As lovely and delicate as tatting, and especially picots, can be, they can also be frustrating at times. If you have ever had to wash your tatting, stored it long term, or inherited tatting, you know that those lovely lace loops can get twisted every which way, and be nearly impossible to iron out flat. Also, you can run into this problem when you are starting out tatting, and are still working on figuring out even thread tension, or when making large or extra large picots.
A good way to undo the curly, twisty, loops that result, and to save your sanity (if your picots are doing this, than you know what I mean!) is to "block" them. Blocking with or without stiffening, is a good method to use to relatively rapidly, get your tatting looking beautiful and resting flat and elegantly again, as it should be.
Below are two videos, that I hope you will find helpful. One on blocking, and the other on the main kind of spray starch that I use (though often I do not use stiffeners at all). Also scroll past video links, for my grandma's sugar starch/stiffener recipe.
Blocking Tatting:
Stiffening Tatting:
Recipe for Sugar Stiffener
If you desire a strong stiffener, very stiff, and will not be getting item damp in the future, then sugar water stiffener is a good option for you. Here is the sugar water stiffener recipe that I inherited.
- 1cup granulated sugar
- 1⁄2cup water
- Put sugar and water in a pan. Cook and stir mixture continually, on low heat, until it becomes clear. Best not to let liquid boil. When liquid mixture becomes clear, remove from heat and cool.
- Dampen item, that you wish to stiffen, in fresh water. Then use towel to pat out extra water. Next, after sugar water has cooled, dip item in it, and gently squeeze or pat out extra sugar water.
- If a flat item, lay tatting flat and let dry. If shaped, such as a basket, bowl, or three-d flower, then find an item that is desired shape and size and place tatting on/over item to use as mold. Let item dry, and then remove.
