Encyclopedia of Needlework Part 67

Where the picots have to fill up empty s.p.a.ces of a larger size, you can join several together by connecting them each in turn with the first.

When you have bordered all the outlines with b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tches and picots, fill up the s.p.a.ces enclosed within the lines, which properly speaking form the pattern, with flat st.i.tch embroidery, worked in Coton a broder or Coton a repriser; after which the whole surface is sewn over with fine little spangles which give the sparkling look that const.i.tutes the peculiar charm of this kind of embroidery. The flowers are covered with a fancy st.i.tch that forms regular little lozenges, and every second row of st.i.tches is hidden under a spangle.

With regard to the colours indicated at the foot of fig. 867, this is how they were distributed in the original, from which our engraving was taken; all the outlines in b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tch, in Bleu pale 668; the tops of the flowers in Bleu-Indigo 334; the bottom parts in Bleu-Indigo 332, and all three shades of blue so blended together in the solid parts of the design as to be undistinguishable from each other. It is not absolutely necessary to keep to the colours here indicated; there is no reason whatever why a greater variety should not be introduced, but in every case the more subdued shades should be selected; a pale red, for instance, for the flowers, a green and a brown for the arabesques, will always be found to produce a very pretty and harmonious effect.

When all the needlework is finished, you cut away the stuff underneath the network formed by the picots, with a pair of sharp scissors.

A word remains to be said with regard to the copying of fig. 868.

Our readers will notice that in fig. 867 the flowers and arabesques succeed and grow out of each other; that whilst the four quarters are symmetrical, yet at the same time, the curves in each quarter take a different inclination.

You cannot therefore simply repeat the subject four times; when you have copied the one quarter, given in fig. 868, you must lay this first quarter on again at the cross + on the left side; when the second quarter is finished, you again turn the copy to the left and tack it on at the +; when you come to the fourth quarter the lines of the first quarter must exactly meet those of the last. We beg here to draw attention to the directions, relative to the copying of patterns, given in the subsequent chapter.

BASKET St.i.tCH ON LINEN (fig. 869).--This st.i.tch has some resemblance with the Greek st.i.tch, fig. 278, and the Montenegrin, fig. 306, only that it is not crossed like the latter.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 869. BASKET St.i.tCH ON LINEN.]

Basket st.i.tch can be worked on all kinds of stuffs, on counted threads or on a wide or narrow tracing, with fine or coa.r.s.e thread, and more or less closely, according to the taste of the worker.

You insert the needle from right, and pa.s.s it under, from 3 to 6 threads of the foundation, according to the stuff and the material you are using, then downwards from left to right, and over, from 6 to 8 threads, into the stuff again from right to left; then you push it under the stuff in an upward direction and bring it out on the left in the middle of the s.p.a.ce left between the last st.i.tch and the top of the second. The dotted line in the engraving indicates the course of the st.i.tches.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 870. OLD GERMAN KNOTTED St.i.tCH.]

OLD GERMAN KNOTTED St.i.tCH (fig. 870).--This is a st.i.tch often met with in old church and house linen embroidery. A beautiful design worked in this way is given further on.

Contrary to most st.i.tches, this is worked upwards; the needle is put in horizontally under the stuff, the thread tightly drawn, then laid from left to right and drawn through underneath the first st.i.tch and a tight knot made. We find the same st.i.tch, worked in a variety of ways, according to the taste and skill of the worker; for instance the knots may be set slanting, as in fig. 870, or else straight and very close together, as in fig. 873, where they present the appearance of a close string of beads, or again wide apart, as they are in fig. 876.

All these ways are admissible but care should be taken in each case, to make the st.i.tches perfectly regular; it is the direction which is given to the st.i.tch and the number of threads taken up with the needle that changes the appearance of the st.i.tch.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 871. RAISED STEM St.i.tCH.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 872. ANOTHER KIND OF RAISED STEM St.i.tCH.]

RAISED STEM St.i.tCH (figs. 871, 872).--Take a very thick thread, such as Fil a pointer D.M.C No. 10 or 20, or one of the coa.r.s.er numbers of Cordonnet 6 fils D.M.C, lay it as a foundation thread along the line of your pattern and work over it wide stem st.i.tches, as represented in figs. 172 and 173, either in the same number of thread used for the foundation thread, or a finer, according to the stuff you are embroidering upon.

You may overcast the same st.i.tch in the manner indicated in fig. 872, using a different colour for the second layer of st.i.tches to produce an agreeable variety.

BORDER IN DIFFERENT KINDS OF St.i.tCHES (fig. 873).--The straight lines of this border are all worked in old German knotted st.i.tch in ecru thread, forming a thick round cord which stands out from the surface in high relief; the flatter outlining of the outside figures is done in basket st.i.tch in soft blue knitting cotton. The little oblong figures within the two inner lines of the border are worked in Gobelin st.i.tch, in red embroidery cotton, and the filling of the figures, outlined in basket st.i.tch, in one or other of the Irish lace st.i.tches, worked in white lace thread, either so that all the st.i.tches enter the stuff, or form a network over it.

The work may be simplified by sewing Soutache D.M.C or Lacet superfin D.M.C along the straight lines instead of embroidering them in basket st.i.tch.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 873. BORDER IN DIFFERENT KINDS OF St.i.tCHES.

MATERIALS--For the old German knotted st.i.tch: Cordonnet 6 fils D.M.C No.

2, ecru--For the basket st.i.tch: Coton a tricoter D.M.C No. 16, Bleu-Indigo 312--For the Gobelin st.i.tches: Coton a broder D.M.C No. 20, Rouge-Turc 321--For the lace st.i.tches: Fil a dentelle D.M.C No. 40, white.]

ROUMANIAN St.i.tCH (figs. 874, 875).--This consists of st.i.tches that are worked in the width of the stuff, intersected by back-st.i.tches set slightly slanting.

Though the engraving is so clear as to render it hardly necessary, we subjoin an exact description of the way the st.i.tches run.

Bring out the needle on the left, 2 or 6 threads beyond the line your embroidery is to follow; with regard to the number of threads you take up, you must be guided by the quality of the stuff and the material you have selected: put the needle in on the right, the same distance in advance of the line as before and bring it out in the middle of the st.i.tch; then pa.s.sing the needle over the first st.i.tch, put it in again one or two threads in advance of the point where it came out, and draw it out close to where the first st.i.tch began.

The border, represented in fig. 875, is worked in great part in Roumanian st.i.tch.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 874. ROUMANIAN St.i.tCH.]

The original, still very well preserved, notwithstanding its age, is worked in silk of a brilliant red on a stiff stuff which has been coloured by time and use.

Willems satin, Rhodes linen No. 2 and Algerian linen, make very suitable foundations for this kind of embroidery and have that soft tint which is almost indispensable to a satisfactory imitation of old needlework.

Any one of the shades of red named at the foot of the ill.u.s.tration, will be found to be a good match for the original colours.

Roumanian st.i.tch is used wherever the lines of the pattern are widest; there where they narrow, in the indentures of the leaves and the twists of the stalks, flat st.i.tch is used instead.

By the repet.i.tion of the detached subject, this pattern may be made to serve either for a stripe or for a grounding; if you use it for a stripe, the centre flower of the princ.i.p.al subject with the stalks lengthened, will look very well worked as a separate subject between the large bouquets. Worked in a double row, base to base, on any stuff and in any material, these large figures form a very handsome border which makes an effective tr.i.m.m.i.n.g for furniture and curtains.

PATTERN FOR PIQUe EMBROIDERY (fig. 876).--The stuff, called pique, such as it is now manufactured, is simply an imitation of an old kind of needlework, almost unknown in these days, but very popular in the fifteenth and sixteenth century in Italy, for making coverlets and more especially curtains and blinds; the latter being highly esteemed, because without intercepting the light altogether, they tempered it agreeably.

A similar kind of work was common in Bohemia until a recent date for the making of caps. It is done on two layers of stuff, of different kinds, the upper one fine and transparent, the lower, more substantial.

The pattern is drawn upon the fine stuff, because on that side the different kinds of st.i.tches are made.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 875. BORDER IN ROUMANIAN St.i.tCH. MATERIALS: Coton a broder D.M.C No. 16, Coton a repriser D.M.C No. 50, or Cordonnet 6 fils D.M.C No. 20.[A] COLOURS: Rouge-Cardinal 346, Rouge-Grenat 358, Brun-Caroubier 355, Rouge Maroquin 3327 et 3328, or Rouge-Cerise 3317 et 3318.[A]]

You then tack the two stuffs together and work all the outlines of the pattern in Old German knotted st.i.tch with ecru Fil a pointer D.M.C No.

20; that done, thread a tapestry needle with white Cordonnet 6 fils D.M.C No. 1 or 2, slip it in between the two layers of stuff and secure the end by two or three st.i.tches; then push the twist quite close to the knotted st.i.tch and fasten it in between the two layers of stuff, with small and very regular running st.i.tches, in a fine pliable material, such as Fil d'Alsace D.M.C on reels.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 876. PATTERN FOR PIQUe EMBROIDERY. MATERIALS: Cordonnet 6 fils D.M.C Nos. 1 and 25, Fil d'Alsace D.M.C No. 100, Fil a pointer D.M.C No. 30 and Fil a dentelle D.M.C No. 30.[A]]

Fill up in this manner all the ground of the pattern, leaving the arabesques and the ornaments plain, or embellishing them with some kind of lace or embroidery st.i.tch.

When these stripes are intended for blinds, you can produce pretty transparent effects in them by cutting away the underneath stuff, in places.

ALPHABET IN SOUTACHE (braid) (figs. 877, 878, 879, 880, 881, 882).--This alphabet, which is one of the best of its kind, was taken from a work published in Venice in 1662, by Giovan' Antonio Tagliente, secretary and calligraphist to the Republic.

The letters lend themselves, better than any we know, to being executed in Soutache D.M.C.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 877. LETTER T OF THE SOUTACHE ALPHABET. MODE OF INTERLACING THE SOUTACHE.]

The sewing on of the braid is done with very small running st.i.tches and the interlacing with a tapestry needle, into which the braid is threaded; both operations are shown in figs. 877 and 880. The embroidery of the connecting bars, and the small leaves and tendrils that complete the letter are explained in fig. 881, whilst fig. 882 represents the letter A in its finished state.

For sewing on the braid, a fine soft material is the best, such as Soie de coton D.M.C[A] and for embroidering the small accessories, Coton a broder D.M.C No. 50[A].

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 878. ALPHABET IN SOUTACHE. LETTERS A TO N.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 879. ALPHABET IN SOUTACHE. LETTERS O TO Z.]

For the ears of corn in fig. 883, use either Soutache ecru, or Jaune-d'Ocre 677 No. 2; for the marguerites, white Soutache No. 2 and for the corn flowers, Soutache Bleu-Indigo 322 No. 2. Nothing could be simpler than the mode of working these flowers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 880. LETTER M OF THE ALPHABET IN SOUTACHE. MODE OF SEWING ON THE SOUTACHE.]