Beginnings....and a Question

[carolivy]

The first edging I started for a hankie I tatted with the idea of putting it on after. Well, the length between corners was giving me fits...so now I have crocheted around the hankie and am now sewing it on as I go. A bit fiddley, so as I got another hankie from HH, I thought I'd try one worked directly onto the hankie. I really like this way much better! The edgind pattern I'm using for this one is Mary Konior's Curds & Whey with Rachael's corner...really cool the way it works out!
beginnings.jpg
Ok, so now the question....those tatters who do tat directly to the hankies, how do you figure where to attach? Are my safety pins a little OCD? (I fell that maybe they are...sigh..lol) By doing it this way though, I found out that I have one extra "space" so will adjust it at the center point of the edge. The safety pins make it kind of awkward to handle though while tatting....

[LizBird]

One of the books I have suggests using a washable fabric marking pen to mark the holes you will need to attach to. I haven't tried it yet, though.

[PattyD]

Anything that makes your work, better, easier or more fun is good! I think the pins are brilliant.

[LizBird]

Have you tried using smaller pins? Or what about some small stitch markers? I can see how they would get int the way though.

[Judy]

I think the HHTatting Edgings books has a sort of "chapter" on how to figure out where to attach. I recall...(book is not handy) you were to count the holes, and you fold it in halves and quarters, and mark those then figure out from the edging how many joins, and mark with a pencil which holes you'll use. I think they had you start in the middle of a side... but, memory being what it is these days... I could be totally wrong.

[carolivy]

I think the HHTatting Edgings books has a sort of "chapter" on how to figure out where to attach. I recall...(book is not handy) you were to count the holes, and you fold it in halves and quarters, and mark those then figure out from the edging how many joins, and mark with a pencil which holes you'll use. I think they had you start in the middle of a side... but, memory being what it is these days... I could be totally wrong.

Problem is that so far the two hankies I am working on have 100 holes per side but the pattern never works out so that is what I should have on each side...always 1 or 2 too many or not enough.

I finally got tired of the weight of the pins and tied small bits of extra thread where each of the pins was.

[LizBird]

I thought about suggesting thread too! ^_^

[squeeky]

Last week I finally got two hanky edgings attached, one of them took over a year for me to finally get done (okay, I gave up about 10 months ago...). I tried the safety pin method but it just got too tangly. I tried basting it but the basting thread kept getting in my way when I tried to crochet the edging to the hanky (I ended up using a slip stitch with the loops on the front side of the hanky, not sure how I feel about it yet, but at least they're out of the UFO basket). What finally worked for me was using the the dressmaker's pencil to mark counts on the holes then going back and marking main attachment points. As soon as I get them blocked, I'll post them, but now that I'm talking about it, I should photo them with the marks still on the hanky. For this I only had one color of pencil, blue, but will bring my pink home from the studio (I use them in sewing a lot, like when marking grommets for corsets or darts for adjustments).

And I had the same concerns about using the dressmaker's pencils (dressmaker pencils seem softer than tailor pencils, whether they really are or not I don't know but I have both and the dressmaker ones are my favorites) on a hanky too. If you're concerned, try making a light mark on the back side of the hanky then use the bristly thing on the end of the pencil to "erase" it. When doing mine, I found out I needed to make my marks a little darker than I originally expected so they wouldn't fade away while working on the hanky. If the light mark fades away when "erased", feel secure that it will wash out. Though I haven't done it to the hankies, when sewing I've found steam ironing causes the marks to fade or completely vanish.

Okay, just tried to photograph the hankies so the marks can be seen, but the camera didn't pick them up at all on any of the shots. :( I swear, there are marks at least every five holes, starting from the corners meeting in the center (where I could adjust the edging to fit), and some of them have several marks - initial dots, the arrow because the dots weren't where i wanted, the long mark because the arrow wasn't where i wanted, the long line with 1 arrow, etc. There are at least five different marks I used in the process of getting the edge fitted to the side.