A Collar of Braid.—Plate XII. illustrates an interesting piece of work, built up of oddments of skirt braid, silver tinsel, braid, silks and wools.
Very charming dress and coat fitments may be made in this way, and all sorts of scraps and remainders of trimmings and braids, silk patches and patterns may be utilised. The construction is very simple. The best way to set about the making of these braid collars, cuffs, or bands is to cut out the desired shape—the exact size wanted. The pattern is then placed on to a piece of glazed calico and the outline traced firmly upon it. A still more direct method is to cut out the pattern in stiff brown paper and utilise it as the foundation on which to tack the braids. Care must be taken to have the shape correct before starting to work with the materials. This being assured, arrange a braid or cross-bar of material round the outer part; tack it at the outer edge with bright-coloured wool on to the paper foundation, then adjust the bars and panels, allowing the ends of the braids to slip under the outer braid. Circles or squares of ribbon, velvet, or tinsel, placed in the most important parts and tied to the outer edges with lines of braid or ribbon, which, in turn, might be connected with open stitchery, fork-pin insertion (Fig. 73), or some small beads, are very pretty. All give scope for individual taste and ingenuity in colour and material. If the collar is on the round, the outer bands must be flexible, in order to take the curve nicely.
The collar in the illustration has for the outer row a skirt braid of a soft dove grey. It is tacked in place with a line of couching in royal blue wool, sewn on with a silk thread—reel twist is very good—of the same colour; the stripes of cream-coloured braid are ornamented with coral-coloured wool in long stitches, tacked down the centre to form a point. The smaller panels have been placed in position previously; they consist of chequered silk ribbon in grey and heliotrope. All the short lines are connected with Russian stitch worked in coral wool, the bands of cream braid being laid on over them and then sewn down; finally the inner edge of the border is couched down. The edges are now all tucked out of sight, the brown paper is cut away from the back, all ends, edges and tags are secured and made neat with tiny overcasting stitches, and the collar may either be lined or sewn on in place without lining, as the case may be.
It is often necessary to confine the cut edges of the broad braid, in order to prevent them from spreading, by winding a thread round and tying it just above the part to be cut—this often saves time and trouble in the long run.
PLATE X.
A TEA-COSY COVER ([See p. 112].)
CHAPTER X
INSERTIONS IN NEEDLE-WEAVING—POINT DE RÉPRISE—
INTERLACING AND OPENWORK BACKGROUND
“There she weaves, by night and day,
A magic web with colours gay.”