The Letter

Shellie2355 wrote

on Mar 2, 2011 2:14 PM

Over the weekend, my husband and I were watching an old black and white movie on TCM with Bette Davis (The Letter). Throughout the movie, Ms. Davis is crocheting what she called "lace" -- I watched carefully and I swear, she was ACTUALLY crocheting Irish Lace! Towards the end of the movie, she held up a beautiful piece of lacework that she stated would be a bed coverlet. Gorgeous!

Has anyone else seen this movie? I wonder what happened to that beautiful piece of Irish Lace.

I must say that this is the first time I've noticed crocheting in a TV series or movie.

Toni Rexroat wrote

on Mar 3, 2011 4:37 PM

Hi Shellie,

I must say this post fascinated me. I immediately began doing some internet research. I can't seem to find what happened to the finished lace pieces, but I did find out that Bette Davis was a crocheter. In fact I found a few images of her crocheting. She appears to use the pencil method to hold her hook which makes it easy to pick out even in old black and white photos.

Another recent interest of mine has been Irish Lace. I've never tried it but I hope to begin a project soon.

Shellie2355 wrote

on Mar 3, 2011 6:36 PM

Oh, Toni! This is exactly what I was hoping for! I haven't had a chance to really dig around the Internet about this, but I was so intrigued by the fact that Bette Davis was so masterfully crocheting. Of course she must've been an avid yarnsmith! Her fingers just flew as she said her lines and the coverlet was so pretty when she held it up. I've never really noticed anyone crafting in movies or shows before, though I sometimes pick out crocheted items (such as clothing) on the screen. This was wonderful!

Thank you so much for looking into this. I haven't been able to get it out of my mind.

Toni Rexroat wrote

on Mar 4, 2011 10:39 AM

I loved looking at all the old photos. There would be several of these really big movie stars crocheting and knitting. I would love to go back to a time when crocheting was "cool". Plus I'm a sucker for thread crochet. I love it!