Ripples on a pond.

We have all heard that saying about a butterfly's flapping wings in Asia can cause a hurricane in the Caribbean. It is true that everything we do has consequences, hopefully good ones. Tatting has benefited from a couple of modest events in history.

Mrs. Ellen Butterick was taking apart a child's suit so that she could make another one. She picked open the seams and laid out the pieces so that she could copy them. She mentioned to her husband that it would be so much easier to make clothes if they had patterns to go by. Thus was Butterick's, the famous clothes pattern company, born.

Once the company had patterns to sell, there was the question of how to advertise them. How to reach their target user, the women of the world? The early women's magazines were an ideal venue for those patterns and eventually for ready-made clothing and every imaginable household necessity.

Another low-key event happened on a wash day. A Mrs. Montague was washing another load of white shirts (by hand, of course). In her time the shirt was made in one piece and pulled over the head. In the course of a day the shirt might hold up well but the collars were always begrimed. So Mrs. Montague was doomed to washing the entire shirt every time. Until the day came when this hard-working lady looked at the collars and then looked at her scissors. SNIP! Thus was founded the entire industry of detachable collars and cuffs for both men and women.

Now how did these two events benefit tatters? Clothes were made to be embellished. So the women's magazines began to offer instructions on the different needle artists and included patterns for every art from knitting to embroidery, from macramé to crochet, and tatting, too.


The Butterick company also published an entire book of patterns. "Butterick's Tatting & Netting", 1896. There are a total of 150 pages. Each part has about 40 pages. These are very long downloads. It is recommended to right click on the link and then click save target as to download to your computer for opening later.
Part 1 http://www.georgiaseitz.com/public/Tatting&Nettingpart1.pdf
Part 2 http://www.georgiaseitz.com/public/Tatting&Nettingpart2.pdf
Part 3 http://www.georgiaseitz.com/public/Tatting&Nettingpart3.pdf
Part 4 http://www.georgiaseitz.com/public/Tatting&Nettingpart4.pdf

Here is a simple pattern to adorn your own clothing. It is from the Emmy Liebert book, "Schiffchenarbeit." (Reprint pg 14 original booklet pg 16, fig. 27.)
http://www.georgiaseitz.com/bella/emmyliebertpg16fig27.jpg

One shuttle
small R 6 - (large picot to accommodate 4 joins 6 clr rw
*
large R 3 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 3 clr DO NOT REVERSE WORK
large R 3 + 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 3 clr rw
sm R 6 + (join to large picot) 6 clr rw
repeat from * for total of 5 inner rings
after 5th inner ring
large R 3 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 3 clr DO NOT REVERSE WORK
large R 3 + 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 3 clr rw
attach thread to base of first ring; bring thread to back of work
attach thread to the join between two large rings.

(Although the outer row looks like chains, it is not. It is a round of half-closed rings. These half-closed rings create a base for the larger rings and give it a 3-d effect.)

Ring 3 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 3, close ring partially leaving enough bare thread to span to the next join of the large rings and continue around.

A new template for flat giveaway shuttles:
http://www.georgiaseitz.com/2011/mvittshtltemplates.pdf

Please visit tatting.bellaonline.com for even more great content about Tatting.

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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!

Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, because we all love free knowledge!

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

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