Chapter 33

On a second sheet of vegetable paper, rule squares, a fourth, a third or half as small again as those on the first sheet. Thus, if the sides of the first squares be 15 m/m. long and you want to reduce your pattern by one fifth, the sides of your new squares should measure only 12 m/m.

If, on the contrary, you want to enlarge the pattern by one fifth, make the sides of your squares 18 m/m. long.

Then you follow, square by square, the lines of the drawing, extending or contracting them, according to whether the pattern is to be enlarged or diminished.

To copy a pattern directly from a piece of embroidery and enlarge or diminish it at the same time, proceed as follows: fix the embroidery on a board, stretching it equally in every direction; then measure the length of the drawing, divide the centimetres by the number of units corresponding to whatever the proportions of your copy are to be, and if there be any fractions of centimetres over, subdivide them into millimetres, if necessary, into half millimetres and make your division by whatever measure you have adopted; take a pair of compasses with dry points, open them sufficiently for the opening to correspond to the number and the distance obtained by the division; plant a pin with a thread fastened to it, at the point indicated by the point of the compasses and repeat the last operation all along one side of the embroidery and, if possible a little beyond it, so that it may not be defaced by the marks of the pins. All you now have to do is to pull the threads in perfectly straight lines to the opposite side and carry other threads across them in a similar manner so that the whole surface be divided into squares.

It is needless to say that if you have to trace a pattern from a mounted piece of work you cannot stretch it on a board; with a little invention however some way can always be found of planting the pins so as not to injure the work.

TO ALTER THE WIDTH OF A PATTERN RETAINING THE ORIGINAL HEIGHT (figs. 888, 889, 890).—Sometimes it is necessary to lengthen out a pattern without however altering its height. In this case you modify the shape of the square and make long or narrow squares, according to the general shape of the design you wish to reproduce. Fig. 888 represents a pattern in Soutache D.M.C, marked out in squares; in fig. 889 the squares are lengthened out a third beyond their original size and the pattern is expanded; in fig. 890, the squares are compressed to a third less than their original size.

This method of subdividing patterns greatly facilitates the alterations they have so often to undergo and we are sure that there are few amongst those who have any real aptitude for needlework, who cannot draw enough to be able to copy the contents of a square.

TO PREPARE THE PASTE FOR APPLIQUÉ WORK.—It may seem strange to devote a separate paragraph to such an apparently simple operation; but in appliqué work it is a most important one, as not only the stuff on which the work is done but all the expensive accessories are liable to be spoilt by paste that has been badly prepared.

Put some wheaten (not rice) starch into a vessel with a rounded bottom, pour on just enough water to dissolve the starch and stir it with a wooden spoon till it becomes perfectly smooth.

In the meantime put about ¼ of a pint of clean water on the fire to boil and when it boils add to it a little powdered pitch or carpenter’s glue, in quantity about the size of a pea and pour in the starch, stirring it the whole time. When the mixture has boiled up several times take it off the fire and go on stirring it till it gets cold, otherwise lumps will form in it, which as we specially pointed out in the preceding chapter, must never be allowed to get in between the stuff and the paper.

This kind of paste makes no spots and does not injure even the most delicate colours as it contains no acid. In winter it will keep for several days, but in hot weather it very soon begins to ferment and should then on no account be used.

Gum arabic ought never to be used for appliqué work, as it becomes so hard that it is impossible to get the needle through, whilst the saccharine it contains almost always causes ugly spots to appear in the stuff when it dries.

When the work is finished it is a good plan to spread a very thin layer of paste over the entire back of it with a fine brush made of hog’s bristles, and not to take it out of the frame until it is perfectly dry.

TO STIFFEN NEW NEEDLEWORK.—In the chapter on Irish lace, page 441, we said that new needlework of that kind had to be ironed; this should be done in the following manner: when the lace has been taken off its foundation, lay it, face downwards, on a piece of fine white flannel; then dip a piece of very stiff new organdie muslin into water, take it out again almost immediately and wring it slightly, so that no drops may fall from it, and then dab the wrong side of the lace all over with this pad of damp muslin and iron it with a hot iron which should be moved slowly forwards so that the moisture which the organdie has imparted to the lace may evaporate slowly. Not until you are quite sure that the lace is dry should it be taken off the board.

There is no better way than this of giving new lace that almost imperceptible degree of stiffness by which alone it is often to be distinguished from old. Water only does not stiffen the thread sufficiently and it is difficult with starch to hit upon exactly the right consistency, whereas the organdie muslin supplies just the needful quantity.

Embroidered network can be stiffened in the same manner and should be damped in the frame on the wrong side and not taken off until it is quite dry.

We even recommend embroidery on linen being treated in the same way but when the linen is very creased, cover it with a damp cloth and iron upon that first, then take the cloth away and iron the embroidery itself so as to dry it completely.

TO WASH ORDINARY LACE.—Wind it round a bottle the same width top and bottom and cover it entirely with muslin, fastened to the lace by a few stitches. Fill the bottle half full of sand, so that it may not get knocked about too violently when the water boils.

Immerse the bottle in a saucepan of cold water with a piece of soap the size of a nut in it, and if the lace be very dirty, a small pinch of salt, and let it boil for about an hour pouring off the water as it gets dirty and adding clean.

When all the dirt has been boiled out of the lace, which you will know to be the case when the water remains perfectly clear, rinse out the soap before you take the lace off the bottle, by plunging it into cold water.

TO WASH REAL LACE.—The process is the same as the above, but as real lace is so seldom washed and is generally very yellow and fragile, particularly if it has been roughly used, it is rather difficult to clean.

If stained or greasy, it should be left to soak for some hours or even days, in good olive oil. This restores to the thread that softness and smoothness which use and bad washing had impaired. After the oil bath it should be washed on a bottle in the manner already described.

TO STIFFEN LACE.—Dip the lace when perfectly dry in thin starch prepared as follows.

Take as much fine wheaten starch, as you think you will require, divide it into two portions and dissolve both in cold water. Boil the one portion and when it has so far cooled as to have ceased to steam, stir the cold starch into it and dilute the whole with cold water to the consistency of thick cream. If the lace is to be slightly coloured, add a few drops of black coffee, or dilute the starch with weak tea or guimauve water; the coffee will give it a dark cream colour, either of the latter a pale greenish hue.

Dip the lace in the mixture and squeeze it out gently without wringing it to get rid of all the superfluous liquid, then lay it flat on the left hand and beat it for a few minutes with the right to work the starch well in; repeat the whole process twice, then roll the lace in fine linen and leave it there till you are ready to iron or pin it out, as the case may be.

TO IRON LACE.—After the lace has lain for an hour or two in the cloth, iron it if it be machine-made and if it be Irish Guipure or real point lace of any sort, pin it out.

Before you begin to iron, hold the lace tight in your left hand by the footing and with the right hand pull out all the picots, along the edge of the lace, to an equal length, then lay it out flat upon a board covered with white flannel and iron it with a moderately hot iron, passing the iron backwards and forwards over it until it be quite dry.

If creases should come in the ironing where they ought not to be, dab them over lightly with a sponge moistened with water and a few drops of starch and pass the iron over them again.

After ironing the whole length of lace, pull it out crossways from left to right, and from right to left and iron it all over once more. This does away with the artificial stiffness and gives it the agreeable softness and pliancy of new lace.

TO PIN OUT LACE.—In order to pin out lace in a thoroughly satisfactory manner, you should provide yourself with a wooden drum, about 30 c/m. high and from 50 to 60 c/m. in diameter, large enough to rest upon the knees.

The outside circumference of the wood should be padded and covered with grey or white ticking.

The pins must be exactly the size of the picots they are to pin down; you will require extremely fine ones for Valenciennes and coarser for other kinds of lace: steel pins are of no use whatever, because of their liability to rust. Cover the cylinder with blue paper (less trying for the eyes than any other) and take only just as much lace out of the damp cloth as you are likely to be able to pin out before it gets dry, keeping the remainder covered up.

Lay the lace upon the drum and pin the footing down first in a straight line, sticking the pins in pretty closely and at regular distances apart; then pin down each picot separately, taking care not to open them if they have kept their original shape and to shut them up by twisting them if they have got untwisted.

If you find the pinning out troublesome and cannot get it all done before the lace dries, damp the picots with a sponge as you proceed.

Lace should never be pinned out when it is dry as the threads of the picots are then very apt to break and torn picots destroy the value of even the choicest lace.

Raised lace has to be stamped out from the wrong side with a lace awl or kind of pricker of bone made for the purpose. Some professional lace-cleaners use this implement even for Valenciennes lace but we cannot recommend it, seeing that it is a lace that is by nature perfectly flat.

Let the length of lace you have pinned out remain on the drum till it be quite dry; if you have several yards to pin out, wind it round and round the cylinder. Cover up the lace as you proceed and put each length away as soon as it is ready in a blue paper bag, so as to keep the whole perfectly clean.

In conclusion we may remark that the cleaning of lace should only be undertaken when you are fairly sure of not being interrupted, as more especially the pinning requires to be finished off as quickly as possible.

TO WASH COLOURED COTTONS AND WORK DONE WITH THE SAME.—In order to test the fastness of the dyes, untie the skeins and pour boiling water upon them, leave them to soak for about a quarter of an hour, soap and rub them lightly with the hand from end to end and rinse them out thoroughly in as many changes of cold water as may be found necessary, until the water remain perfectly colourless.

Squeeze out all the water you can and let them dry quickly without exposing them to the sun.

Coloured cottons are often washed in vinegar, because it is supposed to affect the colour less than water does. We have come to the conclusion after several trials that this is a delusion, for the good dyes keep their colour without the aid of vinegar and the bad ones wash out in spite of it.

The fast colours lose none of their beauty in the process nor does it affect the quality of the cotton; any excess of colouring matter which the fibres of the cotton may have absorbed in the process of dyeing is got rid of by this means.

If a piece of work has been done with unwashed cottons and the colours run in the first washing, you have only to rinse it out in several changes of tepid water to restore it to its original freshness and if you want to give it a yellowish tinge, it should be dipped it in weak tea or coffee.

MATERIALS.—It was stated in the preface that our readers would find the choice of colours and material rendered comparatively easy to them by the notes affixed to the illustrations, but these notes, in spite of all the care bestowed upon them must still have remained very incomplete had it not been for the following tables which we were fortunately enabled to append to our work and which will help every one to choose their own materials without having them actually before them. The strokes that are affixed to each number indicate the exact size of the thread, so that to find out the number you want to buy you have but to lay your pattern thread, stretching it slightly, on the strokes, in succession, till you come to the one that matches it in size.

With regard to the colours, the names and shades of which have been classed in the second table with the greatest care, and of which our workers have no less than 460 to choose from [3], all those referred to in connection with our illustrations are quite fast dyes [4], save in a few instances in which we were forced to make an exception in favour of a doubtful colour to secure a harmonious effect.

A complete table of colours must of necessity include certain more or less staring shades, which though they may not be to every one’s taste cannot on that account be left out.

We conclude our work with the well-meant and by no means useless recommendation to our readers, never to begin a piece of work of any considerable size without first making sure that the colours they intend to use are fast and providing themselves with a larger supply of materials than even on a close calculation they think they are likely to require, lest they should find themselves under the disagreeable necessity of having either to leave their work unfinished or finish it with materials that do not match. There is generally a slight difference in tone between cottons that have been bought at different times, and there is also a reasonable likelihood, considering their great variety, of some mistake being made in the number by either buyer or seller in ordering a fresh supply.