Vintage Galoon Pillow Case

I decided to go ahead and use my vintage galoon straight away (my auto-correct tells me I should spell galoon with two lls as in "galloons" but it is definitely spelled with just one l in the Th. de Dillmont book!) and decorate a pillowcase.

It makes for a simple and discreet decoration on a plain pillowcase but it was nice to put my lace on something that will get used in our daily lives.  

I first unpicked the sides of my pillowcase just enough to fit the width of my lace,

I then marked two lines for where I wanted to sew the lace

and sewed with a stitch length so that the needle fell into the picots.

I then cut straight down the middle and turned under the small edge on both side

and sewed it down.  That's it!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Clamshell Bag

I recently visited a friend who is really enjoying making bags at the moment.  She inspired me and I decided to make this clamshell bag by SewCanShe.  The fabric needed to be quilted before being made into a bag and I must admit I spent a crazy amount of time following the printed shapes on the fabric to quilt it rather than going for straight lines across!

My corners are also less rounded than in the pattern as I'm away from home at the moment and couldn't print the guide so I just winged it with a lid to trace the corners so I guess my bag is a bit less of a "clamshell" than the original pattern.

Taking my time and sewing around all those shells in the fabric

in the sunshiny garden.

I made some piping with the lining fabric

and then sewed it around the zipper piece.

(Sorry evening photo, not so good lighting)

The quilted and piped zipper piece (made of 6 parts)

and the quilted main body piece of the bag ready to put together.

I realised, after cutting my main piece, that I meant to have the shells facing the other way!

Ah well, too late.

They will now go sideways on the front and back of the bag.

TADA!  The finished bag which will be used to store all my sewing bits.

A fun and satisfying project.

P.S.:  I added a permanent link to the Antique Pattern Library's Tatting Patterns Section as I feel it's such a good resource and I wanted to make sure it's easily available to everyone (and to me!).  The link is in the right side bar.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Vintage Bunny Edging - Happy Easter!

Many years ago I tatted a bunny edging but sadly the link to the pattern doesn't work anymore.  As it's Easter, I looked to see if I could find another bunny edging to share.  This vintage one dates back to 1928 and is by Bessie Barker.  The information was on the BellaOnline website (article by Georgia Seitz) but the images don't come up anymore.

I found those two images but the links to follow to get to their original pages do not function.  I think they were both linking back to the BellaOnline site.

Update (21.04.25):  I was kindly contacted by Tamie of the OnlineTattingClass and she was able to restore the information onto a page of their website and give me a link for you to access.  Thank you Tamie!

Working from the diagram, I tatted the edging and it looks pretty but the elements are not joined which makes it a bit floppy as you can see in the left of the image below, if I don't "arrange" the edging.  So I started attaching the arms of the rabbits to the "cabbages" (right side of edging in photo below).

Oh, and I just realised I misread the pattern and made three picots in the bottom chains instead of just two!  But as can often be the case, tension in samples of old patterns is often not the same as mine (it tends to be looser) so the chains would have been too short with just two picots.  You can see also that the chain that makes the bunny is looser in the original too so that the space between the "tail" in the centre and the body is much bigger than in my version.  Perhaps I should make another sample and add a few stitches to my bunny body?

So there it is, a rather cute bunny edging for Easter.

Happy Easter everyone!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Vintage Galoon

I was recently looking at my copy of Thérèse de Dillmont's book "Frivolité" and decided to tackle one of the narrow insertions called "galoon" in my English copy.  I like the scallops which are made by only partially closing a small ring.  It's not an element that is used very often in modern tatting.  I was on the ferry for a few hours and this kept me busy.  I made a video of it which you can view here.

A close-up of the scallops

I'm thinking of decorating a pillow case with this white galoon.

Next I might have a go at the tatted insertions that are attached to a crochet edge.  Actually, I looked at it up close and I'm not convinced it's crochet... what do you think?  It might look like a purchased edge specially made to attach lace to?  But I'll try it with crochet and see how it works out.  

Do any of you actually use their tatting to decorate linen?  Clothing?  I love lace but find that (apart from tatted earrings which I wear often) I don't use my lace as much as I would like to.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Just in Time...

 ... for a new blogpost before January ends!  So that I can extend my good wishes to you all for a great New Year 2025!  January disappeared so quickly, I don't know where it went.

One thing I've often said I like about tatting is its portability.  I had to spend time on trains this week and tatting is so easy to take with you.  I thought I'd start work on a very simple one-shuttle edging for a handkerchief for my mother-in-law.  It's a while since I made her a new hanky and her birthday is coming up soon.  She loves purple.

Also for her, she told me recently that she would like a red necklace.

So I made her this one, with a pearl coin.

It's my Cameo pattern.

I'd not made this for some time so it was nice to revisit the pattern.

I found a few little updates to make so

I shall be uploading an updated version to Etsy very soon.

Bright red is often surprisingly difficult to photograph!

I hope everyone has had a good start to the new year!

Best wishes,

Frivole