Tatting for Victoria & Albert

This tatted border is from the Victoria and Albert Museum, made in Ireland and dated 1880-1883. What is different from more modern tatting is that it is made of rows of wheels with needlelace fillings and no chains — characteristics of early tatting methods.

Tatting is a popular durable knotted lace with loops called picots, made with either a tatting shuttle or tatting needle. The shuttles come in different forms and sizes to accommodate different sizes of thread, some are very beautiful, expensive and collectible. Tatting needles are available in sizes to match thread size.

Although the earliest tatting in print appears in 1843, the origins are unclear. It is said that it originated in the 18th century, but there is little evidence. Early designs of rings (or wheels) were joined with needle and thread until a method was developed in the 1850s for connecting picots and rings directly. In the 1860s, chains with tatted knots appeared. Making designs with several colors in the same piece were detailed in 1890’s pattern books.

Patterns that combined tatting with braid, lace strips, coronation cord, rickrack, crochet and other techniques can be found from the early 20th century. Other techniques evolved: tatting with multiple shuttles or tatting needles; different combinations with other laces (Tenerife, crochet, broomstick lace or other laces); tatting patterns with novelty tapes including braid, rickrack and coronation cord, beads; cro-tatting and additional stitches (like Josephine knots and Cluny leaf designs). There are also patterns for tatting appliquéd onto machine net. Pattern notation styles have also changed from the early longhand notation to abbreviations or visual pattern drawings. 3-D layered tatting and Ankars tatting are also more recent.

Various names for tatting include Frivolité (French), Spoelkant , Chiacchierino (Italian), Frywolitka (Polish), and Schiffchenspitze (German).

Tatting is widely used for edgings, doilies, antimacassars, jewelry, bookmarks, baby caps and booties, wedding veils, household items and ornaments.

It has been a popular form of lacemaking for generations and is one of the easiest lace techniques, with many places to learn. Tatters share their expertise through tatting groups on Facebook, tatting blogs and online teaching groups, instructions on YouTube, and books of patterns and technique in many languages.

Free out of copyright patterns can be found in the scanned books from Antique Pattern Library at https://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/html/warm/tatting.htm

Suzanne writes, has her hands into all kinds of needlework, travels & volunteers at The Lace Museum.