"But, really, why does anyone create? You feel a... a restlessness inside, a need to make something new, something no one has ever seen before. You want to add to the beauty and the richness of the world with a gift, an offering that is uniquely yours. It's an act of selfishness and generosity, all rolled into one."

-- Bruce Coville,
The Last Hunt

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Needlecraft Magazine 1916-1921, Part III

Yes, it's Part 3. I know if there are two posts in one day, it can be easy to miss the first one. So in case you didn't see it, I did post Part 2 yesterday. Today I'm covering the two issues I have from 1919, February and November.

From the February issue there was only one page that interested me. At the top is a tatted baby bonnet, and at the bottom a vandyke border.


If this looks familiar, it is the same border that was in the April 1916 issue. Now the designer has worked out how to turn the corner. It's funny, considering how many issues I'm missing, that I should have the two that both have this border.

On to the November issue.


Sometimes you could mail-order the materials to make the items shown, as with this hen-and-chicks hanky. If I understand it correctly, you could buy the embroidery pattern to stamp or transfer onto your own fabric, or you could buy the hanky with the pattern already on it. For 57 cents, you could get the hanky, embroidery floss, and tatting thread.

Interestingly, it does not say that the tatting instructions come with it, nor are they given anywhere in the magazine. They must have just assumed that everyone knew how to make hen-and-chicks. If you didn't, of course, you could always write to the editor, and she would tell you; I've noticed a lot of the letters to the editor are requests for patterns.

Yoke or collar. This pattern doesn't do so much for me.


This would be the same Anne Orr who also wrote several tatting books and invented the split ring.

And I know you're all planning to serve a Crown of Roast Pork for Thanksgiving, right?

5 comments:

  1. You know I just LOVE these magazines! I love everything in them, not just the tatting. There is a lot of crochet I want to try too. The bad thing is it is so BIG and the print so small, it's hard to scan. You can only do segments. I wish I had the money to go and have it professionally saved in the original size. So many of mine have the covers missing from people who capitalized on the ad pages back when they were popular. I guess that's why it bothers me so much when I read of people cutting up and destroying old publications like this. They are irreplacable. Mine are already brittle (well...duh, at nearly 100 years old!) and I have to handle them carefully. That's one reason why I'm trying to transcribe and update the old tatting patterns in them.

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  2. I love old Needlecraft too. I have a lot, though mostly in poor condition.

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  3. Thank you for sharing your antique magazines and giving the historical context, too. Really, really interesting. I think the motif in the collar would make a very nice snowflake.

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  4. Good eye, Marilee. Yes, you could add a 6th repeat and it would make a very nice snowflake. In fact, I think it would help the proportions. Would you like the pattern?

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  5. Thanks for offering the pattern - but I think I can figure it out from that close-up photo. Maybe I'll tweak it a bit :-)

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