The Bird Bag

Here's the latest organza bag, complete with hummingbird, flower, and edging.

The flower didn't quite go on straight (this is why I don't sew), but that's OK; this is New Mexico, after all, I can always say it's blowing in the wind. Also, the purple Lizbeth thread I used for the flower is not as good a match as I thought for the purple in the hummingbird-- I should have looked at it in the morning when I have sunlight-- but again, that's OK. Colors wouldn't match like that in nature anyway, and it still goes pretty well. The green is a near-perfect match.

The edging I used is #34 from Anne Orr's Classic Tatting Patterns. It's such a simple pattern that it doesn't even matter about it being written "old style" because you don't have to read it again after the first repeat. Yet it is one of the first patterns ever to use split rings. Orr first published the book as Tatting, Book No. 35, Revised in 1940. In it, she gave instructions for "reverse stitch", which is exactly the technique that we now call split rings, and also for joining while making reverse stitch. Compared to most tatting instructions of that time, Orr's directions for both the reverse stitch and the join are remarkably clear and concise (although she does neglect to tell you that you have to switch the order of the half stitches). While this is one pattern where Orr did use what we now call split rings, there are several patterns where she has you cut and tie in places where today's tatters would use split rings to climb out of a round, so she obviously didn't realize the full potential of her invention. Still, to have thought of it at all was quite an achievement, and we owe her a great debt.

If you've been paying attention, you'll know that I always fill these bags with nice-smelling things to help freshen up my apartment. In this case, I went with dried jasmine flowers, lemon peel, and vanilla bean.