Just for fun, the designer who adapted this bookmark pattern from a butterfly on p. 53 of Butterick’s Tatting and Netting 1896, Martha at Martha’s Tatting Blog, was trying to use only pre-1900 patterns as the basis for the bookmark.
Martha reported, “The first challenge was to interpret the pattern into a usable form. Like many antique patterns, the clarity and proofreading leave something to be desired.”
As you will see if you look closely at the photograph at her website, you will see that there are some unexplained stitches near the head area of the photograph, and that it appears that the left and right sides do not match.
In order to imitate the right side of a butterfly, she rewrote the pattern in order to incorporate the chain that connects the wings and carries the head, so that the whole pattern could be completed in just one pass.
In addition to that, she completely omitted the two-ring “body” from the composition as well.
Here is the pattern link to the complete adapted pattern
Image and Pattern Soure: marthas-tatting-blog.blogspot.com