Crochet Linen Doily, Part One

 Let's do some deconstructing, or is it backwards engineering? Let's make some linen dresser doilies, not with a pattern but by copying. As if that isn't enough of a challenge, let's do some embroidery as well. It may all end up being a terrible idea!

Back in the day, before the TV, women would embroider and crochet absolutely everything in sight. I was surprised, after a quick search on the internet, to discover that it is still possible to buy these lacy fripperies. It quickly becomes apparent that no one knows what to call them. They are doilies, doulies, placemats, covers, scarves and runners.

My wonderful friend, known here as The Researcher, sent me two tea-towels which she bought in Mexico. I shudder at the idea of using them for anything so common place! They feature crochet, of course, but also drawn thread work, silk ribbon embroidery, cross stitch, and satin stitch embroidery. As there is so much for me to learn here, let's make this a two part blog, starting with the white design this month and the blue design next month. I already know I don't have the patience for all that cross stitch!

 

Before I begin I am going to need a magnifying glass and a whole lot of luck! At least I know that I have to wash and iron my linen to pre shrink it and then I need to hem my doilies. 

 

 

I'm starting with the 'White' tea-towel because it is the easiest. The first thing to do is to examine the work I intend to copy. The Linen is hemmed with a wide hem. I have a sewing machine foot to do this; but after a fairly disastrous attempt to use it I decided on the unskilled method!

 

The towel has edging at one end only, but I intend to copy it on to both ends of my doily. The crochet appears to be begun with spike Dc (UK, Sc-US) made over the hemmed edge and separated by three chain. The spike stitches appear to be about ⅜" (inch) apart. After roughly drawing out the stitch pattern I can see that the pattern repeats over 9 of these spike stitches and I will need one more at the end. So that's 9 x ⅜". The American readers will find this perfectly acceptable but my metric English brain is screaming! So I decide instead to make this ³/₁₀"! Besides the maths, I will be marking this by hand and it is much clearer to read from my ruler! Now I can work out how big I want my doily to be.

I've decided to use No8 Anchor Pearl Cotton thread in Cream, as I just happen to have a whole box full. The thread is a little finer than the original thread used, but I'm hoping that the cream coloured yarn will be more visible against the white cloth. 

I was nervous about pulling up stitches through the Linen, but it was easier than I expected. I used a 1.25mm hook for these initial stitches, but after that I went with a 1.5mm hook just because I find it easier.

 

As the thread is thinner than the original, I ended up doubling up the number of stitches used for the shell features just to make it look right. I made a sort of Treble puff stitch made of two pairs of 2 joined trebles. (Dc-US). I'm quite happy with how it worked out and I like the contrast of the cream thread and white linen.

 

The drawn thread work is more of a challenge as I have only ever worked a few samples. I began by cutting a single thread in the centre and began carefully picking it out until I reached the hems on either side. 

I have decided that this border is 6 threads wide. Now that I have picked out one thread it is easier to see and pull the others. The ends of the drawn thread can now be threaded onto a needle and slipped inside the hems so that the finish is very neat. Using the cream thread I can now weave it through the threads. In each set of 6 threads the needle does a little dance that twists the back three threads forwards. It goes under the back three threads, over the front three threads, and is twisted back so that the needle comes out of the cloth where it went in!

As you can tell I am not the greatest machinist in the world and my seams are not very straight. I realise now that I should have pulled the threads before I hemmed the fabric. This way I would have achieved a better finish. However I like the overall effect. The drawn thread technique is very fiddly but really very simple. I'm tempted to leave the design there but perhaps I should add a line of embroidery as well.

I drew out the running stitch design on squared paper, it was just visible when I laid it under the linen. This allowed me to position the design in just the right place. Then I left pin point marks with an air soluble pen on the fabric. The sewing needs to be done fairly promptly before the marks fade.

It's been a big learning curves but I've learnt a lot from the mistakes. No one will notice with a beautiful vase of flowers sat on it. After all that's the job of doilies, to protect what's underneath from what's on top. If lacy fripperies ever come back into fashion I'll be ready!

fastening off...