Let us take for our first example the straight buttonholing. It is the simplest form. Cover the space between the lines with coarse, running stitches. Let the background be medium weight linen. The padding thread should be No. 16 or No. 20 marking cotton, or two strands of white darning cotton makes an excellent padding. The stitches can be fully one quarter of an inch in length. Take up a single thread of the background so that the padding will be all on the top of the material. This keeps the work well raised on the right side and perfectly flat on the wrong side. An extra row or two toward the outer edge of buttonholing raises the edge prettily. Chain-stitching is a more rapid way of padding, but should only be used for coarse work. Remember that the wider the buttonholing the more padding will be necessary.
The padding should be worked over your embroidery hoops, keeping the work as near to your fingers as possible. The actual buttonholing gets a rounder effect if done over the finger, though it is possible, of course, to do it over the hoops.
Again, no knots in buttonholing. Thread your needle with No. 25 marking cotton. Make three little running stitches and one back-stitch to insure firmness in the starting. Let your thread come up slightly under the lower line of the buttonholing. With your left thumb holding the thread down to the material draw your thread to the right, take a stitch over the padding, bringing the needle out slightly below the lower line. The thread should fall under the point of the needle in each stitch.
The next thing we learn in buttonholing is a scallop. The deeper the scallop the more difficult it is to make a good corner and to keep the slant of the stitches right. When you buy a stamped piece of embroidery, select a pattern that has a shallow scallop and one where the points are not too sharp. In working a scallop the stitches should slant vertically in the direct centre, slanting the other stitches toward this point ([Figure 117]).
Fig. 117. A simple scallop
The object in carrying the needle slightly beyond the stamped line is that all the stamping may be well covered. A stitch that is taken directly through the line shows the stamping.
The diagrams (Figures [117] and [118]) show how to work a simple scallop and one with a sharp scallop. A good deal has been written about the cutting of scallops, but the safest and wisest is to wash the piece before cutting out the scallops. A pair of small embroidery scissors should be used to cut the material away close to the twill of the buttonholing. If a scallop is cut before it is washed it frays so much that the edge has an untidy look.