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.
They don’t look very pleased to meet, do they?
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.
SHOWING HOW HEM-STITCHING IS DONE. SERPENTINE STITCH IS ILLUSTRATED AT THE BOTTOM.
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.
A FINISHED CORNER.
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).
DOING THE BACK-STITCHING ALONG THE CREASE.
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.
THE TOM CAT——
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.
——AND HIS ENEMY.
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.
THE FINISHED SACHET.
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.
Fig. 1.
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.
Fig. 2.
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.
Fig. 3.
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?
Fig. 4.
With the Scissors.
How much quicker we seem to get on with scissors than with a needle and cotton, don’t we? It is such quick work to cut a hole, but quite slow work to mend one! Well, you are going to do some “scissors work” now, but you will have to do it carefully, and make sure first just which threads you are going to cut. I want you to notice one important thing. Always cut across the ends of your stitches, never along the sides of them. Isn’t this quite clear? Well, look at the little diagram for cutting, [Fig. 5]. You cut the 3 threads between A and B, and between A and C, and between C and J, and between D and E, and between G and H, but never those between J and I, or between I and D. You see what I mean now, don’t you? Then be careful always not to cut too far, that is to say, never cut beyond the satin stitches, only cut the threads enclosed by them.
Fig. 7.
Pull out the threads you have cut, and you will have a little corner, like that shown in [Fig. 4].
Fig. 5.
Fig. 6.
Weaving Work.
Now you have to do the weaving, and this is very easy, and nice work to do. Only remember not to drag the threads too tightly, but you must not have them loose—just firm and even. Bring your needle up from underneath, in the middle of one of the groups of 4 threads, take it over 2 threads on one side up into the middle again, and over 2 threads on the other side. Look at [Fig. 4] again. Repeat this until you have 5 stitches on each side. Bring your needle up between another set of threads, and repeat. When you have finished all the weaving, fasten off neatly at the back of the canvas, and your corner is done. Work the other 3 corners in the same way.
Fig. 9.
Fig. 8.
Putting on the Ribbon.
Take your ribbon and cut off two pieces, each 8 inches long. These are for the bow. Divide the remainder into four equal lengths, and mark each little division with a small pin. This is so that you will use just the same length on each of the four sides of your square. With a needle, draw out three or four threads running through the middle of the ribbon, and pull these gently to draw the ribbon up. It is not enough to pull on one thread or two, because, although it is easier to draw, it may snap before you get very far. Draw up the ribbon until it is exactly the size to go round your square; then pin the gathered ribbon round the sides, taking care to get one of the divisions marked by the pin on each side of the square.
Fig. 13.
Thread a needle with pink sewing silk, and sew the ribbon on, through the centre, taking a very tiny stitch on top, and a longer one underneath. Make a back-stitch every now and then, by putting the needle back instead of forward. This makes it a little more secure. Allow a little extra fulness at the corners, so as to turn these carefully and evenly, and here you will need one or two little backstitches. When you get round to the corner from which you started, turn in the end of your ribbon, and join it neatly to your starting end. Take out the pins.
Fig. 10.
Fig. 12.
Fig. 11.
Lining the Sachet.
Take the square of white silk, and turn in once all round about a quarter-inch, and tack it. Lay it on your square of canvas, so that the turned-in sides of canvas and silk come together. Pin these together all round. With the white sewing silk, hem the silk to the canvas carefully, so that each stitch catches up a thread of the canvas, but does not come through the gathered ribbon. At the second corner, slip in one end of one of your lengths of ribbon between the silk and canvas, and when you come to that, hem it in with the silk to the canvas. When the hemming is finished, the tacking stitches can be taken out of the silk.
Folding and Finishing.
You have now got a silk-lined canvas square, with a little end of ribbon attached to one corner. You must now fold your square so that all the worked corners meet, as you see in the picture on [page 34]. We will call your square A, B, C, D, as the corners are marked in the diagram, [Fig. 6]. Divide each side in half (just put a tiny pin in to mark the division), and call these points E, F, G, and H. Now fold along the lines E to F, F to G, G to H, and H to E. This will bring your corners A, B, C and D all together in the middle if you have done your measuring quite carefully. (See [Fig. 7]). Let us call D the point that has the ribbon end. Now A, B and C have all to be joined together, but D is not sewn to them. D’s little ribbon end is only tied to the centre, so that the sachet can be opened and closed. Catch A F and B F and A E and C E together with just a few tiny stitches under the ribbon, sew the points A, B, C neatly together. And here is where you attach your last little bit of ribbon having turned in one end neatly. While you are sewing on this centre you had better keep your left fingers inside the sachet, and your thumb outside. Then you will be quite sure that you are not sewing right through the sachet, because it would be serious if when Mother came to put her handkerchiefs in, she couldn’t get them down because it was sewn through, wouldn’t it? You have now only to tie your two ends of ribbon in a nice bow, and Mother’s handkerchief sachet is complete.
Of course, you will want to make some more of these sachets, and you can work them in other colours, or line them with coloured silk. It would look pretty, for instance, to have a deep cream canvas, worked with Ardern’s “Star Sylko” No. 734, Size 5, which is a lovely cream shade. Then have for the lining, forget-me-not blue, and blue ribbon to match. Or you could work the satin-stitch in dark green, No. 753, and the weaving in a paler green, No. 751, and have a white silk lining and pale green ribbon. And I am sure you will think of lots of other pretty colours you can use.
Some other Pretty Corners.
Perhaps you would rather work another kind of corner. Six others are shown, any of which you would be able to manage, I am sure. For four of them, you do not have to cut any threads. The one with the cross in the middle, [Fig. 8], would be very quickly worked. The outer part of this is worked almost like the corner on the sachet, only there are no straight blocks in a row here, and you take 5 stitches over 5 threads for each block. Then you work 5 stitches over 5 threads each way into one hole in the middle for the centre cross.
[Fig. 9] is another little corner, just like the one on the sachet, only instead of cutting any threads, you fill up alternate squares with satin-stitch blocks.
Then the star pattern, [Fig. 10], is pretty and easy. You start by taking a stitch over 8 threads, then take one over 7, over 6, over 5, over 4, over 3, over 2. Now over 2 again, and so on, up to 8. Then start another row at right angles to the first, and two more rows in the same way. The long stitches in the middle are taken into the holes from which the short stitches were taken.
Another easy little design shows two straight rows of satin-stitch crossing two in opposite ways ([Fig. 11]).
Sometimes a few rows of blocks outside a design will improve it, and make it look bolder. This is the case with the open-work square, [Fig. 12]. A second row of blocks has been added outside the first, working the stitches the other way.
In the last open-work corner, [Fig. 13], 4 stitches are taken over 4 threads, and 5 over 8 threads, then 4 over 5 threads again, and so on. All the threads are then cut away, except the 4 in the middle of each side, and these are woven as usual.
Now set to work and see what you can do. After a little practice, you will probably be able to make up some corners for yourself, but until you are quite sure of the work, it is better to practise those I have shown you.
