Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Pansy hair clip


 The vintage pansy pattern from page 20 of  the Dover "Tatting Patterns" book by Sanders, which is a reprint of "The Priscilla Tatting Book #2" first published in 1915. I finished this as a hair clip for myself.

While deciphering the old pattern I wasn't sure what to do with the center, since it said to "carry threads to next picot in ring", so I opted to do a lock join with the shuttle thread at the next picot and then brought the ball thread under and started the next chain. This left some bare thread showing, but that can't be seen at all now that the petals are all finished.

I added some beads over picots in the round before the yellow outline. To determine how big the picot needed to be in order for the bead to fit on it with room to join, I tested one picot with the bead, took the bead off, and then observed how big that picot was. So all the other picots that I intended to place a bead over later, I tried to make about that size. I didn't measure or use paper clips or anything, that would have been way too much trouble for the number of picots needed.

The yellow center beads were sewn on afterward using some thread ends left from tatting the flower. The leaves and nylon net were also sewn on with thread ends. No process to share about that, I just sort of  kept sewing until it all seemed like it would hold together. The clip is the sort that will stay in my hair, larger clips are too heavy for me.

The threads used were all size 20, and the finished pansy flower measures about 2 and 1/2 inches (6.4cm).

34 comments:

Margarets designer cards said...

Totally stunning and gorgeous, i love the colours you used.

Margaret

Fox said...

So very pretty!
Fox : )

Crazy Mom! said...

This is super pretty - really stunning! I love the yellow edging.

zarina said...

I love the colors of the HDT and it would look great in your hair. Great work.

Unknown said...

Great job with the pattern. Love the colors you chose.

Anula3333 said...

Beautiful!!!

Ladytats said...

I have tatted that pattern before, now that I have some of your Pansy thread, I will have to do it again.
thanks for the inspiration, now to find the time

Karen said...

Beautiful! Karen in OR

Denise - Jewelry By Denise said...

Very beautiful! I've been on a flower kick lately so this really speaks to me! I love it!

Unknown said...

This is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

Luv Jane XX

God's Kid said...

Absolutely gorgeous!!! And those colors are so vibrant and remind me of a real pansy flower!! :)

Lace-lovin' Librarian ~ Diane said...

Beautiful! I would love to make some of these for my granddaughters!

LadyShuttleMaker aka MadMadPotter said...

You made me get out my priscilla book to find this pattern. I never would have considered it before I saw your lovely version. I find following those long hand instructions so tedious!

TAT19540 said...

Looks great! You will be the best dressed lady in town!

Corina said...

Looks great!

Crissi said...

So wonderful!
♥Crissi♥

Carolivy said...

Beautiful hair piece Marilee! Love all the pretty colors.
Hugs
Carol

Mónica said...

Hermoso el resultado final, estaba esperando ver cómo había quedado ese pensamiento. :)

louine said...

I really like your color choices....Lovely.

tattrldy said...

Spectacular! Have fun wearing it.

Tat-ie said...

How lovely! The thread is gorgeous as always, and this pattern is fantastic.

Kate said...

This is gorgeous! All my adult life I've wanted to learn how to tat. Unfortunately, I've never found anyone who actually tatted and could show me how and I had no luck in teaching myself. :D I admire those of you who can create such lovely tatted works of art. Thanks for sharing.

Marilee Rockley said...

Kate, you may be able to find someone to teach you to tat at a lace guild near you. Here's a link to a list of guilds:
http://www.georgiaseitz.com/guilds/index.html

Lelia said...

Craft Gossip featured your hair clip.

Beautiful pansy!

Heather Tatter said...

Pretty, pretty. I made this in burgandy and pale pink a few years back but didn't know what to do with it after it was done. The hair clip idea is great. I gave the other away, and maybe will have to to this one again to have a hair clip.

RuthG said...

Love it! Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Loved your pansy and had to try my own.
The diagram looks like the five petals are made seperately,
but the carry over part sounds like each petal is done anchored
to one of the five picots in a single yellow center.
Also sounded like you used the same center for all your petals?

Marilee Rockley said...

The pansy is made all in one pass, with each petal coming out from a small center ring. The picture in the old book shows them separately, but I think they just did that to make the structure of each petal easier to see.

Anonymous said...

Thank you. It sounded like that, but the seperate pictures threw me. Guess I'll have two - one individual petals and one coming off the one center ring.

Jenifer said...

I tried making this pansy, but when I got to the 3rd round, I got stuck. I'm having a hard time reading the pattern. The part: Ch 15 p 2 d s bet, join into p in r? The wording doesn't seem to match the picture. Help!

Barbara Gordon said...

Quite gorgeous, as usual! Now to try and figure it out by myself....err! Love the colors to...really nice!

Laurie said...

This is utterly gorgeous! Do you sell the thread used in your Etsy shop? If so, which ones are they? If not, what products did you use? I'd love to try this, but the colors are what makes it so exquisite, so I'd like to try to use the same ones. Thanks!

Marilee Rockley said...

Thanks, Laurie, I used "Pansy" from my own hand dyed threads, combined with some old Flora solids. I'm not sure about the exact colors, but as seen in the photo they were a bright yellow leaning toward gold and a medium to dark purple.

Marilee Rockley said...

The thread was size 20 crochet cotton - I use 6 cord crochet cotton (the best quality) either Lizbeth, DMC Cordonnet Special, or one of the other brands of 6 cord thread. The more common 3 ply thread just isn't firm enough to produce a good tatted accessory, in my humble opinion. But cheaper threads are okay for practice and small things like tatted note cards.