Ipswich lace, or bobbin lace, or bone lace is made on bolster pillows held on the laps of the women. The pillows are round or elliptical and most resemble the muffs that Victorian women later carried to keep their hands warm while riding in their carriages. In old Ipswich, the pillows were pieced together from old bits of fabric, then stuffed with beach grass. Like the muffs they resemble, the lace pillows were gathered and tied on each end. Traditionally, each pillow also had a pocket, and the women of Ipswich used the pockets to hold their treasures.

The women created their own patterns made of thick parchment. Pins were pressed into the parchment, creating a pricking pattern that could be used over and over. For the lace-making, the pins stayed in, holding the patterns to the pillow, and the lace was woven pin to pin. If there was any limiting factor to the production of more intricate laces, it was the expense and scarcity of pins.

What distinguishes Ipswich lace from all other hand-made laces are the bobbins. The colonial women could not afford the heavier decorative bobbins used by European women. Like everyone else in the Colonies, the lace-makers had to make do with what was at hand. And so the bobbins they wound the thread upon were lighter, sometimes hollow, fabricated from beach reeds or occasionally bamboo that came in on the Salem ships as packing material, or even from bones. At its peak, there were six hundred women making and selling Ipswich lace, which was shipped out of the town harbor to ports all around the world.

In 1820, the first machines for making lace were brought to Boston, and, for a few years, the two lace industries thrived together. By 1825, it was all over. The tide of industry had turned, just as the sands of the Ipswich River had drifted in and closed the mouth of the harbor, leaving the shipping trade to towns like Salem and Boston. Ipswich turned back to its agrarian beginnings, and the women of Ipswich to being the wives of farmers, and lace-making became simply a pastime to be handed down to daughters—like sewing and bread-baking (though less important than either).