Satin stitch

“ There is a third and much simpler type of open-work occasionally found on seventeenth-century samplers, which is carried out by piercing the linen with a stiletto and overcasting the resulting holes so as to produce a series of bird’s-eye or eyelet stitches. All three varieties of open-stitch are frequently seen in combination with that short, flat satin-stitch, which, when worked in a diaper pattern with white thread or silk on a white ground, is sometimes called damask-stitch. ”

“ They are worked in solid satin-stitch, and the two layers of silk (back and front) give a substance fairly thick but at the same time yielding, so that when the stitches for the mouth and eyes are sewn tightly over it they sink in, and, as it were, push up the floss between and give relief. The nose is worked in extra satin-stitch over the other, and the slight depression at the end of the stitch gives lines of drawing. This trenches upon modelling, but, on such a minute scale, does not amount to very pronounced departure from the flat. The method employed does not lend itself to larger work. ”

“ The effect is to produce a more even line than is possible with the most careful stem stitch. It is used for delicate outlines. Split stitch is rarely used in hand embroidery, being more suitable for frame work: but [Pg 23] has been described here as being a form of stem stitch. The effect is somewhat like a confused chain stitch.
Satin Stitch—French Plumetis—is one of those chiefly used in white embroidery, and consists in taking the needle each time back again almost to the spot from which it started, so that the same amount of crewel or silk remains on the back of the work as on the front. ”

“ Satin stitch is perhaps the most commonly used of all stitches. It is more [Pg 96] quickly worked by hand, but for complicated work the help of a frame is required. Floss silk thread is seen to greatest advantage in a stitch of this kind, for it shows off the glossiness of silk particularly well. It is straightforward in the working and needs no further description than is given by the diagram (fig. 39) . ”

“ It is its oblique direction only which distinguishes stem-stitch from other short stitches of the kind. Running, again, amounts to no more than proportioning stitches to the mesh of the stuff, and taking several of them at one passing of the needle; and darning is but rows of running side by side. The term split-stitch describes no new stitch, but a particular treatment to which a crewel or a satin stitch is submitted. ”

“ The stitches are kept of one uniform length across the design. The next row is started from half the depth of the preceding stitch and kept of the same length throughout. Its beauty consists in its perfect regularity. If worked in the hand, the needle is brought back underneath the material as in satin stitch; but in the frame all the silk or worsted can be worked on the surface, with the exception of the small fastening stitches.
The effect when finished is that of a woven fabric.
It is really more suitable in its original character of a ground stitch than for working flesh. ”

“ In working in the hand, you take a rather shorter stitch back than in crewel-stitch, piercing with the needle the thread which is to form the next stitch. In working on a frame, you bring your needle always up through the last-made satin-stitch in order to start the next. Whichever way it is done, split-stitch is often difficult to distinguish without minute examination from chain-stitch. ”

“ There may be embroiderers who are experts in one branch of the subject and yet who will do very unsatisfactory work in another. For instance, one girl may be very proficient in fancy stitches and yet may not do the simple stitches or vice versa. Few American girls excel in the satin-stitch, not because it is hard, but it must be perfectly accurate. The average German, Swiss or French child can do better satin-stitch at the age of twelve than the average American woman does. From the time the children in those countries can hold a needle in their hand they are taught to sew and embroider. ”

“ The stitches are so intelligently placed as absolutely to give the forms of the birds imitated. They represent plumage, and a more artistic representation cannot be imagined. (Pl. 43.)
The same stitch which we find prevailing in China and Japan as plumage work, is employed in embroidering flowers. Here satin, stem, and plumage stitches are blended together, and excellent decorative effects are produced; but the texture of flowers is not to be imitated, as is that of the plumage of birds. “Satin” stitch is a more restricted form of plumage stitch ”

“ Stem-stitch, you will remember, is an outline-stitch covered with the over-and-over or small satin-stitch.
A monogram of this sort is especially appropriate for a man's handkerchief. A twenty-five-cent piece, or a fifty-cent piece if it is a very large handkerchief, should be used for the circle. Seeding (Figure 139A) may be combined with satin-stitch in working monograms. Seeding is nothing more than a series of little back-stitches. A good effect is obtained by working one letter in satin-stitch and the other in seeding. ”

“ Among other stitches used for grounds are the long flat satin-stitch familiar in Japanese embroideries of all periods, and laid-stitches, i.e., those formed of long threads “laid” on the satin or silk foundation, and held down by short “couching” stitches placed at intervals. Laid-stitch grounds, however, are oftener seen in foreign embroideries, especially Italian and Spanish, than in English examples.
Fig. 63.—Eyelet-hole-stitch: from a Sampler dated 1811.
[Pg 147]
Larger Image Fig. ”

“ The long stitches in the middle are taken into the holes from which the short stitches were taken.
Another easy little design shows two straight rows of satin-stitch crossing two in opposite ways (Fig. 11) .
Sometimes a few rows of blocks outside a design will improve it, and make it look bolder. This is the case with the open-work square, Fig. 12. A second row of blocks has been added outside the first, working the stitches the other way.
In the last open-work corner, Fig. 13, 4 stitches are taken over 4 threads, and 5 over 8 threads, then 4 over 5 threads again, and so on. ”

“ Too much care cannot be taken with floss silk, as it is apt to catch in everything it comes near and is very easily damaged. For the same reason the needlefuls should not be long, and if the silk be bought in skeins it should be carefully wound at once, on smooth reels or cards, keeping a separate one for each shade, which should be duly named and numbered.
Of all the stitches which are worked with silk, I think SATIN-STITCH, with its many offshoots and variations, is the foremost both for usefulness and beauty. The smooth brightness of the surface ”

“ For the buds in knotted stitch use pink silk. Having bordered the application with olive-colored satin ribbon half an inch wide laid in box pleats, chain-stitch it on the foundation along the inner edges with gold thread. Underlay the velvet with wadding, and line it with satin; join the two pieces of satin designed for the bottom over wadding, and edge the bottom with a ruffle of Bordeaux satin ribbon seven-eighths of an inch wide. The case is joined with narrow white satin ribbon. Bows of olive and Bordeaux satin ribbon trim the case as shown by the illustration. ”

“ A few years ago, while embroiderers here in America were counting the spaces on pieces of canvas, or carefully pushing needles in and out of the holes in perforated paper, pupils and teachers of the new English school were studying out the many stitches they could find in old embroidery, and were introducing them into their work. The so-called "Kensington" stitch is merely a form of stem stitch, taken always in a manner to fit the leaf or flower to be wrought. ”

“ Place a pad of gauze that has been soaked in the bichloride solution over the wound, cover that with a wad of cotton and the cotton with a piece of oiled silk, bandage over all, and do not molest for at least three days.
After five days you may remove your stitches in this manner: Cut the stitch near the skin on one side, grasp the knot in the bite of the forceps and pull it out. Be careful not to try to pull the knot through the flesh, and do not leave any end on the part38 you do pull through the flesh, as it may carry infection down into the wound. ”

“ For the approximation of the skin edges, stitches of horse-hair, fishing-gut, or fine silk are the most appropriate. These _stitches of coaptation_ may be interrupted or continuous. In small superficial wounds on exposed parts, stitch marks may be avoided by approximating the edges with strips of gauze fixed in position by collodion, or by subcutaneous sutures of fine catgut. ”

“ In this way stitches are also sometimes worked upon stitches, as shown on the sampler, Illustration 32. You will see, on referring to the back of it (33) , that only the white silk is worked into the stuff: the dark is surface work only. There is no end to such possible INTERLACINGS. Those on the sampler do not need much explanation; but it may be as well to say that A starts with crewel-stitching; B and C with back-stitching; D with chain-stitching; E with darning or running; F, G, and H with varieties of herring-bone-stitch; J with Oriental-stitch; and K with feather-stitch. ”

“ In the back 30 stitches only must be decreased, two in every 6th row. After the 60th row another decreasing takes place on the outer edges of the front parts for the neck; they decrease 2 stitches (1st rib) after the 5th stitch from the front edge in every 3rd row. The 5 stitches which close to the neck are cast off together with the 5 stitches on the shoulders. Then cast off loosely the stitches of the back; take all the selvedge stitches of the front on the needles, and knit 24 rows of brioche stitch with black wool, making 9 button-holes on the right front part. ”

“ The broad band of needle-weaving is edged by rows of variegated chain stitch in brown and cream (for the working of which, see Fig. 1, p. 46) , and followed by rows of button-hole in orange (Fig. 11) .
The wide braid-like line in oriental stitch, along the top, is worked very closely; along the sides the same stitch is seen with wider spacing. This stitch is of the herring-bone type—the needle is inserted vertically, instead of horizontally, as in the case of the commoner and better-known stitch. It is effective and economical, as the bulk of the thread is on the surface. ”

“ Take up an eighth of an inch and skip three-eighths. When only loose basting is required, as when holding the lining and outside together, a long stitch and two short ones may be used.
Blind Stitch.—The blind stitch and slip stitch are used to fasten a hem lightly where it is desired to conceal the stitches. To blind stitch a hem, turn back the edge of the hem to the basting and, holding the cloth along the edge of the finger, catch first cloth and then hem with a single stitch that does not show on either side. A slip stitch is a long stitch on the wrong side and a blind stitch on the hem. ”

“ The stitches are taken alternately from side to side, and the threads cross each other naturally, without any intervention of the needle or thumb of the worker. It is a stitch well known to the neat-fingered housewife for keeping flat the cut edges of a seam where a hem is considered too clumsy. As a decoration it is seldom used in its simplest form; but I have seen many beautiful pieces of embroidery executed entirely in other forms of the same stitch, such as Swiss or Close herring-bone or Fish-bone. ”

“ To make the second sort of Stitch for the Hare-Lip, a small streight Needle is pass'd into the sides of the Wound, and the Thread is twisted round the Needle, by crossing it above at every Stitch.
To form the Dry Stitch in very superficial Wounds, a piece of new Linnen-Cloth is to be taken, wherein are made Digitations, or many Corners; the Selvedge or Hem ought to be on the side of these Corners or Digitations; and a small Thread-Lace is ty'd to every one of 'em. ”

“ Care must be taken to have the stitches all the same length and to throw the thread in one direction either away from or towards the worker. The pretty effect will be spoiled if there is a variation. Away from the worker makes a neat effect. Begin with knot. Draw needle to right side on the line. Throw [122] thread away from worker; take a small back stitch on the line, needle pointing towards the worker. This will make a long thread on the surface and the short stitch beneath. The effect is much prettier when the stitches are taken close together.
EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS ”

“ An effective kind, used for the background of many Stuart pictures, consists of a series of the short perpendicular stitches, arranged in a zig-zag or chevron pattern, each row fitting into that above it. This particular stitch, or rather group of stitches, has been named opus pulvinarium, but its claim to the title does not seem very well supported. Other and more modern names are Florentine and Hungary stitch. A neat and pretty cushion-stitch is shown in the background of Fig. ”

“ It should be large enough to stretch the netting tightly. For insertion or edging, an oblong frame is used. The netting is generally done with linen thread, which must be of a size regulated by the foundation. A common darning or tapestry needle may be used for the lace stitches. Great accuracy is essential in this work, as a wrongly placed stitch would spoil the whole effect. It would be a good plan to practice the different stitches given on a square which can be kept for a sampler. ”