Crocheted Edging Inspiration

by Kelly

I've been working on a project of my own involving crocheted edging, so when I saw this how-to on the CRAFT, site, I had to take a look.

The tutorial is here at  Miss Abigail's Hope Chest . She does a wonderful job of stepping you through the process with photos. She does use a ruler and an awl to make the holes for the edging, though, so I thought I would suggest an alternative to that part of the process.

Here's a little gadget you've probably never seen before :

I finally tracked this down through  a site called Quilt Me Happy. It's a little blade that fits on your rotary cutter. There are three different sizes, so you can choose one for edging a towel, or another for edging a blanket. I have only found one source for these, and they have a patent-pending notice on their product, so they may be the only manufacturers at the moment. Here's their site  Skip Stitch Products. The blades are pretty pricey at $11.00 and $13.00, and of course you're going to have to choose an edging pattern that will work with those holes. But if you're thinking of mass producing edged towels or blankets, this might be the item for you.

Unfortunately, I've decided that this little gadget won't work for me either. I'm working with silk, which slips and frays and is otherwise argumentative. I'm afraid that if I run a line of holes along an edge, then put the project down and come back the next day, I'll find the edge is already a hopeless mess of loose threads.

At the moment I'm working on an embroidered edge that makes loops that I can hopefully crochet into. My big worry is that this won't be sturdy enough, but time will tell.