Tatting – a Heritage Art

Jun 28, 2020

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Tatting is another of the Heritage Arts. It is a lace created with a series of slipable knots and loops.  There are two types, needle and shuttle.  My mother taught me to tat with a shuttle.  There are mainly two sizes of tattling shuttles, one for use with crochet cotton: the most known of those is Tatsy.  The smaller shuttle is used for the traditional tatting thread, which is a size 70 or 80 cotton, that comes on a small spool.

These are some antique shuttles that have been passed down in my family.  They were made of bone, metal or ivory.  On them you wrap the thread around a center post.  It’s time consuming, but then again, so is tatting.

These are modern shuttles, that have a removable bobbin in the center and a built in crochet hook on the tip.  The crochet hook is necessary to connect circles and loops.  If you use one of the older shuttles, you will also need a small crochet hook.

This is a sample of tatting thread

This is a large shuttle used for tatting with crochet cotton.  It is shown next to a small shuttle to show the difference in size, depending on the thread used.

 

I mostly use tatting for decoration on edges of things like hankies and pillow cases.  I also have used it to create Christmas ornaments and pieces to sew on the lapel of ladies’ jackets for decoration.

This is a set of pillow cases that have a tatted edge as well as a tatted design on them. This was done on the large shuttle with crochet cotton.  

These are some examples of what could be used as Christmas ornaments or decorations for lapels. 

These are ladies’ handkerchiefs with tatted edges

This is a jumper I made for my daughter when she was little and embellished it with tatting.

I have tried my hand at using tatting for card making.  You use a small piece of tatting, then embellish with a pen.

This shows a utilitarian use for tatting; the creation of button loops for shank buttons. 

This necklace is an example of embellishing tatting with beads.  This is done with both the shuttle and the ball of thread.  The shuttle is used to make the inside look of circles, and the ball thread is used to tie them together with the smaller loops.
  This was made by my sister, Martha Linder Savochka. 
This is a baby bonnet my mom Louise Haupert Linder tatted for my first born.

 

This is an example of a more complicated pattern down on both the ball and shuttle.  The shuttle is necessary to create any circular designs.  The ball of thread is then used to link the circles together with a loop.

 

            You can purchase tatting books that will walk you step by step through the process,

and also give you lots of designs to try.