A Bedspread for Victoria.
I wonder whether you have made the bedspread, shown on [page 61], with the doll’s bed outfit. I daresay you have, and perhaps the patchwork quilt too. But of course you will not want all your doll-children’s beds to look quite the same, so how about a bedspread with a fringe to it for Victoria’s bed? You usually dress her in blue, don’t you, to match her eyes, so you had better work the bedspread in blue. No, I know she does not go to sleep with her eyes open, but she has lovely fair hair, and pink roses in her cheeks; and a cream bedspread, worked in blue, is what she needs to set her off properly.
The bedspread is worked in coarse cream Hardanger Canvas. The little detail of the stitch shows you the actual size of the canvas. If you use a finer canvas than this—as of course you can if you like—then you will have to take your stitches over more threads to get your design the same size as the one shown here.
The shade of blue that will suit Victoria beautifully is No. 709 in Ardern’s “Star Sylko,” size 5, and you could use this for the work on your bedspread; and you will also want some white “Star Sylko,” size 5, for the satin stitch. For sewing the fringe cream linen thread can be used.
If you have not yet learnt to work the stitches used in making this bedspread, the best plan would be to take an odd piece of canvas and practise on that first.
Satin Stitch.
We will start with the white outlines of the border. This is worked in satin stitch—a very simple stitch, but it needs to be worked evenly, and the thread must not be pulled too tightly. Do not make a knot to start the work, leave a piece of thread at the back, and put the needle through this piece before you work the second stitch. Start by putting the needle up through a hole of the canvas, miss 1 hole, put the needle into the next hole; put the needle through the next hole on a line with the first, and go on working stitches like this in a straight line.
If you do this in the right way, the stitches on the right side will be straight, and on the wrong side they will slant a little.
