XVIII Appliqué on Linen and Other Materials and Hedebo Embroidery
Appliqué, or laying one material on another and stitching or embroidering them together is one of the simplest forms of embroidery that even the Indians years ago knew how to do. How many of you have not seen on an Indian woman queer shapes cut out of leather and ornamented with beads used for a border on her skirt?
There are two kinds of appliqué, underlaid and overlaid. Most of the work is the latter kind. The underlaid is a little more difficult to do. It will be explained at greater length later in this chapter.
Appliqué is such easy work that you will almost think it a mistake not to have heard about it before, but after all it is really necessary that we should know the simpler embroidery stitches before we attempt an appliqué piece, so that we can decorate it in the manner to suit ourselves.
The European peasants work some of the crudest specimens of appliqué, yet their colour schemes and choice of material are good. For instance, Russian crash, which is sold at the towel department of many of our large department stores, from twelve to twenty cents a yard, and which is very narrow, usually about sixteen inches wide, is often employed as the background of their portières.
Before the Russo-Japanese War it was possible to get Russian crash as wide as forty inches. It is made by the peasants in their homes from the waste ends left from weaving linens. You have no doubt read of how poor Russian peasants live in hovels in the same room with the cow, if they are fortunate enough to possess one, and their pigs. Necessarily the work they do is not very clean but the artistic qualities of the crash overcomes the fact of the dirt.
The better class of peasants will take three strips of crash and connect them together with coarse sewing or lace stitches and then apply circles of broadcloth, or coloured linens on them. Other geometrical figures are often applied.
I heard of a Southern family the other day who are so thrifty that they allow nothing to go to waste, not even the old coats and trousers that have played the double rôle of clothing the father and then have been cut down for Johnny. After Johnny has had all the wear possible out of them Grandma again cuts them, this time in the shape of leaves, and sews them on a large muslin circle, one overlapping the other. This forms a mat for the dining room. I am telling you this story not that you may imitate it, but rather to let you know that after all we have women here that are as clever and thrifty with their needles as the European women.
For appliqué work the design is cut out and the wrong side covered almost to the edge with a paste made of starch and water.
When a complicated piece of appliqué is to be worked, stamp your design on the background. Then on the right side of the material to be appliquéd, or on the wrong side of velvet, lay a piece of transfer paper. Place the design on them. With a blunt pointed instrument go over the line firmly till you have a tracing of the design. If the lines are not quite clear go over them with a pencil.
Cut out each piece and paste it to the background. The edges may be machine stitched or satin-stitched or outlined. A cord, also the couching stitch, makes a good finish.
Very clever representations of animals can be made by appliqué. Take a duck, for instance. The breast can be white felt, the head dark green velvet. The wings dark brown and the back and tail a lighter brown broadcloth. The legs and the bill should be canary-coloured taffeta silk. Cut each section so that it slightly laps over the other.
Appliqué underlaid is accomplished by stamping the design on the wrong side of the material and then cutting it out. The background is left intact like a stencil. A piece of material of a different colour is laid under the cut piece of material. The raw or cut edges may be treated in many ways. The material may be turned back and stitched by machine or the edges may be finished with buttonholing stitches, couching, fine satin-stitch or chain stitch. The turning back of the cut edges requires that they be neatly done or the embroidery will not show to its best advantage.
Hedebo embroidery is in no way connected with appliqué work, but like the latter it is a branch of needlework that few people in America understand. Without exception it is the most elaborate form of white work. The stitches give the effect of being very difficult, but this is not so. The work requires a lot of time and careful planning of the stitches for which buttonhole stitch is usually the foundation.
Hedebo is worked on a finely woven linen. The design is stamped directly on the material. A thread of D.M.C. No. 25 or spool linen thread outlines the figures. Within the design, the linen is cut one eighth of an inch from the running thread. This eighth-inch extension is then turned under the stitches and basted down. A small piece of dark green oilcloth is then laid under the figure to be worked and basting stitches hold the material and oilcloth together. The oilcloth protects the fingers and it is often used by foreigners in making eyelets. A small piece is used and it is moved as many times as necessary. A large piece is too clumsy to hold. On the extreme double edge of the opening of the design fine buttonholing stitches are taken. The stitches are about one thirty-second of an inch apart.
A section of a design suitable for a collar is shown here and the stitches will now be explained that have been used on it (Figure 170).
A bar is formed by laying two or three threads so that they span the opening from side to side. Over these threads fine buttonholing is worked.
The little triangles are worked by making seven or nine stitches into as many of the buttonhole stitches. The second row is worked into the first, one stitch from each end is omitted. Continue in this way to the point (Figure 171).
The three large loops that separate the pyramids or triangles from each other in the two outer circles are worked by making two loops that will each take up half the space between the triangles. These loops are whipped two or three times to make them heavier and then they are covered with buttonholing. Work the first and half of the second and then make the loop for the third or last and work it also in buttonholing, then finish the second (Figure 172). The centre of the circle is made by connecting the opposite triangles and loops together. Gently distribute the threads from the centre to allow a small opening. Put a thread around this opening and neatly buttonhole the threads.
The middle figure is made by working a row of open buttonholing then running a drawing thread into the loops and buttoning this band with tiny stitches.
The stitches of the middle circle are somewhat simpler than the ones just described. A circle of open stitches is made directly under the buttonhole stitches on the material. Divide this circle in eight parts and make a large loop at alternate eighths. A connecting thread at the centre base of each loop connects each opposite pair of loops. The triangles are worked from the centre to the outer edge.
The open triangles are made by working a row of open loops around the three sides. The loops are drawn slightly together with another thread.
There are many pretty edges that can be used as finishes for work. The linen pieces, however, have to be hemmed first and then the fancy edge put on. An edge of pyramids is attractive. An edge of buttonholed loops with a picot in the centre of each bar as described on Hardanger is also good. Sometimes the loop or pyramid may need stretching in shape. Take a pin in the lower centre and pull the edges out the desired size.
In turning curves an extra little loop may have to be worked so as not to crowd the large points.