Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving Part 8

The open and solid fillings are often used together in the same piece of work; examples of this can be seen on the XVIIth century wool-work curtains, the large scrolling leaves are sometimes partly worked openly and a portion, possibly reflexed, filled in with solid st.i.tches in gradating colour; see for an example Plate VIII. This has a very good effect, it prevents the work looking too heavy, shows up the form more clearly, and allows of more variety in the st.i.tching. With open fillings the outline surrounding them must always be some firm decided line, such as is made by a band of satin or long and short st.i.tch, or, in the case of larger forms, by several rows of different line st.i.tches worked closely together, one inside the other, most likely in different shades of colour. A filling of open work can be carried out in a variety of ways; it may be a decorated trellis, a regular dotting of some kind, or some geometrical pattern in outline, or some light st.i.tch such as an open b.u.t.tonhole (see fig. 107), which would be treated each as a diapering over the form to be filled. It does not much matter what the filling is as long as it is dispersed pretty regularly over the s.p.a.ce, giving the effect at a little distance of a light pervading tone, and when examined closely exhibiting an interesting small pattern. The open filling method can be used entirely throughout a design with very pretty effect; an example of this may be seen on an embroidered coverlet and pillow case in the Victoria and Albert Museum.[7] The pattern, composed of vine leaves and grapes, is carried out in dark brown silk on a linen ground, the leaves being all outlined with satin st.i.tch. There is wonderful variety in the patterns, no two alike, which form the open fillings of the leaves; this makes them most interesting to examine, and is evidence of enthusiasm in their designing. Fig. 108, a leaf taken from this specimen, shows one method of filling a form with open work.[8] Fig. 109 shows a collection of patterns taken from the same piece of embroidery. It will be observed that small st.i.tches of the same length compose the pattern, which can be designed upon squared paper and easily copied on to the linen ground by always picking up the same number of threads. To look well these little forms must be accurately worked, and they or similar kinds can be used upon flowers, leaves, beasts, draperies, or anything else quite indiscriminately. Fig. 110, from a cap in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is a drawing showing the same kind of open filling in use upon a bird.[9]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 109.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 110.]

A quicker way of carrying out these geometrical fillings is by using such forms as a lattice and throwing the lines from side to side across the shape to be filled, fixing them down, where they cross each other, with couching st.i.tches; the interstices left between the threads can be filled in with little stars, crosses, or dots (see fig. 111).

b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tch, if made use of as an open filling, would be taken in lines straight across a form, the st.i.tches being worked possibly two or three closely together and then a s.p.a.ce, and so on.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 111.]

Fig. 112 suggests another method of lightly filling a leaf with a conventional veining and dotting. There is no limit to the variety which can be obtained in this method of working.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 112.]

Open fillings are effective for use upon any work that is intended to be seen with a light at the back; they make very decorative the various forms they fill, in such things as muslin window blinds, curtains, fire screens, whether hand screens or the larger type. For articles of this kind the patterns should be rather more solid and less lined in character; fig. 113, taken from a window blind exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum, exemplifies what is meant; most of the patterns ill.u.s.trated in fig. 100 could be treated in a more solid manner if necessary, and would look equally well that way. When working upon transparent grounds special care must be taken with the reverse side as well as with the surface, for the work to be practically alike upon both sides; there must be no threads running from one form to another nor any visible fastening off of ends.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 113.]

DARNED NETTING

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 114.]

Darned netting, or _lacis_, as it is sometimes called, might almost come under the heading of either lace or embroidery. It is used effectively with other kinds of white linen work, bands or squares of it being let into the linen; the contrast of the solid with the more open work gives a pretty effect. Fig. 114 is an example of this work. The darning is done on a plain netted ground which can be prepared by the worker if acquainted with netting, if not, the squares can be obtained ready for working upon. The pattern must be designed upon squared paper as for cross st.i.tch work, then it is simply a question of following out the pattern upon the square net ground. Every square of the patterned part must be crossed in each direction by two lines of darning, which should about fill it up. The various lines are run in and out as continuously as possible, so as to avoid unnecessary fastening off or pa.s.sing from one part to another. When a fresh thread is required, join it with a knot to the end of the last one (see figs. 165 and 166), and darn the ends in neatly with the other threads. These knots are often used in embroidery, for they are both strong and small. Detached st.i.tches and parts must be worked by themselves; the thread should not be carried from one to the other. The work must be done in a frame and carried out with a blunt-pointed needle. The same thread is used for the netted ground and for the darned pattern. A method of work that the French call _dessein reserve_ is, in result, rather similar to this, but it is worked in just the reverse way. The pattern, whatever it may be, is left in the plain linen, and the background has certain threads in each direction withdrawn at regular intervals, whereby the effect of the squared net ground is obtained.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] No. 1564, 1902.

[6] For description of this method, see page 238.

[7] A piece belonging to Lord Falkland.

[8] Fig. 18 is a drawing from the border of the same example.

[9] No. 308, 1902.

CHAPTER X

METHODS OF WORK--(_continued_)

Drawn Thread Work--Hem St.i.tching--Simple Border Patterns--Darned Thread Patterns--Corners--Cut or Open Work--Various Methods of Refilling the Open s.p.a.ces.

This method of work is the acknowledged link between embroidery and lace, and was possibly the origin of the latter. Drawn work is that in which the threads of either the warp or the weft of the material are withdrawn and those remaining worked into a pattern, by either cl.u.s.tering together or working over them in some fashion. The cut or open work, as it is sometimes called, is that in which both warp and weft are in places cut away, and the open s.p.a.ces thus formed are partly refilled with a device of one kind or another.

The work is most often carried out in white thread on white linen, but coloured threads may occasionally be introduced with advantage. It is a durable method of work, and particularly suitable for the decoration of various house-linens, things that must undergo daily wear and wash; its rather un.o.btrusive character too makes it the more suitable for this purpose. The work is used in conjunction with other kinds of embroidery, perhaps making a neat finish to an edge, or lightening what would otherwise be too heavy in appearance.

Drawn thread and cut work can be carried out with such detail and fineness as to really become most delicate lace. In this chapter, however, it is intended to be treated rather as an adjunct to other embroidery, therefore only elementary work will be discussed. More attention might with advantage be paid to the design of this kind of work, for more might be done with it than sometimes is. For one thing, there is very little variety in the patterns, and the result often seems a spidery ma.s.s of incomprehensible threads with no very perceivable plan; perhaps if more attention were paid to the proportion and ma.s.sing of the solid and open parts, a better result might be attained. Neatness and simplicity are good qualities in the pattern, the method of work not being suited to the expression of the various larger and bolder types of design.

DRAWN THREAD WORK

In drawn work the question is how to treat the remaining warp threads after the weft has been withdrawn. They can be cl.u.s.tered in bunches in different ways with ornamental st.i.tches added, or be entirely covered over with darning or overcast st.i.tches in such a way as to form a pattern.

The beginning of most drawn thread work is hem st.i.tching, the two edges marking the limit of the withdrawn threads have usually to be hem st.i.tched before any pattern can be carried out. One method of doing this is in progress in fig. 115. In order to work it, draw out three or four threads of the warp and tack the hem down to the top edge of the line thus made. The diagram explains the remainder of the working.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 115.]

Fig. 116 shows in the first example cl.u.s.ters of four threads drawn together at each edge by hem st.i.tching in such a way as to form a ladder-like pattern. This and the one below are the ornamentations of a plain hem that are most commonly seen. The variation in pattern in the lower one is obtained by drawing together on the lower edge two threads from two consecutive bunches in the upper row instead of just repeating over again the same divisioning as before. These two examples are drawn to show the reverse, not the working side.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 116.]

Another way of disposing of the undrawn threads is to cover them with a kind of darning st.i.tch, as ill.u.s.trated in fig. 117. This kind of work is more solid than the other, and is for that reason very durable. This example is commenced at the right-hand corner, where the threads are drawn loosely in order to explain the working. The needle, which should have a blunt point, takes the thread to and fro alternately over and under two cl.u.s.ters of warp thread, drawing them together a little during the process; half-way down, the needle leaves the first set of threads and continues working with the second and a new set (see needle in diagram). When this is worked down to the base the needle takes the thread invisibly up the centre of the worked part to the point where it is required for the continuation of the pattern. The working of this simple pattern explains the principle upon which all kinds of pretty and more complicated designs can be carried out. The darning thread may be coloured; in a more intricate design two or three different colours might be introduced.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 117.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 118.]

Fig. 118 shows another pattern in the same kind of work. The darning st.i.tch begins by working to and fro over and under four cl.u.s.ters of warp threads, part way down it continues over the two central ones only, leaving the outside cl.u.s.ters alone for the present. It finishes up, as at the beginning, to and fro over the four. The threads that were left are next covered with an overcast st.i.tch, the adjoining ones in each case are caught together in the centre in order to form the X shape that recurs along the pattern. This darning kind of work is very closely allied to weaving, and especially the kind often seen in Coptic work, in which bands of the woof threads are purposely omitted in places, whilst the fabric is being made, in order that a pattern may be hand-woven in afterwards to take their place. Many beautiful examples of this work are on view in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 119.]

In working a drawn thread border round a square shape, at each corner there comes an open s.p.a.ce that requires a filling. Fig. 119 shows two wheels that are commonly used to ornament such places. The square in the first one has a preliminary groundwork of threads thrown across from corner to corner and from side to side, all meeting and crossing in the centre. The working thread is brought through at this point and the wheel commenced by taking a kind of back st.i.tch over a bar and bringing the needle up beyond the next bar. It then takes the thread a step back and over the same bar and brings it up beyond the next; this goes on until the circle is of sufficient size, the st.i.tches growing a little longer in each succeeding row. In the diagram the thread is loosened at the end to explain the working. The lower example is a commonly used wheel, which is made by the thread running round alternately over and under a bar until the wheel is completed. It should be as solid as the upper one, but is purposely left loose in the diagram. Either of the wheels could have a line of b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tching worked round the edge as a finish. This figure shows also the two usual ways of making firm the raw edges in cut work--the square shape is bound by an overcast st.i.tch, and the round one by b.u.t.tonholing.

CUT OR OPEN WORK

Cut work can be most interesting both to look at and to carry out. In the XVIIth century Italy was famous for its _punto tagliato_ or cut work. John Taylor mentions "rare Italian cutworke" in "The Praise of the Needle." This poem may perhaps be of interest to some; it was prefixed to a book of embroidery patterns of cut work named "The Needle's Excellency." It ran through twelve editions, the first of which was printed in 1621, and sold at "the signe of the Marigold in Paules Churchyard." Copies may be seen in the British Museum Library; in the Bodleian, Oxford, in the Ryland's Library, Manchester, and occasionally elsewhere. Fig. 120 shows a pattern taken from this book.

There are several distinct varieties of cut work, for instance, that known as renaissance embroidery, which is usually composed of an arabesque design from which the background is cut away, leaving the pattern in the linen; the cut edges are outlined and protected by an overcast st.i.tch. The pattern has to be specially planned with the idea of holding strongly together, but, if necessary, b.u.t.tonholed bars can be added to form strengthening ties in any weak part.

Another kind of cut work is that known as _broderie anglaise_, and sometimes as Madeira work, over which our grandmothers spent much time, perhaps without adequate result. The pattern is followed out by round holes pierced in the linen with a stiletto and then overcast round the edges. At the present day the work is done mostly by machinery, though hand work also is procurable.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 120.]

Perhaps the prettiest kind of cut work is that in which various-shaped s.p.a.ces are cut out of the linen, and these filled in, in part, with some design built up with st.i.tches. There are various methods of refilling the s.p.a.ces cut out, one of the simplest is a diapering formed by some lace st.i.tch, such as an open b.u.t.tonhole. As a rule, the decoration of the open s.p.a.ces is based upon bars of thread that are either composed of warp or woof threads left, instead of being cut away, or else upon fresh threads thrown across in various directions. The pattern is planned on and about these strengthening ties, and where necessary receiving support from them. An ingenious worker will soon devise ways of refilling the s.p.a.ces by all kinds of interesting patterns, which can be geometrical or floral, or any kinds of objects that can be attractively represented in conventional fashion, such as figures, birds, insects, ships in full sail, or anything else. It must, however, be remembered that the various forms filling the s.p.a.ces are for use in the way of strength as well as for ornament, and that the work is often put upon objects that have to endure daily wear.

Open work is frequently mixed with other, and especially with white embroidery, and such things as counterpanes may be seen arranged with a chequering of alternate squares of embroidered linen and open work.

Fig. 121 shows in progress a simple method of filling a s.p.a.ce, mainly making use of the strengthening threads that have been left at regular intervals over the cut part. The threads are covered with an overcast st.i.tch, and alternate squares of those that recur over the s.p.a.ce are decorated with a cross. This is made by the working thread, after reaching the right point at the centre of an overcast line, being thrown across the s.p.a.ce and then twisted back over itself to the starting-point, where it is in the right position for continuing the overcast line. The crosses being put in at the same time as the overcasting of the bars renders some forethought necessary to get each in at just the right time and place.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 121.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 122.]