Tatting is a technique for handcrafting a very heavy duty lace constructed with a series of knots and loops. Tatting may be employed in order to make lace edging together with doilies, collars, as well as other decorative pieces.

The lace is created with a pattern of rings and chains formed using a compilation of cow hitch, or half-hitch knots, named double stitches (ds), over a core thread. Gaps may be left amongst the stitches to create picots, that can be useful for practical construction as well as decorative effect.

Tatting dates into the early 19th century. The word for tatting in most European languages has been derived from out of French frivolit, which refers to the purely decorative nature of the textiles created by this technique. The technique was made to mimic point lace.

Some reckon that tatting patterns could have developed from netting and decorative ropework as sailors and fishers would put together motifs for girlfriends and wives back at home. Decorative ropework utilized on ships includes techniques (esp. coxcombing) that show striking similarity with tatting. A very good description on this may be observed in Knots, Splices and Fancywork.

Some believe tatting originated over 200 years ago, often citing shuttles observed in eighteenth century paintings of ladies like Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Madame Adelaide (daughter of Louis XV of France), and Anne, Countess of Albemarle. A detailed inspection of those paintings shows that the shuttles under consideration are too large to be tatting shuttles, and they are instead knotting shuttles.

There isn’t any documentation, nor any samples of tatted lace, that date previous to 1800. All the available evidence demonstrates tatting started in the early 1800s.

Older designs, especially in the early 1900s, are inclined to use fine white or ivory thread (fifty to one hundred widths to the inch) and intricate designs. This thread was either manufactured from silk or perhaps a silk blend, to enable for improper stitches to be easily removed.

Newer designs belonging to the 1920s and onward often use thicker thread available as one or maybe more colors. The most suitable thread for tatting is a “hard” thread which doesn’t untwist readily.

DMC Cordonnet thread is a common tatting thread; Perl cotton is an example of a wonderful cord which is nonetheless somewhat loose for tatting purposes. Some tatting designs incorporate ribbons and beads.

Because so many fashion periodicals, and home economics magazines from the first 1 / 2 of the twentieth century attest, tatting had a substantial following. When fashion included feminine touches like lace collars and cuffs, and inexpensive yet nice baby shower gifts were needed, this creative art flourished. As the fashion moved to a more modern look and technology made lace an easy and inexpensive commodity to obtain, hand-made lace began to decline.

Tatting has been used in occupational therapy to help keep convalescent patients’ hands and minds active during recovery, as documented, one example is, in Betty MacDonald’s The Plague & I.

Ken Chadwick is an author and writer on a diverse range of hobbies and pastimes including the history of tatting patterns.