While Strolling Through the Park One Day, in the Merry Merry Month of May ...

(A popular “Parlor” song from 1884 – see below)

Motif #19 – Edging Used on Victorian Handkerchief Doll, Hat and 3-D Parasol.

(Edging # 8834 from the Tatters Treasure Chest – Dover Publications)

In honor of Month of May, and also Mother’s Day, I’m showing my Victorian ‘handkerchief’ doll, which I created back in 1992, after I saw a McCall’s pattern for making dinner napkins into Victorian dolls

I thought the idea would also work with handkerchiefs which otherwise would be stored out of sight in linen closets

Of course, two handkerchiefs with tatted edging are ideal!

The two handkerchiefs used for the doll can be completely ‘untied’ and used again as handkerchiefs. No sewing or cutting is involved. As I recall, I used size 30 DMC ecru thread for the tatting.

I’m going on memory here, as far as the instructions. The basic idea is to take a Styrofoam cone and cover it with plain fabric, providing an underskirt. A thin dowel rod is stuck into the top of the cone so that the upper body and head are supported

The lower handkerchief (put on first) is draped over the cone, showing off the tatted lace to best advantage.

The upper handkerchief forms the head, sleeves and upper ‘apron’. This particular handkerchief has a simple chain edging, and an appliqué in one corner, which becomes the ‘apron’ of the skirt. The head is formed over some cotton batting, and a ribbon is tied at the neck. She also has a piece of scrap tatting for a ‘collar’. The puffy sleeves also have quilt batting, and the ends are tied in a knot to form ‘hands’. The handkerchief is also tied with a ribbon at the ‘waist’

Here is a the back of the doll. Her hair is ‘tacked’ onto the top of her head with some small stitches. and her hat is a very small doily stiffened into a hat shape, using the same lace edging as that on the lower handkerchief

The parasol is basically rings and chains and is topped with the same lace used on the bottom handkerchief and hat.

I’ll feature the parasol on another post

The basket is from Rebecca Jones’ book, and I’ll also feature it on another post

She’s sure carrying a lot of stuff !!!

Imagine what you could do with all those handkerchiefs stored hidden away. The dolls would make great gifts and wonderful curio keepsakes

Here’s some information about the song

You can check the website www.geocities.com/holidaysfun/strollpark.html to hear this melody and see the lyrics. You might even do a little “soft shoe” tap dance!

Younger folks may not be aware of this quaint 1880’s Victorian parlor song (although the original title was “The Fountain in the Park”) , as that kind of music (sadly) doesn’t seem to be popular anymore. This is one of those ditties which remained a staple in most barbershop quartet repertoires and in family sing-alongs

Because of my interest in Victorian things and in playing music, I find it to be a charming reminder of a more ‘innocent’ time, when “June, croon, tune, honeymoon and spoon” were popular rhyming words

Although the author of the song is listed as “Ed Haley”, further research on the amazing web indicates that the actual writer of the song is a fellow named Robert Keiser (1862-1932) , also known as Robert King. For whatever reason, he wrote music under several different pseudonyms, even using women’s names! Ohio’s theme song “Beautiful Ohio”, was published under the name “Mary Earl” but the writer was actually Robert Keiser/King again. (Go figure!)

I hope you all have a Happy Mother’s Day! Although I’m not a mother myself, I’ve enjoyed my role as “Aunt Kathy” to several nieces and nephews, ranging in age from 48 to 18. However, being an aunt is definitely easier than being a mother! My hat is off to all of you who have children! You deserve to have a special day! I’ll fondly be remembering my own wonderful mother, and other older women in my life who were mentors and friends, especially those who shared my love of needlecrafts.

Motif #6 - Doily Motif from Apron of Victorian Doll

I’m interrupting my tatting story again because I want to update my August 14 post.

I found the pattern for the apron on the Victorian Doll !
You may recall that I couldn’t come up with the pattern last August when I posted the story of the doll. However, when I recently found the pattern, I also discovered a few more surprises!



MOTIF #6

“Tatted Lattice Doily”
by Darlene Polachic –

shown here with alterations
I didn’t realize I had made!

Here’s the path to my discovery:

Briefly, Connie (Crafty Rainbow Rose) http://www.craftyrainbowrose.blogspot.com/ started me on an internet ‘browsing’ journey, which then resulted in my accidentally coming across a photo of my doily, which then prompted me to go back to my own tatting books.

Connie’s post on October 24 showed a photo of a crocheted doily that mimicked tatting. She mentioned Annie’s Attic as the source, under their “Free Pattern of the Day”. I was too late to see that pattern, but I’m still intrigued by it

When I checked out the Annie’s Attic site, I also found another site: http://www.freepatterns.com/ .
At first glance it doesn’t look like a tatting site, but it’s a very cool site that has free daily patterns for knitting, sewing, etc. At the bottom of the page there is a Site Index – look under Crochet, click on Tatting, then Doilies.

While browsing the photos of the 12 tatted doilies at the above link, the very last pattern jumped out at me because it looked like my Victorian Doll’s apron! As soon as I saw the name of Darlene Polachic as the designer, I knew it had to be the pattern!

I recognized Darlene’s name, as she wrote “The Big Book of Tatting” and also contributed designs to Old Time Crochet magazine. This discovery led me right back to looking through my Old time Crochet magazines – one more time!!!. The pattern is free at the above link, but I was determined to find it in my own magazine!]

Sure enough, I found the doily in the Summer 1997 issue on page 15. It’s also featured on the Editor’s page inside the front cover! How did I miss this last August?!!

HOWEVER, MORE SURPRISES AWAITED ME!



I discovered that I altered Darlene’s original pattern – and never realized it!

In the first round, I put only three picots on the chains instead of four, which led to three connecting rings on the second round , instead of Darlene’s four.











I can only assume I simply didn’t pay close enough attention to the first round. I must not have looked at the magazine photo, either, although it doesn’t have a ‘closeup’ of the motif – just the finished doily. I don’t recall ever thinking “Oops, I did this incorrectly!” Somehow it worked out fine, and I actually saved myself some work by having fewer rings and chains, and also having to connect only two picots between motifs. I managed to make 20 motifs, instead of the 16 pictured; but, of course, you can make as many as you want.

1997 Diary mysteriously silent!
Now that I had the 1997 date of the magazine, I went back to my 1997 diary. I discovered that I purchased the magazine on May 17 and wrote that it had a tatted alphabet in it (which it does), but didn’t mention the doily. However, I fully expected to find entries about deciding to tat the doily and actually making the doily. But to my disbelief, I never write about making the doily! I remember that I found it tricky to keep adding motifs, and having to contend with having to keep the already connected motifs out of the way. But it certainly isn’t a difficult pattern, and I was an ‘experienced’ tatter by then (or so I thought!). After 20 motifs I just laid it aside, not knowing where to use it.

Buying the Doll in December 1997. The other surprise was finding out that I bought the doll only two days before the Old Economy Christmas festival, when I normally am quite busy gathering all my items and displays together. I wasn’t ‘searching’ for a doll; I was shopping for other things on December 4 when I saw the doll and liked the colors on her dress. Then on December 5, I wrote that I ‘added tatting’ to the doll. What a blasé and non-descriptive entry!

II did write that the doll looked “amazing” but didn’t describe why! I remember working on it most of the day, coming up with different ideas using ‘scrap’ pieces, and was particularly pleased with the headdress. I really was quite excited about it, so these lackluster comments are quite mystifying!
guess I was too tired to write more about it, since I had spent the day also packing the car and getting my costume ready!

The disappointing diary entries can possibly be attributed to the fact that 1997 was a difficult year for us ( job situations, major house repairs ), and I must have been distracted, although I did mention knitting some items and tatting some small items, plus I attended 6 festivals that year!

My ‘tatting frenzy’ years actually were 1990-94, then I cut way back when I went back to work for two years. I was home full time starting in 1996, but I still wasn’t doing a lot of tatting and started concentrating on another passion – learning to play the piano. I also do calligraphy and often made my own Christmas cards. But tatting was still very important to me.

Another interesting discovery in the 1997 diary is my first tentative use of the Internet at our Library! However, I don’t believe I looked up tatting sites until early in 1999. And it wasn’t until 2007 (!) that I finally got internet service at home! And in July 2008 I started this blog – and would never have believed back then that there would be an easy way for ‘ordinary folks’ – not computer geniuses – to create their own ‘web log’ site!

Wow! Quite a trip down Memory Lane!

Victorian Doll - new uses for doilies and bits of tatting

Although I want to keep things in chronological order, starting with 1989, I’m jumping time-wise to about 1995 because I promised to explain the Victorian Doll pictured at the top of my blog.

I bought the doll (without the tatted ‘apron’, of course) in the mid-1990s at a toy store. I particularly liked the colors of her dress – burgundy and green – very Victorian!. I knew I was going to embellish the dress with tatting, and it happened that I had started a doily a few months before I bought her. I was tatting the doily to see if I had the discipline to pay attention to the important joins necessary with each motif. It turned out I didn’t quite have the patience to make the doily any bigger, so I have only 20 motifs in the doily, and I put it aside in my ‘unfinished tatting’ stash.

The doily turned out to be the perfect size for the skirt overlay on the doll’s dress. However, as you can see, the doily does not cover the back of the skirt, so I added another piece of ‘scrap’ tatting on the back, as well as to the top front of the dress. Yet another piece of scrap tatting is used for the headdress, finished off with a wisp of a marabou feather.

She’s just a sort of ‘fantasy’ doll, not from any particular time period, but she nicely complements my Victorian tatting display.

Now for the embarrassing part - I have searched high and low and can’t find the pattern for the doily! Possibly the pattern (I believe it is in a booklet of patterns) is hidden away somewhere in my craft room, and I will come across it one day. However, I generally keep all my tatting books together, so I can’t imagine where it could have gone. If you know where this pattern can be found, please let me know!

The message of this post is: Find uses for old or new doilies! You can frame them, of course, or mount them on throw pillows. Smaller ones (coaster size) can be medallions on towels or pillowcases or can be showcased on top of fancy velvet boxes.

As this is my first post with photos actually in the post itself, I'm going to close here and see how it worked out. I'll be adding another new post soon..