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View Full Version : My angel pattern -I need opinions



Tarie
31-10-2009, 02:36 PM
Ok I've had a request for my angel pattern. The angel can be seen in my album about my fair submissions for 2009. I'm more than happy to share my pattern. The question I have is "Is it enough my design for me to have the right to share it?"

I saw a doily pattern in a library book I thought was pretty. I tried to do the pattern as described to make a doily but no matter what I did it would not lay flat. I repeated the center ring and round over and over making tiny changes trying to get it to lay flat. Then when I got it to where it was only slightly curved I thought that maybe if the second row was exceptionally flat I could force the first one flat while blocking. So I did the second row as described except I didn't read carefully enough the section that described how far apart the joins where to the first round. This was important because each round was followed by a row of crochet so I could join anywhere I chose. So with my lack of caution I did too many of the repeating pattern and the second row look like a ruffle. So after I finished that row I put my finger through the center ring and held it up in all it's non flat glory and just starred at it in dismay. I would never get it to lay flat! LOL But while I starred at it I realized it looked a lot like the top half of a skirt for an angel dress.

I had wanted to find an angel pattern so I could make an angel for the fair so I decided to make it up myself. I chose a smaller thread size and redid the center ring with twice as many of the repeating pattern as the pattern called for since I no longer cared if the darn thing layed flat. (To my annoyance it was PERFECTLY flat! LOL) So then I intentionally did the next row with too many of the motifs and did a few repeating rows that were the same until I had the skirt as long as I wanted it.

Then I did the first round again and used it to make a collar for the dress but I did it as written so it would be smaller. At least I think it was as written it's hard to remember. Then I took the general motif from the first round of alternating cloverleafs and a single ring with the cloverleaf joined at the base and designed a bodice that eventually joined to the top of the skirt. Again using that pattern with the cloverleafs and a single ring I designed sleeves. But during the sleeves I alter the chains to make them smaller so they wouldn't ruffle until the last row.

Now that the dress was done I had to design wings. At first I just tried to use the repeating coverleaf/ring look again but I was going to end up with a huge gap in the center of my wings so I scrapped that I started with a split ring base to tat around. I made a row of split rings that got progressively larger and then added cloverleafs that got larger so that the center base structure would start out narrow and end wide so that when I tatted around the edges it would be a wing shape. Then I made a small circle from the orignal doily pattern but with tiny rings to be the lower half of the wing and attatched it to the bottom of the split ring/cloverleaf triangle. Then I used the alternating cloverleaf/single ring pattern except with tiny rings all around the split ring center. I had to alter the counts as I went to keep the wing edge straight as I tatted around the cloverleaf section of the center structure. After I had two of these wings made I just stitched them to the dress. By this time I had alread made the inner dress lining and the doll so the wings aren't just sewn to the tatting.

So my question is am I really the designer and I have the right to give out the pattern? Or is it so heavily based on the original doilly that it would be copywright infringement for me to do so?

The doily pattern is from a book I got in the library and I don't remember which book it was. I did a search online just now and that library only claims 3 tatting pattern books though I could swear there were more. They are
Easy Tatting by Rozella F Linden
A New Twist On tatting: More than 100 Glorious Designs by Catherine Austin
and Tatting; Patterns & Designs.
The Doily was pattern number 42 on pages 132 & 133. I wish I knew which book it was!

Any who what do you all think?

Tarie
31-10-2009, 04:01 PM
Just to be absolutely clear I don't want to take credit for anyone else's work. Maybe the best way to handle it would be to figure out for sure what book the pattern came from and just include what I already wrote above. But then I wouldn't be able to give exact pattern details with counts and stuff and it would make it very hard for someone else to make it also.

Oh and upon further inspection I think the pattern for the doily was in A New Twist On tatting: More than 100 Glorious Designs by Catherine Austin, but I'm not 100% certain. Since it was a library book I had to return it and I can't just look it up.

PattyD
31-10-2009, 05:20 PM
I believe that you have so much invested in your angel, that it is yours. All designers take in information from everywhere. Tatters look at other Tatters' work. Most simple ring and chain arrangements are reinvented over and over again and put to a different purpose with differences in scale and accent. Post it! It's yours. So says me. If it makes your feel better about it, mention that it was inspired by a work of Catherine Austin. So, now, you are a designer, how does it feel?

soyloquesoy
31-10-2009, 07:01 PM
I totally agree! It is yours, inspired by whomever. It is really good, too!

Tarie
31-10-2009, 09:01 PM
I wish there was some way to ask the original designer's opinion. Even if I do decide to post it I'll have to wait a while because I didn't write anything down and it is still at the fair. I'll have to examine it and write down what I did. I wish I had written it down as I went.

Krystledawne
31-10-2009, 11:22 PM
I don't think A new twist on tatting has any patterns in it......

Tarie
01-11-2009, 04:13 AM
I don't think A new twist on tatting has any patterns in it......

Hmm maybe it was a different book. That was just an educated guess. I guess I'll just have to go to the library and look through the books until I find it! LOL

PattyD
01-11-2009, 05:22 AM
Don't be afraid of the word designer. You did a lot of your own work. Too narrow a definition of design would mean that no one who uses a ring or chain could claim to have made something new!

RankkaApina
01-11-2009, 09:04 AM
The Doily was pattern number 42 on pages 132 & 133. I wish I knew which book it was!

I checked the New Twist on tatting, since I have the book on my shelf. There are patterns in this book. And there is a pattern number 42 at the page 133 and the page 132 has a picture of that pattern. I'm not totally sure it's the one you meant, but I think it would be a too big of a coincedence. The pattern also has some crocheting on it. Anyway I think you should get the book from the library and check if the pattern is the one you think.

Ridgewoman
02-11-2009, 08:32 PM
Hmm maybe it was a different book. That was just an educated guess. I guess I'll just have to go to the library and look through the books until I find it! LOL

Yes, there are some really nice patterns after all of the photos of the patterns worked. There are actually 50 tatting patterns; and other patterns for different uses. B:cool:

Rose
04-11-2009, 10:45 AM
WOW! It sounds like you did a lot of work without instructions. I am a fairly new tatter but have made several things..........just have had no formal training at all. When I can't figure something out.........after a while I just give up. I adore the angel and I hope I don't miss it if/when you post the instructions. Thanks for sharing your talent. Rose PS: She may be farther advanced than my ability, but I can always dream!

Tarie
04-11-2009, 11:51 AM
She may be farther advanced than my ability, but I can always dream!

To be honest the tatting involved was not that difficult. I took a while to figure out the bodice but there aren't any techniques beyond just rings and chains. The hard part was the dress lining made of wedding dress fabric and the doll itself. I ended up making two dolls because I couldn't get the first on into the dress. I made body parts and connected them (if I could) after putting them into the dress. The arms are only kept in because the cuffs of the sleeves are sewn to the wrists. Trying to put elastic in the bloomers almost drove me stark raving mad. LOL

Tarie
05-11-2009, 01:08 PM
I may decide to post the pattern for the Angel but It will take a while because I can't pick up the angel at the fair for a few more days and then it will be tedious to figure out what I had done in the tatting. It will be difficult to figure out the back of the bodice with the wings sewn over it.