Different ways of making a larger loop for picots.
The Bobbin Lace Along FB group are making Bonny Van Bergan's Milanese lace 'Family of Giraffes' as a group learning experience. The giraffe horns are created by making a particularly large, round picot. This lead to some discussion about how these can be made.
The options were:- a thick divider pin, four standard pins tight together, a standard pin with a bugle bead on, and to wrap paper around pearl head pins.
My thoughts: The divider pin is ideal, but is most likely to leave a hole in fabric/foam pillows.
Cluster of standard pins, not really a round shape, may leave a hole.
Bugle bead, ideal if you buy the good ones with heat smoothed ends, the cheap ones (like the one I tried) have sharp, uneven ends and I would worry about cutting the thread if it slid underneath.
Paper wrapped pearl pins. A half inch strip of paper at the top of the pin. I used the scissorribbon method for curling the paper to start, double sided sticky tape to fix and roll up with one sided sticky tape on the outside. Pushed into the pillow, these were the best option, and can be made to fit any size needed. The pins will be covered in sticky residue if the paper is pulled off so best to make a couple and keep them for this purpose.
The pattern for the giraffes is available as a free download in the 'Files' tab of the Bobbin Lace Along facebook group.
