Fig. 758. Thirty-ninth lace stitch.
Fig. 759. Fortieth lace stitch.
Fortieth lace stitch (fig. [759]).—Of all the different kinds of stitches here given, this, which terminates the series, is perhaps the one requiring the most patience. It was copied from a piece of very old and valuable Brabant lace, of which it formed the entire ground. Our figure of course represents it on a very magnified scale, the original being worked in the finest imaginable material, over a single foundation thread.
In the first row, after the three usual foundation threads are laid, you make the button-hole stitches to the number of eight or ten, up to the point from which the next branch issues, from the edge of the braid, that is, upwards.
Then you bring the needle down again and button-hole the second part of the bar, working from right to left.
A picot, like the one described in fig. [701], marks the point where the bars join. More picots of the same kind may be added at discretion.
Wheel composed of button-hole bars (figs. [760], [761], [762], [763]).—As we have already more than once given directions for making wheels, not only in the present chapter, but also in the one on netting, there is no need to enlarge on the kind of stitches to be used here, but we will explain the course of the thread in making wheels, composed of button-hole bars in a square opening.