Fig. 168. A pillow in Hedebo embroidery
For appliqué work the design is cut out and the wrong side covered almost to the edge with a paste made of starch and water.
When a complicated piece of appliqué is to be worked, stamp your design on the background. Then on the right side of the material to be appliquéd, or on the wrong side of velvet, lay a piece of transfer paper. Place the design on them. With a blunt pointed instrument go over the line firmly till you have a tracing of the design. If the lines are not quite clear go over them with a pencil.
Cut out each piece and paste it to the background. The edges may be machine stitched or satin-stitched or outlined. A cord, also the couching stitch, makes a good finish.
Very clever representations of animals can be made by appliqué. Take a duck, for instance. The breast can be white felt, the head dark green velvet. The wings dark brown and the back and tail a lighter brown broadcloth. The legs and the bill should be canary-coloured taffeta silk. Cut each section so that it slightly laps over the other.
Appliqué underlaid is accomplished by stamping the design on the wrong side of the material and then cutting it out. The background is left intact like a stencil. A piece of material of a different colour is laid under the cut piece of material. The raw or cut edges may be treated in many ways. The material may be turned back and stitched by machine or the edges may be finished with buttonholing stitches, couching, fine satin-stitch or chain stitch. The turning back of the cut edges requires that they be neatly done or the embroidery will not show to its best advantage.
Hedebo embroidery is in no way connected with appliqué work, but like the latter it is a branch of needlework that few people in America understand. Without exception it is the most elaborate form of white work. The stitches give the effect of being very difficult, but this is not so. The work requires a lot of time and careful planning of the stitches for which buttonhole stitch is usually the foundation.
Fig. 169. An elaborate design in Hedebo