Cotton tulle / bobbinet

Yayyy! Finally! Finally I've found a place where it's possibly to buy cotton bobbinet tulle, the same small-holed type that I always admire on vintage baby hats, luxurious edwardian summer dresses and embroidered collars. I've been looking for it for ages. 

 

Just look at the fantastic structure! Pretty little hexagons.

I did find some cotton tulle at Paris, Marche Saint-Pierre fabric store, but that was large-hole type. Even they did not have small-holed tulle in cotton. There was some doll supplies web shop in Australia, that had cotton bobbinet, but was just too absurd to buy British fabric there. It's is still made in England with the same type of looms that mr. Heathcoat invented in 19th century (they later evolved into complex lace machines).

So, here is the link to the place that has cotton bobbinet: Whaleys Bradford. Just put "bobbinet" in the fabric search. It costs 22 pounds / metre or a little less if you order more than 3 metres. Then add shipping and VAT, and it becomes something around 30 euros for metre, which is of course 10 times the price of common polyester tulle. But so what, the fabric is more than 10 times more awesome than boring plastic netting. (OK, I admit that polyester tulle has good points too even forgetting about price, it's just the right fabric for poofy petticoats.)

I am happy with the whole experience. They sent a sample for free, answered my question quickly and the package arrived in five days (which is nice, considering my chosen shipping option - the cheapest - was told to take as long as 21 days).

If you wonder what I'm going to do with 3 metres of bobbinet, I'm planning to try some machine embroidery, and then create a light, nostalgic summer dress in a similar mood to this beauty:

 Cotton bobbinet looks wonderful with white embroidery and valenciennes lace, like so much seen in 1890-1910 tea dresses. Another example:

Lyhesti suomeksi: löysi vihdoin tehtaan nettisivun, josta voi tilata pienireikäistä puuvillatylliä (bobbinet). Maksaa kyllä päälle 30 euroa metri kun kaikki kulut lasketaan mukaan, mutta on sen arvoistakin! Ihana tekstiili!