XV Eyelets and French Knots, Bullion Stitch, and Other Fancy Stitches
The most beautiful of the embroidery stitches is the eyelet, and it is also one of the hardest. A piece of embroidery that is thickly covered with eyelet-work and possibly a little satin-stitch and buttonholing is commonly termed Madeira embroidery. One will often see a piece of the Madeira embroidery so closely covered that it is almost impossible to put another stitch in between the embroidered spots. About fifty years ago it was a matter of impossibility to buy machine embroidery, and eyelet-work was one of the last things made by machine. It was an easy matter to distinguish the hand-work from the machine-work up to about five years ago. A certain regularity of the stitches and the kind of thread used proclaimed it machine to even the amateur. Now-a-days the crafty manufacturers stamp the material to imitate the hand-made embroideries and use a thread of the same quality so that sometimes the professional embroiderers find it hard to distinguish it from the real.
If you should ask a boy who has watched his mother working one, what an eyelet is he will probably tell you that it is cutting holes in the material and sewing them up again. To his mind this is a great waste of time.
Besides being ornamental, the eyelets often play an important part. They are used to run ribbon through in corset covers, night-gowns and other pieces of underwear, as well as on bags, baby bootees, (Figure 142), caps and carriage covers. No machine beading can impart the elegance that a well-made eyelet does to a personal garment. Eyelets can be either round or oval. For a small round one run a tracing thread on the outline. Let each stitch take up but one or two threads of the material. Use No. 35 or finer marking cotton for small eyelets. With your stiletto pierce a hole in the outlined edge till it is just the size of the stamped eyelet. Now with the same thread sew around the opening with close over-and-over stitches. The stitches should only be the width of the stamped line (Figure 143). They must be even, else you will have a “Pig’s-eye.”
For the large round eyelet, as well as the oval, in all sizes it will be necessary to cut the material within the outline which has first been traced with the running thread. The cuts should be made lengthwise and crosswise, right to the tracing thread. The cut material is turned under to the wrong side and the eyelet worked as just described. After the embroidery is finished turn the material over and any part of the cut cloth that extends beyond the stitches trim off. Your fine embroidery scissors should be used for the cutting.
Sometimes you might like to make an eyelet to represent a grape. Some embroiderers call it a shaded or padded eyelet. After the eyelet has been traced make another row of tracing or padding below the lower half of the eyelet. Start from the centre side of the eyelet and make the second tracing deeper on the lower portion of the eyelet. If any space is left between these two rows of tracings fill in with other rows of uneven darning (Figure 144A).
When eyelets are used on the outer edge of a design, they should be buttonholed.
The next stitch to claim our attention is French knots. In France they are known as the English knot. They are used to fill in the centres of flowers. When working a piece of golden rod the natural effect is best produced by using French knots very close to each other. A row worked on each side of a row of feather stitching makes a pretty decoration on babies’ dresses, caps or even on yokes of dresses for yourself.
A heavy thread is good to practise making the knot. The actual size or kind of thread to use should depend partly on the kind of material and partly upon the other style of work or stitches that you intend combining with it.
To work the knot, fasten the thread securely on the wrong side and bring the needle through to the right side. Now hold the thread down with your left thumb. With the right hand put the needle over and under the thread until there are three or four coils of the thread around the point of the needle. Now hold these coils down with the left thumb. Turn the needle so that its point will go down through the material as close as possible to the place through which it came (Figure 147).
A pretty idea for making knots for dress trimmings is to thread the needle with two strands of silk, each of a different colour.
Bullion stitch is an elongated French knot. It is used considerably in Mountmellick embroidery, to represent grains of wheat. Small leaves and daisies are oftentimes carried out in bullion stitch.
To make the stitch we will say that we are working on the conventional daisy. Bring the thread up to the base of the petal. Insert the needle so that the length of the petal lies on top of it. (See Figure 148.) Twine the thread around the needle point until there are as many coils as the length of the petal. The left thumb should hold the coils in place while you are twisting them. The needle is now drawn through the material. It is put through the same hole, or as near as possible to the one from which it came. Keep the left thumb holding down the coils until the stitch has been fastened.
Another way to accomplish bullion stitch, which has the same appearance, but which really is a very much slower method, is to lay a heavy thread the length of the stitch desired and then neatly wind the cotton over it. It requires a heavy cotton to work this successfully.
An embroidery needle should not be used for either French knots or bullion stitch, as the eye is apt to stick when pulling it through the coils. A large sewing needle should be substituted.
Any girl can make dainty and original designs for eyelet work if she will invest in compasses. As has been stated before, eyelets vary in size. The size that is most effective for decorating heavy linen or cotton is an eyelet a little less than half an inch in diameter. A larger eyelet is often used, but it requires a good deal of patience and experience to keep it in shape.
With the compass hundreds of designs may be used. The most popular as well as being the most attractive is the simple daisy. A circle is drawn to represent the centre. A quarter of an inch over from the centre circle, or less if you wish to, draw six other circles so that they form a ring around the centre dot.
A design such as this can be used on a ruffle of a petticoat or between tucks on dresses while for a whole linen piece there is nothing handsomer for a scalloped or hemstitched centre piece, doily, bureau cover and many other articles on which a bold, open effect is appropriate.
The Wall-of-Troy design is a good one for compass work, only it is suggested to faintly rule the design then inscribe the circles so that their centres are on the line. For instance, suppose you want to make a border design about an inch and a half deep. Take your rule and keeping on a straight thread of your material draw a two-inch line, then leave a space, then draw another line, so on to the end. An inch and a half above these lines draw another row of lines just over the spaces of the first row. Connect the ends of the lines together. Plan so that there is a circle at the points or corners of each line. Between these dots on the horizontal lines make two more circles, while on the vertical lines make only one. These instructions are for a circle the size described; for a smaller eyelet it will be necessary to add more circles to the lines.
A still simpler design is one that is made on a square, that is, with a dot at each corner and one in the direct centre. The dots must be kept the same distance apart.
The Italian girls will make the most elaborate designs of compass work on strips of firm, heavy muslin for ruffles for underwear. They are not like the American and French girls, who will only wear the sheerest kind of light material. The advantage the Italian girl has over her French and American sisters is that when she embroiders a garment it lasts for years, even if it is constantly used, while delicate embroidery is apt to have a very short life on account of the background. To the American girl this is no drawback, as she is always craving for new things.
Sometimes a thimble, spool, or even a twenty-five cent piece is used instead of the compass when a large eyelet is required.
An edge of eyelets is very handsome on a collar and cuff set or handkerchief. They should be placed so that after they are worked they touch each other. The entire eyelet may be carried out in buttonholing or the lower half may be buttonholed and the top worked in the regular way. After the work has been completed dampen the edge and press before cutting out the material from underneath the lower edge of the eyelet.
It is possible to work the eyelet without any buttonhole stitches and yet use it for an edge. In that case a little padding is required and the stitches should be close together.
A linen hat that has a simple scallop edge and a simple design on the brim and crown is a treasure that usually only the wealthy enjoy. It is nice to know how to embroider, but unless we put to use the things we know our knowledge is like a white elephant on our hands. After a careful study of the diagram of the stitches you desire to make and reading the description as to how to make it, a little child could almost work a hat, but the mounting of a hat is not so simple. Yet, what is the use of taking time to embroider one if you do not intend to make it up?
Eyelet work is particularly dainty on a hat as it gives a lacy effect. The material should be a medium weight linen so as not to be too stiff. At one time butcher’s linen was thought to be the only kind to be used, but of later years a softer linen is preferred. Lingerie hats have been used for years, probably long before you were born. Every year the shape varies a little. One year it is a narrow brim sailor, next year it is a wide brim, then again a high, next a Tam-o’-shanter crown. The last four years it has been the mushroom shape. For most faces there is nothing more becoming and girlish than the latter (Figure 150).
Sometimes the mushroom shape is covered with hand-embroidered ruffles, while again a circular piece having the crown cut out is used. The size of hat varies by what fashion dictates, so it is hard to say just how large your linen should be cut. A twenty-two or twenty-four inch circle makes a neat little shape.
After the embroidery has been worked as described in the first part of this chapter, the frame is prepared for mounting it. A wire frame is lighter and more satisfactory than a buckram frame.
The first thing to decide is, how are we going to face the hat? Tucked ruffling, net, dotted swiss, or fine ruffles of Valenciennes lace may be used. Most people prefer to cover the entire frame with cheap, fine lawn before facing or covering the hat.
This is done by placing the hat on the lawn, the brim touching the material, and cutting a circle a trifle larger than the brim. Cut a circle out for the crown and slip the lawn over the frame. If the crown is too large to allow the lawn to be slipped over it a wide bias band of the lawn can be used to cover the brim. The bias strip should be just the depth of the brim. For the crown, cut a circle large enough to cover the top and use a bias band around its sides.
Tack the muslin to the frame by long basting stitches. It will be necessary to pass under the wire when taking a stitch to keep the material in place. The tucked ruffling can be bought by the yard, trimmed with a row of narrow lace. The entire thing is banded. To adjust a ruffling of this sort place the band around the edge of the crown and tack the ruffle in position at short intervals and at the extreme edge of the brim.
Net or dotted Swiss is pretty shirred or corded or even put on plain. A strip three times the length that it would take to go around the brim plain is cut the depth of the brim. This band is cut on the straight of the goods. A shirring string is run on both sides. The strip is placed in position and pinned taking care to distribute the gathers evenly. The shirring string under the crown is pulled up first and the material over-handed to the frame. The gathering thread on the outer edge of the brim is also adjusted like this, only instead of over-hand stitches, fine running stitches are preferable. Then a small heading is made on one side of the strip that is to be shirred. The heading makes a pretty, soft finish at the edge and does not require any great length of time to do. Allow three quarters of an inch, or more, in the depth of your ruffle if it is to have a heading. Turn one edge of the material to the wrong side. The turn should be a little more than a quarter of an inch deep. The gathering thread is run a quarter of an inch from the folded edge of the material. When the thread is pulled up the heading is formed.
If the material is to be corded, baste a narrow round cord like a corset lace inside the material. The cord is placed where it is desired and the material is folded over it as for a tuck. A running thread is worked close to the cord to keep the two pieces of material together. The threads are afterwards drawn up to bring the fulness of the ruffles to fit the outer edge of the hat.
Three rows of cording are quite sufficient on the edge and the other two rows at equal intervals from the outer brim to the crown.
The ruffles of Valenciennes lace are adjusted by pulling the drawing string on the edge of the lace, and basting the first row of lace on the extreme edge. The second row just touches the first, and so on, filling as many rows of lace in as required.
The embroidered piece is then washed and the brim placed. The edge is tacked at intervals while around the crown the stitches are taken very close together.
The Tam-o’-shanter crown is pulled in shape by a gathering thread, if it is cut in a circular shape and the gathering is all on the edge. Cut the circle large enough to make a pretty Tam-o’-shanter.
The embroidery decoration may be in the direct centre of the crown. If the design is a small one it can be scattered over the crown to give an all over effect.
There are many ways that a lingerie hat may be trimmed and it is hard to say which is the prettiest. A black ribbon band and a bow is simple but severe. White taffeta ribbon may be used the same way if an all white hat is wanted. In fact any shade of ribbon is attractive used like this. The illustration shows a pretty way of trimming a lingerie hat for a girl of about fourteen. A narrow coloured ribbon is used around the crown and a rosette of leaves with rose buds and forget-me-nots is attractively placed on one side.
Sometimes coloured linen is used for the hat and in that case the embroidery may be worked in the same shade as the linen; or white. The hat is then trimmed with white or black. A coloured hat is not as practicable as a white one, as the former is apt to fade and may not be as becoming as the white.
A baby’s buttoned hat is made of two circular pieces scalloped out at the edges, one piece being four or five inches smaller than the other. The large one is used for the brim. The head size is cut out of the direct centre and then bound in tape. Three inches from the crown opening sew a circular row of buttons, a half inch apart. Use a washable linen, lace, or crochet button for this purpose.
One inch from the edge of the crown make as many buttonholes as you have buttons. A pair of daintily hemstitched strings that are attached, one on each side of the crown opening, completes this charming little hat. It can be easily unbuttoned and laundered flat. These hats are made of duck, pique or heavy linen. They are the nicest thing you can make for your little sister for the summer when she wants to play in the sun.