miniature sofa

Thread is DMC size 80 ecrù.

Those pillows are my second attempt, the first ones were too big for the sofa and I had to start again, measuring the fabric and browsing the internet in search of any help. I found an inspiring site with many tutorials for little furniture, I'd like you have a look, for example at this: http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/2017/11/1-inch-scale-embroidered-table-topper.html

The first pillow version is on the right in that picture.

The "big" ones would be lovely scissors fobs, they will be given away. I only need a cord for the fob, there is a knotted cord here in fig. 835 of the Encyclopedia of needlework by Th.de Dillmont: http://encyclopediaofneedlework.com/chapter_15.html

The pattern in the left is an adaptation of Mrs Odum daisy. Textual directions are in the same style as they are for the original pattern that I found here: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art61288.asp

With two shuttles begin with a round centre ring.
1. R 1 - (1 -) x 6, 1 close ring, mock picot climb into next round
2. CH 4 + (join to next picot) vsp CH 4. Repeat 7 times. ((((I used lock joins))))
Lock join thread to first picot and make vsp.
3. CH 5 + (join to that vsp on the previous row) and repeat around. 
4. CH 6 + (join to that vsp on the previous row) and repeat around.
5. CH 7 + (join to that vsp on the previous row) and repeat around. ((((I put in the last chain the magic loop thread for hiding the end tail))))

6. *make a vsp. CH 7, position chain on top of motif and join it to the first picot on the round centre ring, going across the picot. ((((I only tat a second half stitch after the join))))
CH 7, position chain on top of motif and bring back to the starting point.
((((I used an ANKARS over join in this point, joining the vsp)))) 
Continue to the same direction.
7. CH 4 - 4 as part of the outer round and lock join to the next picot on the outer round. 
8. Repeat from * around for a total of 8 petals positioned on top the flower motif.
(((( I finished with the method by Frivolè for Hiding Ends in the Last Chain and hid the second tail with the magic loop left in previous round ))))

✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧

In the next pic, I used HWT (a cotton without a label and a sewing silk thread) to have a size 20 thread for tatting again the pink square by Cathy de Greef ( Tat a Brussels’ monument in pink ). I've tatted five till now. For the first two squares, I started with a ring, then I tried to go down or up with a chain. I was looking for a simple way to teach beginners how to tat it, in fact I hope to involve my friends - the bobbin lacers of our local lace association. In her video, shared in the site, Cathy started with a chain and now I think I've understood the reason. I think that starting with a chain is clever, as you don't have to worry about how to join the last chain in a narrow curve, that's easier for beginners. But I found that starting from the second chain (labelled 3 in red in her picture with the pattern) it is even easier, that is you join in the normal way the second last chain and then you have the last chain where to finish and hide tails... I hope I was clear. Just my two cents among the many possibilities we can choose for tatting that little square.

Ciao,
Ninetta

Related post

dollhouse miniature doily

miniature bed

medallions

I'd rather say myself be inattentive, since I've had the book for about one year and didn't noticed the medallion in figure 66, Plate VII, from the book "Tatting: Technique and History by Elgiva Nicholls". I found this link, I hope you can open it (scroll pages down a little):
https://books.google.it/....

But in the last OTC, Sue mentioned that book and -as always- she has that great talent to push me to look at old things with new eyes. I played with it, at first I replicated the medallion, then combined it with another pattern, that is the triangle in fig.23 from Tatting by Thérèse de Dillmont, available at  www.georgiaseitz.com/public/dmclibtat.pdf - (I'm glad that I wrote this link in a previous post, as I've been getting mad to find it again!). That triangle is the base for a lovely bookmark, tatted by Robin, showed in her blog here: http://tattingbythebay.blogspot.com/2017/02/pattern-for-dillmont-inspired-bookmark.html

So, that's how I came to this pair of earrings:

Talking about medallions, I've been busy sewing booties with a pattern a friend gave me, from an old italian printed magazine, but it looked naked so I'm going to add the wheels left over from previous project. It's not yet finished and sorry that the photo is not the best, white on white doesn't show at all.

Ciao,
Ninetta

Related post (the wheel)

spare wheels

by Thérèse again

Pattern is from Tatting by Thérèse de Dillmont, available at  www.georgiaseitz.com/public/dmclibtat.pdf - Plate III, fig.21

First row: 4 detached rings, each one is 4-4-4.  (I climbed to next row with a split ring)

Second row: starting at one picot of first row, (*)tat a chain 3-2; floating ring 4-2-2-2-4; chain 2-3; lock join to next picot of first row, then repeat all around from (*). (I climbed to next row with a split chain and a split ring that was in place of a floating ring)
Third row: starting at first picot of one floating ring, (**)chain 4ds; lock join to next - second - picot; chain 2ds; first ring 6ds; chain 2ds; second ring 6ds; chain 2ds; third ring 6ds; chain 2ds; lock join to next - third - picot; chain 4ds; lock join to next - fourth - picot; then chain 2ds and lock join at first picot of the next floating ring. Repeat all around from (**).


Instead of "lock join" the text is "join the right hand thread", but I think that is exactly the same, isn't it?
About picots' length, I tatted picots a bit wider than in previous motif (fig. 17) and I think they worked better. The gauge has been put horizontally at the second cut.

I must give myself a bad grade in reading the measurement, I clearly got it wrong in last post (tiny hook), in fact if you had looked carefully at the picture, the gauge was at 5/8", instead I wrote 1/2". That's really a shame! I corrected my mistake, sorry sorry!

That's why I don't often use the graduated gauge, I got mixed up with cuts! I prefer cutting a piece of plastic or card for the measure I need.

I finished the superduo red set and there's only one end to hide, then it's ready for next holidays!

I noticed that I didn't write the pattern that I used to tat my flowers, so here it is:

Thread is the "plasticky" dmc Diamant 100% polyester, D5200, very similar to a size 50 thread. Superduo beads are 2.5x5mm.

Start loading 8 superduo in the loop for the ring, then start with 1ds and tat a ring alternating 1ds and 1 superduo in place of a picot. Finish with one superduo and tat only the first half of a ds and close the ring.
Climb to next row with 4 first half of ds, then tat a split ring 1--3 / 1--3, where "--" means a picot long enough to pass through the second hole of the superduo, I used horizontally the second cut in the gauge, so it is the 1/4" (if I'm not wrong again!!).
Continue all around with chains 4-4 and rings 3+2--3, passing the long picot through the second hole of previous superduo bead. Finish with one chain, cut and tie ends.
A close up, if it may be of any help:

newatha hamuvemu!
(http://www.17-minute-world-languages.com/en/sinhala/)
Ninetta

Related posts:

sweet therese 

T. De Dillmont - Plate V, figure 25 

tiny hook

flowers

sweet Thérèse

From the "urban dictionary" (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=therese): "therese: a nice person, pretty cute, cool, fun to be with, very funny". Should I trust it? 😟😕

But I know one sweet Thérèse we can trust...

Pattern is from Tatting by Thérèse de Dillmont, at  www.georgiaseitz.com/public/dmclibtat.pdf - Plate III, fig.17


Tatted in one pass, thanks to split rings and split chains, it could have been a wonderful snowflake if tatted with a thicker thread. It's 4cm wide.

Ring for the center: 8 picots separated by 2ds
First row: rings 4+4 (join to center ring); chains 4-4
Second row: ring 4-4; (*)chain 3-2-3 [floating ring 1-1-1-1] 3-2-3 ; ring 4+4(join to previos ring); join thread from first shuttle to the picot in first row; ring 4-4; with second shuttle (thread from chain) ring 4ds. Repeat all around from * and join the last ring to the first.

ნახვამდის. (nakh-vahm-dees)
( http://wikitravel.org/en/Georgian_phrasebook )
Ninetta

Related post

T. De Dillmont - Plate V, figure 25

anything but pressing

No no, when I tat something for me, I don't feel under pressure! The reference to the pressure will be clear if you go on reading, as you please.

The little layered rings don't show off well with a multicoloured thread, I already had tried with different hues and my favourite are those tatted with solid colours.

But with that hanky, bought during the recent visit in Venezia, I like how this thread changes smoothly from light blue to white.

At first, I tatted following my own noted direction to have one picot in the center layered ring for each petal, but the central didn't pop up, a matter of optical illusion, I think, it melted in the center and quite disappeared. Then I tried with only one picot and now it seems more similar to the original pattern. That is Plate VI, pic.29, in
"Tatting" by Th.de Dillmont.

When in Venezia, we visited Museo Correr, in one room there was a treasure from XV century.

That is a machine for pressing handkerchiefs, that it is understandable if you were ironing with an old heated iron - and maybe not so clean because warmed up on the fire -. I have another better pic of it, but don't know if it is fair put it in the blog, because they didn't put a photo in their official site. If you like seeing it, please leave me a comment with your email.

Ciao,
Ninetta

Saying sorry

I thought I needed your forgiveness from the last post, so please accept this one, that's is more like a serious way to offer a pattern!

Ciao,
Ninetta

T. De Dillmont - Plate V, figure 25

 dillmontPlateVfig25, a photo by ninettacaruso on Flickr

Thérèse de Dillmont, during her very short life, only 44 years, wrote the wondeful and evergreen handbook "The Encyclopedia of Needlework", that now we can also enjoy online:
http://encyclopediaofneedlework.com/

The chapter about tatting is chapter X. She also wrote a DMC pubblication specifically about tatting, that can be find here: Tatting by Thérèse de Dillmont, at 

www.georgiaseitz.com/public/dmclibtat.pdf
(Thank you Georgia!!!)

In last post, inspired by the motif tatted in 2011 by Gina Brummet, I tried to tat again the motif in fig. 25, PlateV, using more modern techniques.
The "modernized" pattern takes advantage of split rings and floating (or thrown off) rings.
Floating rings are simple rings thrown off a chain or off the second half of a split ring. Jane Eborall (thanks!!!) has one of her wonderful pages here: www.janeeborall.freeservers.com/TipsTechniques.htm

That is the basic technique. I played a little with the size of the central ring, that lift up like a little bas-relief. I like a lot the final effect.

Ciao,
Ninetta

About threads, trials, errors and perfectionism

DSCN4196, a photo by ninettacaruso on Flickr.

My favourite thread is DMC size 80, you already know that. I feel comfortable with  it, I just know how much ds I need within one centimeter, how much thread is needed for a 10ds ring, just in a sight. No matter if I've started to take off glasses (myopic - I'm short-sighted, urgh!) or if I've started to dislike red and black, especially when retro-tatting.
Dmc size 80 was the thread used for the sheet in that photo, formerly posted on a facebook's page. I tatted it in 1996, if I can remember well, tatting 2-3 hours per day for three months. For a chance - as it's never happened again - it was showed in public a few years later, during an exposition of old 1950's farmer houses, put into a hand made wooden crib.

I was there a Sunday afternoon, just near my tatting work, when a couple passed right the crib and she said: "What a shame! Why they put an industrial lace in this beautiful handmade crib??" I remained speachless, couldn't say a sigh! I've so neat in my memory, till now, how much care I put in it, I couldn't have ever imagined it would have been looked as a machine made lace.

I'll go on doing my best for each single stitch, after all these years I've learned how to retro-tat instead of cutting, and the experience makes the rest, besides a little help from my favourite thread... But I'm far from a perfectionist, (maybe I should show you) I've a box where I put all trials and motifs with flaws which - who knows? - could be useful a day to come... 

Il mio filo preferito, si sa, è il dmc 80, già so come mi devo regolare sia come quantità di filo sia quanti sono i nodini da fare in un cm, basta un'occhiata. Non importa se ho già cominciato a levare gli occhiali - sono miope - per vedere meglio da vicino e se comincio a non sopportare il rosso e il nero, specie se devo scucire... Lo stesso filo lo avevo usato, forse era il 96, per fare il lenzuolino della foto, precedentemente postata su FB. L'ho fatta in 3 mesi, lavorando 2-3 ore al giorno, con molta cura. Per caso, insolitamente, me l'hanno chiesta per esporla durante una mostra di cultura contadina, in case arredate stile anni '50. Me l'hanno messa in una culletta di legno fatta a mano. Mi trovavo lì accanto una domenica, quando passa una coppia e lei dice: Che peccato! Perchè hanno messo un merletto industriale in una così bella culla?? Sono rimasta senza parole, non avrei mai immaginato che potesse sembrare fatto a macchina! Beh, cerco di fare sempre il meglio che posso, ho imparato a tornare indietro invece di tagliare, e l'esperienza fa il resto, insieme al mio filo preferito... Ma di certo non sono una perfezionista, non sapete quanti pezzettini difettati e provette mi sono conservata (forse ve le dovrei far vedere)! Potrebbero tornarmi utili un giorno, chi lo sa?

"A San Giusto mancava un dito" (detto popolare)
Ciao,
Ninetta