Plastic Tatting?
Yes! I was quite surprised when I found the first plastic doily made with a tatted lace pattern. They were in a dusty plastic bag on a shelf filled with little knick knacks. There were several designs made from crochet patterns and other needlework types. The small tatted ones were about 4" and came in white, ecru, pale green and peach colors. The larger ones were white but I suspect they, too, came in colors at the time they were made.
The larger plastic tatted pattern doily has had crochet added around the edge, toward the center, and the center has a crocheted rose. But the tatting pattern is clear and could be easily reproduced. Study the detail photo of the back.
It looks like a classic round center ring with 30 picots. Hmm.. that many picots... maybe it should be tatted as an scmr (self-closing mock ring) instead? Then I think the next row could be one shuttle little rings going around joining to the picots in the center. Now using a split ring for the last little ring climb into the next row with a ring twice the size of the previous little rings. This becomes the center ring of a round of cloverleaf motifs. I think the side rings will need to be slightly smaller that the other little ring. And, I would work them as split rings around, throwing off the larger center ring of the cloverleaf.
And that brings us to a problem in construction. You can lay down plastic in a mold but not be able to do the tatting in the same manner. So I would make the next row mignonette, which joins to the split rings on the sides of the cloverleaf. And that means we need to add a picot to the bottom sides of the split rings for a point of attachment. I would return to ring and chain tatting for the next round. The divider could be 2-3 rounds of chain tatting attaching with shuttle lock join. Last row would be a larger chain with a picot.
The last 4 rows are just ring and chain. Note how they reproduced little picots on the sides of the rings, 3 picots to each side.. That does it. Give it a try and let me know if it worked.
Tucked in the original bag was also a little leaflet with many craft projects to be made from these plastic lace doilies. Selfix Products demonstrated how to cut apart the doilies and in this photo remove individual motives, scrolls in this example, sew them together and wrap with floral wire to make a bouquet.
I have used the small plastic 4" size tatted doily to make a "hat" pincushion as a project when teaching. Cut a circle of fabric larger than the doily, fill and gather. Sew gathers in place. Sew bottom of the pouch to the center of the doily, sew from the back side. Add a drop of glue over the stitching. Add a small circle of cardboard beneath the pouch to prevent pins from pushing through. Decorate the pouch of the pincushion with bits of tatting or flowers. Tat a strip of tatting through which to thread a narrow ribbon and secure. Add tatted flowers and trim. Voila! Pincushion.
