CHAPTER XII

ON THE PRINCIPAL STITCHES USED IN LINEN-WORK

In all the previous chapters I have assumed that the embroidress would carry out the suggestions given by means of gold and silver thread, floss silks, &c., working them either directly upon some rich fabric such as silk or velvet, or else on linen with the ultimate purpose of transferring it to the more precious material, or, thirdly, on a linen ground which is eventually covered so entirely with embroidery that no trace of the original material appears. I have mentioned coloured linens and linen thread as desirable materials where economy is a consideration, to be used for the same purposes and in the same manner as silk and gold, &c.

I now propose to treat of linen-work as a separate branch of Church needlework, different both in regard to the materials employed and in the method of using them.

To begin with, as the ground-work will be of _white_ linen, which naturally requires frequent washing, the decoration of it must either be detachable (as in the case of ‘Apparels’), or it must be of such a nature as to withstand injury under the necessary processes of the laundry.

This limits the materials for the embroidery to linen thread, cotton, crewel wool, washing silk, and a certain make of tambour gold which can be conveniently worked through the substance of the linen.

It excludes (generally speaking) all loose surface-stitches and highly raised relief work; but on the other hand it allows of many curious and diversified stitches which can only be worked satisfactorily when done in the hand without a frame, such as chain-stitch, buttonhole, &c. &c.

In choosing the materials, whether it be the linen itself or the embroidery threads, a careful judgment is required to select only the best and most durable. If colours are to be used in the ornament, it is well to test them beforehand as to their behaviour under the ordeal of washing. The guarantee of the labels on many of them is insufficient. The linen itself ought also to be washed in boiling water before the cutting-out or embroidering is attempted. Hand-made and grass-bleached linens are much to be preferred to the more perfect-looking but less reliable products of machinery.

Linen thread for embroidery is not so easy to work with as some of the cottons prepared for this purpose; but it looks so well when carefully handled that it repays a little extra trouble in the using. It is apt to come untwisted in the friction through the stuff, and then to break rather readily; the remedy is to roll the needle between the finger and thumb from time to time during each needleful, to keep it twisted right, or to change hands, working with the left if possible, or from the opposite end of the work where it is convenient. The needlefuls also should not be too long.

‘D.M.C.’ cottons (of which there are a great number of different kinds) are very nice-looking and pleasant to work with; the colours also are good.

For white work I prefer Clark’s Anchor (_à broder_), the numbers from 5 to 10 being especially good and useful.

THE STITCHES

There is a great variety in the stitches which may be employed in linen embroidery, but for each separate piece of work it is best to keep to one or two only. In the accompanying sampler I have contrived to show about a dozen different ones without seriously interfering with the unity of the design; but it is to be taken merely as a sampler of stitches, and of those only the most desirable for Church linen.

All this kind of work should be solid and firm without being drawn too tight. It should never be so tightly done as embroidery which is worked in a frame, if the linen becomes puckered or drawn out of shape it will never ‘come right’ afterwards, so the stitches ought to be well practised on a waste piece of linen till the right degree of tension is ascertained. A want of due regard to this is the cause of much disappointment in work done in the hand; if too loose it soon becomes shabby, and if too tight it makes a series of small holes all round the work, after repeated efforts of the laundress to make the thing lie smoothly by means of much stretching and heavy ironing.

In general method, embroidery worked loose in the hand differs from that done in a frame, in that each stitch is completed by one action of the needle instead of two, as it goes in and out of the stuff.

SATIN-STITCH, marked _A_ on the sampler, is nearly always padded first by running a few stitches backwards and forwards in the opposite direction to that of the satin-stitch, which covers it by going ‘over and over,’ the needle going in at one edge of the outline and coming out at the other as nearly as possible at right angles. The stitches should be placed quite close together, and should never be _much_ more than ¼ inch across: if the design shows a wider space to be filled it must be subdivided by a voided line. Some workers pad their satin-stitch very thickly, thinking to make it handsomer; but all very high relief is a mistake from an artistic point of view, as it destroys the delicacy one expects to see in linen-work, and obtrudes itself unduly even when worked entirely in white. Indeed, some authorities go so far as to say that the change of surface or texture caused by the stitchery is the only legitimate effect in white work; but I think the majority would allow a _little_ relief, providing it is not exaggerated, especially as it causes the satin-stitch to lie much more smoothly than when done without any under layer of cotton.

Next to the satin- and chain-stitches I think BUTTONHOLE-STITCH is perhaps the most useful for linen embroidery. Simple buttonholing is worked from left to right, setting the needle in and out at right angles to the outline, holding the thread down with the left thumb at each stitch while the needle goes over it. Both chain- and feather-stitch may be considered variations of buttonhole, the principle of the method being the same in each case, viz. working from left to right (or from the top downwards), holding the thread under the thumb for the needle to pass over as it pierces the stuff and comes out again at one ‘stroke.’

In ordinary buttonholing the stitches are placed as near together as possible: at a little distance apart it becomes ‘blanket-stitch,’ of which there are as many variations as the ingenious needlewoman chooses to make, but which are not appropriate to our present purpose.

To work the foliation marked _B_ on the sampler, it should be slightly padded, exactly as for satin-stitch, and the ridged side of the stitch kept to the outline; round the inner curves, if a sufficient number of stitches are inserted, the ridge will stand up a little and accentuate the ‘eye’ of the curve very prettily. The firmness of outline obtained by buttonholing has caused it to be applied to the most beautiful designs for cut-linen work (see Illustration, p. 82), which may be carried out with any amount of detail without the least danger of its fraying or getting out of shape, and which will last and wear as long as the linen itself. The outline should be run round before working the buttonhole for this purpose, the stitches kept close together and drawn rather tighter than when intended to lie on the surface.

The inner outlines, also marked _B_ on the sampler, are done in the same stitch, in the one case set in straight and in the other slanting. The tiny rosettes above are worked by setting the needle in at the same place at each stitch. By drawing the thread fairly tight, a small neat hole is arrived at in the centre of each; if the linen is very hard and strong, the spot should be pierced with a stiletto before working.

Another application of the principle is shown as a ‘filling’ stitch at _C_ on the sampler. It is worked like one of the lace stitches, except that the needle takes up a bit of the linen beneath at each stroke (instead of ‘being in the air,’ as lace may be truly defined). An outline of chain-stitch should be worked first, as it provides a neat and convenient boundary for the rows of buttonholing to begin and end with. Bringing out the needle on the edge to the right of the worker, it is carried straight across the work to the left and set into one of the chain-stitches there; it is then brought out at the next chain, and the long thread buttonholed over till it arrives at the beginning of the thread where it was fastened on. The same process is repeated till the space is filled, the stitches in each row of buttonholing being placed between those of the previous row, and each row beginning at the left over the thread laid across from the right.

This will be seen clearly by the detail _C_, which is very much enlarged to show the working, but the rows of buttonholing are not usually much more than ⅟₁₆ of an inch deep. It combines admirably with chain-stitch for leaves, flowers, and even figures, the stems and small details being worked in chain, and the filling in this solid form of buttonhole, while features and the folds of garments may be clearly indicated by voided lines.

FEATHER-STITCH, marked _D_ on the sampler, may be considered another development of the buttonhole-stitch, the simpler forms of it being merely one, two, or three slanting buttonhole-stitches taken alternately from the one side and the other of imaginary boundary lines. In practising the stitch, until the worker gets accustomed to it, it is a good plan to trace real boundary lines, determining the width to be kept to, and two other lines at equal distances within these, as a guide for keeping the stitches all of the same size.

Feather-stitch by itself makes a very pretty border pattern, but it always seems a little frivolous unless it is subdued by an enclosing line of chain-stitch or buttonhole, with either of which it will combine most happily. The chain may be done first on each side (making, in fact, the boundary for width), and then the single feather-stitches taken from side to side into each chain in turn, being careful to pick up a tiny bit of the stuff on the needle, as well as the thread of the chain, at each stitch, otherwise it will be only a surface-stitch, which does not wear so well, though the appearance is almost exactly the same. If buttonhole be used for the edge, either it should be done _slanting_, to agree with the feather, or the latter should be worked in _upright_ stitches to suit the buttonhole. In this case it does not matter which is done first, as the stitches go _between_ and not _into_ each other.

HERRING-BONE is somewhat similar in appearance to feather-stitch, but the method of working is quite different. It is begun from the opposite end of the border, working from the bottom upwards, and the needle is set in the same direction as the line of the border, not at right angles or diagonally, but on the line itself. 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. The method of work is shown here, and I think needs no further description. In the third diagram of this stitch it will be noticed that the needle goes at right angles with the outline, both in the large stitch from edge to edge, and in the little stitch in the middle. This makes the work less thick and substantial than the Swiss, which gives the same effect at a greater expenditure of silk or cotton, &c.

BACK-STITCHING is very useful for making fine lines, for following outside of an outline which may seem too hard, or for breaking up a background, as in the central petal of the _fleur-de-lys_ in the sampler, where it answers the same purpose as dots or ‘sympathetic lines’ in a drawing, by filling a flat surface quietly and unobtrusively. It is well to work it in rather coarser thread than the satin-stitch it accompanies. The stitches should not lie too close together; a _very_ small piece of the stuff should be taken up on the needle at each stitch, and the point of the needle brought out at the spot where the next stitch is to be. If the dots do not look large enough, each stitch should be gone over _twice_, instead of only once, at exactly the same place. When three or four stitches are used one over the other, they make a smooth raised knot preferable to French knots for linen-work, as they do not get disarranged by ironing. When only one or two stitches are used for each dot, the needle should pierce the thread at the back as it goes through from one dot to the next place.

CROSS-STITCH is, I think, too well known to need much in the way of description. But the application of it to _linen-work_ would well repay more attention than is commonly given to it. I need only point to the accompanying examples from South Kensington to show something of the beauty that may be arrived at by this simple kind of work. There are three typical ways of doing this, the first (as in Illustration _F_) by making a pattern _on the linen_ by means of _cross-stitch_ alone, in one colour. The second (_F, f_), by making the pattern _by the linen_, the background being in cross-stitch. The third, by _combining_ cross-stitch with back-stitch for the fine lines, by means of which the smaller detail can be described without breaking up the pattern too much. (See _F, f_).

It can be diversified by using two or more colours, but a medley is undesirable. I myself prefer the patterns worked in one colour only; and I believe most of the old work was done in either red, green, blue, or brownish yellow, each used alone, and making by itself quite sufficient contrast with the white linen on which it was worked.

If the linen used is too fine to allow the counting of the threads, in order to keep the stitches of a uniform size and to follow the pattern correctly, a fine canvas may be tacked over it, and the work done through the two thicknesses. When it is finished, the threads of the canvas can easily be drawn away, leaving the work on the linen sufficiently accurate if it has been carefully done. I would recommend the use of an embroidery frame for work done on this system, as the stitches ought to be set in quite vertically to keep them true. All canvas or ‘cushion’ work may be done on other textiles by means of this method, and for quite coarse work a frame is unnecessary.

There is yet another application of cross-stitch admirable for linen-work, which was much in favour for the bordering of corporals, &c., in the sixteenth century, and presents a lighter effect than the ordinary solid-looking cross-stitch. In appearance it is very similar to ‘Lacis’ (a darning on coarse, square-meshed net, or on small-meshed netting). This open-worked cross-stitch is accomplished by drawing the thread it is worked with quite tight at each half-stitch that is taken into the linen, the _first process_ of the ‘cross’-stitch is worked all along one row before the second, which ‘crosses’ over it. It is either worked in two colours, one for the pattern and one for the ground, or the ground alone is worked, leaving the linen to form the pattern, in the same manner as _F, f_, the ground of the border becoming open-work. It may be thus worked with a beautiful lacy effect in white thread or silk for altar-linen. In each case the thread used must be fine and strong.