The Pink Parasol's New Handle, Part 1

Give a woman power tools, and creative things will happen (whether they were meant to be that way or not).

Some years ago I bought this little parasol:

Small parasol that's lost it's handle. Hard to
date, could have been made anywhere
between 1890 and 1930.

It was cheap. Even in its day it was must have been cheap, its construction is mediocre, its parts are economy. And your eyes do not deceive you, its handle is broken off and irretrievably lost. But that made it unloved, and cheap.

This isn't the only parasol I have that has lost its handle, but because it's such a budget frame it's going to be my first full-handle-replacement project. Over the last few weeks I've been gathering the tools and parts I need. Today I went at it (though I'm REALLY supposed to be doing Costume College prep. Oh well.)

First thing is the replacement handle. I had originally planned to use an ordinary dowel, but went with the top end of a walking cane instead. A dowel would have had uniform thickness from top to bottom, while canes are generally a bit tapered, and that made, I think, for a more natural shape. The cane I used was *ahem* cheap, not very round, and not even meant to be used as a cane (it's only decorative). But it was a tapered stick of wood, which would do the job.

What's left of the cane. I was too trigger-
happy with the saw to take a photo before
cutting it up. It has an orange stain that
would look fine, but it also has a nasty-
varnish on top.

And now I had to solve a problem: how to drill a straight, centered hole into the end of a dowel? I explored a narrow handful of options (including buying a drill press, but I don't have anywhere to put a 100+ lbs tool), and then Lynn McMasters said, go buy this:

My doweling jig.

This is a doweling jig, which one uses to drill holes into the ends of planks in order to join them with dowel pins. Lynn has one that she's used to build a table, or something (Lynn is a master at technical solutions).

The doweling jig solved half the problem. I still need a way to hold the dowel itself, because if I just clamped it into the jig, the dowel would likely just rotate with the drill bit (or so I read on woodworking websites). So, I needed a dowel jig...for the doweling jig. Yeah, stay with me here.

I found the solution here: http://www.woodworkingonline.com/2008/04/08/dowel-drilling-jig/  I just needed to adapt it for the doweling jig.

First, to drill a big hole. So happens I have these big drilling bits (don't ask why, I do a lot of DYI on my house).

Big old bore drilling bits.
The big one is missing because it's stuck in the mount
(long story).

And here's what happened.

"Clamp" for the work piece on the left,
piece-to-be-clamped on the right. If I
had planned better, it wouldn't have split.

I wanted to fix a second piece of wood at a right angle to the one with the dowel hole, so I drilled holes for two dowel pins into the piece on the right (and used the doweling jig for this, yep, it works every bit as well as advertised!) Then I went to drill two holes into the piece on the left, and, well, I tried to drill into the kerf and split the wood.

I went at it with a file to see if I could make it work anyway. I got the other dowel pin to fit, but notice here that the upright piece is at an angle.

How they fit together (off-kilter; that'll need
to be fixed.

Yeah, that's not helpful when you're trying to line things up perfectly. These are postmortem photos, and I only noticed the off-kilter angle when I took them. I'll have to fix that before I try this again.

Now to put it all together. I clamped the work piece, the new handle, into the hole, and clamped the whole thing into the doweling jig. Yes, that made quite a contraption.

All clamped together.

Ready to drill. Here you can see the work piece.

And here's what it looks like. Bit off center, but it'll do.

3/8 inch bore hole for the new stick.

On the left, the new handle with new
partial stick. On the right, the frame with
a brass tube on the end, which will
connect and support the joint.

Notice that the frame, with the tube attached, is bent. I don't know what the original frame's stick is made of but it's certainly not a great piece of wood.

At this point I need to trim the brass tube, and I want to sand the handle some more. But it was late, I was hot and hungry, and decided to call it an evening.

Powder Blue Parasol, Part 2 (the last)

I finished the powder blue cotton parasol that I was embroidering in this earlier post. This parasol was the finished sample for my class last week, though it wasn't really done until I picked up the tassel from Lynn McMasters at the class. Here's the full photo spread I took after the class.

The finished parasol.

The large canopy panels gave me lots of room
to embellish, first with some simple embroidery.

In the upper area I put four rows of tucks.

A small rosette covers the opening in the
center of the canopy..

Small touches make this modern frame
look more period, like these rosettes
on the underside of the canopy.

A full view of the underside.

Another finishing touch, a custom-made tassel
by Lynn McMasters.

Lynn is teaching a class on tassel making at Costume College. She and I have been lamenting how modern tassels and fringe just don't look like the silk tassels and fringe of 100 years ago. She's been developing tassels. I've been developing fringe. But more on that later.

This parasol uses a ring-and-button closure mechanism I've
seen on extant parasols.

And propped in a corner.

For your amusement, here's the reverse sequence of how this parasol came from a modern umbrella.

Edwardian Parasol Workshop

What a fun day! Yesterday I taught a class for the Greater Bay Area Costumer's Guild, "Edwardian Parasol Recovering Workshop." I had eleven enthusiastic, talented, and creative students. No one finished, but just about everyone just had to do the final attaching-to-the-frame.

This was the first class I've ever taught for the GBACG (I've taught privately and at Costume College). I do wish everyone had been able to finish, and have some ideas for next time. Yes, there will be a next time, I had a ton of fun and would do it again!

Here's a photo recap of the day (scroll to the end to see some of the results!)

Umbrellas packed, student packets packed.

Parasols packed!

A handful of antiques from my collection. I brought them to
give a lecture on history and mechanics of parasols.

Some more antiques and two modern, recovered parasols.

AJ de-nuding her umbrella, with Tara and Leah.

Chris and Lynn stitching away.

Noelle, cutting deliciously striped silk.

Tara and Judith, who is deeply
contemplating her trims.

Lynn made her two smocking pleaters available for the
class (this one has been at my house for a few
weeks...I've had MUCH FUN with it).

We used them to gather up the rosettes.

And here are some of the results!!!

Judy's stripes.

Judy made her outside rosette extra long. Love it!

Anne's plaid.

Plaids just do GREAT on parasols.

Lynn's, with pinned on gimp
(there will also be FRINGE!)

Great deep dome.

Leah's cotton stripes. You can
run your stripes around, or up and down!

Manon's sea foam blue silk.

Tara's printed silk.

When we stepped outside, it positively
GLOWED.

I'll have follow-up posts for the two frames I prepared as demo's for this workshop, and then maybe I'll, like, stop talking about parasols for a little while. Maybe. ;)

Parasol Workshop, Part 3

This is a follow-on post to my earlier posts documenting steps in recovering a parasol:

Parasol Workshop, Part 1: canopy seams.
Parasol Workshop, Part 2: attaching to the frame.

In this post I describe another odd and unique step in recovering a parasol, which, well, really goes in between parts 1 and 2 above, but anyway, here it is now.

This step describes setting and reinforcing the hole at the center of the canopy. I have found this reinforcement on several extant canopy remnants, and on the modern umbrella that I'm converting into a parasol. My antique frames generally have little to nothing left of the canopy, so I can't tell you that the reinforcement is universal.

In some cases, the reinforcement isn't necessary. In the couple of cases where I've seen it, the seam of the canopy was shorter than the length of the rib. This difference is length is one way to manipulate the shape of the canopy. What happens, though, is that as you pull the canopy to attach it to the rib tip, the hole at the center of the parasol stretches and pulls out of shape. Now every time you close the frame, it'll slip down over the ribs.

So, here is what you do:

1. Put the canopy onto the frame tip. Keep the frame closed. With a double-length of thread, secure the thread about 1/4" from the opening.

I like to place my stitches through the seams, since it's
a sturdy point.

Pass the needle between the threads and under the knot.

2. Back stitch around the opening. Pull the stitches snug against the tip of the frame.

Don't ask why I'm going left to right instead of right to left.
It made sense at the time, and ultimately it doesn't matter
which direction you go.

3. When you're done you have gathered the fabric a little. The stitches should be snug against the frame tip.

Now you're basically ready to finish attaching the canopy to the frame.

Powder Blue Parasol, Part 1

I've been embroidering again. This design is for the parasol I mocked up in this earlier post. One of two, actually, since I'm going to do two versions of this parasol.

Oh right: that's what the umbrellas are all about. The frames are pretty darn good for converting into Edwardian-era parasols.

This design actually has a cutwork component, but I've enlarged it so much that I don't trust the cutwork area (the wedge shapes) to be stable.

Here are all the panels, stacked up and ready to sew...but that'll have to wait for later.

I'm following the philosophy of: if you can find  half hour to do a little sewing (or blogging!) DO.

So, about those umbrellas....

Getting back to those umbrellas: here's one. It's flat, black, boring and very umbrella-like.

"Rainkist" branded umbrella. Sold to me as a
"Leighton Fashion Stick" No idea if they're
the same, but it doesn't matter, the umbrella
I got had these essential features:
manual open, a wooden stick and handle,
and sew-able rib tips. The slider is still
plastic, but I can live with that.

The ribs on this umbrella are quite long, and have some room to flex. So, after a little manipulation of the original canopy, we have this:

Same umbrella, after manipulating the canopy with some pins.

Here's what the result after drawing a new pattern and mocking it up:

Mock-up of the redrafted canopy.

Are we looking more Edwardian-ish yet?