1.0 Introduction
Tatting was developed from sailors and fishers netting and decorative
ropeworks. Decorative ropeworks employed on ships (e.g. Cocks combing)
are similar with tatting. Archiologists believe that tatting originated over
200 years ago. There is neither documentation nor any examples of tatted lace,
that date prior to 1800 and belived that tatting originated in the early 19th
century. A typical tatted material is shown in the figure 1. Tated laces also termed
as poor mans laces.
Fig 1: A typical Tatted Pattern
Laces are too delicate to make common articles. Tatting is a strong indication of the customs of the time. It was adopted in fashion
dresses, furnishing and accessories. Shawls, jabots and fichus were produced in
Netherlands during 19th century. Insertions and trimmed edgings
were made from France .Tatts was impinged in the dresses and furnisher
coverings for parasols which were common in the Victorian era. Inner clothes
were also lavishly trimmed by using the finest threads. Golden threads with
rare stones came from the Eastern Europe. But many of these articles are no longer common today.
2.0 Tatted lace
Lace is a combination of open spaces and compact
structure of transparent and opaque patterns of fabric. It is used in
decoration. Tatting in lace form consists of circles and curved lines which are
created by knots slide on a core thread. It consists of stitches and picots. Picots are the loops made
by leaving a distance between double stitches. Rings will be formed by joining
required picots. A shuttle is regularly used in
combination with or without a hook (crochet) to make joints. There may also be
just a single thread between the rings instead of chains, which is known as mignonette
(ring only tatting). The special tatting knots that are very difficult to undo
are made individually. Its necessary to count stitches carefully to avoid
mistakes. So, tatting is not like knitting. Tatted laces are also used as bookmarks
and cards.
3.0 Threads for Tatting
Plied threads of different colour made from natural or manmade
fibres are used to produce tatting. According to design developments, the
threads have to be used.
4.0 Equipments needed for Tatting
A picot joint has been shown in the figure 2., require shuttle,
needle, cutting instruments, (a pair of nail clippers or scissor) threads and design
frames. Yarn stiffening has to be done to achieve yarn stability by applying
size solution to make ease of tatting operation.
Fig 2: A Picot joint
