Handbook of Embroidery Part 3

_Cricketing flannel_ is used for coverlets for cots, children's dresses, and many other purposes. It is of a beautiful creamy colour, and is a good ground for fine crewel or silk embroidery. It need not be worked in a frame.

_Genoa or Lyons Velvet_ makes a beautiful ground for embroidery; but it can only be worked in a frame, and requires to be "backed" with a thin cotton or linen lining, if it is to sustain any ma.s.s of embroidery. For small articles, such as sachets or casket-covers, when the work is fine and small, the backing is not necessary. Screen panels of velvet, worked wholly in crewels, or with crewel brightened with silk, are very effective. Three-piled velvet is the best for working upon, but is so expensive that it is seldom asked for.

_Silk Velvet Plush_ (a new material) can only be used in frame work, and must be backed. It is useful in "applique" from the many beautiful tones of colour it takes. As a ground for silk or gold embroidery it is also very good.

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TEXTILE FABRICS.

GOLD AND SILVER CLOTH.

_Cloth of Gold or Silver_ is made of threads of silk woven with metal, which is thrown to the surface. In its best form it is extremely expensive, varying from 4 to 6 per yard, according to the weight of gold introduced. Cloth of silver is generally 3 the yard.

Inferior kinds of these cloths are made in which silk largely predominates, and shows plainly on the surface. They are frequently woven in patterns, such as diaper or diagonal lines, with a tie of red silk, in imitation of the diaper patterns of couched embroidery.

They are chiefly used in ecclesiastical or heraldic embroidery; their great expense preventing their general use.

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CHAPTER III.

St.i.tCHES USED IN HAND EMBROIDERY AS TAUGHT AT THE ROYAL SCHOOL OF ART-NEEDLEWORK.

To avoid pulling or puckering the work, care should be taken--firstly, that the needle is not too small, so as to require any force in drawing it through the material; secondly, the material must be held in a convex position over the fingers, so that the crewel or silk in the needle shall be looser than the ground; and thirdly, not to use too long needlefuls. These rules apply generally to all handworked embroideries.

St.i.tCHES.

_Stem St.i.tch._--The first st.i.tch which is taught to a beginner is "stem st.i.tch" (wrongly called also, "crewel st.i.tch," as it has no claim to being used exclusively in crewel embroidery). It is most useful in work done in the hand, and especially in outlines of flowers, unshaded leaves, and arabesque, and all conventional designs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 1.--STEM St.i.tCH.]

It may be best described as a long st.i.tch forward on the surface, and a shorter one backward on the under side of the fabric, the st.i.tches following each other almost in line from left to right. The effect on the wrong side is exactly that of an irregular back-st.i.tching used by dressmakers, as distinguished from regular st.i.tching. A leaf worked in outline should be begun at the lower or stalk end, and worked round the right side to the top, taking care that the needle is to the left of the thread as it is drawn out. When the point of the leaf is reached, it is best to reverse the operation in working down the left side towards the stalk again, so as to keep the needle to the right of the thread instead of to the left, as in going up.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 2.]

The reason of this will be easily understood: we will suppose the leaf to have a slightly serrated edge (and there is no leaf in nature with an absolutely smooth one). It will be found that in order to give this ragged appearance, it is necessary to have the points at which the insertions of the needle occur on the outside of the leaf: whereas if the stem st.i.tch were continued down the left side, exactly in the same manner as in ascending the right, we should have the ugly anomaly of a leaf outlined thus:--

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 3.]

If the leaf is to be worked "solidly," another row of stem st.i.tching must be taken up the centre of it (unless it be a very narrow leaf), to the top. The two halves of the leaf must then be filled in, separately, with close, even rows of stem st.i.tch, worked in the ordinary way, with the needle to the left of the thread. This will prevent the ugly ridge which remains in the centre, if it is worked round and round the inside of the outline. Stem st.i.tch must be varied according to the work in hand. If a perfectly even line is required, care must be taken that the direction of the needle when inserted is in a straight line with the preceding st.i.tch. If a slight serrature is required, each st.i.tch must be sloped a little by inserting the needle at a slight angle, as shown in the ill.u.s.tration. The length of the surface st.i.tches must vary to suit the style of each piece of embroidery.

_Split St.i.tch_ is worked like ordinary "stem," except that the needle is always brought up _through_ the crewel or silk, which it splits, in pa.s.sing.

The effect is to produce a more even line than is possible with the most careful stem st.i.tch. It is used for delicate outlines. Split st.i.tch is rarely used in hand embroidery, being more suitable for frame work: but has been described here as being a form of stem st.i.tch. The effect is somewhat like a confused chain st.i.tch.

_Satin St.i.tch_--_French Plumetis_--is one of those chiefly used in white embroidery, and consists in taking the needle each time back again almost to the spot from which it started, so that the same amount of crewel or silk remains on the back of the work as on the front. This produces a surface as smooth as satin: hence its name. It is chiefly used in working the petals of small flowers, such as "Forget-me-nots," and in arabesque designs where a raised effect is wanted in small ma.s.ses.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 4.--SATIN St.i.tCH.]

_Blanket St.i.tch_ is used for working the edges of table-covers, mantel valances, blankets, &c., or for edging any other material. It is simply a b.u.t.ton-hole st.i.tch, and may be varied in many ways by sloping the st.i.tches alternately to right and left; by working two or three together, and leaving a s.p.a.ce between them and the next set; or by working a second row round the edge of the cloth over the first with a different shade of wool.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 5.--BLANKET St.i.tCH.]

_Knotted St.i.tch_, or _French Knot_, is used for the centres of such flowers as the daisy or wild rose, and sometimes for the anthers of others. The needle is brought up at the exact spot where the knot is to be: the thread is held in the left hand, and twisted once or twice round the needle, the point of which is then pa.s.sed through the fabric close to the spot where it came up: the right hand draws it underneath, while the thumb of the left keeps the thread in its place until the knot is secure. The knots are increased in size according to the number of twists round the needle. When properly made, they should look like beads, and lie in perfectly even and regular rows.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 6.--KNOTTED St.i.tCH, or FRENCH KNOT.]

This st.i.tch is very ancient, and does not seem confined to any country, and the Chinese execute large and elaborate pieces of embroidery in it, introducing beautiful shading. A curious specimen of very fine knotting st.i.tch was exhibited at the Royal School in 1878, probably of French workmans.h.i.+p. It was a portrait of St. Ignatius Loyola, not more than six inches in length, and was entirely executed in knots of such fineness, that without a magnifying gla.s.s it was impossible to discover the st.i.tches. This, however, is a _tour de force_, and not quoted as worthy of imitation.

There is one variety of this st.i.tch, in which the thread is twisted a great many times round the needle, so as to form a sort of curl instead of a single knot. This is found in many ancient embroideries, where it is used for the hair of saints and angels in ecclesiastical work.

Knotted st.i.tch was also employed largely in all its forms in the curious and ingenious but ugly style in vogue during the reign of James I., when the landscapes were frequently worked in cross, or feather st.i.tch, while the figures were raised over stuffing, and dressed, as it were, in robes made entirely in point lace, or b.u.t.ton-hole st.i.tches, executed in silk. The foliage of the trees and shrubs which we generally find in these embroidered pictures, as well as the hair in the figures, were worked in knotted st.i.tches of varying sizes, while the faces were in tent st.i.tch or painted on white silk, and fastened on to the canvas or linen ground.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 7.--BULLION KNOT.]

Another variety of knotting, which is still occasionally used, resembles _bullion_, being made into a long roll. A st.i.tch of the length of the intended roll is taken in the material, the point of the needle being brought to the surface again in the same spot from which the thread originally started; the thread is then twisted eight or ten times round the point of the needle, which is drawn out carefully through the tunnel formed by the twists, this being kept in its place by the left thumb. The point of the needle is then inserted once more in the same place as it first entered the material, the long knot or roll being drawn so as to lie evenly between the points of insertion and re-appearance, thus treating the twisted thread as if it were bullion or purl.

_Chain St.i.tch_ is but little used in embroidery now, although it may sometimes be suitable for lines. It is made by taking a st.i.tch from right to left, and before the needle is drawn out the thread is brought round towards the worker, and under the point of the needle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 8.--CHAIN St.i.tCH.]

The next st.i.tch is taken from the point of the loop thus formed forwards, and the thread again kept under the point, so that a regular chain is formed on the surface of the material.

This chain st.i.tch was much employed for ground patterns in the beautiful gold-coloured work on linen for dress or furniture which prevailed from the time of James I. to the middle of the eighteenth century. It gave the appearance of quilting when worked on linen in geometrical designs, or in fine and often-repeated arabesques.