Hand-Crocheted Cotton Drawstring Reticule with Lace Inserts and Worked Cord Ties, Shell-and-Picot Base, Ivory

The Piece

A small drawstring bag worked by hand in fine ivory cotton.

The base is crocheted in a shell-and-picot pattern, a rounded openwork panel that gives the bag its shape and holds it open when it is set down.

Above it, gathered into the crochet, run inserts of fine floral lace — a scalloped and figured net that makes the upper half translucent.

The mouth is finished with a crocheted ruffled collar and closes on two worked cotton cords, each crocheted in a dense round and finished with knotted tabs.

The whole thing is one colour — a soft undyed ivory, warmer in the crochet and cooler in the lace.

History & Provenance

The form is a reticule, and it has one of the clearest origin stories in the history of dress. When high-waisted, narrow gowns came into fashion around 1800, there was no longer anywhere to hide a pocket — so the pocket came out of the dress and was carried in the hand. That bag is the ancestor of every handbag since.

Crocheted and beaded reticules stayed in the needlework repertoire for a century and a half, worked at home from published patterns rather than bought. A bag like this was made by somebody sitting down with a hook and a ball of cotton, not ordered from a shop.

The construction tells you exactly how it was made, and it is a mixture. The crochet is entirely handwork — the shell-and-picot base, the ruffled collar and the drawstring cords are all worked stitch by stitch. The lace inserts are machine-made, even and regular in a way hand lace never is.

That combination is normal and it is honest. Home needleworkers bought lace by the yard and built their own pieces around it; nobody hand-made lace at home once it could be had cheaply. It also means the lace cannot date the bag — machine lace has been produced since the 1830s.

This kind of bag was made for two occasions above all: as an evening or summer accessory, and as a bridal or bridesmaid’s bag — ivory cotton, small, made to hold almost nothing and be carried for one day.

The bag carries no label, maker’s mark or date of any kind, and no date is claimed for it. It is offered as what it can be shown to be: a hand-crocheted cotton reticule with machine-lace inserts.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

Somebody made this by hand, one stitch at a time, and it has survived without a mark on it.

That is most of the appeal. Machine-made anything is everywhere; a small object worked entirely by hand in fine cotton is not, and it shows in the ruffled collar and the two dense crocheted cords, which are far more work than the bag strictly needed.

It is a genuinely good bridal object. Ivory, small, soft, designed to hold a lipstick and a folded note — a bride carrying this instead of a new white clutch has something nobody else has, and it photographs beautifully because the light comes through the lace.

Outside a wedding it is a summer evening bag, and it goes with linen and cotton in a way leather never does.

It is also, plainly, a lovely thing to keep and not carry. Hung on a wardrobe knob, a bedpost or a hook, or laid open on a dressing table holding rings and hairpins, it works as a textile object rather than an accessory — and there it needs no occasion at all.

And it makes a considered gift for anyone who crochets. The shell-and-picot base and the worked cords are the parts a maker looks at first.

A note on care. Do not machine wash it. Fine cotton crochet loses its shape in a drum and a snagged thread in openwork runs. If it needs freshening, hand wash in cool water with a gentle detergent, rinse thoroughly, and dry it flat, easing it back into shape while damp — never hung, which stretches the crochet permanently.

Do not bleach it. Ivory cotton goes grey rather than white under bleach, and the lace inserts and the crochet will not react the same way, so you would end up with two tones.

Store it flat or loosely stuffed with acid-free tissue rather than folded, and keep it out of direct sun, which yellows undyed cotton.

If you catch a thread, do not pull it. Ease it back through with a blunt needle.