Make Your Dye Ready
Buy a tube of olive green dye, one of yellow and one of cardinal red. Squeeze about a teaspoonful of dye into a teacup, add two tablespoonfuls of boiling water, stir until dissolved, then add enough boiling water to give the desired shade. You can test the depth of color by dipping bits of white cloth in the dye. Each dye must be in a separate cup and a little yellow should be added to the green after it is dissolved, but before it is diluted with the extra water. Have ready
Two Stiff Bristle Brushes,
such as are used for oil painting, and a piece of old white muslin. With your stencil in place, take the board on your lap, set the dye on a stand at your side and lay the old muslin folded on the board above your curtain. Dip a brush in the dye and rub it on the muslin to remove some of the moisture, for a brush too wet will cause the dye to spread and spoil the outline of the design.
Beginning at the left hand of your stencil, scrub the cheese-cloth in the openings of the design until it becomes the right shade and the dye sinks entirely through the cloth. The flowers must be pink and the leaves green, but you can make the flowers darker at the centre if you wish by applying more color. Use separate brushes for the green and red dye. Hold the brush firmly and in an upright position.
| Fig. 642.—Crease the cloth through the centre. | Fig. 643.—Leave several inches of thread at the ends. |
| Fig. 644.—Tie securely. | Fig. 645.—Make a loop of the floss. |
When you have stencilled the entire design
Pull Out the Pins,
move the stencil farther along on the curtain, tack it down and continue stencilling until the border is finished; then take the small stencil of the single flower ([Fig. 640]) and stencil the flower at irregular intervals over the curtain. For
The Tassels