Part 30

[Illustration: FIG. 747. TWENTY-EIGHTH LACE STITCH.]

[Illustration: FIG. 748. TWENTY-NINTH LACE STITCH.]

TWENTY-NINTH LACE STITCH (fig. 748).—This stitch, known as Greek net stitch, can be used instead of button-hole bars for filling in large surfaces.

Make bars from left to right, a little distance apart as in fig. 741, leaving the loops between rather slack, so that when they have been twice overcast by the returning thread, they may still be slightly rounded. In the next row, you make the bar in the middle of the loop and lift it up sufficiently with the needle, for the threads to form a hexagon like a net mesh.

[Illustration: FIG. 749. THIRTIETH LACE STITCH.]

THIRTIETH LACE STITCH (fig. 749). After a row of pairs of button-hole stitches set closely together, with long loops between, as long as the space between the pairs, throw the thread across in a line with the extremities of the loops, fasten it to the edge of the braid and make pairs of button-hole stitches, as in the first row above it.

The loops must be perfectly regular, to facilitate which, guide lines may be traced across the pattern, and pins stuck in as shown in the figure, round which to carry the thread.

[Illustration: FIG. 750. THIRTY-FIRST LACE STITCH.]

THIRTY-FIRST LACE STITCH (fig. 750).—At first sight this stitch looks very much like the preceding one, but it differs entirely from it in the way in which the threads are knotted. You pass the needle under the loop and the laid thread, then stick in the pin at the right distance for making the long loop, bring the thread round behind the pin, make a loop round the point of the needle, as shows in the engraving, and pull up the knot.

[Illustration: FIG. 751. THIRTY-SECOND LACE STITCH.]

THIRTY-SECOND LACE STITCH (fig. 751).—To introduce a greater variety into lace stitches, netting can also be imitated with the needle. You begin with a loop in the corner of a square and work in diagonal lines. The loops are secured by means of the same stitch shown in fig. 750, and the regularity of the loops ensured, as it is there, by making them round a pin, stuck in at the proper distance. The squares or meshes must be made with the greatest accuracy; that being the case, most of the stitches described in the preceding chapter can be worked upon them, and the smallest spaces can be filled with delicate embroidery.

THIRTY-THIRD LACE STITCH (fig. 752).—This stitch is frequently met with in the oldest Irish lace, especially in the kind where the braids are joined together by fillings not bars. At first sight, it looks merely like a close net stitch, the ground and filling all alike, so uniform is it in appearance, but on a closer observation it will be found to be quite a different stitch from any of those we have been describing.

The first stitch is made like a plain net stitch, the second consists of a knot that ties up the loop of the first stitch. Fillings of this kind must be worked as compactly as possible, so that hardly any spaces are visible between the individual rows.

[Illustration: FIG. 752. THIRTY-THIRD LACE STITCH.]

[Illustration: FIG. 753. THIRTY-FOURTH LACE STITCH.]

THIRTY-FOURTH LACE STITCH (fig. 753).—To fill in a surface with this stitch, known as the wheel or spider stitch, begin by laying double diagonal threads to and fro, at regular distances apart, so that they lie side by side and are not twisted. When the whole surface is covered with these double threads, throw a second similar series across them, the opposite way. The return thread, in making this second layer, must be conducted under the double threads of the first layer and over the single thread just laid, and wound two or three times round them, thereby forming little wheels or spiders, like those already described in the preceding chapter in figs. 653 and 654.

THIRTY-FIFTH LACE STITCH (fig. 754).—Begin by making a very regular netted foundation, but without knots, where the two layers of threads intersect each other.

Then, make a third layer of diagonal threads across the two first layers, so that all meet at the same points of intersection, thus forming six rays divergent from one centre. With the fourth and last thread, which forms the seventh and eighth ray, you make the wheel over seven threads, then slip the needle under it and carry it on to the point for the next wheel.

[Illustration: FIG. 754. THIRTY-FIFTH LACE STITCH.]

[Illustration: FIG. 755. THIRTY-SIXTH LACE STITCH.]

THIRTY-SIXTH LACE STITCH (fig. 755).—After covering all the surface to be embroidered, with threads stretched in horizontal lines, you cover them with loops going from one to the other and joining themselves in the subsequent row to the preceding loops.

The needle will thus have to pass underneath two threads. Then cover this needle-made canvas with cones worked in close darning stitches, as in figs. 648, 716 and 717.

[Illustration: FIG. 756. THIRTY-SEVENTH LACE STITCH.]

THIRTY-SEVENTH LACE STITCH (fig. 756).—Here, by means of the first threads that you lay, you make an imitation of the Penelope canvas used for tapestry work, covering the surface with double threads, a very little distance apart, stretched both ways. The second layer of threads must pass alternately under and over the first, where they cross each other, and the small squares thus left between, must be encircled several times with thread and then button-holed; the thicker the foundation and the more raised and compact the button-holing upon it is, the better the effect will be. Each of these little button-holed rings should be begun and finished off independently of the others.

THIRTY-EIGHTH LACE STITCH (fig. 757).—Plain net stitch being quicker to do than any other, one is tempted to use it more frequently; but as it is a little monotonous some openwork ornament upon it is a great improvement; such for instance as small button-holed rings, worked all over the ground at regular intervals. Here again, as in the preceding figure the rings must be made independently of each other.

[Illustration: FIG. 757. THIRTY-EIGHTH LACE STITCH.]

[Illustration: FIG. 758. THIRTY-NINTH LACE STITCH.]

THIRTY-NINTH LACE STITCH (fig. 758).—Corded bars, branching out into other bars, worked in overcasting stitches, may also serve as a lace ground.

You lay five or six threads, according to the course the bars are to take; you overcast the branches up to the point of their junction with the principal line, thence you throw across the foundation threads for another branch, so that having reached a given point and coming back to finish the threads left uncovered in going, you will often have from six to eight short lengths of thread to overcast.

Overcasting stitches are always worked from right to left.

FORTIETH LACE STITCH (fig. 759).—Of all the different kinds of stitches here given, this, which terminates the series, is perhaps the one requiring the most patience. It was copied from a piece of very old and valuable Brabant lace, of which it formed the entire ground. Our figure of course represents it on a very magnified scale, the original being worked in the finest imaginable material, over a single foundation thread.

In the first row, after the three usual foundation threads are laid, you make the button-hole stitches to the number of eight or ten, up to the point from which the next branch issues, from the edge of the braid, that is, upwards.

Then you bring the needle down again and button-hole the second part of the bar, working from right to left.

[Illustration: FIG. 759. FORTIETH LACE STITCH.]

A picot, like the one described in fig. 701, marks the point where the bars join. More picots of the same kind may be added at discretion.

[Illustration: FIG. 760. WHEEL COMPOSED OF BUTTON-HOLE BARS. MAKING AND TAKING UP THE LOOPS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 761. WHEEL COMPOSED OF BUTTON-HOLE BARS. THE BUTTON-HOLING BEGUN.]

WHEEL COMPOSED OF BUTTON-HOLE BARS (figs. 760, 761, 762, 763).—As we have already more than once given directions for making wheels, not only in the present chapter, but also in the one on netting, there is no need to enlarge on the kind of stitches to be used here, but we will explain the course of the thread in making wheels, composed of button-hole bars in a square opening.

Fig. 760 shows how the first eight loops which form the foundation of the bars are made.

[Illustration: FIG. 762. WHEEL COMPOSED OF BUTTON-HOLE BARS. PASSING FROM ONE BAR TO THE OTHER.]

[Illustration: FIG. 763. WHEEL COMPOSED OF BUTTON-HOLE BARS. BARS AND RING FINISHED.]

In fig. 761 you will see that a thread has been passed through the loops, for the purpose of drawing them in and making a ring in addition to which, two threads added to the loop serve as padding for the button-hole stitches; the latter should always be begun on the braid side. Fig. 762 represents the bar begun in fig. 761 completed, and the passage of the thread to the next bar, and fig. 763 the ring button-holed after the completion of all the bars.

[Illustration: FIG. 764. FILLING IN A ROUND SPACE WITH NET STITCH.]

FILLING IN ROUND SPACES (figs. 764, 765, 766).—The stitches best adapted for filling in round spaces are those that can be drawn in and tightened to the required circumference, or those that admit of the number being reduced, regularly, in each round.

In tacking braids on to circular patterns, the inside edges, as we pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, have to be drawn in with overcasting stitches in very fine thread.

Fig. 764 shows how to fill in a round space with net stitches. It will be observed that the loop which begins the row, has the thread of the loop with which it terminates, wound round it, which thread then passes on to the second series of stitches. In the same manner you pass to the third row after which you pick up all the loops and fasten off the thread by working back to the braid edge over all the rows of loops, following the course indicated by the dotted line.

[Illustration: FIG. 765. FILLING IN ROUND SPACES. FIRST CIRCLE OF WHEELS BEGUN.]

[Illustration: FIG. 766. FILLING IN ROUND SPACES. THE TWO CIRCLES OF WHEELS FINISHED.]

Fig. 765 shows how to finish a row of loops with wheels worked upon three threads only. In the first row, you make a wheel over each bar; in the second, you make a bar between every two wheels; in the third, the wheels are only made over every second bar; a fourth row of bars which you pick up with a thread completes the interior of the circle, then you work along the bars with overcasting stitches, fig. 766, to carry the thread back to the edge of the braid where you fasten it off.

NEEDLE-MADE PICOTS (figs. 767, 768, 769).—The edges and outlines of Irish lace are generally bordered with picots, which as we have already said can be bought ready-made (see fig. 692). They are not however very strong and we cannot recommend them for lace that any one has taken the pains to make by hand.

[Illustration: FIG. 767. CONNECTED NEEDLE-MADE PICOTS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 768. ISOLATED NEEDLE-MADE PICOTS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 769. BUTTON-HOLE PICOTS WITH PICOTS IN BULLION STITCH.]

In fig. 767, the way to make picots all joined together is described. You begin, as in fig. 762, by a knot, over which the thread is twisted as indicated in the engraving.

It is needless to repeat that the loops should all be knotted in a line, all be of the same length and all the same distance apart.

Fig. 768 represents the kind of needle-made picots which most resemble the machine-made ones, and fig. 769 show us the use of little scallops surmounted by picots, made in bullion stitch.

One or two rows of lace stitch fig. 736, or the first rows of figs. 749, 750, can also be used in the place of picots.

IRISH LACE (fig. 770).—English braids or those braids which are indicated at the foot of the engraving must be tacked down on to the pattern and gathered on the inside edge, wherever the lines are curved, as explained in fig. 693; in cases however where only Lacet superfin D.M.C[A] is used, the needle should be slipped in underneath the outside threads, so that the thread with which you draw in the braid be hidden.

The braids are joined together where they meet with a few overcasting stitches, as shown in the illustration.

Here, we find one of the lace stitches used instead of picots; the first row of fig. 736 always makes a nice border for Irish lace.

IRISH LACE (fig. 771).—This pattern, which is more complicated and takes more time and stitches than the preceding one, can also be executed with one or other of the braids mentioned at the beginning of the chapter; but it looks best made with a close braid.

[Illustration: FIG. 770. IRISH LACE.]

[Illustration: FIG. 771. IRISH LACE. MATERIALS: Lacet surfin D.M.C No. 5, white or écru and Fil d’Alsace D.M.C Nos. 40 to 150, or Fil à dentelle D.M.C Nos. 50 to 150.]

The bars, which in the illustration are simply button-holed may also be ornamented with picots of one kind or another; the interior spaces of the figure on the left can be filled, instead of with corded bars, with one of the lace stitches we have described, either fig. 720, 721, or 732, any one of which is suitable for filling in small spaces like these.

In the figure on the right, the ring of braid may be replaced by close button-hole stitches, made over several foundation threads or over one thick thread, such as Fil à pointer D.M.C No. 10 or 20[A] to make them full and round.

You begin the ring on the inside and increase the number of stitches as the circumference increases.

[Illustration: FIG. 772. IRISH LACE. MATERIALS: English braid with open edge.—For the lattice work: Fil d’Alsace D.M.C in balls Nos. 50 to 100 or Fil à dentelle D.M.C Nos. 50 to 100, white. For the cord: Cordonnet 6 fils D.M.C No. 15, écru.[A]]

Any of the stitches, from fig. 720 to fig. 743, can be introduced here.

IRISH LACE (fig. 772).—Here we find one of the fillings above alluded to, fig. 751, used as a ground for the flowers and leaves. For the design itself some of the closer stitches described in this chapter, should be selected. When the actual lace, is finished you sew upon the braid a thin cord, made of écru Cordonnet 6 fils D.M.C, as described in the chapter on different kinds of fancy work. Cords of this kind can be had ready made, but the hand-made ones are much to be preferred, being far softer and more supple than the machine-made.

[Illustration: FIG. 773. IRISH LACE. MATERIALS—For the cord: Cordonnet 6 fils D.M.C Nos. 15 to 25. For the bars and lace stitches: Fil à dentelle D.M.C No. 200.[A]]

IRISH LACE (fig. 773).—This lace, more troublesome than the preceding ones to make, is also much more valuable and effective. The ground is composed entirely of bars, like the ones described in fig. 761, the branches, true to the character of the work are worked in the close stitch represented in fig. 755, and the flowers in double net stitch, fig. 721.

In working the above fillings, the thread must not, as in lace made with braid, be carried on from one point to the other by overcasting stitches along the braid edges, but should be drawn out horizontally through the cord and back again the same way, giving the needle in so doing a slightly slanting direction.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] See at the end of the concluding chapter, the table of numbers and sizes and the list of colours of the D.M.C threads and cottons.

[Illustration: VENETIAN LACE OF THE XVI CENTURY.]

Laces of different kinds.

In general, to the uninitiated, the word «lace» signifies exclusively the delicate and elaborate fabrics that owe their origin to Venice and the Netherlands and were thence imported into other countries. But besides Venetian, French, English, Chantilly, Brussels, Sedan point, names familiar to every one, there are all kinds of other laces, likewise of great antiquity, and named as the above are, after the country they belong to.

As it would be impossible in these pages to give a comprehensive account of them all, we have restricted ourselves to such as seem more especially suited to the amateur, to whom needlework is a mere recreation and pastime.

Worked like the above-named entirely with the needle, but much less elaborate and minute in character and workmanship, they are quicker and easier to make and we are sure that by the help of the directions that accompany the illustrations, any careful worker will be able to imitate them without difficulty.

MATERIALS.—It will be observed that we do not bind ourselves in the following directions to one size of cotton, that as in point of fact, one and the same piece of work can be executed in either fine or coarse cotton, we have only indicated the most suitable kind of material to use: as for instance for Armenian lace, Fil à pointer D.M.C[A] or Cordonnet 6 fils D.M.C[A], for Smyrna or knotted lace, Fil à pointer D.M.C, Cordonnet 6 fils D.M.C and Fil à dentelle D.M.C[A], for Reticella and Venetian lace, Fil d’Alsace D.M.C[A], for Brussels lace, the finest numbers of Fil à dentelle and for pillow lace, any one of those enumerated, excepting Coton à broder surfin.

PILLOW LACE AND THE NECESSARY ARTICLES FOR ITS MANUFACTURE.—Pillow lace derives its name from the cushion or pillow on which all bobbin lace is made, which distinguishes it from point lace, so-called because it consists of «points» or stitches made with a needle and thread.

Various articles are required for the making of pillow lace; in the first place a cushion or pillow, then bobbins and a winder, parchment patterns, pins and a pricker.

THE LACE PILLOW (figs. 774, 775, 776).—The pillows used for pillow lace are of different kinds and vary in shape with where the country, and the manner in which the lace is made.

[Illustration: FIG. 774. THE LACE PILLOW.]

Fig. 774 represents the shape in use in the mountains of Bohemia and Saxony, where pillow lace has always been one of the chief industries of the inhabitants. Any one can make a cushion of this kind themselves with a piece of stuff, 60 c/m. long and 40 wide. The long sides are firmly sewn together and the short ones turned in with a narrow hem through which you run a cord to draw them up. A disc of stout cardboard is put inside the case after you have gathered up the one end; you then stuff the case as full as possible with bran, sawdust or horsehair, lay a second disc of cardboard in at the top and draw up the other end.

These pillows are then put into cardboard boxes with rather high sides, or into a kind of basket, weighted at the bottom, to keep it firm and steady. Pillows of this most primitive kind have the great advantage of being perfectly easy to make.

[Illustration: FIG. 775. PILLOW WITH MOVABLE CYLINDER FOR MAKING LACE.]

[Illustration: FIG. 776. POSITION OF THE BOBBINS AND THE WORK ON THE CUSHION FIG. 775.]

Fig. 775 represents a pillow of a more complicated kind, which can be stood upon the table or mounted on a stand. The cylinder is movable so that you can go on working without interruption.

The whole apparatus consists of a board or stand, 50 c/m. long and 40 wide, resting upon two transverse pieces of wood, 3½ c/m. high behind and 1 c/m. in front.

The board should be covered, first with a very thick flannel or Bath coating and then with a fine dark green flannel or cloth.

Two small supports are fixed on to the outside edge of the stand to hold the cylinder, which consists of two discs that revolve on a rod about 22 c/m. long.

This rod should be covered, in the first place with a thick layer of tow and then with flannel or cloth.

On the left side of the cylinder is a cog-wheel and a metal spring is attached to the board, by means of which the wheel is prevented from turning the wrong way.

Fig. 776 shows how the bobbins are placed upon the pillow. In Normandy a kind of stuffed box is used instead of a pillow. The board is 3 c/m. higher behind than in front and is deeply grooved to hold the cylinder, which is stuffed and shaped like the one represented in fig. 775.

This cylinder scarcely projects above the stand, a second groove in the back edge receives the lace as it is worked off the cylinder.

The pillows used for Valenciennes lace are of again a different construction, but as it is not our intention in the present work to describe the finer kinds of lace it appeared superfluous to give any illustration of the pillows on which they are made.

[Illustration: FIG. 777. THE BOBBIN (Jamnig’s patent).]

THE BOBBINS (fig. 777).—A bobbin is a sort of little wooden spool with a handle to it; there are several varieties of them but we have confined ourselves to a representation of the kind considered best for beginners.

As a considerable number are wanted for every pattern and they are apt to slip about and get entangled in inexperienced hands, they are now to be had with the handles weighted with lead to steady them and counteract any independent motion of their own. We cannot help again laying great stress on the importance of seeing that the size of the bobbins and the number of the cotton be well assorted to the kind of lace.

THE WINDER (fig. 778).—Every one who means to take the work seriously should provide themselves with a winder, as here represented, which is affixed to a polished wooden stand.

This stand has to be firmly screwed to the table and the bobbin is squeezed in between the two little rods fitted into the supports at the left end of the stand; one of these rods serves as the axle to the little wheel, the other can be drawn in and out and fitted to the length of the bobbin.

[Illustration: FIG. 778. THE WINDER (Jamnig’s patent).]

When the bobbin is fixed in its place, you take the thread in the left hand and wind it round it, turning the wheel with the right hand from right to left in the direction indicated by the arrow.

The thread is wound round the handles of the bobbins that are used for making very fine lace, and a wooden shield that is so contrived that you can slip it over the handle prevents the thread from getting soiled.

[Illustration: FIG. 779. STOPPAGE OF THE THREAD AT THE END OF THE BOBBIN.]

STOPPAGE OF THE THREAD AT THE END OF THE BOBBIN (fig. 779).—After cutting off the thread, you make a loop close to the top of the bobbin to prevent it from unwinding too easily. This loop is formed by taking the bobbin in the right hand, the thread between the fourth and fifth fingers of the left hand and laying it away from you round the left thumb; then lifting up the bottom thread with the second finger of the left hand you pass the bobbin upwards from below through the loop on the left hand.