Any time I find myself anywhere near Lacis Museum of Lace and Textile I always stop at this fascinating place.
Located at 3163 Adeline St., Berkeley, CA it is conveniently right across the street from the Ashby BART station. That means it is an easy trip over from San Francisco.
When you first enter it is a little overwhelming because of the sheer volume of items in the very large storefront. Lacis really does celebrate many techniques that are not very common in our modern times, noticeably corsets, tatting, lace making, millinery, and more.
Supplies, books, examples, vintage pieces are literally everywhere; floor to ceiling.
Many, many, many of Lacis items are hard to find, one-of-a-kind specialty notions or materials.
There is an online shop www.lacis.com/ but, a computer screen cannot begin to compare to the sensory overload of walking thru the multiple rooms discovering interesting, unique items.
These random pictures I took inside Lacis really are better than 1,000 words.
And I did not come close to photographing everything.
Lacis has almost everything I can think of except everyday fabric.
It is a place to let your imagination run wild and rejoice that the skills and knowledge of our great, great grandmothers was not lost with them.
I tried hard to resist any purchases because projects are piling up but, the apple green semi-sheer sari fabric was irresistable. And a book is just a good investment and this one is by a favorite sewing guru' Claire Shaeffer. And I realized I did not own a red beret! Problem solved :)
However you get there, Lacis is worth the trip.
