Footsides and Headsides
Traditionally, bobbin lace has a wavy edge, called a headside, and a straight, firm edge, called a footside, used to sew the lace to something. In England, the footside is worked on the right, and in Europe, on the leftt, but do what you want! You can have both sides as footsides (this is called an insertion), or both sides as headsides (this makes attractive bookmarks).
Footsides - These stitches are described in more details at http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/lace/footside.htm
Footsides have one or more passive pairs of threads which run parallel but inside the edge (the grey threads on the left). These strengthen the edge. To start, there is a pair at the edge (red), and a pair inside the passives (blue). Work the inside pair across the passives and then across the edge pair. Put the pin in inside both pairs of threads (but outside the passives). Then work the old edge pair back across the passives. This swaps over these two pairs of threads. You will need the tighten the threads carefully at this point, as the threads change direction, so it is easy to leave a small loop by mistake at the edge, where it shows!
Twisted footside: all stitches are cloth stitch and twist.
Cloth footside: use cloth stitch to work through the passives, both ways, but cloth stitch and twist at the edge stitch.
Winkie pin: No edge pair to start with. Work the inside pair through the passives, round a pin, and back through the passives.
Headsides - These stitches are described in more details at http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/lace/headside.htm
Fan headside: like a cloth diamond, except you take up and lose threads only from the right. The left edge, which is the edge of the lace itself, is given a slight wave by where the pins are positioned. Pairs are twisted one or more times at the edge. You can also get different effects by twisting all the passives half way through the fan, or by twisting the workers just before the edge passives in each row. Normally lace is all one colour, but you can make the workers a different colour to the passives, which will tend to colour the whole fan. If you make the edge passives a different colour, clever twists at the end of the fan will give different colours to alternate fans. You can also work the fan in half stitch. This can be a little floppy at the edge, so it might be as well to twist one or more times at the edge pins. Half stitch doesn’t have worker threads, but if you’re clever with the twists, you can have a single worker thread of one colour, and a different colour for the edge thread, with alternate fans of different colours.
Twisted fan: All the stitches are cloth stitch and twist. This can produce a large fan. If you make the workers one colour, and the edge passives a different colour, then you can have alternate fans different colours. You can also work the same fan in cloth stitch to give a different effect.
Plaited headsides: These are all made with plaits (or legs, or brides) made using two pairs worked constantly in half stitch. The plaits cross each other with lazy joins. The pins on the edge are round picots. There are various patterns.
Bucks Point Passives and Picots Headside: There are at least two pairs of passives (marked green in the diagram). The worker threads are worked across the passives in cloth stitch to the edge. Then they are worked in a picot round the edge pin, and are worked back across the passives to return to the lace pattern. This gives a straight headside, but the picots give a slight frilly effect.
Trail headside: This is a strip of cloth stitch at the edge of the lace. Although the strip remains the same width, the number of passives changes, becoming more or less as pairs join or leave the strip.
This are some of the most common headsides. See http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/lace/headside.htm for some more.