[Fig. 53] is, in the original, a gay little flower carried out in orange and yellow. The stitch employed here is a close buttonhole.
Another example of the use of close buttonhole is shown in the ivy leaf in [fig. 54]. The stitch is worked in two rows, back to back, in each lobe of the leaf, and the resulting ridge down the centre rather happily suggests the veining. This method of filling in might be just reversed for a rose leaf; the heading of the stitch would then suggest the serrated edge, and the meeting of the two rows down the centre the line of the vein.
A cluster of berries can be very prettily worked in buttonhole stitch in the way shown in [fig. 55]. The stitches are so arranged that the heading outlines each berry, and the needle enters the material at the same point, always in the centre. A bullion stitch in a darker colour marks the eye of the berry.
A good method of filling a space with solid buttonhole stitching is shown in [fig. 56]. Each row is worked into the heading of the preceding row, and the stitches do not pierce the material except in the first row and at the extremities of succeeding rows. They are placed rather close together in order to completely cover the ground. The stitch is worked, first, from left to right, then for the next row from right to left; this is quite easy and enables the work to be continuously carried out. Sometimes, when the first row is done, the thread is thrown across to the side where the row began, and there made fast; then the second row is worked with stitches which take up the thrown thread as well as the heading of the first row. By using a more open buttonhole and thus partly exposing the laid thread, a filling, both quick and effective, is obtained. This is a useful method to employ when the work is done over a padding of threads, for there is no necessity to pierce the material except at the edges.