Layered Flower Earrings

This is a pattern I've made so many times!  Sometimes I leave the centre open and sometimes I add a flat back pearl in the middle like in these ones.  I have several pairs myself,  I make them for my shop and I like to give them as gifts.  This time it was a gift for a young lady.

Do you have go-to patterns like this that you like to make often?  Tell me about yours!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Beaded Bell Earrings

It's my daughter's birthday in a couple of days and I often make her a new pair of earrings for her birthday... sometimes tatted, sometimes beaded.  This year, it's beaded.  I found this cute design by Sonysree Creations on YouTube and here they are:

Of course once I'd made the first pair, 

I had to try them in other colour ways:

I always enjoy a bit of beading!  These earrings were a quick project and will make nice gifts.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Medallion Collar Finished! ...And Antique Pattern Library

It's done!  I'm so pleased to have finally made this collar.  I modified the first round of the neckline to avoid having to make all those separate diamond-shaped pieces between medallions (as I had discussed in a previous blogpost) and also because I couldn't make them fit right for me.  I used a SCMR with a smaller ring thrown off it to fill the gap instead and incorporated it into the first round of the neck edge which simplifies things a lot.

Now I need to find a way to wear it!  I'm thinking I'd like to make a shirt or a dress from it so that the collar is not just added on top of something but is part of the garment.  I need to give it some thought.

And as we're on the topic of vintage patterns, I wondered if any of you had seen the Antique Pattern Library website?  They have several vintage tatting publications available online.  I need to explore it more.  Here is the link should anyone be interested: Antique Pattern Library

If anyone would like to make the collar, I have a filmed a series of videos that show how to tat it from start to finish.

Best wishes,

Frivole

More Medallion Collar

After the final round of the bottom edge of the collar, I had to figure out the neck edge and firstly the two pieces added on at the ends of the collar.  I debated whether to find a way to incorporate those two pieces into the subsequent rounds rather than having to do them separately and cut and tie for each but in the end, I kept them, again because I want to respect the original as much as possible.

However, I didn't like the way it felt a bit "unfinished" to me.  So I added an extra ring and an extra chain to fill what looked like a gap on my collar.

Please ignore all the messiness around the neck edge where I've been testing different options but if you look just at the two ends:  on the left is exactly as per the pattern and on the right is my modified version where I've added an extra ring and an extra chain.  I could have maybe added two extra chains... but that's what I went with for now.  Probably if I was making this again I would do the double chain to keep more consistent with the rest of the design where all the chains are doubled on the bottom edge of the collar.  But I suppose I was trying to add the minimum possible!

Just three more rounds and the collar will be done!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Think I found it!

Yes, I think I found the way I'm going to make that final round on the bottom edge of the collar.  I wanted to stay as close as possible to the original so I kept the arrangement of three small rings in the space between the scallops but I joined them differently, especially as I had removed the small ring that would have been there from the previous round.  So we're now making three new small rings to fill the space between the scallops.

As you can see, it's definitely not the same but I hope you'll feel I'm keeping close enough to the spirit of the original.

Part of the problem I was finding, if you look at the photo below, was how to move between those two rings without having a fairly long piece of thread carried on the back.  My guess is that there is a piece of thread carried on the back and I think you can see part of it on the top side of the left little ring (where the left arrow points).  That's the thing when working with just one shuttle, you can't make a chain to take you to the next point if needed, you can only carry the thread so you want to avoid having large spaces to cross (I hope that makes sense what I'm saying).  I'd love to be able to examine the back of the original collar!

Photo of original collar from Priscilla Tatting Book No. 2

You can see on the photo below where I have tried tatting the last round as it is written: the mirrored piece is pushed under and I have put the carried thread on top so you can see where it has to travel from and to.  I couldn't see any other way to make that join between the three rings without having that long carried thread which would be on the back.

By making the three small rings on the same round (as per my modification) you only have to carry the thread a short distance between each picot.  I have to say that I do like the look of the mirrored ring and chains that were used in the original but I tried and tried and just couldn't make that part fit nicely for me.

That third round is now making the collar curve and I think it's going to look great!  

Right!  I now need to figure out how to make the neck edge of the collar. 

More testing!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Medallion Collar Continued

It's taken me quite a lot of time and testing so far and I'm still not sure I've found a solution I'm completely happy with!  That corner area between the medallions is proving tricky!  The other complication is that you're working with just one shuttle on the last round where you are making all the rings which means you can only move from one place to the next by carrying the thread over (can't make chains).  I'm looking for a solution that looks as close as possible to the original, which looks good of course, and executable with one shuttle only!

I've still decided to go with the first two rounds with a small modification and eventually cut all my testing bits so I could film the next part.  Back to just the medallions:

If you're interested in tackling this collar, you can find the videos in this playlist.

And here's where I'm at now:

A bit more testing for the next round required but hopefully I'll come to a solution soon.

Best wishes,

Frivole

In the Meantime... Victorian Trellis Collar Ta-da!

I'm continuing to work on the "Medallion Collar" - shall I call it that? - anyone with a better name for the lovely collar from the previous post?  It's just called "collar" in the book but as there are several collars in the Priscilla Tatting Book No. 2, it would be nice to have names for the different collars so we know which one we're talking about.

Which brings me to the topic of this post, as it is about another collar from the same book.  Well, it's actually not a collar but if you remember a while back I decided to tat the Victorian Trellis Doily as a collar and I've finally finished it!  It's been finished for a while in fact but for some reason I'd never got around to sewing the last ends in and taking a photo.  

But here it is...

I'm not too sure yet with what and how to wear it but here is a photo just to give an idea of what it might look like when worn as a collar.  Are lace collars too old-fashioned?  Is there a modern way to wear them nowadays?  I hope so because I really like everything about this design, the victorian sets, the shape, the combination of elements, the balance of positive and negative spaces, etc.  You could just see it as an elaborate necklace, no?  In fact it's all in the name isn't it, showing what was valued before as jewellery... "neck-lace".

Best wishes,

Frivole