Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Josephine "Spiral" Chain Tutorial

This is the way I do Josephine or "Spiral" chains and I thought I would share it. It is very simple and the results are very nice. The books I have read state that you should use the first half of the double stitch over and over to create the chain. I prefer to use the second half of the double stitch and I drop the shuttle every 5 stitches to make a nice uniform twist.
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As you can see in this first photo. I used my method for the first 15 stitches or so then I did the middle section of 20 stitches where I did NOT drop the shuttle. As you can see, the stitches are all bunched up and are not very attractive. I then resumed using my tatting method.
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This photo shows the location where I drop the shuttle every five stitches. I then pick up the shuttle and resume the process.
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Finally, this photo is an example of what I would consider to be a good Josephine treatment.

I think a lot of people shy away from using this simple stitch because if done improperly it doesn't look very attractive. But now you know a simple little trick to make it look really nice.

Side note: Josephine chains are done by (encapsulation, reverse tatting, unflipped stitch). These are some of the different names used for the same method.

8 comments:

Lace-lovin' Librarian ~ Diane said...

Thanks for the tutorial, Sherry! I really like your last picture... another goal to set for myself!

Tatman said...

Another name for Josephine Chain is "Spiral Chain". Nice job in explaining how you do this. I use this chain technique often in my designs. Makes for nice vines with florals. :)

Tat-a-Renda said...

Wonderfully clear and easy to understand explanation. Thank you for putting this up.

Tattycat said...

Great tutorial and beautiful work, as usual. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

WOW! This is great... thanks a ton and it looks cool too... waiting to try this next.

Marty said...

Hmmmm...maybe that's been my problem with them. I do them with flipped 2nd half stitches. I'm going to try the unflipped and see what happens. Thanks!

Gina said...

Cool! I've never done it this way - never used more than one thread for this technique so there was no reason not to flip. I'll have to try this sometime. I do prefer using the 2nd half stitch too.
:-) Gina

Barbara Gordon said...

I use this a lot lately however I have a copy of your instructions as I like the helpful hint('s) you include in here. The drop the shuttle one..thanks!