CHAPTER VII

BLANKET STITCH AND ITS SISTER

“NOW, Sewing Bird,” began Mary Frances the next lesson afternoon, “let’s not talk any, but―”

“Let us get right to our lesson,” said Sewing Bird, “which is an edge-finishing stitch, named

12.―BLANKET STITCH

1. At left hand end of canvas four holes down and four to right, from under side bring needle to right side.

2. Hold thread under thumb. One hole to the right, point needle down, bringing it up in hole two threads below: pull through. Finish row.

3. Fasten as in Overcasting.

4. Repeat this on lower edge of canvas.

“Good!” she said, as Mary Frances finished following the directions, “Now, for a stitch many grown women do not know how to make―a beautiful stitch:

13.―BUTTONHOLE STITCH ON CANVAS

1. Five holes down―four from left hand end, from wrong side, bring needle to right side.

2. Through hole below this, point needle down, and up through the one from which the thread hangs. Do not pull through.

3. Take hold of the two threads in the eye of the needle, bring them toward you around under the point of the needle. Let them rest there.

4. Pull needle through.

5. With left thumb on the stitch, pull the thread with the right hand tightly down to the edge of the canvas.

6. Repeat to end of row.

“Oh, look! dear Sewing Bird,” cried Mary Frances, holding up her work, “I really do believe that is the way Mother makes a button-hole! She said she would show me how to do it very soon. How glad I am I know that stitch!”

“Yes,” said Sewing Bird. “Won’t she be surprised! You know eleven stitches now.”

“Why, so I do!” exclaimed Mary Frances, counting her little samplers of work.

“Now,” said Sewing Bird, “will you please cut a piece of canvas eight inches long and four and one-half inches wide, and make a sampler of all the stitches you know. Will you write down the directions?”

“Yes,” said Mary Frances, getting pencil and paper.

Then Sewing Bird began:

14.―CANVAS SAMPLER

1. Begin six rows down, and five rows from right hand end with a row of Uneven Basting.

2. A row each of even basting; Running Stitch; Stitching; Catch Stitching; Buttonhole Stitching; Hemming,―each two rows apart.

3. A row of Overhanding―five rows below that.

4. Blanket Stitch the upper edge.

5. Overcast the two ends.

6. Fold canvas back on row of overhanding at bottom of samples.

“Will you bring the pretty sampler, finished, for the next lesson?” asked Sewing Bird.

“I will―so gladly!” said Mary Frances.

“But there’s one stitch more, There’s one stitch more! If it hadn’t been so cross, I’d have shown it before,”

added Sewing Bird.

15.―CROSS STITCHING

1. Cut a canvas piece, five inches long and three inches wide.

2. At the right hand end from under side, two holes from the edge, and eight holes down, point needle upward. Pull through.

3. Point needle downward into hole above the hole to the left of where thread hangs out, and bring it up through the hole directly beneath.

4. Continue across the canvas.

5. Return on same row of stitches in same way, but work from left to right, taking stitches in exactly the same holes as at first. This will form a cross. The stitches must all be taken in the same direction.