We can give a clearer idea of this work by means of an example, and we will take the common white daisy as an illustration.
Thread a long-eyed coarse needle with very narrow white ribbon, and beginning at the centre of the flower, pass the needle from the wrong side up through your material, drawing the ribbon out nearly its full length and leaving only a short piece on the wrong side to be fastened down; now take a stitch straight out the length of a daisy petal and pass the needle through to the wrong side; then, taking a very short stitch, draw the needle out through on the right side; next take another long stitch back to the centre of the daisy, thus forming the second petal; continue in the same manner, making the petals radiate out in a circle from the centre of the flower. Work the centres of the daisies with yellow silk and the stems in dark-green silk; the leaves can be either worked or appliqued. For half-blown daisies make only about a quarter of a circle of petals, and in place of the yellow centre, work a green calyx. Ox-eyed daisies can be made in the same way with soft, thin yellow ribbon, a little broader than the ribbon used for white daisies. The work is rapid and pleasing, and almost any flower can be imitated very perfectly with ribbon embroidery.
CHAPTER XXXV.
SCRAP-BOOK AND HOME-MADE BOOK-COVERS.
THE fashion of collecting pictured advertising cards, so much in vogue among the children a few years ago, seems to have run its course, and dying out, it has left on the young collectors’ hands more cards than they know well what to do with. Many of the collections have been pasted in scrap-books, of which the children have long since tired. While examining one of these volumes with its row after row of cards, it occurred to me that these advertisements might be utilized in a new way by dividing and combining them. The experiment proved a success, and I will now try to show you how, with the aid of scissors and mucilage, the pictures which have become so familiar may be made to undergo changes that are indeed wonderful, and how from them may be formed a
Mother Goose Scrap-book.
The nursery scrap-books made of linen or paper cambric are, perhaps, familiar to most of our readers; but for the benefit of those who may not yet have seen these durable little books, we will give the following directions for making one: Cut from a piece of strong linen, colored paper cambric, or white muslin, four squares twenty-four inches long by twelve inches wide. Button-hole stitch the edges all around with some bright-colored worsted, then place the squares neatly together and stitch them directly through the centre with strong thread (Fig. 313). Fold them over, stitch again, as in Fig. 314, and your book is finished and ready for the pictures.