Thursday, July 3, 2014

Off the Shuttle: Tatted Edging for Pillowcase


My latest edging is a vintage pattern called "Pomegranate Edging" from Anne Orr's Classic Tatting Patterns (Dover Publications, 1985, p. 24), a reprint of Orr's 1940 book Tatting, Book No. 35, Revised. The thread is Lizbeth size 20 in colorway #176 "Pink Blossoms." 

It took 59 repeats of the motif for enough length to edge a standard size pillowcase. I've been asked how I sew edgings onto pillowcases. I usually stitch them several inches from the edge. Edgings attached directly to the edge of the case tend to wear out because of the stress on them in the washer. In the example above I stitched both sides down. This keeps the edging from rolling up or bunching. Yes, that means more time spent sewing, but unless you want to iron the pillowcase, it's the way to keep the edging lying flat and looking good. On my first pillowcase I only sewed one side onto the case, and now you can't even tell what the pattern is because all the rings are lying every which way.

I had some issues with this particular ball of thread (lots of unplying/untwisting, several slubs and fat spots, and at least one place where 2 ends were knotted together). The thread was part of a recent purchase of size 20 Lizbeth threads. I hope this was just an unfortunate occurrence and that the others I bought will be ok.

1 comment:

Madtatter80 said...

This came out really well I love the bit of onion ring to it. And that is very annoying about the thread it happens to me once in awhile the best thing to to is complain to the company on there quality control because that is not suppose to happen and they should replace it! I do agree about sewing it down like that too!