Net tracery with border (fig. [137]).—In order to bring out the pattern and the colours, use instead of cotton, Soutache D.M.C, or Lacets surfins D.M.C. Both are to be had in all the colours, given in the list of colours of the D.M.C threads and cottons. The little border can be used in conjunction with any of the preceding patterns, but care must be taken not to let it get twisted in the working. To prevent this, slip a coarse needle under the last stitch, and draw the braid flat over it.
Fig. 137. Net tracery with braids.
Materials: Soutache D.M.C No. 2 in Bleu-Indigo 334 and Rouge-Turc 321.
Broad net lace tracery (fig. [138]).—The pattern of this pretty lace must first be transferred to stout paper, or oil-cloth. All the leaves and stalks, and the button-holing round the open centres of the flowers, are worked in a pale green, the two bottom flowers in Turkey red, the star-shaped one in blue, the calyx in which the stalks unite, in dark red, and the little bells, in the lightest green.
Fig. 138. Broad net lace tracery.
Materials: Coton à broder D.M.C No. 30, 35 or 40.—Colours: Rouge-Turc 321, Rouge-Cardinal 346, Bleu-Indigo 322, Gris-Tilleul 393 and Vert-Pistache 369.
Net darning.—We conclude with some directions for darning net, a valuable art, by means of which many a curious piece of old needlework is preserved. Coarse and fine net are all darned in the same way.
Laying the first thread (fig. [139]).—Tack the net which is to be darned, closely to the defective part, upon either oil-cloth or coloured paper and cut the edges straight to the thread; Your thread must be of exactly the same size, as that of which the net is made. It takes three rows of stitches to imitate the net ground; in the first place, as shown in fig. [139], cross-threads must be laid from side to side, carried as in darning, a little beyond the edges of the hole and so as to surround each mesh with a slanting stitch.