Comments on Mounting Fans

When I made up the tatted fan on to the springetts small wood fan blank, I first of all used double sided tape but on the advise of this list removed it. I then made a few more holes in the sticks and sewed the tatting in place. I was able to get some fine ribbon which is the same colour as the tatting and used it to attach the cover sticks - no holes, ( i.e. stitch tatting to ribbon, stick ribbon to stick). As I had lots of ribbon left I also stuck it on the back of the sticks to cover the stitching although this was not really required and to make a tassel for the handle.

Although tatting is not the best fabric to fold and the holes make its use as a fan a bit suspect I so enjoy looking at it.

I've mounted small fans both on plastic and wood sticks, each time with wallpaper paste as recommended by Christine S, to tell the truth I now regret doing this, especially for the Bucks one on the wood sticks. I intend to remove the lace, carefully wash and re-pin to the pricking to dry and then remount by sewing through the holes on the sticks, I've already removed one of the ones from plastic sticks and intend to pierce small holes and remount by sewing.

I've also tried mounting the lace on the sticks with and without pressing in the folds as described by Christine, while the folds tend to disappear with time, it does make it easier to see where the sticks should go when mounting, so this is probably worth doing.

My lace teacher suggested, rather than gluing the lace itself to the guard sticks (the end sticks of the fan), make a couple of strips of cloth stitch just a bit smaller than the upper part of the guard stick and the same length as the fan is deep. Glue *these* to the inside of the guard sticks. When dry, sew the lace on to these strips. That way if you or your descendants need to remove the lace from the sticks for any reason, i.e. to wash or repair, it is less damaging to undo the sewing than to have to dissolve glue on the lace (and wood or other material).

Other tips: if there are small holes in the fan sticks (about 3-4 along each one), sew thru these and catch a small stitch in the lace. Knot off. This will hold the lace in place with out having to glue it to the sticks - no stuck down lace, easier to remove, and quite sturdy enough. Make sure you have lined up the sticks in the right place on the lace before you fastern it down. I have seen a mis-aligned fan and it looks terrible. Heartbreaking, when one considers all the work. Don't worry about if it will fold or not, it will.

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