Encyclopedia of Needlework

by Thérèse de Dillmont

The closer and more complicated the pattern is, the finer and closer the holes should be. Every line of the outline must be carefully pricked out.

If the paper be sufficiently thin, several pouncings can be pricked at the same time, and a symmetrical design can be folded together into four and all pricked at once.

The pricked pattern has next to be tacked upon the material, the side from which the pricking was done next to the stuff and the little funnel-shaped holes uppermost. Paper and stuff must be firmly fastened down and kept in position by drawing pins, so that neither of them may move during the process, otherwise you will have double lines on the stuff which you will find very confusing afterwards.

For the pouncing, use either powdered chalk or charcoal, according to whether the stuff be dark or light in colour. Dip the pouncing implement, a thing like a small drum-stick, stuffed and covered with cloth, into the powder and rub it lightly over the whole surface of the pricked pattern, so that the powder penetrates through the pin-holes to the stuff. In default of a proper pouncing implement take a small stripe of cloth, roll it up round a stick and wind a string round, and dip this into the powder.

When the powder has penetrated to the stuff, remove the paper and if the pattern is to be repeated, lay it on again further on, taking care to make the lines meet exactly so that the join may not be seen.

When you have finished the pouncing and taken off the paper, you proceed to draw or rather paint in the pattern with water-colour paints: Ackermann’s are the best for the purpose; no others, as far as our experience has proved, adhere so well to even the roughest fabrics or so little affect the brilliancy of the embroidery thread. Four paints, blue, black, yellow and white are sufficient for all purposes, whatever the colour of the stuff may be.

On a smooth surface the tracing may be done with a pen but a small sable-hair brush is preferable under all circumstances.

The rougher and more hairy the surface, the finer the brush ought to be, in order that the colour may sink well in between the fibres.

Before beginning to paint in the pattern, gently blow away all the superfluous powder from the surface. This process may be objected to as being an old one which has been superseded by new inventions; a resinous powder for instance, by the use of which patterns can be fixed, as soon as they have been pounced, by passing a hot iron over the stuff, a sheet of paper having first been laid upon it to protect it; or else a mixture of gum and powder which can be dissolved on the stuff itself by the steam of spirits-of-wine, and various other processes needless to mention here, as some are only useful in tracing patterns on a large scale, whilst others require a variety of appliances, not as a rule, within the reach of those to whom needle-work is a simple recreation.

The preparation of the stuffs and the subdivision of the patterns.—Long years of experience and practice have brought us in contact with a good many designers, many of them artists in their way, so long as it was only a question of putting their own compositions on paper but who yet found themselves confronted by real difficulties the moment they were called upon to transfer them to stuff.