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

Many Problems!

Even before I've completed all the medallions, I decided to start testing the other rows to make sense of the pattern and see how everything fits together.  The piece you're seeing therefore is messy as it's all just testing:  there's knots and loose threads and different elements that I've tried out so it looks disorganised at the moment.  But once I've figured out what I'm doing, I will cut it all out and start again.

Yes, there are many problems with this pattern!  As can often be the case with vintage patterns, I just cannot make things fit as per the way the pattern is written.  If I try to follow just as is indicated, elements end up all crammed in in places but mostly, the collar just won't curve as it should.  If I make the neck edge as written, the curve is practically non existent, you'd end up with an edging rather than a collar.

I don't really know what's so different as I feel that my medallions look pretty much like the ones in the photo in the book... so why can't I get everything else to fit around them?

I'm determined to make this work though, even if it will mean adjusting the pattern so that I end up with the right shape and with all elements fitting well with each other.

The finished collar will therefore not be exactly like the one in the book - I feel the changes will be mostly around the neckline - but it will still look close to the original.

Examining it again, I think that my medallions are perhaps tighter/smaller than the ones in the book which would affect all the elements around... but still I don't see that it should cause that many problems.

I'll keep at it!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Minimal Progress

A while ago I showed you the start of a collar (more info on it in this blogpost).  I was making it in size 20 thread but the book calls for size 10 and I eventually decided to start again with the right size thread after all.  I don't often choose to work with the thicker thread as I find the movements don't flow quite as well for me as with finer thread.

As you can see I'd not got very far anyway so it wasn't too much of a heartbreak to start again and you can see how considerably larger the motifs are in size 10 compared to the size 20 ones.

I'm excited about this collar and continue to be frustrated that I can still only do a bit of tatting at a time (tendonitis how I dislike thee!) but like the tortoise, I'll get there eventually.  

I'm wondering about making some YouTube videos about this collar since I'll be working on it for a while, what do you think?

I'm adding the photo of the collar again so you can see what I'm working towards if you'd not seen it before.  It's from Priscilla Tatting No. 2 Book which can be found online here.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Lace Collar

I can hardly believe it's back in 2013 that I made this doily.  It is meant to have a fabric centre but I never got around to adding one... which turns out to be a good thing actually!  Here's why...

Someone recently contacted me asking if I had any idea of how one could replicate Ruth Bader Ginsberg's white pearl collar in tatting (I'm not being political in any way here, just talking about her collars). :-) Funnily enough I actually used to make those collars with seed beads when I was a teenager, I have a blue one and a cream pearl one somewhere in a box in the attic.  So I've made that collar with beads, but how to make one with tatting?  Straight away I thought of what I called the "Victorian Trellis Doily".  It has that same criss-cross effect and I thought the whole thing might look great as a collar... and I think it does!

You could make it narrower or wider depending on how many rounds of this pattern you decide to use.  And it is indeed wide enough to go over my head easily.  I went back to look at one of my videos where I am working this pattern and even back in 2013, in the description box I mention that I thought this would make a nice collar. 

But it's only now that I've finally put it over my head to try it!

What do you think?

All this caused me to re-visit this pattern for which I had written out the first round in this blogpost.  There were mistakes which I have now corrected (I hope it's all good now!) and I also tried to improve the wording and description.  The first round has an unusual construction and the way it is described in the original pattern is rather hard to understand in my opinion.  You can find the original pattern on pages 15-17 of this online version of the vintage publication (now out of copyright).  There's always been interest in this pattern and I would like to make it more easily available for people to tat.

I've had several requests to make a video about this design... so finally I got around to it!  I just uploaded a video of the first round and will carry on making videos to describe the other rounds too.

I hope some of you will be interested in making it.

Best wishes,

Frivole