Stunning Silk Dress Edging

Georgia has been bringing old patterns from Europe and USA back to life for many, many years, but have been the tatters from East Europe and Russia that have made them very popular, tatting those old works with new threads and colours, selling them via internet.

This one is really pretty and you can find it in the Antique Pattern Library for free. Those books contain all the stunning works we are looking in internet, with no variations, with or without beads in their picots.


All we have to do is to download the books and start tatting (Consider to donate to Antique Pattern Library). Be aware that the old style tatting language could be difficult to understand, but looking at the pics you can follow the written instructions.

I think that the edging was designed to be tatted it in one and only one colour. And I guess that has a special join, the Alligator Join, although the written instructions don't say a word about reversing work or how to join the chain to the central (big), ring to complete the motif.

The book does give a tip, if you join the first small ring of the main motif to the last small ring of the previous main motif, your lace will be firmer. In few words, join both motif by their 1st and last small rings.

I've included the thread needed for the main and clover motifs in sizes: 10, 20, 30, 40 and 80. 

Repeat the main motif (row 1), as many times as you need for the desire length. Do the same for the clover motif, upper side of the edging (row2). 

Enjoy it.

Legend
R= Ring
C= Chain
+ = Join
AJ= Alligator Join
LJ = Lock Join  
-  = Picot
vsp = very small picot
() = Repeat stitches between parentheses
{} = Repeat shapes between curly brakes

[MATERIAL]
NAME=Silk Dress Edging
AUTHOR= Priscilla De Witt Book 2 pattern 18
TATTER=
THREAD1=
THREAD2=
 
[ROW 1]
# On_ShuttleA_10= 0mt 98cm 6mm or 1yd 0ft 3in
# On_ShuttleB_10= 2mt 40cm 4mm or 2yd 1ft 11in
# On_ShuttleA_20= 0mt 82cm 1mm or 0yd 2ft 8in
# On_ShuttleB_20= 2mt 07cm 7mm or 2yd 0ft 10in
# On_ShuttleA_30= 0mt 66cm 1mm or 0yd 2ft 2in
# On_ShuttleB_30= 1mt 68cm 0mm or 1yd 2ft 6in
# On_ShuttleA_40= 0mt 60cm 4mm or 0yd 2ft 0in
# On_ShuttleB_40= 1mt 52cm 0mm or 1yd 2ft 0in
# On_ShuttleA_80= 0mt 53cm 4mm or 0yd 1ft 9in
# On_ShuttleB_80= 1mt 34cm 1mm or 1yd 1ft 5in

# Main motif
{

R= 3DS - 3DS CR RW
C= 9DS - 9DS RW

# Big Ring
R= 10DS 6 ( 2ds - ) 10DS CR RW
C= 5 ( 2DS - ) LJ R 2DS # lock join to first free picot of big ring

C= 6DS

# Small ring
R= 3 ( 3DS - ) 3DS CR
C= 6DS LJ R # lock join to first free picot of big ring

4 {

C= 6DS
R= 3DS +R 2 ( 3DS - ) 3DS CR # join to previous small ring
C= 6DS LJ R # lock join to next free picot of big ring

}

C= 5 ( 2DS - ) AJ R 2DS # Alligator join to base of big ring

C= 9DS - 9DS RW

}

[ROW 2]
# On_ShuttleA_10= 1mt 16cm 2mm or 1yd 0ft 10in
# On_ShuttleB_10= 0mt 45cm 5mm or 0yd 1ft 6in
# On_ShuttleA_20= 0mt 98cm 3mm or 1yd 0ft 3in
# On_ShuttleB_20= 0mt 39cm 2mm or 0yd 1ft 3in
# On_ShuttleA_30= 0mt 79cm 0mm or 0yd 2ft 7in
# On_ShuttleB_30= 0mt 30cm 8mm or 0yd 1ft 0in
# On_ShuttleA_40= 0mt 71cm 8mm or 0yd 2ft 4in
# On_ShuttleB_40= 0mt 27cm 3mm or 0yd 0ft 11in
# On_ShuttleA_80= 0mt 63cm 2mm or 0yd 2ft 1in
# On_ShuttleB_80= 0mt 23cm 7mm or 0yd 0ft 9in

R= 3 ( 3DS - ) 3DS CR RW
C = 9DS +C 9DS RW # join to previous row's long chain's picot
# Clover
R= 5DS - 5DS +R 5DS - 5DS CR # Join to previous ring's picot
R= 5DS +R 5DS - 5DS - 5DS CR
R= 5DS +R 5DS - 5DS - 5DS CR RW
C= 9DS +C 9DS RW # join to previous row's long chain's picot

[ENDPATTERN]

A pretty variation of this edging is to tat a second edging joining the middle ring's picots of the clovers.