#weldon's practical tatting

[professorpski]

Piecework, Fall 2022

Piecework magazine offers both historical articles on needlework and instructions with patterns for some of items featured. I must say I always feel the ones with patterns are the best although I have not yet made any of them.

For the instructions, we have the tatted doilies are drawn from an 1889 called Weldon’s Practical Tatting and Katrina King suggests more modern uses like earrings for the smallest motifs and wedding veil for larger ones. The long cream kilt stockings, from ones worn by men who wore breeches instead of long pants, are adaptations from 18th Century Cape Breton Island examples. Barbara Kelly-Landry offers full instructions and she and Annamarie Hatcher recount the history of such stockings and how men’s calves used to be an object of interest for their shape. Yes, women ogled men’s calves. Maybe that it why it is my favorite pattern in this issue. ;-) The other pattern is for the colorwork sleeves you see here which were a separate part of traditional Macedonian clothing according to Ali Giles-Damjanovska in one of two articles on that tradition. Plus an early American sampler pattern is included.

Then, there are historical articles with information and inspiration but without patterns. So there is one on bobbin lace from Puerto Rico by Diana P. Martinez Rodriguez from which this christening gown image is taken. I thought it was crochet at first glance which may explain the popularity of crochet trim in the late 19th and early 20th century: its ability to mimic lace. There are more articles including one on patchwork quilts from India, on early European couching stitch embroidery, and a dress created by someone in a mental asylum, and no, I am not making that last one up.

You can find it at your local bookstore or newsstand or online here: https://pieceworkmagazine.com/subscription/