Thérèse de Dillmont

“ But now, when it is the fashion to decorate every kind of fancy article, whether of leather, plush, or velvet, with monograms and ingenious devices of all descriptions, the art of gold embroidery has revived and is being taken up and practised with success, even by those to whom needlework is nothing more than an agreeable recreation. ”

“ Stitching (fig. 6) .—The production of a row of back-stitches, that exactly meet one another, constitutes what is called stitching. Only one stitch can be made at a time, and the needle must be put in, exactly at the point where it was drawn out to form the preceding back-stitch, and brought out as many threads further on as were covered by the last back-stitch. The beauty of stitching depends on the uniform length of the stitches, and the straightness of the line formed, to ensure which it is necessary to count the threads for each stitch, and to draw a thread to mark the line. ”

“ Outlining and padding.—The outlining of a pattern is a very important preliminary. A want of precision in the ultimate effect is often due, merely to careless outlining. This part of the work should be done with rather a coarser cotton than the embroidery itself. Fasten in the thread by a few running stitches, never with a knot, a rule to be observed also in embroidering, except in very rare cases. Finish off your thread by drawing it through the tracing stitches, or through some part of the pattern that is already finished. ”

“ Fig. 844. Position of the hands in tambouring.
A little practice is necessary to acquire the right action of the hands, there being always a tendency, the same as in tatting and macramé, to confuse the movements of the two. As soon as you realize that the upward drawing of the needle and the downward pressure of the stuff with the thimble must be simultaneous, you will find that you can work with great rapidity and with admirable results. Thread with a very strong twist, which the hook will not split, is the only suitable kind for tambouring. ”

“ You want, for example, to embroider a rather large running ground pattern on a piece of stuff, that is relatively too small for the subject; or a small and rather minute pattern on a large surface on which it is likely to look, either too insignificant, or too crowded and confused and the chances are, if you do not know how to draw, you will either think it necessary to get a draughtsman to help you or you will give up the piece of work altogether, deterred by the difficulties that confront you. ”

“ Nevertheless, a great deal of beautiful embroidery is to be met with, in silk and gold thread upon quite common stuffs; Persian and Moorish embroidery for instance, both remarkable for their delicacy and minuteness, and executed upon ordinary linen, or cotton fabrics.
As a fact, the material is quite a secondary matter; almost any will do equally well as a foundation, for the stitches described in these pages. Flat stitch, and some of the other stitches used in gold embroidery, can be worked with any kind of thread, but best of all with the D.M.C cottons. ”

“ To test a needle, try to break it; if it resist, and then break clean in two, the steel is good; if it bend without breaking, or break without any resistance, it is bad. Never use a bent needle, it makes ugly and irregular stitches, and see that the eye, whether round or egg-shaped, be well-drilled, that it may not fray or cut the thread. Long or half-long needles are the best for white work, long ones for dress-making, and longer ones still, with long eyes, for darning. ”

“ The way in which such patterns are copied in crochet is by means of chain stitches and trebles, which, rising one above the other in rows, form little squares. For each square marked on the pattern, you must count, in the grounding, 1 treble and 2 chain stitches; in the solid parts, 3 trebles.
The squares formed by the chain stitches should always begin and end with a treble.
When, therefore, a solid square comes between empty or foundation squares, count 4 trebles for the solid square, because the last treble of the last empty square touches the third treble of the solid one. ”

“ The ordinary cross stitch, as represented in fig. 253, is the one most commonly used, but it is not so effective as the two-sided stitches, which in the beautiful old needlework of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, have always excited our wonder and admiration.
Stuffs suitable for linen embroidery.—Most embroidery of this kind, and more especially the Italian, is done on very fine linen. Such fine work however, requires more time and patience than people, in these days, are as a rule disposed to bestow on work intended merely for pleasure and recreation. ”

“ Embroidery in diamond stitch (fig. 244) .—The diamond stitch is a charming novelty in gold embroidery. Short lengths of purl, not more than 11⁄2 m/m. long, are threaded on the needle, and the needle is put in and drawn out at the same hole. These stitches which resemble knot stitches, form so many little glittering knots, turned alternately to the right and left, and look like seed-diamonds in appearance, more especially, when they are made in silver purl. ”

“ Embroidery patterns worked in several colours can be reproduced in crochet either by trebles and rows worked one way only, cutting off the thread at the end of each row, or by plain stitches, worked in rows to and fro.
Fig. 438. Plain crochet made after a tapestry pattern.
When only three colours are used, pass two threads under the stitches; when more than two, leave those which are not in use, at the back of the work and only bring them to the front as they are wanted. The thread, you lay aside, takes at the back the place of the one in use. ”

“ Embroidery with gold purl (fig. 243) .—Embroidery is the easiest kind of gold embroidery; you have only to thread the little pieces of purl, cut into the required lengths beforehand, like beads on your needle, and fasten them down upon the foundation like the beads in bead-work. Smooth and crimped gold purl, or silver and gold purl used together, look exceedingly well, particularly where the pattern requires effects of light and shade to be reproduced. ”

“ When you have finished the pouncing and taken off the paper, you proceed to draw or rather paint in the pattern with water-colour paints: Ackermann’s are the best for the purpose; no others, as far as our experience has proved, adhere so well to even the roughest fabrics or so little affect the brilliancy of the embroidery thread. Four paints, blue, black, yellow and white are sufficient for all purposes, whatever the colour of the stuff may be. ”

“ Coarse and fine net are all darned in the same way.
Laying the first thread (fig. 139) .—Tack the net which is to be darned, closely to the defective part, upon either oil-cloth or coloured paper and cut the edges straight to the thread; Your thread must be of exactly the same size, as that of which the net is made. It takes three rows of stitches to imitate the net ground; in the first place, as shown in fig. 139, cross-threads must be laid from side to side, carried as in darning, a little beyond the edges of the hole and so as to surround each mesh with a slanting stitch. ”

“ Before beginning the tracing, divide your stuff into four, then decide what the width of the border outside the pattern is to be; it is quite an exceptional thing to carry a pattern right up to the edge. Stuffs that will take a bend, such as all linen and cotton textures, can be folded in four, like the paper, the folds ought then to be pinched and pressed down so that the lines may remain clear and distinct until the tracing be finished. ”

“ Crochet lace (fig. 468) .—This is always an effective pattern, in any number of thread. It is not new, however, and is probably already known to many of our readers as a pillow lace. Those who are not fond of making pillow lace, will be glad to learn how to reproduce it in crochet, as it makes a pretty trimming, both for wearing apparel and furniture. For furniture, it should be made in unbleached cotton, for articles of dress, in any of the of the finer numbers, referred to above. ”

“ Net embroidery.—All these kinds of stitches can be worked on the coarse Greek net, as it is called, as well as on the finest quality of real Brussels net.
Stripes of net, finished off with button-hole edging, and ornamented with one or other of the following patterns, make very pretty washing laces and the like; net laid upon Irish point and converted by needlework into a lace ground, makes an excellent substitute for a hand-made ground, which demands much labour and time. ”

“ To arrange for the outside border or margin, is easy enough if the stuff and the kind of work you are going to do upon it admit of the drawing out of threads, as then a thread drawn out each way serves as a guide for tracing the pattern, straight to the line of the stuff. It is often better however, not to draw out the threads for an open-work border till the pattern be traced. If you do not wish or are not able to draw out threads to mark the pattern and you are working on a stuff of which the threads can be counted, follow the directions given on page 128, and explained in fig. ”

“ Position of the body and hands.—Before describing different kinds of stitches, a word should be said as to the position of the body and hands when at work. Long experience has convinced me that no kind of needlework necessitates a stooping or cramped attitude. To obviate which, see that your chair and table suit each other in height, and that you so hold your work as hardly to need to bend your head at all. The practice of fastening the work to the knee, besides being ungraceful, is injurious to the health. ”

“ Fig. 786 shows the net ground completed; the thread that runs to and fro, to make it more clear, is represented in a darker shade than the others.
Before proceeding further, it is as well to prepare our readers for the many trials they will have to make, even with the help of the most minute explanations, before they succeed in carrying out the directions; for the whole art of making pillow lace lies in a manual dexterity, only attainable by practice. ”

“ It is executed, either on a backing of oil-cloth, or in an embroidery frame, called «tambour-frame». Only skilful workers can dispense with these, for an untrained hand can hardly avoid puckering. If you work without a foundation, the material must be held, quite smoothly over the forefinger, so that the threads lie perfectly straight, otherwise, the pattern is very apt to get pulled out of shape in the working. With your three other fingers you hold the material fast, the thumb resting on the work itself, beyond the outline of the pattern, which must be turned towards the worker. ”

“ The stitch we have just described is most effective in conjunction with other kinds of embroidery, as illustrated in fig. 860, where it is combined with Gobelin stitch.
The running foundation is divided into slanting squares; the diagonal lines are all worked in gold and red. The squares number 9 stitches inside, these are followed by a tenth which is covered by the first stitch of the next square. Where two kinds of coloured gold thread are used, one square will be framed on all sides by one kind, say, gold and blue for instance, the next by the other, gold and red. ”

“ Netting, which divides itself under two headings, netting proper, or plain netting and net embroidery, has never yet gone out of fashion and places are still to be found where the entire population is engaged in this industry. ”