Tatting a Rosie Ring

Emmy Liebert’s “Schiffchenarbeit” from

1918 has been reprinted many times.
Below you can see the original pattern
written in old German Fraktur script.
Emmy made wonderful things
embellished with tatting. It is basically
all one shuttle work, all rings and a little
bit of plain sewing. In most cases the
rings are not even joined. Instead they
are arranged in pleasing patterns and
sewn into place. A simple idea which
we can use to make wall hangings
sachets, pin cushions, hat decorations
and brooches.

Here is the simplest design, although in this case there

are four true joins, the upper rings are tatted close
together and then just sewn into place. The large rings
could be leaf-color and the smaller upper rings petal
colored, sewn to fabric and a pin added for a brooch.
 Here the rings are tatted but not joined in a grape color,
sewn into an attractive bunch shape. A few leaf-colored
rings added and it makes a lovely applique, brooch, Hanky
Panky style quilt wall hanging embellishment, or reticule
adornment.

The directions for creating a flower shape are simple and easy to tat. Begin by tatting
strings of rings in floral and leaf colors. It does not have to be one long string. You can
actually “tat” off leftover thread on shuttles and save them until you have enough for a
design. Begin each string with a ring of 10 - 20 DS, leaving 1/4 - 1/2" space of bare thread
between the rings. After 8 - 10 rings decrease the DS count by 2-3 ds. Everything is
random, no set amount, just start large and end small. Just as flower blossoms have
smaller petals in the cent er and larger petals on the outside. The more ring strings you
have the larger your project. Also do a few strings of rings to use as leaves.