An embroidery book

by Anne Knox Arthur

To aid the designer in her first efforts let her turn to an elementary text-book on botany—she will probably find there a number of diagrams of horizontal sections of the commoner wild flowers. These give the plan of each flower typical of the family to which it belongs—all the parts are arranged symmetrically in circles or whorls, and show how the flower is built up. The embroideress should find these sections full of suggestions; she might take the simpler forms to begin with and elaborate them, adding fresh details where necessary for the development of her design. By comparing the sections of one flower with another—of the wild rose with the poppy, the purple loosestrife with the forget-me-not, the primrose with the daffodil—she will be able to obtain variety with simplicity and balance; then she will connect and join all the masses with straight or curved lines, and thus give completeness to her design.

With increased knowledge of the structure of flowers the embroideress will gain a keener sense of observation which will be of great value when she studies the natural forms.

Setting forth once more on the high adventure of making her own design, she will bring to her aid the principles already learnt in the making of straight lines while she was building up her patterns and designs.

The Fifth Point: The Stitchery.

We express ourselves and our ideas in embroidery by means of stitches and colour.

To have pleasure in the craft, the needlewoman must have a fairly accurate knowledge of the technique. Stitchery should at all times be as simple as possible, and carefully adapted to the material and the design.

Simpler Types of Stitchery.—The commoner types, those which by experience and long use have been proved to be the most beautiful or the most practical, are the best. All the more complicated forms are merely modifications or combinations of these simple types, many of which are used in “plain” needlework. There are, in fact, few stitches which a careful worker cannot master in a very short time.

Stitchery not the Most Important.—It is wise to remember that stitchery is not the most important factor, but only one of the many which go to the making of good and artistic work. Beauty, in needlework, consists, not in the variation and elaboration of stitch, but in the harmony of material and technique, as well as of form and colour.

Unity of Stitch.—Where coloured threads are used it will often be found advantageous to adopt one stitch only. Many of the charming pieces of embroidery stored up in our museums give us an idea of what can be done in this way, and though we lack, perhaps, both time and patience nowadays, there is no reason why we should not, by cultivation of our tastes, raise the level of the art considerably above its present standard and prove that we can still produce embroidery—of the modest, reticent type—adapted to our own conditions of life, which will reveal both refinement and artistic delight.

To execute a piece of work in one stitch would be excellent practice for the young embroideress, whereby she would learn to know and use a stitch in all its varied aspects. She need not fear monotony—the coloured threads will give sufficient variety. Let her take the simplest of all stitches to begin with—the tacking or basting stitch—and keeping it and its many varieties in her mind when planning out the pattern, she will find that she has many delightful ways of executing it. Tacking or basting stitch, worked in rows, becomes simple darning, a background stitch with which she may make charming patterns and fillings, ad libitum. (Plates II. and XII.) Worked closer, it is a running stitch, wherewith braids may be tacked in place (Plate IV.), frills gathered up, seams of frocks connected, or smocking prepared. Finally, when worked with the same quantity of thread on the under and upper surfaces of the material, it attains a new dignity, and becomes satin stitch—the stitch beloved of the young modern needlewoman, who is generally inspired and stimulated by the wonderful skill and precision of the Eastern needleworkers.