Bobbinet or genuine tulle is a specific type of tulle netting

Tulle netting

Tulle is a lightweight, very fine netting, which is often starched. It can be made of various fibres, including silk, nylon, and rayon. Tulle is most commonly used for veils, gowns , and ballet tutus. Tulle comes in a wide array of colors and it can also easily be dyed to suit the needs of the...

 which has been made in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 since the invention of the bobbinet machine in 1806 by John Heathcoat

John Heathcoat

John Heathcoat was an English inventor.Heathcoat was born at Duffield near Derby. During his apprenticeship to a frame-smith near Loughborough, he made an improvement in the construction of the warp-loom, so as to produce mitts of a lace-like appearance by means of it...

. John Heathcoat coined the term "bobbin net", or bobbinet as it is spelled today, to distinguish his machine-made tulle from the hand-made "pillow lace", called so because of the pillow used to produce it. Machines based on his original designs are still in operation today producing fabrics in Perry Street, Chard, Somerset

Chard, Somerset

Chard is a town and civil parish in the Somerset county of England. It lies on the A30 road near the Devon border, south west of Yeovil. The parish has a population of approximately 12,000 and, at an elevation of , it is the southernmost and highest town in Somerset...

, UK.

History

The forerunner of bobbinet tulle was lace

Lace

Lace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was...

. Lace has been produced for a long time, made in tedious hand labour with thin thread and needles or bobbins. The first lace was basically made by intertwining and knotting the thread artfully. It was not until 1500, however, that more elaborate lace could be produced. Generally speaking, lace is based on a net ground. Demands rose quickly and so net-like ground for lace was being produced in special manufactures around 1700. By the end of the 18th century, people tried to produce the net ground mechanically. In 1765 they managed to create a tulle-like fabric on a so-called stocking framework. It took, however, some more years until the first real tulle could be produced mechanically. Bobbinet machines were finally invented in 1807 by John Heathcoat. He studied the hand movements of manual lace makers and reproduced them in the roller-locker machine. The smooth, unpatterned tulle produced on these machines was on a par with real, hand-made lace net. Heathcoat’s bobbinet machine is so ingeniously designed that the ones used today have suffered little alteration.

Fabric structure

Bobbinet tulle is constructed by warp

Warp (weaving)

In weaving cloth, the warp is the set of lengthwise yarns that are held in tension on a frame or loom. The yarn that is inserted over-and-under the warp threads is called the weft, woof, or filler. Each individual warp thread in a fabric is called a warp end or end. Warp means "that which is thrown...

 and weft

Weft

In weaving, weft or woof is the yarn which is drawn through the warp yarns to create cloth. In North America, it is sometimes referred to as the "fill" or the "filling yarn"....

 yarn

Yarn

Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or...

s in which the weft yarn is looped diagonal

Diagonal

A diagonal is a line joining two nonconsecutive vertices of a polygon or polyhedron. Informally, any sloping line is called diagonal. The word "diagonal" derives from the Greek διαγώνιος , from dia- and gonia ; it was used by both Strabo and Euclid to refer to a line connecting two vertices of a...

ly around the vertical warp yarn to form a hexagonal mesh which is regular and clearly defined.
Bobbinet netting has a characteristic diagonal fabric appearance, is diagonally stable and slideproof, durable, sheer

Sheer

Sheer may refer to:*Sheer fabric, a semi-transparent and flimsy fabric*Sheer , a measure of longitudinal deck curvature in naval architecture*Sheer curation, a lightweight approach to digital curation*Sheer Islands, Nunavut, Canada...

, the lightest bobbinet weighing no more than 6 g per m² and has a high strength to weight ratio.

Uses

Bobbinet tulle fabrics have long been used for high-quality exclusive curtains, bridalwear

Wedding dress

A wedding dress or wedding gown is the clothing worn by a bride during a wedding ceremony. Color, style and ceremonial importance of the gown can depend on the religion and culture of the wedding participants.- Western culture :...

, haute couture

Haute couture

Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...

 fashion, lingerie

Lingerie

Lingerie are fashionable and possibly alluring undergarments.Lingerie usually incorporates one or more flexible, stretchy materials like Lycra, nylon , polyester, satin, lace, silk and sheer fabric which are not typically used in more functional, basic cotton undergarments.The term in the French...

, embroidery

Embroidery

Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....

, where it is used as base cloth for the actual embroidery, and as base nets for high-quality wigs.
Use has also extended into technical applications where the material's properties are more important than its appearance. These technical applications include sunblinds for cars and railway coaches, safety nets, parachute

Parachute

A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...

 skirting, radar

Radar

Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

 reflective fabrics for military decoys, flexible textile switches and sensor, as well as light diffusion fabrics for the film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 and theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

industries. Depending on the yarns bobbinet tulle is produced with, it can, for example, be made to be almost invisible against the skin or even conductive.