Tatman's Chatline

Sorry for the fuzzy part of the scan on its nose. The bead is big and raises the lid of the scanner. But you can see that I finally got the outline all around the weiner dog done! I am disappointed that the ear doesn’t show up. I will have to take the advice of a friend and redo that part or redo it entirely with a tan and dark brown thread so the outline of the ear will show. Much like how I drafted it out in the beginning. Now for his tummy with some tatting!

It is getting really down to the wire with 11 more practice nights for the kids and we aren’t close to getting these Les Mis costumes done. UGH! I guess they get what they get when we get them done. We end up sewing costumes up until their first dress rehearsal. This year will be no exception. I am done with military jackets and guard jackets. Now I can get into the creative part of poor shredded outfits and the garish outfits of the Thenardier’s. THAT will be challenging even more YET still fun!

I was so excited to get this find this past weekend while browsing through a flea market. We do our usual perusing through baskets full of lace at our usual haunts hoping to stock our lace supply for several projects we work on. Occasionally we run across some really nice samples and I use them for my display and keep them safe. This is just the case.

Click on image for a very large closeup view of the lace

I believe this is a Bedfordshire style lace(correction: La Guipure du Puy) with leaf tallies over half stitch ground. The length of this edging is 54 inches. Really like this pattern!

I believe this is a Torchon style lace(correction: La Guipure du Puy). The length of this edging is 42 inches.

Here is my assessment of the lace we found. I believe they are handmade because of the way the tallies are treated and there are loose ends. I do see some visible mistakes. The two ends of the laces are hand stitched over on itself, which makes me believe they were attached to some article and later removed. There are some offwhite course threads in the footside to justify this.
It is very fragile. There were some loose threads in spots like the lacemaker forgot to trim or thread the ends in. So I tested one of those loose ends. It feels like a silk thread. It is 65 wraps per inch(25 wraps per cm). It easily breaks and when you roll the thread between the fingers it disintegrates into dust. Not good! So I have to take extra care when handling. The thread seems really dry to the touch. Best solution to help strengthen the lace??? Throw in the freezer???

Correct me if I am wrong on any parts of this review. I would like your opinions. I hope the pictures are large enough(hopefully not too large to download!)

If you happen to recognize the patterns of these edgings that would be great! I do like the patterns a lot that I am considering drafting it out into a pricking. I have done this before. I use Adobe Illustrator and true up the angles so there aren’t any inconsistences. If I do draft the patterns I would gladly share them. Of course if you happen to find the author of the patterns then that saves me the trouble

UPDATE: After many emails and correspondence with my lacemaking friends who are knowledgeable about types of laces, we have concluded that BOTH of these lace pieces are La Guipure du Puy. THANKS!

It has been a long time since I have written or updated on the dachshund pattern I have neglected. Been so busy with the musical costumes. I found a nice size bead for the eye so I could progress with the nose and up the forehead and on to the ear. This is how it looks so far

I used a technique that I don’t use too often but found it necessary in order to get the bead in the right place for the eye. I used the downward facing picot and loaded a bead onto it. I compiled instructions and put them on my website. Here is a link for the downard facing picot and here is the link for the bead on a downward facing picot