Through the years, I've experimented with the potential of this crochet technique, so I thought I'd show you some of my research. I'm not going to burn through space with a tutorial on crocheting the hairpin lace, because there are some good videos on the internet showing this. One is here, another here, and yet another here.

The photo here is one of my binders of lab notes, where I record experiments.

Once I discovered the potential of making a nice trim from the hairpin lace, I had a machine shop make me large looms--I have several, 30" long, and different widths, from 6" all the way to 10". This way I can work very wide ribbon.

Here's my very first hairpin lace loom from all those years ago. The width, measuring outside to outside is 3 3/4" wide, and it's 15 inches long. I've worked a length of the crochet on it, using 7/8" wide grosgrain ribbon.  

To figure yardage for this kind of trim, you'll want to test your ribbon and loom, but you can estimate that the ribbon will be eight times the finished trim length. So, for one yard of trim you need eight yards of ribbon to make it.

After working, remove from the loom.

Now the fun begins!

You can do different things to this row of trim. The first idea, is to chain the loops together, like you would when casting off during knitting. Use the crochet hook to pull the next loop through the previous loop.

Here's a detail shot of that.

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You can choose to chain only one side, or both. Chaining both sides gives the look shown here. You can chain them both in the same direction, or opposite directions--it's up to you.

Or, you can cut the loops instead of chaining them. There are two ways to cut--even lengths, or different lengths. This photo shows the loops cut equally--cut them on the bias to keep the edges from fraying too much.

Cutting the loops unevenly gives a different look. In this photo, you see the front of the loop is cut shorter, making the loops look like bows.

You can choose to cut one edge, and chain the opposite edge, as shown here.

Here's a detail shot of that.

Or, you can choose to cut both edges, which makes a different look.

Here's a detail shot of the uneven cutting.