Part 2

For the lowest tuck, crease the material 3½ inches from the bottom of the pinafore, and tack it about ½-inch below the crease, to keep the fold in place. Now, we only want our little tuck to be ¼-inch, so just at that distance below the crease, start running it along with tiny stitches as you learned to do for the work apron on page 4. To keep the tuck the same size all the way, you might keep testing it with a piece of paper notched in two places—the notches to be ¼-inch apart—the width of your tuck. When you have finished the tuck, take out the tacking stitches and turn the tuck down so that the stitches come at the top and the tuck below them.

Make a second tuck above the first, the bottom of the second to be ½-inch above the top of the first. Make a third tuck, the bottom of which must be 2½ inches above the top of the second, and a fourth, having the bottom ¼-inch above the top of the third. In this way you have two tucks together, then a space, and two more tucks together. On to this space between the pairs of tucks you sew the insertion. Cut off enough to go across the pinafore, allowing a little more at each end to turn in. Tack it, and then when you are sure that it is quite straight, run the insertion along both edges on to the muslin, taking an occasional back-stitch to keep it quite firm.

The top part of the pinafore is now put into a band, which must be as long as your width across the chest. You were shown how to put material into a band on page 5. The little difference here, however, is that instead of gathering the material, you pleat it. Mark the centre both of the band and the material to be pleated into it, with a pin. Turn three little pleats on each side of the centre of the material. On the little girl in the picture these pleats are each ¼-inch wide, but you must test carefully and get them the size just to fit the band. The picture at the top of page 18 shows pleats being put into a band.

Now sew on to the band a little length of insertion, as you did at the bottom. At each end of the top of the band, however, leave about ¾-inch of insertion not sewn to the band. This makes two tiny pockets into which you can slip the pink ribbon afterwards, and you can then sew the ribbon and insertion through to the band. Then, as you won’t want to have the pink ribbon washed as often as you do the pinafore, you simply have to take out those few stitches each time the pinafore goes to be washed. Besides, you may not always want to wear pink. With some dresses you may prefer to have pale blue ribbon, or heliotrope, or even red. Whatever colour you choose, sew it into the pockets, and your pinafore is ready for wear.

The Pink Sun-bonnet.

A sun-bonnet—what does it make you think of? Doesn’t it remind you of your last summer holiday—the country, the birds, the flowers? Close your eyes and try to imagine it. Can’t you almost feel the heat, and hear the hum of the insects, and hear, too, the rattle of the pails, as you used to hear it when Maggie, the rosy-cheeked milk maid, wearing _her_ pretty lilac sun-bonnet, went down to milk Brindle and Beauty and Cherry. You thought that sun-bonnet looked so pretty, and kept the sun from Maggie’s head and neck so beautifully, and you wished you had one too. You will wish it again, when you go to the country for your next holiday, and I expect you will want one when you are working in the sun in your own garden at home.

Suppose, therefore, you start to make a sun-bonnet for yourself. This one, that is shown in the picture, is really very easy to make. It is of a pretty pink print, with tiny flowers on it. But perhaps your favourite colour is not pink. Probably, you want a lilac one. Whatever colour you decide on, get ½-yard of print that shade, and you are ready to start.

Cut off 18 inches along the full length of the print, and hem along one edge. About 1 inch from the hem make a ¼-inch tuck, and 1 inch from this, another tuck. Now fold your print in half, and join up the two edges for the back of the bonnet with a French seam, which is described in the chapter on “Dolly’s Underwear.”

Your sun-bonnet is now rather square in shape. To get it rounded at the back, take hold of the point and draw it down a little way on to the seam at the back. There catch it with a few stitches.

No sun-bonnet is complete without a frill, so the next thing is to sew this on. Cut off 18 inches of print 5 inches wide, hem along one side and both ends. Gather the other side, and draw it up until it is the length of the bottom edge of the bonnet beyond the second tuck. Sew it on the inside to the bonnet edge, leaving a little piece of the edge above the gathered piece. Turn in the edge, and hem it over the seam. This makes it quite neat. The edges along where the frill does not come are also hemmed up.

For the strings, cut off two lengths of 14 inches, each 1½ inches wide. Hem each side and one edge. Turn the opposite edge in, and sew it neatly to the inside of the bonnet.

Your sun-bonnet is now finished, and you will be able to ask nurse to put it into the trunk the next time she is packing to take you to stay at the farm. Won’t Maggie be surprised when you arrive with a bonnet like hers, only just a few sizes smaller!

A Red Satin Housewife.

What a tiresome way needles have of getting lost, haven’t they, and even whole packets of needles have a trick of disappearing nobody knows where. Every little girl who does any sewing really needs some safe place in which to keep her needles. This little housewife, which is shown both open and closed, is just the thing. You can stick odd needles in the flannel, and slip packets of needles in the pocket at the end. If you always remember to do this, you cannot very easily get them mislaid, and the little red housewife will be quite a friend to you. And what is more, it is not difficult to make.

To make one exactly like that in the picture, you want a piece of crimson satin, 12½ inches long by 3¾ inches wide, a piece of white flannel, 10 inches long by 2¼ inches wide, some crimson embroidery silk, salmon pink embroidery silk, some crimson sewing silk, and a pearl button.

First lay your flannel on the wrong side of the satin. If you put it on quite straight, you will find there is ¾-inch of red showing each side of the flannel, and 1¼ inch at each end. At each side turn down a hem of satin, so that it comes over the edge of the flannel. Tack and hem it. Now turn down and hem each end in the same way. You will have wider hems here.

Having hemmed the satin to the flannel all round (taking care that the stitches do not go right through to the right side of the satin), turn down 2 inches at one end, to make the little pocket you see in the picture, sewing it neatly at each side with oversewing stitches. Oversew also the open ends of the opposite hem.

Now you know how to feather-stitch, don’t you, or if you do not, you will see on page 5 how it is done. Work single feather-stitch with salmon pink silk down each side and end of the housewife. The inside is now divided up into four divisions, by double feather-stitch worked in crimson. This is worked in the same way as single feather-stitch, only that you take first two stitches one way and then two the other, instead of one each way. A little piece of double feather-stitching has been separately worked for you to see how it is done.

At the end opposite the pocket, make a loop in red silk of two threads, covered with blanket stitch. This is described in the chapter on “Dolly’s Bed.”

Now, starting at the pocket end, fold the needle-case over and over, and just opposite where the loop comes, sew a little pearl button, and the housewife is finished, and quite ready for you to stick your needles in.

You can use silk quite as well as satin for your housewife, and if you like any other shade better than red, make it of your favourite colour.

Presents you can make for People.

A Feeder in Cross-Stitch.

Here is a pretty little feeder for baby that you will be able to make all by yourself. I expect mother will be only too pleased to help you to get the materials. You will want about half-a-yard of some soft white washing material, a small quantity of Penelope canvas, a ball of coloured “Brighteye” embroidery thread, and three-quarters of a yard of a narrow silk ribbon.

Do you see the three happy little dogs running after each other across the bottom of the feeder? These are worked in cross-stitch, also baby’s name in the centre.

If you haven’t yet done any cross-stitch, you had better first look at the little illustration on page 26, and see exactly how it is done, before commencing to cut out your feeder.

Just for practice, take a small square of canvas, and thread a crewel needle with the embroidery thread. Bring your needle up through one of the large holes in the canvas, count over two canvas threads to the right, and two upwards, put your needle in this hole, and pick up two threads towards the left. Pull your thread through, and this will give you the first part of the cross. Now put your needle in the hole two threads to the right of the hole you started from, and bring it up through the hole two threads to the left of the first hole, as shown in the second part of the little illustration.

This, as you will see, completes the first cross, and brings the thread ready to make a second one in the same way.

The lower part of the illustration shows the dog’s tail commenced, and how you should place your needle when you want to make a cross on the slant below. One thing you should be very careful about when working in cross-stitch: see that the threads are always crossed in the same direction, and not sometimes one way and sometimes another. Your work will look so much better if this rule is always followed.

When you feel quite sure you can work the crosses evenly, you can cut out the feeder. Perhaps you may like first to cut it out in paper. Take your tape measure and measure off a piece of paper 12 inches long and 11 inches wide. Fold this right down the centre, the longest way. Measure two inches down the fold and two inches up the cut edges from one end, and cut round from points A to B, as shown in the little diagram. This will give you a curve for baby’s neck. Now measure down an inch on the long outer edges, and cut from point B on the slant to this point, which we will call C.

Now that you have a paper pattern, you will be able to place this over your material and cut it from this. You will want to have two pieces exactly alike, so that you can use one to line the feeder.

We have now come to the interesting part of working the little dogs. Tack a strip of canvas along the bottom of the right side of one of the pieces you have just cut out; the dogs are nine crosses high, so the strip should be wide enough to take the design and leave a few extra threads of canvas above and below. It is best to commence with the centre dog, starting the centre cross of the design in the centre hole of the canvas, you will then be sure of getting it right in the middle. When working the other dogs, leave 16 threads of canvas between the middle one and each of these. You will then have your three little dogs at equal distances apart, and there will be no chance of their catching each other up! Canvas must be placed across the centre for the name in the same way.

From the illustrations of the dog and the letters, you will easily be able to count the crosses, and see how they are placed. If baby’s name is not May, and you want to work another name, designs for a whole alphabet appear on another page.

When you have worked all your designs, the canvas threads must be pulled away. Cut the canvas down fairly close to the embroidery, and pull out the threads one by one. Baby’s name is shown with all the threads of the ‘Y’ pulled out, and the ‘A’ as it looks when only the cross threads have been pulled away.

To make up the feeder, place the plain portion of the feeder over the embroidered one, with the right sides facing one another, and run round all the edges about a quarter of an inch in from the edge, leaving only the curved neck edges open. A running stitch, with a back-stitch put in now and then, is the best for this, as this will hold it firm. Turn the feeder out on the right side, then turn in the neck edges and oversew them together. How the oversewing stitch is made is shown in the little illustration on this page. Hold the edges to be joined together firmly in your left hand, and work from right to left, always putting your needle in slanting just as the little picture shows, and taking up about a couple of threads of the material from each of the edges you are joining together.

The piece of work in the illustration has been flattened out, in order that you may see the stitches more clearly; but when you are oversewing you will hold the two pieces together with the thumb and first finger of your left hand, oversewing the top of the two edges.

Now cut your length of ribbon in half, and sew one piece to each end of the neck of the feeder, so that it can be tied round baby’s neck when she wants to take her food.

Cats on a Chair Back.

Here is a very pretty thing that you will be able to make for Mother. How amused she will be, when she sees these two funny cats sparring at each other, and how nice the Chair Back will look hanging over the back of father’s chair, where he puts his head.

The Chair Back is hemstitched at each side and across each end, so before we commence to make it we will find out how to do this stitch.

Shall we take a small piece of linen and try and copy the little picture we have of the stitch just for practice? When you have tacked a hem along, draw out five of the horizontal threads of your linen, just beneath the edge of the hem.

Now for the stitch itself. Hemstitching is always done on the wrong side of your piece of work, and the stitch is worked from right to left. Thread your needle with linen thread or a fairly coarse crochet cotton, and fasten the end of it to the commencement of the hem.

Now look how the needle is placed in the top part of the picture, and put yours in in the same way. Place it under four of the open threads, then pull your needle through, which draws these four threads up closely together. Then make a small upright stitch up through the hem, placing your needle as shown in the second part of your illustration. These two stitches are repeated all the way along. This is the simplest form of hemstitching, and is what is used on the sides of the Chair Back.

For ladder hemstitching you work along the other side of the open threads, just as above, taking the same group of threads. When working on coarse linen, or canvas, two or three threads need only be picked up each time, all that really matters is that you keep to the same number all the way along.

The stitch we have across the ends of our Chair Back is called serpentine stitch, and the small piece of canvas at the bottom of the picture shows how to work this. The first side is worked as in the simple hemstitching, taking up four threads each time, but in working the second side four threads are again taken up, but the needle is here put between the threads taken up on the opposite side.

When you want to turn a corner in hemstitching a square cloth, you first draw your threads out where the edge of your hem is to come each way; then you fold the material on the wrong side diagonally through the corner, turn the pointed end in until the point reaches the open threads, make a crease, turn the point back and backstitch along the crease. You have a little picture showing just where the backstitching is done. After this cut off the point beyond the backstitching, turn the corner inside out, and you have a neat little seam going diagonally from the corner to the edge of your hem (as in illustration).

You will find that these simple forms of hemstitching will be very useful to you in making all kinds of things.

To make the chair back you will want a strip of white Hardanger canvas, a yard long and about 17 inches wide; this will allow for the hems.

First measure up five inches from each end, and draw out four threads of canvas across each end, then draw out two threads at each side, about three-quarters of an inch in from the set of open threads at one end to the other; you will have to cut the threads at each end. Now tack all the hems along; you can turn in the ends of the wide hems and oversew them together.

Hemstitch the side hems in simple hemstitching, taking up three threads of canvas each time, and the wide hems in the serpentine stitch, taking two threads of canvas each time; you will remember to take the alternate sets on the second side.

Now you have only to embroider the cats. These are worked in cross-stitch, using “Peri-lusta” Pearl Knit, size 5. Shade No 249 is a pretty red that would do beautifully. Directions for working cross-stitch on canvas are given on page 26, and you will be able to copy the cats from the enlarged designs given below.

If you fold the chair back right down the centre, and start the whiskers of the cats four threads on each side of this line, they will be about the right distance apart. The bristles on the legs and tails are made by working half crosses, and those on the back by making long single strokes, the length of two crosses.

The whiskers of the cat extend the length of three crosses. Three threads of the Hardanger canvas are allowed for each cross. On the material used for the chair back in your picture, each cross worked out at about an eighth of an inch across, but if the canvas you are using happens to be a coarser one, you may perhaps find your crosses work out much larger, in which case you must go over two threads each time so as to get your animals the right size for the chair back.

Perhaps you would rather not make your chair back of Hardanger canvas at all, but would prefer to use linen, or some material that has not got wide even threads; this is not easy to count when working your crosses. In that case you must first tack Penelope canvas over your work, and embroider the cats over this; the enlarged designs in your pictures were worked on Penelope canvas, and you can see what nice large holes it has, and how easy it is to work on. And when you have finished the designs you just cut away the canvas quite close to the design, and pull the threads of canvas out of the crosses. You can put cross-stitch on to any material in this way.

A Hardanger Handkerchief Sachet.

Have you thought yet what you are going to make Mother for her birthday present? How would you like to work her a handkerchief sachet in Hardanger Embroidery? You don’t know how? Well, if you follow this little talk very carefully, I think you will soon learn.

What is Mother’s favourite colour? Rose Pink? Very well; how delighted she will be with what you are going to make!

What to get for the Sachet.

Can’t you take Mother shopping with you one day, because you will want to buy a few little things for the sachet. You will want a piece of Congress Canvas—cream or white—a square 12 inches each way, a ball of Ardern’s “Star Sylko” No. 744, size 5, a square of white silk the same size as the canvas for lining the sachet, a crewel needle, 3 yards of pink ribbon half-an-inch wide. (The best kind to get is a silk ribbon having threads running through, that you pull and draw the ribbon up into a ruche. This saves you all the trouble of running a thread through to make a ruche). You also want a little pink sewing silk, some white sewing silk, a pair of sharp scissors with points, and, of course, your thimble.

How to Start.

First, make sure your canvas is perfectly even all round, 12 inches on each side. When cutting it, be careful to cut between the same threads all the way down. Turn in about a quarter of an inch all round very carefully, and tack it. Fig. 1 shows the edge being tacked. When you come to a corner, just turn in again the end of the second side, to make it quite neat. You will see in Fig. 1 what I mean.

With the Pink Thread.

The tacking done, the pretty work begins. Thread your crewel needle with the “Sylko.” At one corner count 24 threads in from each side. The hole just where these threads cross is your starting point. Now leave 3 holes below, and in the 4th bring your needle up from underneath for a satin stitch. You will see how to do this stitch in making the doll’s bedspread (page 67), only as you are using a different kind of canvas here, you leave 3 holes instead of one. Make 4 of these stitches. Leave 3 holes, and into the 4th start another little block of satin stitches. Do 4 of these little blocks. This brings you to the corner. Fig. 2 shows the little blocks.

To turn the corner, after making your 4th stitch, bring your needle up into the 4th hole from the _top_ of your satin stitch, not the 4th from the bottom as before. Make one little block this way. Turn another corner in exactly the same way, bringing the needle up in the 4th hole from the _top_ of the satin stitch. Start another block. When you have put the needle down for the 4th stitch of this block, bring it up 4 holes below the last hole at which you brought it up. Then put it back into the last hole at which you brought it up. Fig. 3 will make this clear. Make 4 stitches, now working from right to left. Turn again, and make 4 stitches, working from left to right. You will notice that wherever you turn a little corner—or make an angle—2 stitches go into the same hole, one each way.

When you have made 8 little blocks in this way, turn again, and make 4 blocks of satin stitch as you did on the first side, the last stitch of the 4th block should take you back into the hole we called your starting point. If it doesn’t, you have made a little mistake somewhere—either you have missed a thread, or made two stitches in one hole, or something like that, and you will have to undo the work until you find your mistake. This sounds rather hard lines, doesn’t it, but unless you have got this outside part right, you cannot cut and draw the threads properly, and we want to have Mother’s sachet quite perfect, don’t we?

With the Scissors.