Encyclopedia of Needlework

by Thérèse de Dillmont

We shall, as far as possible, point out to our readers the precautions to be taken in tracing patterns and must for that purpose go back to one of the first operations, namely that of pricking.

To begin with, the paper on which the pattern is should always be large enough for there to be a clear margin of from 4 to 5 c/m. all round the pattern, so that the pouncing instrument may never come in contact with the stuff beneath.

In transferring patterns to stuff, no lines of division should ever be made directly upon it either with lead, chalk or charcoal, as it is hardly ever possible entirely to obliterate them and they often become very confusing afterwards.

Before beginning the tracing, divide your stuff into four, then decide what the width of the border outside the pattern is to be; it is quite an exceptional thing to carry a pattern right up to the edge. Stuffs that will take a bend, such as all linen and cotton textures, can be folded in four, like the paper, the folds ought then to be pinched and pressed down so that the lines may remain clear and distinct until the tracing be finished.

After dividing it into four, mark out the diagonal lines; these are absolutely necessary in order to get the corner figures rightly placed.

Though most of our readers know how to make these lines on paper with a pencil and ruler, few, easy as it is, know how to make them upon stuff. You have only to fold over the corner of your piece of stuff so that the outside thread of the warp or cut edge run parallel with the woof edge which marks the angle of the fold-over.

This double folding over divides the ground into 8 parts. To arrange for the outside border or margin, is easy enough if the stuff and the kind of work you are going to do upon it admit of the drawing out of threads, as then a thread drawn out each way serves as a guide for tracing the pattern, straight to the line of the stuff. It is often better however, not to draw out the threads for an open-work border till the pattern be traced. If you do not wish or are not able to draw out threads to mark the pattern and you are working on a stuff of which the threads can be counted, follow the directions given on page [128], and explained in fig. [252].

You cannot mark cloth, silk stuffs or plush by folding them in the above way, cloth and some kinds of silken textures will not take a bend and others that will would be spoiled by it.

All such stuffs should be mounted in a frame, before the pattern be traced and the ground be then divided out in the following way: take a strong thread, make a knot at one end, stick a pin into it and tighten the knot round it; with a pair of compasses, divide one of the sides into two equal parts, stick the pin with the knot round it in at the middle and the same on the opposite side, putting in a second pin by means of which you stretch the thread; carry other threads across in a similar way, in the width of the stuff and from corner to corner and you will have your ground correctly marked out, in such a manner as to leave no marks when, after pouncing in the pattern, you remove the threads. Before finishing the pouncing of a pattern, see that it is the right size for the purpose it is intended for.

Supposing that you are tracing a border with a corner, you should measure the length it will occupy and then by a very light pouncing, you can mark the points from which the pattern will have to be repeated. It may be that a gap will be left in the middle, which, if not too large, can be got rid of without altering the pattern by pushing the whole thing a little further in and so shortening the distance between the two corners.