Encyclopedia of Needlework

by Thérèse de Dillmont

The other little details are executed in flat and stem stitch in the colours indicated at the foot of the engraving. With the pattern to go by, the distribution of the colours for the different parts can present no possible difficulty.

We need only point out that Rouge-Cardinal 348 is intended for the little knot that connects the stalks of the flowers.

Chinese subject (fig. [884]).—This quaint and graceful composition, copied from an interesting piece of Chinese embroidery, gives our readers the opportunity of turning the different damask stitches, already described in these pages, to quite a new use.

Fig. 884. Chinese subject.
Materials: Coton à repriser D.M.C No. 50, Or fin D.M.C pour la broderie No. 40 and Chiné d’or D.M.C.[A]

The kind of gauze which forms the foundation of the original work can be replaced either by Spanish or Rhodes linen No. 2, by any stuff, in fact, the threads of which can be counted.

The drawing has to be transferred to the stuff, and the different parts are filled in with the stitches, clearly indicated in the illustration.

By the introduction of several colours, this pattern is capable of being infinitely varied.

Thus, in the model before us, the neck and bulb of the flask, the leaves it stands upon and those attached to the flowers in it, are worked in Vert-Pistache 367, the handles, the ornament on the bottle, and the triangular figure in the centre are in white; the little flower on the left, the second on the right, the straight staff, the upper wings of the butterfly, as well as the three leaves underneath the triangle are in Bleu-Indigo 334; the first flower on the right of the flask, the knot above the triangle, the lower wings of the butterfly and the middle part of the bottom subject on the right of the engraving are in Gris-Amadou 383; and Violet-lie-de-vin and Brun-Caroubier 357 alternate in the pointed leaves that support the flask; the former colour recurs in the ornaments of the staff, and Rouge-Cardinal 347, black and Gris-Tilleul alternate in the other details of the drawing.