Sometimes a pin cushion is used to make Brazilian lace. The pins are stuck in and the threads wound over them.
Brazilian or Teneriffe lace can be used for borders on handkerchiefs or other fine articles, while again they may be used as medallions on waists or other thin clothes. The material from under them is cut out so that a lacy effect may be produced.
Other patterns may be readily made. Remember that the stitches are very similar to those used in the corners of drawn work borders.
XXI
SIMPLE BASKETS
Basketry is so easily done and at such a small cost that almost any one, even a very little child, can master it without very much difficulty. With very few tools some beautiful gifts and other useful articles may be made.
In this chapter it is my intention to tell little children just how to make some pretty things with materials that they can obtain from nature's storehouse and otherwise.
In making baskets a great deal of rattan is used. I suppose that some of my little readers will wonder what rattan is. Well, I will tell you. It is a kind of grass or leaf which grows in forests of foreign countries, twining about the tress, hanging from branch to branch sometimes hundreds of feet in length but hardly ever over an inch thick. The people over there in those countries send this material to us so that we can make many pretty things. For little boys and girls living in the country there are materials which they can get from the fields and river banks that may be substituted for rattan.