Art in Needlework Part 6

The Lace b.u.t.tonholing at B (34) is worked as follows:--b.u.t.tonhole three st.i.tches into the stuff from left to right, not quite close together, and further on three more; then, working from right to left, make three b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tches into the thread connecting the st.i.tch groups; but do not st.i.tch into the stuff except at the ends of the rows. The last row must, of course, be worked into the stuff again.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 34. SURFACE-St.i.tCH SAMPLER.]

[Sidenote: TO WORK F, 34.]

Net Pa.s.sing, as at F (34), is not very differently worked from A or B.

It is much more open, and the first row of horizontal st.i.tches is crossed by two opposite rows of oblique st.i.tches, which are made to interlace.

[Sidenote: TO WORK G, 34.]

The square at G is worked by first making rows of short upright st.i.tches worked into the stuff, and then threading loose st.i.tches through them.

[Sidenote: TO WORK D, 34.]

The square at D is worked on the open lattice shown; the solid parts are produced by interlacing st.i.tches from side to side, starting at the angle.

In the square at E (j.a.panese Darning) horizontal lines are first darned, and then zigzag lines are worked between them, much as in G; but, as they penetrate the material, this is scarcely a surface st.i.tch.

[Sidenote: TO WORK A, 34.]

The horizontal lines at top and bottom of the square at A are back-st.i.tching, the intermediate ones simply long threads carried from one side to the other; they are laced together by lines looped round them.

[Sidenote: TO WORK L, 34.]

The band at L is begun by making horizontal bar st.i.tches. A row of crewel-st.i.tch and one of outline-st.i.tch, worked on to the bars, and not into the stuff, makes the central chain.

[Sidenote: TO WORK K, 34.]

The band at K is merely surface b.u.t.tonholing over a series of slanting st.i.tches.

[Sidenote: TO WORK J, 34.]

The band at J is b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tching wide apart, the bars filled in with surface crewel-st.i.tch.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 35. LACE OR SURFACE St.i.tCH.]

Most delicate surface st.i.tching occurs in Ill.u.s.tration 35, the fine net being worked only from edge to edge of the s.p.a.ces it fills, and not elsewhere entering the stuff; which accounts for most of it being worn away. The flower or scroll-work is _bona fide_ embroidery, worked through the stuff. The delicate network of fine st.i.tching, which once covered the whole of the background, is for the most part neither more nor less than a floating gossamer of lacework. One cannot deny that that is embroidery, though it has to be said that _lace-st.i.tches_ are employed in it.

Stern embroiderers would like to deny it. Of course it is frivolous, and in a sense flimsy, but it is also delicate and dainty to a degree. It is suited only to dress, and that of the most exquisite kind. A French marquise of the Regency might have worn it, and possibly did wear it, with entire propriety--if the word is not out of keeping with the period.

The frailty of this kind of thing is too obvious to need mention, and that, of course, is a strong argument against it.

All attempt to give separate names to diapers of this kind, whether worked upon the surface or into the stuff, is futile. They ought not even to be called st.i.tches, being, in fact, neither more nor less than st.i.tch patterns, to which there is no possible limit, unless it be the limit of human invention. Every ingenious workwoman will find out patterns of her own more or less. They are very useful for filling in surfaces (pattern or background) which it may be inexpedient to work more solidly.

The greater part of such patterns are geometric (Ill.u.s.trations 35 and 73), following, that is to say, the mesh of the material, and making no secret of it. On Ill.u.s.tration 3 you see very plainly how the rectangular diaperings are built up geometrically on the square lines of the mesh, as was practically inevitable working on such a ground. The relation of st.i.tch to stuff is here obvious.

The choice of st.i.tch patterns of this kind is invariably left to the needlewoman. The utmost a designer need do is to indicate on his drawing that a "full," "open," or "intermediate" diaper is to be used. And the alternation of lighter and heavier diapers should be planned, and not left altogether to impulse, though the pattern may be. Moreover, there is room for the exercise of considerable taste in the choice of simpler or more elaborate patterns, freer or more geometric. Many a time the shape of the s.p.a.ce to be filled, as well as its extent, will suggest the appropriate ornament. The diaper design is not, of course, drawn on the stuff, but points of guidance may be indicated through a kind of fine stencil plate.

The patterns used for background diapering need not, as a rule, be intrinsically so interesting as those which diaper the design itself, nor are they usually so full. They take more often the form of spot or sprig patterns, not continuous, in which the geometric construction is not so obvious, nor even necessary. In either case the prime object of the st.i.tching is not so much to make ornamental patterns as to give a tint to the stuff without entirely hiding it with work; and the worker chooses a lighter or heavier diaper according to the tint required. If the work is all in white it is texture, instead of tint, that is aimed at.

For a background, simple darning more or less open, in st.i.tches not too regular, is often the best solution of the difficulty. The effect of the ground grinning through is delightful.

SATIN-St.i.tCH AND ITS OFFSHOOTS.

SATIN-St.i.tCH is _par excellence_ the st.i.tch for fine silkwork. I do not know if the name of "satin-st.i.tch" comes from its being so largely employed upon satin, or from the effect of the work itself, which would certainly justify the t.i.tle, so smooth and satin-like is its surface.

Given a material of which the texture is quite smooth and even, showing no mesh, satin-st.i.tch seems the most natural and obvious way of working upon it. In it the embroidress works with short, straight strokes of the needle, just as a pen draughtsman lays side by side the strokes of his pen; but, as she cannot, of course, leave off her stroke as the penman does, she has perforce to bring back the thread on the under side of the stuff, so that, if very carefully done, the work is the same on both sides.

Satin-st.i.tch, however, need not be, and never was, confined to work upon silk or satin. In fact, it was not only worked upon fine linen, but often followed the lines of its mesh, stepping, as in Ill.u.s.tration 9, to the tune of the stuff. This may be described as satin-st.i.tch in the making--at any rate, it is the elementary form of it, its relation to canvas-st.i.tch being apparent on the face of it. Still, beautiful and most accomplished work has been done in it alike by Mediaeval, Renaissance, and Oriental needleworkers.

[Sidenote: TO WORK A, 36.]

To cover a s.p.a.ce with regular vertical satin st.i.tches (A on the sampler, Ill.u.s.tration 36), the best way of proceeding is to begin in the centre of the s.p.a.ce and work from left to right. That half done, begin again in the centre and work from right to left.

In order to make sure of a crisp and even edge to your forms, always let the needle enter the stuff there, as it is not easy to find the point you want from the back.

In working a second row of st.i.tches, proceed as before, only planting your needle between the st.i.tches already done. Fasten off with a few tiny surface st.i.tches and cut off the silk on the right side of the stuff: it will be worked over.

[Sidenote: TO WORK B, 36.]

To cover a s.p.a.ce with horizontal satin st.i.tches (B on sampler), begin at the top, and work from left to right. The longer stretches there are not, of course, crossed at one st.i.tch; they take several st.i.tches, dovetailed, as it were, so as not to give lines.

The easiest, most satisfactory, and generally most effective way of working flat satin st.i.tch is in oblique or radiating lines (C, D, E), working in those instances, as in the case of A, from the centre, first from left to right and then from right to left.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 36. SATIN-St.i.tCH SAMPLER.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 37. SATIN-St.i.tCH SAMPLER (BACK).]

Stems, narrow leaflets, and the like, are best worked always in st.i.tches which run diagonally and not straight across the form.

In the case of stems or other lines curved and worked obliquely, the st.i.tches must be very much closer on the inner side of the curve than on the outside: occasionally a half-st.i.tch may be necessary to keep the direction of the lines right, in which case the inside end of the half-st.i.tch must be quite covered by the st.i.tch next following.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 38. SATIN-St.i.tCH IN COa.r.s.e TWISTED SILK.]

Satin-st.i.tch is seen at its best when worked in floss. Coa.r.s.e or twisted silk looks coa.r.s.e in this st.i.tch, as may be seen by comparing the petal D in the sampler, Ill.u.s.tration 36, with the petal in twisted silk here given (38). Marvellously skilful as are the needle-workers of India (Ill.u.s.tration 39), they get rather broken lines when they work in thick twisted silk. The precision of line a skilled worker can get in floss is wonderful. An Oriental will get sweeping lines as clean and firm as if they had been drawn with a pen, and this not merely in the case of an outline, but in voided lines of which each side has to be drawn with the needle. The voided outline, by the way, as on Ill.u.s.trations 39, 40, is not only the frankest way of defining form, but seems peculiarly proper to satin-st.i.tch; and it is a test of skill in workmanship: it is so easy to disguise uneven st.i.tching by an outline in some other st.i.tch. The voiding in the wings of the birds in Ill.u.s.tration 40 is perfect; and the softening of the voided line, at the start of the wing in one case and the tail in the other, by cross st.i.tching in threads comparatively wide apart, is quite the right thing to do. It would have been more in keeping to void the veins of the lotus leaves than to plant them on in cord.

Satin-st.i.tch must not be too long, and it is often a serious consideration with the designer how to break up the surfaces to be covered so that only shortish st.i.tches need be used. You might follow the veining of a leaf, for example, and work from vein to vein. But all leaves are not naturally veined in the most accommodating manner.

Treatment is accordingly necessary, and so we arrive at a convention appropriate to embroidery of this kind. It takes a draughtsman properly to express form by st.i.tch distribution. The Chinese convention in the lotus flowers (Ill.u.s.tration 40) is admirable.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 39. SATIN-St.i.tCH IN FINE TWISTED SILK.]

It is the rule of the game to lay satin-st.i.tch very evenly. Worked in floss, the mere surface of satin-st.i.tch is beautiful. A further charm lies in the way it lends itself to gradation of colour. Beautiful results may be obtained by the use of perfectly flat tints of colour, as in Ill.u.s.tration 40; but the subtlest as well as the most deliberate gradation of tint may be most perfectly rendered in satin-st.i.tch.

[Sidenote: TO WORK SURFACE SATIN-St.i.tCH.]

SURFACE SATIN-St.i.tCH (not the same on both sides), though it looks very much like ordinary satin-st.i.tch, is worked in another way. The needle, that is to say, after each st.i.tch is brought _immediately_ up again, and the silk is carried back on the upper instead of the under side of the stuff. Considerable economy of silk is effected by thus keeping the thread as much as possible on the surface, but the effect is apt to be proportionately poorer. Moreover, the work is not so lasting as when it is solid. The satin-st.i.tch on Ill.u.s.tration 58 is all surface work. It looks loose, which it is always apt to do, unless it is kept stretched on the frame, on which, of course, satin-st.i.tch is for the most part worked. Very effective Indian work is done of this kind--loose and flimsy, but serving a distinct artistic purpose. It is to embroidery of more serious kind what scene painting is to mural decoration.