Tatting Thrift

I like thrift shopping and finding things I can use that other people toss. This is one of my favorite places to find supplies to make things.

I found this real bright pink thread on a cone a few weeks ago and thought it would be lovely as rings and chains in tatting. It is a real soft thread, so it has a nice drape to it. It almost looks like a full cone of thread, so this will make hundreds of yards of tatted lace.


That same day I also found this very old antique even size 10 Columbia thread, pale blue in color; yeah, not exactly what label said. I always love it when I find the original papers still in them. This one had the colors of thread and styles of thread that they sold at that time. Sometimes they have coupons in them for free patterns; of course, you can't get those free patterns any more even if you sent in the coupon.

I like to hard laminate these papers so I can stop the deterioration and keep them and use them as book marks in my pattern books. With this one I even laminated the size cards so I would know what it came from.

The thread was still super strong and could stand up to tatting which can be very rough on thread when closing a ring. It does have discoloration which makes the blue travel from faint blue to a medium brown. I sort of liked that on this. I don't want all my threads that way, but every now and again it's OK. Because this does have a use this way, such as on a primitive doll or prim pincushion, it would look lovely as an accent and the technique used, tatting, would work nicely with those things too.

If you are into tatting check out the 25 motif challenge group and check out the tatting group on flickr. I joined the tatting challenge with this post this is number 1 and 2 out of 25 things/motifs I am to make in the next year.

Pattern for above just copying an old piece of lace.
Pattern is chain = 1 picot term four
ring = 3 picot term four with joins on 1 and 3 picot.

DO NOT USE THIS PATTERN TO MAKE THINGS TO SELL FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY!!!!