Tatman's Chatline

I just uploaded some pictures from our production of “South Pacific” that the HS put on and that we made costumes for. We didn’t just do costumes. We did hair and make up and found props and painted the background. Basically catch all of everything besides directing the play :-\

Cast picture on the set	Me adding hot rollers on actress for a 1940s hairstyle
Kim and I working on 1940s hairstyles	Nurse and their outfits we put together. The hats are the only thing we made. Skirts were borrowed and altered and the blouses we bought at thrift shops.
Islanders and their outfits. We bought Hawaiian style dresses and altered them into these sarong-style dresses.	These outrageous concoctions we made from scratch! Nurses needed costumes for the Thanksgiving Pageant part of the play.
Change of pace…….I am not TATTING a design on his belly! I am tattOOing with a magic marker. HAHA We had a student that does Hena tattooes, but the result just didn’t show up on stage. So I embellished it with a black magic marker. Don’t worry…didn’t stay on him too permanently because I told him to apply moisturizer on the area so that the marker would wash off easily. I had to apply the design every night of the musical.

More pictures to come when I get them developed…………

A cute little acorn motif to add to the fallish leaves that will be interspersed in the lace on the wedding dress. It measures 2.5cm(about one inch) tall. Feels strange to tat Fall motifs when Spring is just about here. I should be tatting flowers and Easter stuff!!!

Finished this leaf and I like it better than the previous one. Has a more flowing shape and the joinings make more sense. I added a free form needle lace technique to the underside effect of the leaf.

This week is the run throughs and dress rehearsals for the HS play we made costumes for. Of course it has been hectic but fun. We seem to be finishing the costumes and props in a timely and earlier fashion. I am even finishing the back drop painting of Bali H’ai this evening instead of trying to finish it the night before performance and staying up until 3am. So things seem to be going smoothly and in order. Hope their practices and performances do as well. They perform this Thurs, Friday and Sat. Then it is strike down the set and another hectic week of reorganizing. It will soon be over and our lives will be back to the normal hectic schedule

Finished this curled leaf tatted in pearl tatting chain with rings off both sides. I was looking to create a wavy and curled up look with part of the bottom side of the leaf curled up as well. I wanted to make this in one round without breaking thread, so I had to make the stem as a split chain. Instead of just carrying over one of the shuttle threads a distance and SCing back to the base, I made a loop with the thicker core thread and anchored it at the base of the ring of the stem and SC back over it. Then I continued on making the underside of the leaf. Here is where I introduced a different feature. Instead of filling in the area with thrown off rings between the two pearl tatted chains, I used the filler stitch but in a different way. I used a needlelace technique to create a more closed in texture with what appears to be more stitches than just two long picots joined at the tips.

Here is how I did it:

Before making a PLJ(picot lock join)with the bottom shuttle to the adjacent picot, make a slip stitch/knot with the single thread of the shuttle by inserting the hook under the previous picot. Pull up a loop, pass the shuttle through and tighten.(Fig 1) Then make the PLJ to the adjacent picot of the pearl tatted chain above. Finish the other side of the picot and continue with another set for the pearl tatted chain. Fig 2 shows how it looks with consecutive rows joined. Below is an illustration of what I mean. Click on image for larger view.

I am not satisfied with the shape of the leaf. The tip needs to be more pointed and the top part more rounded. Looks like a redo in the design. But I will still use this in the lace!!!!!