An Introduction to the Priscilla Project

I’ve been toying around with the idea of a larger tatting project for a while.  I have a habit of reverting back to redoing the same patterns or variations of the same patterns and have been wanting to stretch my tatting skills more but my OCD tendencies are craving a systematic way of doing that.

And thus the idea for the Priscilla Project was born.

As far as I have found, there are 3 full length books and one shorter pamphlet (on yokes) on tatting from the Priscilla Publishing Co. with the first book published in 1909.

I’m not sure why I’ve gravitated to the patterns in the Priscilla books over some of the other great antique tatting patterns out there, but I just love them.  (Especially the third book)  However, actually tatting from them has been both rewarding and frustrating.  The close-up pictures never seem to be of the part of the piece that’s giving me trouble.  The directions are often vague and sometimes wrong.  But the pictures show some incredible pieces and a lot of techniques that I always thought were newer inventions.

As soon as I got my printed copies bound it started feeling like a real project that I could tackle.  Now I have flipped through and drooled over the books enough.  Time now to start tatting.

I have no idea if I’ll eventually end up tatting all the patterns.  The OCDness in me wants to make that as a goal, but my more practical side is reminding me that I’m also a working grad student and that even if I weren’t, working (and likely re-working and re-working again) the patterns would take years.  Plus I’ve got other projects going on in my life (both with and without thread and shuttles).  Who knows?  In a year or two I could get sick of attempting to read the tiny print.

So as I start off I set no goals for this project.  Or rather, for right now, the goal is simply to explore these books more and to document the process as much as my time will allow.

I suspect that a few of the the patterns will leave me baffled, frustrated and confused.  But I can tell just from flipping through the books that it’s also going to be a lot of fun.

If you’re interested in exploring the books with me, print out your own copies of these awesome books.  You can find them online at the Antique Pattern Library, a great resource for all sorts of antique lace patterns of all sorts of techniques. Or if you want a more compact list of just tatting books, check out the InTatters.com selection of antique tatting patterns (These are mostly pulled from the Antique Pattern Library, but this site saves you time by only listing tatting books.)

Enjoy!