Fig. 693. Tacking down and drawing in the braids.
The stitches, made for the bars and the fillings, must never be drawn so tightly as to drag out the edges of the braids and thus spoil the outlines of the pattern. Nor should the stitches be caught into the tracing cloth, but only rest upon it.
When the embroidery is finished, turn the work the wrong side up, cut every second or third tacking stitch and pull the threads carefully out, from the wrong side, when the lace will separate itself from the backing without difficulty; it has then to be damped and ironed also on the wrong side. (See the concluding chapter on the different processes for finishing off needlework).
It is of no consequence which are made first, the bars or the fillings; we however incline to the former, more especially in the case of button-hole bars, as they are easier to do than the fillings and once done, there is less risk of puckering or drawing the edges together, in making the fillings.
The stitches.—We shall now proceed to describe a series of bars and stitches, which, if carefully studied, will serve as a preparation for making all the finer kinds of laces described in the ensuing chapter.
Without pretending to have exhausted the infinite variety of lace stitches that exists, we hope to have brought before our readers’ notice a sufficiently numerous selection to satisfy all tastes and capacities.
With regard to the names, the same stitches are known by so many different ones, that excepting in the case of those universally accepted, we have disregarded them altogether and merely numbered the stitches in their order.
Plain twisted bar (fig. [694]).—Secure the thread to the braid and throw it across from one braid edge to the other, put the needle in downwards from above, and overcast the first thread, so as to form the two into a cord. If you do not make enough overcasting stitches to tighten the two threads, the bars will be loose and untidy and spoil the general appearance of the work.