Needlework pattern

Description

This magazine clipping, from the December 1948 issue of Woman’s Day magazine, shows a pattern for tatting letters of the alphabet. Tatting, a type of craft done by making a series of small knots, is performed using a shuttle which holds thread wound around a bobbin in its center. The tatter holds a large loop of the thread in one hand and moves the shuttle back and forth through the loop with their other hand, making and tightening knots as they go. The tatter may create small, loose loops called picots by leaving gaps in the thread as they form the knots. Tatting reached the height of its popularity in the United States during early 20th century, but as the fairly brief instructions on this pattern suggest, even as late as 1948 the editors of Woman’s Day could assume their readers would have a basic familiarity with tatting. New York-based artist Irene DeFoy Gregor followed this pattern in the 1970s to create a series of tatted letters (2017.0019.107.001-.023) now in Winterthur’s collection. This object is one of a large group transferred to Winterthur from the American Textile History Museum when it closed in 2017.