NEEDLEWOMAN
Needlework.—“A stitch in time saves nine.” I cannot agree with this favorite saying, because I feel sure it saves so many more than nine, besides saving time and preventing looking untidy.
I will tell you another thing I don’t believe in. Tailors, who are such neat workers, will say that they never pin their work first. If you are not a tailor, it is much better to place your work before you begin, with plenty of pins. You will never get straight lines or smooth corners if you do not plan and place it all first, just as it has got to be, and tack it there.
Have you noticed that thread is very fond of tying itself into a bow; but this can be prevented by threading the needle before you cut the thread off the spool, making your knot at the end you cut.
Rough measures may be said to be one inch across a 25 cent piece, and a yard from nose to thumb as far as you can reach. Needle-work is good for all of us; it rests and calms the mind. You can think peacefully over all the worries of Europe whilst you are stitching. Sewing generally solves all the toughest problems, chiefly other people’s.
The Scouts’ Patch.—I don’t know whether you ever did such a thing as burn a hole in your dress, but I have, and if it is in the front, oh, dear! what will mother say? Now, there is a very good way that Scouts have of making it all right and serviceable; they put in a piece and darn it in all round. If possible, get a piece of the same stuff, then it will not fade a different tint, and will wear the same as the rest. You may undo the hem and cut out a bit, or perhaps you may have some scraps over from cutting out your dress.
The piece must be cut three or four inches larger than the hole and frayed out on all four sides. Trim the hole with your scissors neatly all round quite square with the thread. Then lay your piece over the hole—of course, on the back or “wrong side”—and tack it there with cotton. Now take a darning needle, and thread each thread in turn and darn each one into the stuff. If the ends of stuff are very short, it is best to run your needle in and out where you are going to darn, and then, before pulling it through, thread it with the wool. This patching is excellent for table-linen.
I once had an aunt who was a thorough old Scout, and was rather proud of her mending, and she always said that she didn’t mind what colored cotton you gave her to sew with, because her stitches hardly ever showed, they were so small, and also she put them inside the stuff. If she was putting on a patch to blue stuff, she could do it with red cotton, and you would never have noticed it on the right side; her stitches were all under the edge. Or else she sewed it at the back, on the “wrong” side, so that it looked perfectly neat.
If you are not able to match the wool for a darn, it is a good plan to use the ravellings of the stuff itself. Sometimes, away in the country, you can’t go to shop and you have nothing like the piece you want to mend. A Scout would turn it inside out and undo a little of the hem and ravel out the edge. Suppose you were to cut a hole in the front of your blue serge skirt; if you darn it with the ravellings of the turnings of the seam or the hem, that will be exactly the same color and the same thickness as your dress. No wool you could buy would match as well. Or if you want to mend a jersey or knitted gloves, you never could buy such a good match—the same sized wools and the tints.