The Bernhard Ulmann Co., Inc. of New York published the Bucilla Blue Books as part of the Bucilla Library of Art Needlework around 1916. Focusing mainly on crochet designs, the third volume in the series has tatting, "BUCILLA BLUE BOOK OF TATTING, NOVELTY & FILET CROCHET VOLUME No. 3, 1916." Their patterns were well received and continued in production for decades.

As we have learned from the history of other thread companies, the booklets were a venue to advertise and increase sales of the product. These booklets were reprinted rather indiscriminately and can be found with other company names on them, like Bear Brand, Botany, Bucilla, Fleisher, Glossilla.

Founded in 1867, Mr. Ulmann's company first sold linens with pre-stamped embroidery designs. As the company grew and prospered, it built a reputation for best quality thread for knitting, crochet, filet crochet, needlepoint, and embroidery. The Bucilla instructional books were found everywhere and helped to make Bucilla a name still recognized today. Which in itself is surprising as the company changed hands in 1922 turning into an employee-owned company until 1962 when it was sold in succession to Indian Head Corp., Hanson Trust of Sweden, and then in 1977 on to Armour-Dial a part of the Greyhound Corp. Wow, what a lot of changes. But that was not the end. Bucilla was sold again to Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corporation and lastly to Plaid Enterprises in 1996. You can read more about the history at the Plaid website: http://www.plaidonline.com/the-history-of-bucilla/542/article.htm.

Today, the "BUCILLA BLUE BOOK OF TATTING, NOVELTY & FILET CROCHET VOLUME No. 3, 1916." is available for free download at the Online Tatting Class Archive of Tatting Books in the Public Domain, http://www.georgiaseitz.com/public/publicindex.html.
Each page is listed separately so following this method below, you can quickly download the tatting pages only if you prefer.

http://www.georgiaseitz.com/public/bbb/bucillabb01.jpg
http://www.georgiaseitz.com/public/bbb/bucillabb02.jpg
http://www.georgiaseitz.com/public/bbb/bucillabb03.jpg
The tatting section begins on page 26.
http://www.georgiaseitz.com/public/bbb/bucillabb26.jpg
The booklet ends on page 50.
http://www.georgiaseitz.com/public/bbb/bucillabb50.jpg

Here are a couple of easy patterns rewritten in modern tatting notation.

Bucilla Blue Book page 42 Narrow Edging #323
R 5 - 5 - 5 - 5 clr rw
*CH 7 + (join to header or cloth or other braid) 7 rw
R 5 + (join to previous ring) 5 - 5 - 5 clr rw
Repeat from * for length needed.

Bucilla Blue Book page 44 Narrow Edging #327
*R 8 - (long picot) 8 clr rw
CH 4 - 4 - 4 - 4 rw
R 8 + (join to long picot) 8 clr rw
CH 4 - 4 dnrw
R 4 - 4 clr dnrw
CH 4 - 4 rw
R 8 + (join to long picot) 8 clr rw
CH 4 - 4 - 4 - 4 rw
R 8 + (join to long picot) 8 clr dnrw
CH 4 - 4 - 4 - 4 rw (This chain arcs to the right to start a new motif.)
Repeat from * joining the points at the middle picot on the side chain.




Here's the latest article from the Tatting site at BellaOnline.com.

The Tatted Split Ring in Design
The split ring, used in conjunction with a split chain sometimes, allows the tatter to climb out from the center of the piece of lace or climb from row to row without cutting the thread.


http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art173899.asp

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To participate in free, fun online discussions, this site has a community forum all about Tatting located here -

http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=39

I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum or in response to this email message. I thrive on your feedback!

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Georgia Seitz, Tatting Editor
http://tatting.bellaonline.com

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