Part 13 (2/2)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] For notes on the dyer's art and the nature of dye stuffs, see William Morris's essay on ”Dyeing as an Art,” p. 196.

[2] William Morris, ”Dyeing as an Art.”

St.i.tCHES AND MECHANISM

As a guiding cla.s.sification of methods of embroidery considered from the technical point of view, I have set down the following heads:--

(a) Embroidery of materials in frames.

(b) Embroidery of materials held in the hand.

(c) Positions of the needle in making st.i.tches.

(d) Varieties of st.i.tches.

(e) Effects of st.i.tches in relation to materials into which they are worked.

(f) Methods of st.i.tching different materials together.

(g) Embroidery in relief.

(h) Embroidery on open grounds like net, etc.

(i) Drawn thread work; needlepoint lace.

(j) Embroidery allied to tapestry weaving.

In the first place, I define embroidery as the ornamental enrichment by needlework of a given material. Such material is usually a closely-woven stuff; but skins of animals, leather, etc., also serve as foundations for embroidery, and so do nets.

(a) Materials to be embroidered may be either stretched out in a frame, or held loosely (b) in the hand. Experience decides when either way is the better. For embroidery upon nets, frames are indispensable.

The use of frames is also necessary when a particular aim of the embroiderer is to secure an even tension of st.i.tch throughout his work.

There are various frames, some large and standing on trestles; in these many feet of material can be stretched out. Then there are small handy frames in which a square foot or two of material is stretched; and again there are smaller frames, usually circular, in which a few inches of materials of delicate texture, like muslin and cambric, may be stretched.

Oriental embroiderers, like those of China, j.a.pan, Persia, and India, are great users of frames for their work.

(c) St.i.tches having peculiar or individual characteristics are comparatively few. Almost all are in use for plain needlework. It is through the employment of them to render or express ornament or pattern that they become embroidery st.i.tches. Some embroiderers and some schools of embroidery contend that the number of embroidery st.i.tches is almost infinite. This, however, is probably one of the myths of the craft. To begin with, there are barely more than two different positions in which the needle is held for making a st.i.tch--one when the needle is pa.s.sed more or less horizontally through the material, the other when the needle is worked more or less vertically. In respect of the first-named way, the point of the needle enters the material usually in two places, and one pull takes the embroidery thread into the material more or less horizontally, or along or behind its surface (Fig. 1). In the second, the needle is pa.s.sed upwards from beneath the material, pulled right through it, and then returned downwards, so that there are two pulls instead of one to complete a single st.i.tch.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 1.--Stem St.i.tch--a peculiar use of short st.i.tches.]

A hooked or crochet needle with a handle is held more or less vertically for working a chain st.i.tch upon the surface of a material stretched in a frame, but this is a method of embroidery involving the use of an implement distinct from that done with the ordinary and freely-plied needle. Still, including this last-named method, which comes into the cla.s.s of embroidery done with the needle in a more or less vertical position, we do not get more than two distinctive positions for holding the embroidery needle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 2.--Chain St.i.tch.]

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