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Wednesday, June 25, 2014

I found one!

Earlier this year, I put together a simple floral edging and bookmark pattern, which I shared on my Free Patterns page. Some of you may recall that I had been looking through my vintage tatting books for a similar pattern, just to make sure that I hadn't accidentally copied someone else's design. I was sure I would find something that looked identical to what I had created, but try as I might, I could not find anything!

Well, about a week ago, as I was looking through my pattern books for something to tat, I stumbled upon the edging I had been looking for. I found it in Angeline Crichlow's Let's Tat:

The reason I could not find this pattern before is because I only recently acquired the book for my birthday. I consider myself lucky as I have only seen two copies of Let's Tat available, once per year on eBay.

When I saw the pattern, I just had to try it out. Below is a scan of three samples:


The top is from my floral edging pattern. The middle is a modified version of the edging from Let's Tat, to correct for inconsistencies between the written pattern and the photo. The bottom is the pattern from Let's Tat, tatted verbatim from the written instructions.

After I tatted the three samples, I realized that my edging doesn't look very much like the one from Angeline's book. As you can see, there's an enormous size difference between them. It was rather difficult to tat the rings in her edging because they are so large. Though, I do like the shape of the large rings better...they are more flowery and less boxy than mine. Perhaps I can revisit this later and adjust some of my stitch counts to create a motif that lies somewhere in between.
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13 comments:

  1. Madtatter80June 25, 2014 at 1:10 PM

    I have been trying the oldies too! And one nice thing is that your tatting looks better than theirs and we have such nice colors too :) your tatting looks great, I think to me her picots are with no double stitches in between them, and they are a tad longer too. Love your samples displayed!

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    1. Robin PerfettiJune 25, 2014 at 2:07 PM

      Thank you, Carollyn! There's something fun about tatting these old patterns, especially when they come out a bit different from the book. It can be a nice surprise as sometimes the book photos don't do the patterns justice. I am already excited to tat a few more motifs that I have picked out!

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  2. Margarets designer cardsJune 25, 2014 at 1:49 PM

    Lovely edging, some of the old patterns are worth looking at, I think the pink one is the best like the original pattern
    Margaret

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    1. Robin PerfettiJune 25, 2014 at 2:08 PM

      I, too, favor the pink one. Though oddly I had to diverge from the written instructions to get it to look like the photo. I wonder if this counts as a mistake in the text? The red one is straight from the text and, while it looks okay, it is clearly not the same as the photo in the book.

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  3. Lace-lovin' Librarian ~ DianeJune 26, 2014 at 7:08 AM

    I like seeing the three versions as you've posted them. It makes it much easier for me to understand the differences. Lucky you! I've been looking for Let's Tat ever since I had the opportunity to look through Fox's copy a couple of years ago. I guess I'll keep looking!

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    1. Robin PerfettiJune 27, 2014 at 12:02 PM

      Let's Tat has to be the rarest of all of the tatting books I have searched for. Now that I am out of the bidding war, maybe the next copy will go for much less!

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  4. GraceTJune 27, 2014 at 9:08 AM

    That happened to me, too. I created a little design, I thought it was original - then I discovered that at least two other, much greater designers had already had the same idea! More details on my blog: http://gracetats.blogspot.sg/2013/09/not-as-original-as-i-thought.html

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    1. Robin PerfettiJune 27, 2014 at 11:58 AM

      Grace, you have been very thorough in finding and documenting the patterns similar to your Cherry Blossom Hearts. I often wonder what is the best practice for dealing with simple designs? On one hand, they are original, because we have come up with them ourselves. On the other hand, the more simple they are, the more likely they are to have been done before.

      Perhaps I will do as you have, and include a short note for basic designs. At the least, it will make me feel better, and less prone to worry!

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  5. God's KidJune 27, 2014 at 10:38 PM

    I think they all look very similar and you did a good job tatting them all!! :)

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  6. muskaanJune 28, 2014 at 9:49 AM

    Nice work & comparison, Robin :-)
    If I may use a few art terms, then your design is more contemporary, compact & abstract.
    The middle one, is more in the impressionism style, with large flowery blooms.
    The last one, if green & brown were used, would probably appear like palm trees !

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  7. NinettaJune 30, 2014 at 7:06 AM

    Thank you so much for your last tutorial, Robin. I've had a lot of fun! I've just talked about it in my blog! Hugs, Ninetta.

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    1. Robin PerfettiJune 30, 2014 at 11:13 AM

      Hi Ninetta,
      You're welcome :)
      Just hopped over to take a look at your post. I tried to leave a comment but not sure if it went through. I will try again tomorrow if I don't see anything.

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    2. NinettaJuly 1, 2014 at 2:28 AM

      Thank you for your visit, it's nice of you leaving a so nice comment. I liked this post too, sometimes we think to the word originality with the meaning of creating a spaceshuttle, the most of the time we simply recreate old things with our new eyes. I love the top one better.

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