Parasol repair

[igenlode]

(click to view entire image)
I managed to repair an old lace parasol (not 'vintage', I think, as the inside had plastic parts) by cutting down and lashing on a cut-down rawlplug to replace the missing wooden tip, so that the canopy extended under the appropriate tension when unfolded.
Ideally it would have been a wooden rawlplug for a better match, but I couldn't find one in my collection of scraps and wasn't about to go out on a hunt for an entire new packet of rawlplugs :-p

I lashed and whipped the edge of the lace canopy fairly securely through the split in the 'tip' (held together chiefly by the whipping!)

Now I just need to find an appropriate recipient, i.e. a lady who thinks a lace parasol is pretty and doesn't object to the fact that it has been 'rescued'...

Comments

Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm impressed. Umbrellas (and thus parasols) are challenging to repair because of the tension.

Also, parasols aren't just pretty. They keep the sun off. I have contemplated carrying one, but haven't because I prefer keeping my hands free. I've seen people carrying them occasionally though.

Re: Wow!

[igenlode]

I suspect the tension is inherently less in a parasol with a lace canopy. The whole thing appears to be composed of separate motifs attached to one another by a few stitches at the edges (you can just about see that in the full version of the top photo) rather than being panels of whole cloth stretched tightly over the ribs, so it isn't constructed to take any kind of strain. When sewing it on, stretching the canopy was just a matter of tweaking the edge out far enough to display the lace and to prevent the replacement tip from coming off when folded -- the wooden tips are not secured by glue or screwed in any way, which is presumably why the original dropped off and was lost once the thread fastened through it got broken.

I do wonder just how practical this parasol would be against the actual sun, given that it has sizeable holes between the motifs; the effect would be more comprehensive if the lace were backed by some kind of gauze or other fine fabric!

Re: Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Fascinating. I didn't know that parasols had less tension. Thanks for sharing!

Yes, the ones I've seen have a backing of thin cotton or linen.

Re: Wow!

[igenlode]

I don't think it would ever have occurred to me either, but I suppose umbrellas only need to be stretched bar-taut for the purposes of remaining waterproof, so it makes sense that parasols can be a little weaker in construction, as it were... (I do have an old oiled-silk umbrella, and under tension the fabric works perfectly well to shed water unless you accidentally bump it on the underside; then, like a canvas tent, it will drip through at that point, presumably because the surface tension has been disrupted.)

Re: Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

That makes sense.

So much of history is obvious only on close examination. My father did Civil War recreation when I was little. I've done Renaissance faires. I live near an Amish community. There are all these little details that make more sense when you can see things up close, touch them, try them out.

Last historic event I went to had a spoon collector. She had one with a nearly S-shaped handle and invited everyone to try it and say whether it was right-handed or left-handed. Most folks had an opinion, but not all the same, and we didn't hold it the same way either.

Re: Wow!

[igenlode]

I went round an archaeological exhibition of Roman tools with my younger brother, who is a craftsman; he had a lot of ideas on the function of supposedly obscure objects that disagreed with the labelling on the text (written by people whose expertise was in excavation, not in actual use of hand-tools!)

Re: Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

LOL yes. History of hand tools is its own whole field.

Around here some folks collect shuckin' pegs, of which there are multiple varieties. If you don't know it's a thing you strap on your hand to peel the leaves off a corncob easier, it would make no sense. Going to street fairs and historic events, I see all kinds of folks showing of their collection of historical oddities.

A friendly acquaintance of ours is a flea market vendor, with a particular eye for older items including those with practical uses.

Me: *squeal* "A melon hook!"

Her: "Oh, is that what that is? I had no idea."

Me: "Yeah, after you cut open a melon or squash with a seed cavity, you use this to scoop the guts out."

Another time she had an item that neither of us recognized, and someone else was trying a photo search on smartphone to identify it. We found some possibilities but no firm conclusion. Fun times.