Modern Lace--Olgemini's Blue Dress

Many of you are already fans of Olgemini, a modern Irish crocheter from Moscow.  She contributes to Zurnal Mod magazine, a Russian publication filled with amazing work and patterns.  This year, Olga attended Maire Treanor's Summer School in Clones, and brought some of her garments for up-close inspection.  Were you one of the lucky ones who met her there?

Olga's inspiration comes mainly from antique motifs.  She has a beautiful antique Irish Crochet collection and examines the pieces to learn about construction and motif design.  She has also purchased some Irish Crochet books on Amazon, and then learned the patterns by studying the photos, as her English is not fluent. She says she loves the antique motifs, and regarding creating new motifs, "My hands do crochet as they want :=) I try to add elements of freeform in traditional motifs."

Her Blue Dress took two months to create, a long time for her, she says!  Only two months!  I think it's safe to say that most of us could work for a year and not come close to completion of something so beautiful.  She used 100 percent cotton Yarnart Violet thread for the motifs, with a 1mm hook.  For the joining, she used Nilo thread and a .75mm hook.

Enjoy!

-Kim

front of dress

back of dress--I see a shamrock spray!

I love the pansy.  I will be trying that one for my new project!

I aspire to have tension this even

traditional motifs

skirt--I love how the hem design has a repeating pattern of heavier motifs to define it

hem detail

Thanks so much to Olga for sharing her photos and for talking with me!