You will find that these simple forms of hemstitching will be very useful to you in making all kinds of things.
To make the chair back you will want a strip of white Hardanger canvas, a yard long and about 17 inches wide; this will allow for the hems.
First measure up five inches from each end, and draw out four threads of canvas across each end, then draw out two threads at each side, about three-quarters of an inch in from the set of open threads at one end to the other; you will have to cut the threads at each end. Now tack all the hems along; you can turn in the ends of the wide hems and oversew them together.
Hemstitch the side hems in simple hemstitching, taking up three threads of canvas each time, and the wide hems in the serpentine stitch, taking two threads of canvas each time; you will remember to take the alternate sets on the second side.
Now you have only to embroider the cats. These are worked in cross-stitch, using “Peri-lusta” Pearl Knit, size 5. Shade No 249 is a pretty red that would do beautifully. Directions for working cross-stitch on canvas are given on [page 26], and you will be able to copy the cats from the enlarged designs given below.
THE TOM CAT——
If you fold the chair back right down the centre, and start the whiskers of the cats four threads on each side of this line, they will be about the right distance apart. The bristles on the legs and tails are made by working half crosses, and those on the back by making long single strokes, the length of two crosses.
The whiskers of the cat extend the length of three crosses. Three threads of the Hardanger canvas are allowed for each cross. On the material used for the chair back in your picture, each cross worked out at about an eighth of an inch across, but if the canvas you are using happens to be a coarser one, you may perhaps find your crosses work out much larger, in which case you must go over two threads each time so as to get your animals the right size for the chair back.
