Thursday, September 20, 2018

Repurposed Tatted Lace Partlet

One of the projects I have on the go at the moment is a bit of an experiment. I found a fabulous but tatty vintage lace runner at a thrift shop and snapped it up. It has a diamond pattern with little roses and I think it is tatted (which is out of period) but passes for neeedle lace.

The piece had a few rust stains, but with some careful laundering I managed to brighten it up. I cut the piece to use the two parts as the front panels of a collarless partlet. I managed to use the pretty edging on the central parts and avoid most of the remaining rust marks.

I made the back part of the parlet up in linen and hand hemmed it with a small hem. I pinned the tatted panels in place. I will trim the excess tatting on the outer edge (which will be hidden by my gown) and trim with binding. I have a couple of colour options waiting to be tested for the binding as matching the colour is difficult.

I have been pretty busy with projects for other people lately, so this one is sitting in the to-do pile, but I am looking forward to getting it finished as I really love the tatted piece and it makes me happy to think that some other ladies' hand work is getting a new lease on life and will be admired rather than languishing in a bin of ugly doilies.





4 comments:

  1. nice. but looks like crochet to me...

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  2. Yes, the lace is crochet - tatting is made up of knots, which this piece is entirely lacking. It looks to be a simplified version of the Irish Crochet style. Several different crochet styles were developed in imitation of needle lace; reticella also comes to mind.

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  3. Another vote for crochet, which means the piece is more prone to unraveling, so make sure your cut edges are well-finished! But the pattern resembles filet net lace, which is older than crochet (according to nordicneedle.org) with printed patterns from the 16th century; tatting or "knotting" might actually be just as old, but most existing samples and patterns have a more Victorian-to-modern vibe.
    Kudos on finding and up-cycling the lace, I can't wait to see the finished partlet!

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  4. Thanks for the valuable feedback everyone, I concur. Closer inspection reveals a lack of knots.

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