As some of you know or might remember I made a lace garter which is shown in
my hurwitzend folder on the photo flikr site with so many others on here. I
put together a pretty combination of stitches and motifs and used Gutterman
silk thread because it sounded so lovely, rich and in keeping with a wedding.
I made it up during 2009 in memory of a much loved and then recently lost aunt
who had a great influence in the lives of myself and my siblings. She lived
with my parents for 50 years and so, and was a strange combination of a big
sister and then an extra Mum, (not always a good thing for a teenager) we all
left the nest to marry and raise our own families.
I was pleased with the lace and stored it away for my nieces to wear at their
weddings and nephews brides as well. The first one happened 3 years ago and
the second wedding took place last month and I have just received the garter
back to clean and store for the future but although it continues to look good
enough when viewed on its own the silk thread is not that beautiful white and
it was hard to get the perfect blue that I like and to me always looks vaguely
grubby although it isnât.The other flaw came to light by me when I began
to thread elastic and ribbon each time and the gaps and holes are too small
and difficult. On the screen the size looked just fine on my design program
and I was blown away with how great the pattern looked printed. It gives an
amazing warm glow to any of you who dont have one. My early trial patterns
were scanned and copied out of books, on an image program to remove bits of
patterns I didnât want or to move small shapes into place to put together in
a completely different way. It helped my early lace and encouraged my other
half to buy me the program, . But the flaws only came to light years later.
Having learned so much over the years and then finding out that only time and
experience really makes some things clear I have decided to revisit this
pattern and work it again in a bigger grid and in a lovely cotton thread which
will hold up better and I reworked the pattern to give me a larger gap for the
ribbon and elastic and now am working the very beginnings of this new piece
with a deadline to complete in time for the recently announced marriage of our
only son. Surprised and delighted so busy working bridal lace in time for
the November wedding but have decided to make this one all white and use
colour in the ribbon, blue this time and for any future brides can choose
white, blue or bridesmaids colours if we can match ribbon well enough.
I have put this email together to let others see that we dont have time to
learn by making all the mistakes ourselves so if it helps anyone think this
out a bit better before they begin that is good. I have had help from many
lace makers most will know I mean them and again in recent times with
Jennyâs motifs and a really long email from Ruth explaining why I hadnât
been able to use preworked motifs of my own and previously worked lace. It
cuts huge amounts of wasted time out. So I now have all but two pairs of
bobbins working in the pattern and need to wind and add these two by tonight
and then head down and work on.
This is the ideal time to have to concentrate hard on my lace as our Mum died
last friday at the tender age of 93. In the next few weeks I am being given
back the pieces of lace she has had in her room over the last 4 years which we
used to talk about on skype and she loved to receive. She would show them off
with pleasure when they arrived in the mail to other residents before they
went into place in her room and my brother used to make sure they were where
she could see them.
I now have a busy day again, so take pleasure in the lace you make for your
own sake and also the people who receive them and many who have never seen
anything quite as pretty in their lives.
Sue T
Dorset UK where we have a bit of sunshine, rather wild winds still after our
first named storm of the season (nothing like your horrendous storms in the
US). It has still managed to disconnect electricity in many places, although
at the moment we are OK.
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