Encyclopedia of Needlework

by Thérèse de Dillmont

Raised lace has to be stamped out from the wrong side with a lace awl or kind of pricker of bone made for the purpose. Some professional lace-cleaners use this implement even for Valenciennes lace but we cannot recommend it, seeing that it is a lace that is by nature perfectly flat.

Let the length of lace you have pinned out remain on the drum till it be quite dry; if you have several yards to pin out, wind it round and round the cylinder. Cover up the lace as you proceed and put each length away as soon as it is ready in a blue paper bag, so as to keep the whole perfectly clean.

In conclusion we may remark that the cleaning of lace should only be undertaken when you are fairly sure of not being interrupted, as more especially the pinning requires to be finished off as quickly as possible.

To wash coloured cottons and work done with the same.—In order to test the fastness of the dyes, untie the skeins and pour boiling water upon them, leave them to soak for about a quarter of an hour, soap and rub them lightly with the hand from end to end and rinse them out thoroughly in as many changes of cold water as may be found necessary, until the water remain perfectly colourless.

Squeeze out all the water you can and let them dry quickly without exposing them to the sun.

Coloured cottons are often washed in vinegar, because it is supposed to affect the colour less than water does. We have come to the conclusion after several trials that this is a delusion, for the good dyes keep their colour without the aid of vinegar and the bad ones wash out in spite of it.

The fast colours lose none of their beauty in the process nor does it affect the quality of the cotton; any excess of colouring matter which the fibres of the cotton may have absorbed in the process of dyeing is got rid of by this means.

If a piece of work has been done with unwashed cottons and the colours run in the first washing, you have only to rinse it out in several changes of tepid water to restore it to its original freshness and if you want to give it a yellowish tinge, it should be dipped it in weak tea or coffee.

Materials.—It was stated in the preface that our readers would find the choice of colours and material rendered comparatively easy to them by the notes affixed to the illustrations, but these notes, in spite of all the care bestowed upon them must still have remained very incomplete had it not been for the following tables which we were fortunately enabled to append to our work and which will help every one to choose their own materials without having them actually before them. The strokes that are affixed to each number indicate the exact size of the thread, so that to find out the number you want to buy you have but to lay your pattern thread, stretching it slightly, on the strokes, in succession, till you come to the one that matches it in size.

With regard to the colours, the names and shades of which have been classed in the second table with the greatest care, and of which our workers have no less than 460 to choose from [3], all those referred to in connection with our illustrations are quite fast dyes [4], save in a few instances in which we were forced to make an exception in favour of a doubtful colour to secure a harmonious effect.