradition; Limerick embroidered on machine net; Carrickmacross appliquéd muslin on net. Inishmacsaint, worked in fine linen thread, kept the needle-lace base and added the corded outline — a comparatively economical route to a luxurious effect, since hours of padding go only where the eye lands first, on the motif edges. The finished lace served the same markets as its sisters — collars, cuffs, trimmings, ecclesiastical and presentation pieces — where a raised floral outline reads richly at a distance. For collectors and students, the definition preserves not only a technique but an attribution: the account was provided by the Sheelin Antique Irish Lace Museum, and the cordonnet test it describes remains the practical way to separate Inishmacsaint from the flat needle laces it grew beside.
The cordonnet is the outlining cord applied to the finished lace: a thickish cord laid around the outside of flowers and other important design parts and sewn on, further elevated where wanted by couched padding oversewn with buttonhole stitching. It is the cordonnet that turns a flat needle lace into the raised, three-dimensional Inishmacsaint finish.
By the raised finish. The underlying method is similar — needle lace worked in fine thread — but Youghal stays flat, while Inishmacsaint adds the outlining cordonnet after completion, raising the principal motifs in relief above the ground. The raised areas concentrate on flowers and other important parts of the design.
Fine linen thread, as stated in the definition provided by the Sheelin Antique Irish Lace Museum. Linen gives the needle lace its crisp stitch definition and matte character, and takes the padded buttonhole work of the cordonnet cleanly.