July 5 Tatting Newsletter

In a recent newsletter we discussed the story of how Ellen Butterick's wish for a pattern for her children's clothes instead of unpicking them and tracing them over and over, prompted her husband Ebenezer, to found Butterick's Pattern company in 1863. In order to sell patterns, Mr. Butterick founded the Metropolitan Monthly." This magazine was replaced by the "Delineator", a magazine more familiar to tatters.

The Butterick Company held a prominent position in the early 20th century and maintained its popularity with seamstresses even after the close of The Delineator in 1937. It was so popular that it was available in 5 languages at one time. And all those patterns were a great boon to tatters as high fashion demanded lots of embellishment. Many tatting and other needle work patterns were included in the magazine for this reason.

Through many changes in content and standard, the "Delineator" is also memorable for more than clothes patterns and the occasional tatting motif. Under the editorship of its first woman editor Marie Mattingly Maloney, The Delineator ran a fundraiser campaign to raise $100,000 to buy a gram of radium for Marie Curie (1867-1934) to use in her research. Madame Curie was awarded the Novel Prize in Physics in 1903 and in Chemistry in 1911. I believe I read that she was the only woman to have won two Nobel Prizes.

Ed's note: I cannot say that Marie was a tatter, but there are two photos posted online that show embellished necklines:

http://gardenofpraise.com/images/curie.jpg
http://edu.glogster.com/media/4/12/84/76/12847615.jpg

While the great American novelist, Theodore Dreiser, was editor, one Ralph Tilton was contracted to sell advertising for the magazine. A wastrel, womanizer and party boy, Tilton still had one good mark on his record. He invented an advertising incentive that is still in use today; the "coupon."

FYI: The title of this magazine, the "Delineator" came from a tool used by tailors to trim patterns in multiple sizes.

Here is a vintage pattern from an 1893 "Delineator":

http://www.georgiaseitz.com/books/del/d603fig1.jpg

http://www.georgiaseitz.com/books/del/d603figa.jpg

http://www.georgiaseitz.com/books/del/d603figb.jpg



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

Antique Handkerchief Edging
Here is another study of an antique pattern with an eye toward tatting the edging using modern tatting techniques to avoid unnecessary cutting and tying.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art39227.asp

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

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!

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

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

One of hundreds of sites at BellaOnline.com