The would be mass killer back when the 2nd Amendment was conceived....

[haele]

68. I used to do needle, pillow, and crochet lace along with tatting for 15th to 18th cent costumes.

My Great-aunt China used to do the most exquisite crochet lace (she would crochet using button twist and make tiny multi-colored flower bouquets for collar appliques the size of a thumb-nail in a 1/2 hour!), and she was equally proficient on quilting, hoop embroidery and figure/cut-out work - she would help her friend and work part-time at the studios on some of the big-budget costume dramas during the '40's and '50's.
She babysat us until I was 9 and we moved to Seattle - and taught me hand stitching and lace-making - mostly Victorian and pre-WWII work. Didn't really matter, hand techniques hadn't changed that much over the centuries.
Found a couple museum and stage costume pattern books, and since I had a lot of time on my hands when not on duty, I was very popular amongst a wide range of reenactors when stationed in SoCal. While I started off with the SCA and RenFaire crowd, I was quickly asked to participate in all sorts of other groups once they saw what I was doing.

18th century Tassels and Frogs require a lot of knot-expertise and you really need to build your own silk skein cord to properly create the braids, knots and tassels. Were you able to get an old-timer to twist the skeins into cords properly for you?
Sounds like you had fun. I always enjoyed trying to reproduce the work by hand.
It's hard not to snicker when someone uses mauve dye and claims it's a period color...

Haele