Fig. 185. A towel in Bulgarian drawn work
Draw threads out of an inch and a half space. It is not necessary that the cloth should be hemstitched, though till you are quite familiar with the work it may be easier for counting. The hem is then turned over and hemstitched. Make the double hemstitch on the other side as described in the first part of this chapter.
I have found that though there are many threads that may be used for weaving there is nothing quite as satisfactory as Electro in its finest number. Start from the extreme lower left hand corner. Weave back and forth over three of the groups with a blunt pointed crewel needle for one quarter of the distance from the hem. Now omitting the first group weave across three. You will see that you dropped the first group and took up the fourth. Weave to the middle of the space. Now drop the second group and weave across to the fifth group until you are three quarters across the space. Now drop the third group and weave across to the sixth. Weave until the space is filled. Without breaking your thread weave the seventh, eighth and ninth, then the eighth, ninth and tenth, next the ninth, tenth and eleventh, then the tenth, eleventh and twelfth. Weaving the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth brings you back again to the hem.
The woven threads will look somewhat like an arch of blocks. Between the arch there are six groups of threads. Let us weave that in pyramid effect. Start at the hem and weave across the six for a little more than a quarter of an inch. Then dropping the first and last groups of threads of the proposed pyramid weave over four threads for another quarter of an inch. Again dropping the first and last threads of the four you were weaving, work across two. Fasten your thread by bringing it through the woven stitches into the hem. A new thread is started in like manner. You are now ready to start another arch, close to one just made.
A little more elaborate design is shown in the second towel end, a detail of which is also given (Figures [186] and [187].)
Fig. 186. Detail of Fig. 187
After the threads have been prepared as has been just described for the first towel start from the lower left hand side and weave across the threads eight times. The weaving is very simple. First you take two groups with needle pointing to the left and then you take the one group that you didn't take up the first time. You work back and forth as it were.