Pinking Practice

Stuck at home today, not feeling well, I decided that I had enough gusto to try my new pinking tool out.

While I did not have a piece of wood or a mallet handy, I kept it simple; a small hammer and a few magazines had to suffice. This is the only time I will use this method, since a hammer is probably not so great for the handle of the pinking tool.

I must say I did pretty well for a first try.


I used the end of a vintage rayon taffeta ribbon since it was handy, and has a similar thickness and fiber texture to silk taffeta.
You can tell where I started at the far left, and my 'pinks' became progressively cleaner toward the last one. Slow and steady does the trick. I discovered that if I space my hits about a second apart, putting just enough force as the weight of my own arm into it, the tool bites deeper and more evenly. There were a few little strings that I had to trim away, but it was such a miniscule amount. Also, this was using magazines as a base. They were likely too soft, and while wood will still have enough give, it will offer a more rigid base for cleaner edges.
This was just one layer of material, and it took about 5 hits on the tool to get one scallop design.

Overall though, I'm pretty pleased and looking forward to making many pinked items!

Tools Of The Trade...

One thing that has had me on the hunt for years in the realm of 18th century styling, is the pinking tool.
Each time I thought I had at least one within my grasp, I lost the auction or the company making them would fold.

Last night while perusing Ebay, I found one, and was finally able to purchase it!
The seller mentioned that it is an old leather working tool and may need some sharpening, which is an easy fix. It has a tiny zig zag or 'Van Dyke' pattern, and while I'd love to find a scallop version, this is a good start. I have some scallop pinking shears that will do if I absolutely need it, until I find another tool like this. Many 18th century items I've seen with a pinked edge, however; have had this tiny zig zag. More often than I've seen the scallop

The size of this one is 7/8" wide, perfect for making the pinked scallop-within-scallop sleeve ruffles.
A wooden mallet and a piece of wood for under your fabric is all that is needed. Here is a photo of Augustintytär's experiment with this on her amazing 1760's robe à la Française. The tool I found will end up with scallops that look very similar in shape and size to these:


I'll also need to dig for an image in my collection showing a physical historical reference of the results of such a tool (I have some not-so-great photos), but here is an 18th century diagram showing various types of pinking tool. Mine will give a pattern similar to figures A or 4:


Many people have asked, why not just use regular pinking shears? I have before, and while they work fine on some things, here are my own reasons for wanting a pinking tool over pinking shears for certain projects. Particularly when I'm faced with cutting a lot of fabric:

- pinking with shears is tedious and makes my hand hurt after just a few scallops, let alone cutting a straight line.
- shears loose their sharpness much quicker.
- they don't cut through silk taffeta easily, for very long.
- You can't cut your scallop pattern through multiple layers of silk neatly.
- a pinking tool actually does better with punching through multiple layers of fabric, as it gets a better 'bite'.
- and the above makes a pinking tool that much less tedious, as it takes half the time as trimming each scallop by hand, on only one layer of your fabric, with shears.

I can probably add to this list, but that's pretty much where I stand ;-)