Many net embroidery patterns and damask stitches consist of a combination of ordinary running and darning, others of chain, stem and cross stitch.
Net embroidery.—All these kinds of stitches can be worked on the coarse Greek net, as it is called, as well as on the finest quality of real Brussels net.
Stripes of net, finished off with button-hole edging, and ornamented with one or other of the following patterns, make very pretty washing laces and the like; net laid upon Irish point and converted by needlework into a lace ground, makes an excellent substitute for a hand-made ground, which demands much labour and time.
Materials suitable for net embroidery.—The choice of material must be determined by the quality of the net and the effect to be produced. For a coarse make of net and a very marked pattern, the lowest numbers of D.M.C cottons, or the narrowest braids, such as Soutache D.M.C Nos. 1, 2, 3 should be used; if the net be fine and the pattern a delicate one, then the higher numbers of the following are preferable: Coton à tricoter D.M.C Nos. 8 to 20, Coton à repriser D.M.C Nos. 25 to 70, Coton à broder D.M.C Nos. 16 to 50, Fil à dentelle D.M.C Nos. 25 to 50, Coton à broder surfin D.M.C Nos. 100, 120, 150. The latter must be adjusted to the required size before being used, that is to say as many strands of it removed, as is necessary in order to reduce it to the proper thickness.
Tracing with running stitches (fig. [113]).—Have your pattern traced on linen or paper; tack the net upon it, and copy it carefully on the net with running stitches. As in darning, the stitches must run first above and then beneath, alternating in each succeeding row. At the turn of the lines, the stitches cross each other, as shown in the illustration.
Fig. 113. Tracing with running stitches.
Net pattern (fig. [114]).—Here too the pattern is traced with running stitches, which are run in on both sides of each row of meshes. The thread is carried first to the right, and then to the left, under every alternate bar of the net and out again. Between the first and second rows, one thread of the foundation must be left uncovered. In the next row, the thread is carried back again, so that it encircles each mesh. In the third row, the thread passes under the same bar of net as in the second, the threads touching each other. The fourth row is a repetition of the first.
