Button Butterflies

The other day while tatting around buttons again (surprise!) I tried something different that didn’t work. I looked at this button from several angles trying to determine if I should cut off the tatting or if there was something else I could try.  Turning it up and down, over and sideways, another idea presented itself.

Accidental blue tatted button butterfly on wandasknottythoughts
Blue accidental button butterfly

The button is about 1/2 inch across with two holes.  It’s always interesting to tat onto a two hole button; the joins have to be thought out a bit so there isn’t too much thread going through each hole.  I hadn’t thought far enough ahead to not over crowd the first hole when the idea of a butterfly popped up.

Hmm, not too bad.  The head didn’t come out too great and attaching it to the two holes was not quite right, but it did look like a butterfly.  A little more thought and another try.

White tatted button butterfly on wandasknottythoughts
White tatted button butterfly

This one came out a bit better.  I think the head needs a little work yet, but the joins to the button look much better.

Two tatted button butterflies on wandasknottythoughts
Two tatted button butterflies

The button on the white butterfly is just a touch bigger than the button for the blue butterfly.  That must be why the blue looks narrower than the white.  I like the shape of the blue better.  Other than the head – which still needs work – I’m pretty happy with this butterfly.

These butterflies are small but complicated, using two shuttles with a lot of switching back and forth between them.  The blue is 2 1/4 inch across by 1 1/8 inch high.  The white is 2 1/4 inch across by 1 1/4 inch high.

I wonder what this would look like in two colors?

“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”                     Nathaniel Hawthorne
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4 thoughts on “Button Butterflies”

  1. I love this idea, button butterflies, that has a ring to it. Hope you are able to get the pattern perfect, would love to have a try at this, now you have my brain working over time.

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