Finally Finsihed!

So this is the dress I made for my little friend, Gracie.  This is a dress I found in Sew Beautiful Magazine made by Kathy Dykstra.  You can find the original here.  Be sure to check out all her creations while you are there.  She is amazing!

The lace alone for the original would have set me back about $300.  I couldn't justify that cost any way I tried!  So I left out the lace and made my own tatting to adorn the top of the dress both front and back.

Don't pay really close attention to my bullions.  Some of them leave a lot to be desired, but I started on the less conspicuous ones and migrated to the ones that would be very noticeable as I got better at them.

I had some issues with the floche because it wasn't as bright at my dress fabric or the DMC floss.  But I liked the contrast and went with it.  But I had to change out my tatting to a slightly different color to match the floche on the front.  I thought the contrast looked much better matching the bullions rather than the brighter white floss.  I used the brighter white tatting on the back, since I had no bullions there, just geometric smocking.

I love how this turned out even if it is a much simpler version of the original.  This was by far one of the most time consuming dresses I've done because of all the bullions.  But once I figured out how to make them the right way, it went much faster.

UFO Alert!!

This is a dress I've been working on since I forget forever.  I thought I would have it finished by now, but no such flippin luck!! hahaha.  I finally got the tatting finished and attached on front and back.  This is a little white sun dress I made for my little friend, Gracie.  It is a Kathy Dykstra dress from an issue of Sew Beautiful magazine. 

I think my big hold up was those bullions.  Smocked bullions are NOT the same as embroidered ones.  Well, they are kind of the same, but they don't behave the same way.  I could get the little bullions done with few problems, but those big ones took some practice.  A LOT OF PRACTICE!!  I found a tute on Laurie Anderson's blog and some helpful hints from LaSewista.  After reading those two, those bullions were toast!!  I wish I had seen those sooner.

Then I ran out of floche. HA!  It came in yesterday though, and I should have this one completed this week.  In my defense, this has been one of my carpool projects.  You know when you are waiting in carpool to pick up the kids with nothing to do.  Well this is what I've been working on.  I did not do the dress like the original, because, well, it is VERY expensive with all the lace.  So I went with a more simple look.  I wanted to try something on the bottom of the dress, but Gracie's mom always like extra room to let her dresses out to extend the life of them.  So I'll try it on another project.  Like I need another project!! lol

Have a great day!
Angela

My newest project.

This is an Old Fashioned Baby pattern that I got sometime last year and have just been waiting to get to it.  It is totally sewn by hand.  We'll see if I have that much patience. lol  The fabric is a striped pink batiste that I scored from Farmhouse Fabrics last August.  I've been dying to use this.  I have the pattern pieces cut and marked.  Just waiting on lace to arrive.  I want to incorporate some hand made tatting insertion into this gown.  I hope it works the way I've envisioned.

Check back later for my failure progress.

Thanks for stopping by.
Angela

Tatted Hanky for Grandma

I finished this just in the nick of time!!!  I ran into a number of issues with this hanky, but I am so pleased with the results.  This is most definitely one of my favorite projects and one I'll repeat.  The entredeux came apart from the hanky on the first one when I was about half way finished!  I cut through the entredeux and removed it then whipped it to a new hanky.  Then just continued from where I left off the first one.  Only someone who knew what they were looking for would ever see the difference.  Then I miscounted my holes on one side and had to totally undo all the tatting and start over.  For my very first one, I think it turned out pretty well.  The next time, I'll have to really clean up the corners.  Those didn't turn out quite like I wanted, but a good pressing tamed them a bit.

Here is another view.  I really love this blue tatting thread.

I made this for Rob's Grandmother, and she really liked it.  She is 83, and I told her I wanted to do something really special for her. 

I am a self taught tatter thanks to the help of a wonderful book I found at Handy Hands Tatting.  Barbara is a jewel!!  I called and emailed a few times on this and other projects when I ran into trouble, and she walked me right through it.  I couldn't have done this without her.  And how in the world she can look at email photos and tell me what I'm doing wrong just amazes me!!  It's probably a good thing I don't live near her!!!

Happy Wednesday!!
Angela

Finished Daygown!

I have finally finished both of my daygowns.  This one is hands down my favorite though.  I absolutely love the tatting.  I am so happy I decided to learn how to tat - even though it took me quite some time to get the yardage required for this particular daygown.  I think the biggest problem I had was getting the collar to line up at the front.  This is the first time I've ever added any type of lace to a collar, so I found it a bit problematic lining it up straight.  I tried to just get the tatting to kiss right at the center, and it did right until I rinsed it and dried it.  My tatting shrunk just slightly but enough to have a small gap and really point out that it is just a smidge off center.  It also shrunk down the front.  I used a little steam in my iron to stretch it back out a little.

Here are some other views.

And I added this pretty embroidery to the bottom hemline on the back.  In fact, all the embroidery on this little gown came from Jeannie's book.

Oh, and remember the pintucks?  Here is the comparison with my machine Pintuck foot and hand tucks.

The white has the machine tucks, and the blue has the hand tucks.  I like them both for different reasons, but I'm really leaning towards the machine tucks.  I still want to get an edge foot and try it.  The white gown was made with Moda cotton, and the blue is a cotton batiste.  I like the batiste much better, since it's much softer and lighter.  The Moda cotton would be okay in the winter, since it's a little heavier weight.  It is really tough to find soft fabric for babies in my neck of the woods.  Both of these were made using The Old Fashioned Baby - Baby Layette Pattern.

I am finishing up my Go Fish quilt and have started another dress for my little friend, Gracie.  I found a gorgeous fabric and decided I needed to make a cute little dress with it.  It is full of strawberries, and I found some really sweet strawberry buttons for it too.  I have a strawberry smocking plate, but I don't like it for this dress, so I'll have to find another.  If you come across one, please let me know.

Angela

Baby Blue Tatting for Baby!

I've been working on this a little here and a little there - mostly in carpool waiting to pick up the munchkins.  This is a much, much smaller thread than the last one I used.  This is #80 using a #8 fine needle, while the first round was a #10 thread using a #5 needle.  This piece is roughly 18" long and used right at 13 yards of thread.  That's a lot of thread!

Here is the difference in sizes:

Even with my glasses it's hard to see the eye on that top needle.  In fact, it's hard to count the stitches they are so small.  I think I need one of those Jewelers glasses.

I didn't have the lighting to get a close up of the eye of the needle; however, I did manage to get a close up of the tatting.  The fist pic looks much better than the close up.  You can't see as many of the flaws. lol

I think the hardest part of tatting is getting the size of the picots, the rings and the tails consistent.  I guess that just comes with practice, since this one is far better than the last.  And the last one was head and shoulders above the previous ones.  It is also very tricky working with 5 yards of thread in needle tatting.  It tends to get bunched up and knotted if you don't pull it through really slowly.  I noticed I have one of those rings that looks like it's flipped.  I think that happened when I got the thread all knotted and had to stop and pick it out.  I don't think it will be that noticeable once I get it on the gown.

I picked up some white fabric yesterday for a baby day gown, and this tatting will be the trim for the collar and down either side of the front placket.  I'm using an Old Fashioned Baby pattern.  Jeannie Baumeister is teaching a class this weekend not far from me at Farmhouse Fabrics, and I would love, love, love to go.  But it's Robbie's birthday.  I wouldn't miss that for the world.  I'll just have to wait and see Jeannie another time.  She'll be in Atlanta in October, and I definitely plan to make it.

I also found a woman here in Savannah that used to have a shop and taught tatting.  The shop has since closed, but she does sew-ins at her home and would definitely be able to help me.  Yay!  I know the basics, but sometimes it takes someone with experience to give those extra little tips you can't get otherwise.  I'm excited to meet her.

It'll be a little while though.  I simply must get some of my projects completed.  I keep adding to my list, and it has piled up again.  I just get so excited when I see fabric and threads.  I can't resist getting them.  If I can get my 2 quilts finished and my hutch, I'll be happy.  Those are by biggest time consuming items.  The other stuff is much smaller and I work on it when I can't work on the big things.

Angela

Ding. Ding. Ding. And the winner of round 3 is.........

The one on top is the one I posted yesterday.  The one on the bottom is the newest one.  I was adamant I was not going to let this get the best of me.  I sent an email to Barbara Foster at Handy Hands Wednesday, and she was so gracious to call me yesterday.  Once she looked at the pictures I'd sent and walked me through the process, I knew what I was doing wrong and made the corrections.  You know you are good when you can coach someone over the phone and get these results!!  Thanks so much to Barbara. Amazing.  When I was researching tatting I came across her website.  I sent her an email asking for suggestions on how to start, and she told me just what I needed.  I ordered my supplies and began this daunting process.  I'm still no expert, but I am very happy with my latest results.

The one just above is the one I did Wed. and the one above it is the one from yesterday.  Again, not perfect but much improved.  The long one is a pillow edging which I will use once I decide on the pillow case color, and the double one is a towel edging.  I haven't chosen that color either.  It calls for weaving a ribbon through the middle.  It looks really pretty.

Anyway, that's my tatting story for today, and I'm still alive which is always a good thing.  I won this round.  Yay for me.

Angela

More bad tatting!!

It's certainly an improvement but no where near ready to add to any project.  I'll keep practicing!  I refuse to let this beat me.  Remember the pillow cases????  Oh dear Lord those stupid pillow cases.  This is not deja vu. I won't quit, I won't quit, I won't quit.  I will beat it or die trying!

Angela

Learning to tat isn't as easy as I thought it would be!!

This is what I have completed thus far.  I'm learning from Barbara Foster's book Learn Needle Tatting Step by Step.  I'm usually more of a visual, hands-on learner and don't grasp written instructions as well.  I think if I had someone actually show me how this is done, I'd pick it up much, much easier.  I have a couple of small mistakes in these pictured, but to the untrained eye, you'd probably not notice.  I'm working on the basics, because I want to use this type of tatting for baby blankets and baby daygowns.  The double one in the middle of the pic is used on the bottom of towels which has a ribbon right through the center.  It's very cute.  I'll be trying that soon.  Right now, I'm working on a simple ring strand for a pillow case edging.  If I can get that down, I'll use that same technique with a smaller needle and thread.  Then I think I'll try my hand and tatting lace.  I think it's different, but since no one around this small town knows anything about tatting, who knows?!  I'd also like to learn to tat with beads.  I've seen wonderful tatted earrings made with beads that are just precious.  One thing at a time though.

Angela