Needlework

“ Needlework is essential for every woman, and facility with the needle is more easily acquired early, say from ten to fourteen, when the fingers are really large enough to use such a delicate instrument as a needle ”

“ Finally,—feeling as we do that though ornamental [Pg 403] needlework may be a charming occupation for those ladies whose happy lot relieves them from the necessity of “darning hose” and “mending nightcaps,” yet that a proficiency in plain sewing is the very life and being of the comfort and respectability of the poor man’s wife,—we cannot close this book without one earnest remark on the systems of teaching needlework now in use in the Central, National, and other schools for the instruction of the poor. There, now, the art is reduced to regular rule, taught by regular system ”

“ They were doubtless esteemed the richest part of the spoil after a battle, as we find the mother of Sisera apportioning them as his share, and reiterating her delighted anticipations of the “raiment of needlework” which should be his: “a prey of divers colours, of divers colours of needlework, of divers colours of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil.”
Job has many allusions to raiment as an essential part of “treasures” in the East ”

“ In the working itself the greatest care must be taken, especially as to two points: the first and perhaps the more important, because the more difficult to remedy, is that the needlework on the under side of the material must be as small and flat as possible, and all knots, lumps, or irregularities here, if they cannot be avoided or safely cut off, had best be brought to the upper side and 24worked over. ”

“ Sewing cotton No. 100 or 150 and a special needle are the only requirements for this work. The needles can be bought from any art needlework shop for five cents each. It is like a large-sized carpet needle with a small eye. A carpet needle can be substituted if it is not possible to obtain the regular needle in your locality. Tie one end of the thread to the eye of the needle. While practising this stitch it will be necessary to make guide lines. On each side of the design line make a row of dots an eighth of an inch apart. ”

“ In speaking of the origin of needlework it will be necessary to define accurately what we mean by the term “needlework;” or else, when we assert that Eve was the first sempstress, we may be taken to task by some critical antiquarian, because we may not be able precisely to prove that the frail and beautiful mother of mankind made use of a little weapon of polished steel, finely pointed at one end and bored at the other, and “warranted not to cut in the eye.” Assuredly we do not mean to assert [Pg 12] that she did use such an instrument ”

“ The use of the needle for the daily [Pg 58] necessities of life could never, as we have remarked, be superseded; but the practice of ornamental needlework, in common with every ennobling science and improving art, was kept alive during this period of desolation by the church, and by the individual labours and collective zeal of the despised and contemned monks. ”

“ The art of needlework reached its climax long ago, and is now very old. History and faded rags are the only witnesses to its fabulous glories, in Classical, Oriental, and early Mediæval days. It would appear that nothing new remains to be invented. ”

“ One of the most convincing facts in arguments that there is a revival in the gentle art of needlecraft is that it has become the fashion to drape our windows, cover our furniture, and panel our walls with printed copies of the Old Jacobean needlework. Many people, knowing nothing whatever about the history of needlework, wonder where the designs for the printed linens which line the windows of Messrs. ”

“ This should be read needle and thread in hand—or skipped. Samplers and other examples of needlework are uniformly on a scale large enough to show the stitch quite plainly. The examples of old work illustrate always, in the first place, some point of workmanship ”

“ And as Eve’s first specimen of needlework was certainly completed before the sacrifice of any living thing, we may safely infer that the latter implements were not familiar to her. The Cimbrian inhabitants of Britain passed their time in weaving baskets, or in sewing together for garments the skins of animals taken in the chase, while they used as needles for uniting these simple habiliments small bones of fish or animals rudely sharpened at one end ”

“ In early and medieval times needlework as an adjunct to weaving and outline work by itself was used with a most perfect artistic effect, done in couched metals or silken cord, or in simple chain-stitch or back-stitch, &c.; while, as for appliqué, many gorgeous vestments may still be seen retaining much of their original beauty, worked in satin on velvet, silk upon damask, &c., Botticelli and other great masters not disdaining to draw designs for such work with their own hands. ”

“ But if people will have the patience to do it there is no need to have bad needlework when there is an ideal stitch for the purpose which requires no technical skill in embroidery—which calls in fact for nothing in the worker but diligence, patience, and accuracy in counting. ”

“ Fig. 58. Double hem-stitch.
Antique hem-stitch (figs. 59, 60, 61 and 62) . In the old, elaborate, linen needlework, we often meet two kinds of hem-stitching seldom found in modern books on needle-work. Figs. 59 to 62 are magnified representations of the same. At the necessary depth for forming a narrow hem, a thread is drawn, in the case of very fine textures where the edge is rolled, not laid; then fasten in the working thread at the left, and work the stitches from left to right. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Faerie Queene.
“Meantime, whilst monks’ pens were thus employed, nuns with their needles wrote histories also: that of Christ his passion for their altar-clothes; and other Scripture- (and more legend-) stories in hangings to adorn their houses.”—Fuller, Ch. Hist., B. 6.
Needlework is an art so indissolubly connected with the convenience and comfort of mankind at large, that it is impossible to suppose any state of society in which it has not existed. ”

“ 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 needle should always be a little thicker than the thread, to make an easy passage for it through the stuff.
To keep needles from rusting, strew a little stone alum in the packets, and workers whose hands are apt to get damp, should have a small box of it handy, to powder their fingers with. Blackened needles can be made quite bright again by drawing them through an emery cushion. ”

“ As a matter of fact no two needleworkers will use the same quantity of silk to work the same centerpiece or doily. One will require nearly or quite twice as much as another, perhaps, owing to the method of treatment or the way the shading is done. ”

“ That needlework can, however, in capable hands, go farther than that is shown in Illustration 79, a rather threadbare specimen of 15th century work, in which the character of the man's face is admirably expressed. ”

“ Price, 3d.
Needlework Demonstration Sheets (Nineteen in number) . Exhibiting by Diagrams and Descriptions the Formation of the Stitches in Elementary Needlework. 30 by 22 inches, price 9d. each; or Mounted on rollers and varnished, 2s. 6d.
The following is a List of the Series, which is now Complete:—
Plain Needlework, arranged in Six Standards, with Hints for the Management of Classes, and Appendix on Simultaneous Teaching. ”

“ Finally, when worked with the same quantity of thread on the under and upper surfaces of the material, it attains a new dignity, and becomes satin stitch—the stitch beloved of the young modern needlewoman, who is generally inspired and stimulated by the wonderful skill and precision of the Eastern needleworkers. ”

“ The word “stitches” does not, however, in this chapter represent merely the plural of one particular process of needle insertion, but the produce and effect of each different kind of stitch by grouping and repetition, according to its most ancient nomenclature. That which is astonishing is the endless variety of surface, of design, of hints and suggestions, of startling effects, and of lovely combinations, resulting from the direction of the needle and manipulation of the materials, and differing from each other according to the power or the caprice of the worker. ”

“ To work C, bring your needle out as for A, and, putting it in at the upper edge of the line to be worked and pointing it downwards, whilst your thread lies to the right, take up ever so small a piece of the stuff. ”

“ Position of the hands (fig. 2) .—The stuff, fastened to a cushion, must be held with the left hand, which should neither rest on the table, nor on the cushion, the needle must be held between the thumb and forefinger, of the right hand, and the middle finger, armed with the thimble, pushes the needle far enough through the stuff, for the other fingers to take hold of it and draw it out; the thread then comes to lie between the fourth and fifth fingers in the form of a loop, which must be tightened gradually to avoid its knotting. ”

“ Stroking gathers (fig. 19) .—When you have run in your gathering thread, draw it up tight, and make it fast round the finger of your left hand, and then stroke down the gathers with a strong needle, so that they lie evenly side by side, pushing each gather, in stroking it, under your left thumb, whilst you support the stuff at the back with your other fingers. ”

“ Then thread a needle with a hair by the root, and slip it in, 2 or 3 m/m. from the one edge and back again pointed towards you, through the other, so that, neither needle nor hair, are visible on either side. The stitches should be set slightly slanting and must be quite lost in the thickness of the cloth. The needle must always be put in, exactly at the place where it came out, and the hair not be too tightly drawn. ”

“ Worked like the above-named entirely with the needle, but much less elaborate and minute in character and workmanship, they are quicker and easier to make and we are sure that by the help of the directions that accompany the illustrations, any careful worker will be able to imitate them without difficulty. ”

“ The work should proceed from left to right. The needle should be brought up in the outline, drawn out the full length of the thread, then sent down in advance and carried out on the outline again a short distance in front of the point at which it was put in. Again the needle should be sent through in advance on the line, thus forming an unbroken, partly double line on the face and a series of short backstitches on the wrong side of the fabric. The thread must be kept always on one side of the needle. It is more convenient to some workers to throw it back. See Fig. IV a.
[Pg 16] ”

“ It is a mistake to be over-timid in attacking floss-silk. It requires a light but firm hand, and should be pulled fairly tight to get it to lie smoothly—a sort of little secondary jerk after drawing the needle through to the back. ”

“ Put in your needle at the back of the slit, and take up about three threads, bring the working thread round, from right to left under the point of the needle, and draw the needle out through the loop, so that the little knot comes at the edge of the slit, and so on to the end, working from the lower left-hand corner to the right. ”

“ Open hemmed double-seam. GATHERING (fig. 18) .--Gathers are made with running-stitches of perfectly equal length; take up and leave three or four threads, alternately, and instead of holding the stuff fast with your thumb, push it on to the needle as you go, and draw up your thread after every four or five stitches. ”

“ Has the training in the schools fitted the girls for making and mending garments for themselves and others—remodelling old ones, and generally using the needle as a help towards comfort and economy in the home? ”

“ Four threads should meet in every hole which the needle makes. The third and fourth row should be worked in a colour that forms a sharp contrast with the one in which the two first rows are worked and constitute with these one complete row of stitches, fig. ”

“ Work an inch without shaping, then divide the st, putting half on to one needle for the heel, taking care that the decreasings made come in the centre of the needle.
The Heel.
Make an extra stitch, so that you have an odd number on the needle (you should then have 29 st) , and knit and purl a row alternately (always slipping the first st) until you have worked the same number of rows as you have st on the needle, ending with a purl row. ”

“ From the thimble being cut slightly slanting at the top, it follows that the inside where the two ends meet is a little shorter than the outside.
The thread is drawn through in a loop to the front of the work by means of the hook, whilst it is held at the back in the left hand, and when the needle is put downwards through the stuff, laid round it. The needle in its downward and upward passage, should be kept in the notch in the thimble and the stuff pressed down with the thimble, as the needle is drawn up to the surface of the work, fig. ”