Needles should be procured from the best makers only, as cheap ones are apt to cut and roughen the silk by friction through the eye in the course of the work. If for any reason it may be worth while to improve a needle which has this defect, it can be done by the simple process of threading the eye with strong cotton (as coarse as it will conveniently carry), dipping it into olive oil, then into fine emery powder, and working it backwards and forwards until it ceases to roughen.
Round-eyed and ‘egg-eyed’ sewing-needles, crewel and embroidery, large-sized chenille, and occasionally a curved (so-called ‘circular’) needle, are required.
Pins should be fine and as sharp as needles. Very nice little pins may be made from fine needles by warming the eye and sticking a little sealing-wax on it for a knob; but beware of leaving steel pins in any part of the work, as they rust very quickly and make an ‘iron-mould’ stain. Indeed, it is safer to use pins for temporary fastenings only, and to put in a few stitches wherever required for more than a day or two; brass ones leave a green mark and silver-plated ones black, while even gold-plating soon wears off.
A small instrument called a piercer is sometimes used to keep gold laid in its place, but a rug-needle, or the eye of the chenille needle, will do as well.
A good stiletto, a pair of compasses, a T-square and a set-square, a ruler, measure, and tracer conclude the list of implements necessary to the Church embroiderer besides the frame.
There are several kinds of EMBROIDERY-FRAME which have been invented from time to time to save trouble or to stretch more evenly than the ones in general use, but the two still most commonly to be met with are the old flat-bar and screw-bar frames. The former can be rested on trestles when large, or supported on the edge of a table and kept in place with weights when small; those with screw sides are generally mounted upon stands of their own. For work not exceeding 30 inches square I find the screw-frame the most convenient; it can be adjusted to any angle, so that the worker has no need to bend over it, being able to see her work without effort, both as a whole and in detail. To sit for many hours at a frame which lies horizontal is apt to injure the spine (whenever there is the least feeling of over-strain the work should be discontinued). It is, moreover, bad for the eyes, forcing the vision into an unnatural focus. The small screw-frame on a stand can be clamped to a table or held in the lap, and is almost equally comfortable to work at.
Tambour-frames and rigid wire-frames may be used for very small pieces of work.
The light should always fall upon the work from behind, over either shoulder of the person.
Due attention to these points (i.e. a comfortable position and proper light) would prevent much of the weariness and actual injury to the physique for which Church embroidery is often considered responsible; not always, I regretfully admit, without some foundation in fact. Still, the majority of these cases have their own carelessness to accuse, considering these restrictions to be mere details which may be safely ignored instead of taking the trouble to form a habit of doing everything in the best possible way.