Encyclopedia of Needlework

by Thérèse de Dillmont

Put some wheaten (not rice) starch into a vessel with a rounded bottom, pour on just enough water to dissolve the starch and stir it with a wooden spoon till it becomes perfectly smooth.

In the meantime put about ¼ of a pint of clean water on the fire to boil and when it boils add to it a little powdered pitch or carpenter’s glue, in quantity about the size of a pea and pour in the starch, stirring it the whole time. When the mixture has boiled up several times take it off the fire and go on stirring it till it gets cold, otherwise lumps will form in it, which as we specially pointed out in the preceding chapter, must never be allowed to get in between the stuff and the paper.

This kind of paste makes no spots and does not injure even the most delicate colours as it contains no acid. In winter it will keep for several days, but in hot weather it very soon begins to ferment and should then on no account be used.

Gum arabic ought never to be used for appliqué work, as it becomes so hard that it is impossible to get the needle through, whilst the saccharine it contains almost always causes ugly spots to appear in the stuff when it dries.

When the work is finished it is a good plan to spread a very thin layer of paste over the entire back of it with a fine brush made of hog’s bristles, and not to take it out of the frame until it is perfectly dry.

To stiffen new needlework.—In the chapter on Irish lace, page [441], we said that new needlework of that kind had to be ironed; this should be done in the following manner: when the lace has been taken off its foundation, lay it, face downwards, on a piece of fine white flannel; then dip a piece of very stiff new organdie muslin into water, take it out again almost immediately and wring it slightly, so that no drops may fall from it, and then dab the wrong side of the lace all over with this pad of damp muslin and iron it with a hot iron which should be moved slowly forwards so that the moisture which the organdie has imparted to the lace may evaporate slowly. Not until you are quite sure that the lace is dry should it be taken off the board.

There is no better way than this of giving new lace that almost imperceptible degree of stiffness by which alone it is often to be distinguished from old. Water only does not stiffen the thread sufficiently and it is difficult with starch to hit upon exactly the right consistency, whereas the organdie muslin supplies just the needful quantity.

Embroidered network can be stiffened in the same manner and should be damped in the frame on the wrong side and not taken off until it is quite dry.

We even recommend embroidery on linen being treated in the same way but when the linen is very creased, cover it with a damp cloth and iron upon that first, then take the cloth away and iron the embroidery itself so as to dry it completely.