[Origin unknown: perh. an arbitrary formation. It has the form of a verbal sb. from TAT v.2; but that verb is of more recent appearance, as if merely a back-formation from tatting.] a. sb. A kind of knotted lace, netted with a small fat shuttle-shaped instrument from stout sewing-thread; used for edging or trimming, and sometimes for doyleys, parasol covers, etc. (called in F. frivolité, Ger. frivolitäten). b. vbl. sb. The action or process of making this. Also attrib. as tatting-cotton, -edging, -net, -shuttle, -stitch, -work.
(Tatting-shuttles exist which are said to have been used before 1820.)
1842. Mrs. Gaugain, Lady’s Assist. Knitting, etc. II. 411. Common Tatting Edging. Ibid., 412. If the Tatting has not been properly worked, this scollop will not draw. All Tatting stitches must be formed with the loop round the fingers.
1864. Sat. Rev., XVII. 21 May, 620/1. At country houses, when the men go off to hunt or shoot, it retires to talk scandal over her tatting with any fashionable old maid with whom the party may be tormented.
1865. Reader, 28 Oct., 479/3. In 1851 the Census showed a return of 902 pupils in the various arts of crochet laces, point lace…, pillow lace,.. plain sewing, knitting and tatting.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., Tatting-shuttle, a small shuttle used in tatting.
1895. Times, 2 Jan., 13/2. Orders for cotton embroidery edgings, trimmings, and tattings have been disappointing.
1901. Clara Morris, Life on Stage, 46. The ‘tatting’ craze was sweeping over the country [U.S.A] then [c. 1863]; everybody wore tatting, and almost everybody made it.
