Designing is the composing, drawing, and colouring, if necessary, of the sketches for jacquard patterns, and in some cases planning the texture of the cloth; and draughting (or drafting) is the term usually applied to the painting of the patterns upon design paper.

A designer should be a first-class draughtsman, and have a thorough knowledge of the various styles of ornament; he should also be well practised in drawing floral forms from Nature, without which there is generally a stiffness and want of freedom in his style of work. For coloured work, such as carpets, &c., skilful colouring is the most essential point. No drawing will atone for bad colouring; at the same time, good colouring should not be wasted on bad drawing.

A designer may draught his own patterns, and if he is an experienced draughtsman with a good knowledge of weaving, perhaps this is the most successful method of working; but if the greater portion of his time is to be taken up with draughting, his talent as a designer will be, to a great extent, lost, and he will probably deteriorate; besides, he will not have the same opportunity for getting up a variety of designs that he would have if he had nothing else to attend to. A designer for any class of work should have a knowledge of the technicalities of the material for which he is designing a pattern; at the same time, a very slight knowledge is essentially requisite, provided the sketch be given into proper hands to be worked out. It must be remembered, however, that in this case a sketch may often have to be taken only as an idea for a pattern, and not be handed by the manufacturer to the draughtsman with directions to make a truthful reproduction of it on the cloth. A draughtsman may be a skilful designer as well, or he may be a skilful draughtsman and have very little powers of designing. When he is a designer, the most successful method of getting a variety of patterns would be for the manufacturer to purchase sketches for ideas and hand them over to his designer, who will be considered to have a thorough knowledge of the practical work, to prepare them to suit the fabrics for which they are intended, perhaps completely altering them, making two or three out of one, or combining two or more to make one pattern if necessary—in fact, using them as material to work from. They may then be handed over to the draughtsmen, or be sent to a designing establishment for draughting and cutting. In case the manufacturer has no designer in his place, but only a draughtsman, the sketches must be bought prepared to suit his fabrics, or it would be better to have the complete work done, in many cases, at a designing establishment. Of course, in draughting, as in all classes of work, a great deal of the less important portions may be done by junior hands, but a knowledge of drawing is required, if only to guide the eye, by them all, except the twillers.

Sometimes designers accustomed to selling sketches get them up in a very deceptive manner in order to deceive manufacturers or their agents, who may have very little knowledge of the work; but this can easily be checked by submitting them to a practical designer before purchasing them.

A design that may be very suitable for one class of cloth may be equally unsuitable for another class, and in many cases fashion regulates the suitability quite independently of its artistic merits. For coloured work, designs should be of such forms as lend themselves to the disposing of colours, no style being more suitable than Persian; whereas in plain work, as damask, the flow of line or the variation of the forms, assisted by portions of fancy shading or twilling, must give the complete effect. Again, different degrees of fineness of cloth will suit for different designs; of course, any pattern that can be put on a coarse cloth can also be put on a fine one, but many patterns are very suitable for fine work that could not be put on a very coarse fabric. When it comes to fine coloured silks, anything that the artist can paint can be fairly represented, as may be seen in the work from the Coventry silk marker looms, so that any design can be put upon cloth; but the question is, Is the cloth suitable for the design?

Fig. 68 shows a piece of 8 × 9 design or point paper; 8 × 9 meaning that each of the large squares, or designs, contains 72 small checks or squares, 8 in breadth and 9 in length, but the 9 should occupy the same space as the 8. Ten by ten appears to have been the standard design, as patterns are still counted by the 100 designs, each containing 100 checks, or 100 checks in length and the same in breadth: and in some places machines are known as so-many-design machines; thus, a 400 jacquard is called a 40-design machine.

When each design contains as many checks in length as it does in breadth, the paper is intended for work that is to have equal quantities of warp and weft threads in it; thus 8 × 8, 10 × 10, 12 × 12 paper would all suit for cloth with, say, 80 threads of warp and 80 picks of weft per inch, the difference being that 8 × 8 is intended for a jacquard with 8 needles in the row, and 10 × 10 and 12 × 12 for 10 and 12 row machines respectively. It is not necessary to have different papers to suit, as one could be used for all, and after the pattern is painted it could be ruled in rows to suit the machine, but it is much more convenient to get the correct size of paper.

If 80 threads of warp required to have 100 picks per inch, then to find the size of the paper state as 80: 100:: the number of needles in one row of the machine to the number of cards in each design, giving 8 × 10, 10 × 12-1/2, or 12 × 15; but 10 × 12, or 12 × 14 would have to be used for the last two, as a half could not be made, and 12 × 15 is an unusual size. Either would do by drawing out the design a little when enlarging it for the point paper. Square paper might also be used by counting off the number of checks required, and drawing an elongated pattern to cover them; but it is more desirable to have suitable paper for work that is at all particular, and in case of such as 12 × 15 paper, 8 × 10 is the same proportion, and could be used for it, the squares afterwards being ruled in 12’s for the card-cutter.

Each upright space on the design paper, between the lines, represents a thread of warp or one hook of the jacquard, and each space between the horizontal lines represents a pick, or shot, of weft, or one card of the pattern; so that a painted pattern is a magnified view of the texture of the cloth, in common jacquard work.

Fig. 69 is a small sketch for a border with spot filling, which is shown on design or point paper in Fig. 70. The paper is 8 × 8; the first four checks are used for a selvage, and the pattern is on 12-1/2 designs or 100 threads of warp, and 22 designs or 176 cards would be required for the weft, the pattern being made about three times the size on the design paper that it is on the sketch. The design paper has 16 checks per inch, consequently the cloth would have about 48 threads to the inch to make the pattern appear as the sketch. If the cloth were finer, say with 72 threads per inch, then 150 checks on the design paper would be required for the pattern, which means that 150 hooks of the jacquard would be required for working it. Whatever width the sketch occupies (one repeat of the pattern), multiply this by the number of threads of warp per inch to be in the cloth required, and the product will be the number of hooks required for the jacquard, and the number of checks or spaces required on the design for the warp. The number of cards is found similarly from the weft of the cloth. If, on the other hand, a pattern is to be made for a jacquard, and it is required to find what size of pattern will work on it, divide the number of hooks in the jacquard by the number of threads per inch in the cloth required, and the quotient will be the size of the pattern warp-ways, in inches. The length or weft-way of the pattern can then be arranged to suit the number of cards, or the pattern can be made any length to suit the style of design. Fig. 71 is a pattern of the same style as Fig. 69, and it might be wanted to use it instead of Fig. 69 for cloth of the same make, say 40 to 45 threads per inch. This could not be done, as it could not be put on the design paper, but it would suit very well if intended for cloth with 80 to 100 threads per inch, which would admit of its being sufficiently enlarged (say four times the size of the sketch) to be correctly represented by the checks. Fig. 69 would be better on cloth having 50 to 60 threads per inch, coarser sets requiring larger forms.

In preparing a design for point paper, the sketch is usually first made out and selected by competent judges as suitable for the fabric required, as well as for the taste of the market in which the goods are to be sold. When selected it has to be enlarged to suit the size it is to cover on the point paper. Sometimes the enlargement is made on another piece of paper, and is then transferred to the point paper; this is perhaps one of the best methods of proceeding, but it is not so quick as if the enlargement were made upon the point paper direct. It is usual to rule squares on both the sketch and design paper, which bear to each other the same proportion that the size of the sketch does to the size of the design paper required to be covered. This guides the draughtsman, as everything in the small squares on the sketch should be put into the corresponding large squares on the enlarging paper or point paper.

A pantagraph is sometimes useful, and proportional compasses are a great assistance if very correct enlargements are required. When a careful outline of the pattern is made upon the design paper, it is then painted. Some painters dot round the outlines, and in large forms leave them to be filled in by assistants; others paint in solid as they go along. Vermilion and scarlet and crimson lakes are the paints mostly used. The first is easily washed out, but the lakes are more transparent, and admit of the checks on the paper being clearly seen through it, which is a benefit to both twiller and card-cutter. Scarlet lake, with from a half to a quarter its quantity of crimson lake mixed with it, makes a very good paint. The ordinary water-colour cakes are the best paints to use, but powdered colour is sometimes preferred on account of its cheapness. In Fig. 70 the painting is all black, with white twilling on the flowering.

Simple flat ornamental forms, if of sufficient size, are not difficult to put on the design paper, but more intricate forms and shaded effects require a considerable amount of skill, and are tedious, unless to an experienced hand, the difficulty being to get the checks on the design paper to express the figures in the best possible manner, and frequently it is necessary to slightly alter the forms to make them come nicely on the paper.

When the sketch has to be enlarged to, say, three or four times its size, a slight inaccuracy in the painting will have but little effect, as it will be reduced on the cloth. At the same time, advantage should not be taken of this to employ inferior hands at the work, as, the more correct the painting, the more correct will be the pattern on the cloth, although it be reduced in size; and a ragged-edged painting will never have a clear, defined appearance on the cloth. It is in coarse coloured work, such as carpets, that the accuracy of the painting is of the utmost importance, as the pattern on the cloth is as large as, or may be much larger than, it is on the design paper; therefore all inaccuracies are magnified, and no forms that do not come satisfactory on the squares of the paper will have a good appearance on the cloth, so that to a great extent the design must be made to suit the paper. When the pattern is all painted on the design paper, both the ground and pattern for ordinary full-harness work have to be dotted over with the texture of the cloth. This is called twilling. In Fig. 70 the texture is a 5-end satin on both ground and flower. For twilling the ground the same colour is used as the flower or figured portion is painted with, and for the figured portion black is mostly used, sometimes white. The twilling dots on the figure mean blanks, as if these checks were left without any colour on them, or as the ground, and they are passed over by the card-cutter when the cards are being cut.

In twilling care must be taken not to run the dots up against the edges of the flowering so as to injure the form of the figures. In some cases, as at any flat portion, such as a horizontal or vertical line, or any portion of one, this cannot be avoided, but the red dots on the ground should here fall in against the black dots on the figure. It is necessary to begin one set of dots against the other set to carry this out as far as possible, and in some cases, when they will not join, the dots are set out of their places to make them come together. The two dots coming together bind the threads and keep the last thread of the ground on one side, and of the figure on the opposite side—according as it is the weft or warp that is forming the line—from hanging loose or sliding out from the others. The direction of the twill on the ground or flower may vary so as to suit the twill used, and whether a satin or sateen effect is required. Various kinds of twills are frequently used to give effect, but too great an irregularity of texture should be avoided, though a plain ground, with an 8-or 10-end satin for the flowering, may be used for handkerchiefs with a good effect; for heavier work a 5-end satin ground and an 8-end satin figuring may be used, but for firm, strong cloth an 8-end satin for both ground and figure is much better, letting either warp or weft predominate largely in the cloth.

Fig. 72 shows how a leaf or any piece of ornament may be shaded; care should always be taken not to let the texture be too close at any part in the shaded portion so as to make hard pieces in the cloth, as would be the case if a plain texture were used in a firm cloth.

Fig. 73 shows how a flower and bud should be painted so as to give a natural, or rather semi-natural, representation. The shading should be made to express the form as well as possible; a variety may also be made in the twilling on the flower, as may be seen on the front petal, where a straight twill is used; this makes the cloth richer and the petal come out fuller. This pattern is rather small on the design paper to come well on the cloth; it would be better twice as large, as it may be seen that in many cases single lines of the design paper have to be used for divisions, and for full-harness work it is generally better to have at least two lines, representing two threads.

This painting, omitting the twilling, would suit for a pressure harness, with each line of the design paper representing two or three threads of both warp and weft. No twilling is required on a pressure-harness pattern, as the texture is wrought by the front mounting; otherwise the pattern is the same, bearing in mind that as each check represents two or three threads, it will not be reduced on the cloth as a full-harness pattern would. The twilling of this pattern is the 8-leaf satin, which is generally used for fine damask, giving a much richer effect than the 5-leaf satin.

It will perhaps be well to make some reference as to the desirability of using these natural forms for designs, though it would be useless to enter into the oft-disputed point of whether it is correct or in good taste to attempt to imitate natural forms upon cloth, or whether even shaded or rounded forms should be treated upon a flat surface. To the latter I would answer without hesitation, by all means do so, but make the appearance satisfactory and keep them in good taste; and this can be done if the subject treated is duly considered.

The former, it must be admitted, is rather pandering to the popular taste than following the dictates of decorative art. One thing is certain, that the ‘million’ are better satisfied with floral forms than any other class of ornament, and the more loosely treated these are, or the further they are from ornament, the more pleasing they are to those uninitiated in the beauty of line, wanting which no ornamental forms can be pleasing to those educated in art. However, these natural forms suggest Nature, and their admirers have so little idea of Nature’s beauties that they do not see the defects in the attempted representations. At the same time, it must not be understood that a pleasing design, or one in good taste, cannot be composed of natural forms—quite the contrary; for small, simple patterns, principally for light fabrics, they are perhaps more suitable than any other ornament, giving lightness and gracefulness of appearance, as may frequently be seen from the designs on the better class of dress goods, whether woven or printed; but the natural treatment must be kept subservient to the flow of the design. Generally, a moderately flat treatment without any strong attempts at light and shade is most successful, the treatment consisting of a graceful arrangement of forms drawn from nature. Everyone knows the beauty and grace of the Japanese designs; but this is not simply because they are natural forms: it is the arrangement of the forms that gives the effect. Very effective patterns can be made for dadoes of coloured curtains from natural objects, as here they can have the upright forms suited to them; but for coloured work, generally speaking, and for carpets in particular, natural forms, unless treated flatly and conventionally, are rarely either pleasing or in good taste. With them it is difficult to obtain that intermingling of colours, be they bright or dull, that produces a neutral bloom and a satisfactory result. Another important point in a pattern, and often overlooked, or not understood, is that, unless the pattern, as a whole, is satisfactory, no variety or beauty of detail can make it a good design. The general character or lines of the pattern must first be made satisfactory, after which the detail may be made as interesting as possible, provided it does not injure the general effect, and is not incongruous to the nature of the design. As to whether flat surfaces should be treated with shaded ornament or not is a point that will always be in dispute, but it may be asked why should a designer be hampered with such restrictions? If he can produce a satisfactory pattern by using either flat or shaded ornament, or both, why not let him do so? The criterion should be whether the result is satisfactory or not. Of course such barbarous work as representing leopards or tigers prowling over carpets or hearthrugs, or even decorating them with the more homely duck or drake nestling, or waddling through water, cannot be too strongly condemned, highly though they were once appreciated, and though they still find favour with many: even shading forms or objects in such a manner as will produce a feeling of weakness, insecurity, or danger, can never be upheld—that is, such a practice as shading ribbons flowing over carpets or hearthrugs like snares, and buttoned down at certain points; or making the surface of the carpet appear very irregular, which has often been done, and is often seen in coloured tile pavements. Of course these remarks refer more or less to any fabric, but a little relief in a curtain would not be nearly so objectionable as on a carpet, so that almost everything turns upon whether the result produced is satisfactory or not—of course, to those competent to judge, and who are not overcome by biassed prejudices. Natural or semi-natural floral ornament will rarely be injured by a little shading, whether on a white or coloured fabric, but it should not be overdone—a moderate amount of shading or a half-flat treatment generally giving a more pleasing effect. Conventional floral ornament is, perhaps, best treated flatly, or with a very little shading on some portions that require a little relief. A richer and purer effect in colour can be got with flat than with shaded colours.

Fig. 74 is an example of a small floral pattern of a class much used for dress goods, either woven or printed, and gives a very pleasing effect. One repeat of the pattern is bounded by the lines a b c d, or the whole might be taken as one repeat, and instead of having a row of pears on a line, have a pear and some other fruit alternately, and the same with the apples. This pattern is a semi-natural floral treatment, and if on a larger scale a little more shading on the fruit and a few turned-over leaves or half-open flowers would not injure it, but would add to its richness.

Fig. 75 is a sort of floral ornamental, or flatly and symmetrically treated floral pattern, somewhat after the Persian style, and though some would consider it stiff in comparison with the previous one, it has a very pleasing effect, and could be used the size indicated for dress goods, &c., or if enlarged to two or three times the size it would make a very good curtain pattern. Small sprigs of flowers, grasses, grain, &c., scattered about over the surface of the cloth make generally a favourite style of pattern.

So far the patterns given are such as would require the designer to have a good knowledge of drawing and of ornamental and floral forms, and many consider that a designer must be a draughtsman; but such is not the case.

Large quantities of patterns are made that do not necessarily require the designer to have any knowledge of drawing; this is called ‘small pattern’ or ‘texture’ designing.

A designer of this class should have a thorough knowledge of weaving and of the effect which the patterns on design paper will produce on the cloth. He must, of course, have a taste for the arrangement of forms, and can produce considerable variety by a judicious arrangement of fancy threads through the cloth, particularly in worsted or woollen goods. The following examples will show how great a variety of patterns can be produced without any knowledge of drawing. But a knowledge of drawing will be a great assistance, as it trains the eye to correctness of form. Fig. 76 is a pattern for dress goods; it may be made of cotton only, or with a cotton warp and worsted weft, and a good effect is produced by having the warp a different colour from the weft, say a gold cotton warp and a brown or giraffe worsted weft. Warp 60 to 80 threads per inch, and weft about the same. This is a pattern of the bird-eye class, and a very large range can be made in this style, both bold and effective, or fine and neat, as may be desired. The smaller patterns may, of course, be woven with shafts, but larger ones require a jacquard.

Fig. 77 is another pattern, of the flushed stripe class, also suited for dress goods; this is a silk handkerchief pattern for 90 threads and 96 picks per inch; 60/2 China silk for warp, and 60’s single China silk for weft. If the small dots on the pattern are cut on the cards, a finer and closer pattern will be produced than if the black squares only are cut, but of course it would be less effective unless on a coarser fabric.

Fig. 78 is a pattern that would suit for dress goods if woven similarly to Fig. 76; and if woven much coarser, say 25 to 30 threads per inch, it is suited for quiltings. Great variety can be made in this style of quilts, particularly when floral and other forms are interspersed through the texture, and also when the honeycomb texture is employed, an example of which is given in Fig. 79 in combination with diaper or bird-eye figures; only a portion of this pattern is given, but it shows all that is required. In either pure white, or with a warp of one colour and a weft of another colour, these patterns are very effective when made from good twist yarn and coarsely set in the reed; the flushing might be over twice as many threads as is shown in the patterns, and then more threads of warp and weft be used. It is perhaps to the woollen and worsted trades we must turn to find the greatest variety of patterns of the description we are now dealing with. True, the greater portion of them can be wrought on shafts, and perhaps a greater number of shafts are used in these trades than in any other branch of textile work, as shafts produce a firmer cloth than a harness; but when large fancy patterns are required, recourse must be had to the jacquard. Fig. 80 is an example of a fancy twill stripe which could be wrought on 48 shafts if desired, but might also be wrought on a small jacquard with greater simplicity, unless very heavy cloth is required. Patterns of this description require considerable skill in designing, and are in some cases more difficult as they increase in size. It may be seen that the pattern or figure is composed of different textures, and to make a perfect cloth the various textures should all work together at an even tightness, or so that there will be an equal amount of take-up of shrinkage of the warp for each. When checks or large patterns are to be formed this is most essential, but in smaller patterns it can in a great measure be remedied by letting the various textures follow each other, so that if one tightens a little another will make a corresponding slackness, and all together will balance each other. Another important point is to join the edges of the various textures together so that there will be no break, or floats of warp and weft greater or less than in the textures themselves. In some cases tight and loose textures are wrought together to give a special effect, and figures may be formed by the close texture pressing the looser threads together.

Another class of pattern by which a very good effect can be obtained by very simple means, is the hair line or tricot style. Fig. 81 is a dice pattern on this principle. The texture is plain cloth throughout, and the effect of pattern is obtained by using two colours of warp and weft, say black and white, and by arranging the draught and treading so that the black weft will pass over the black warp and the white weft over the white warp on one dice, and the reverse of this for the next one, a horizontal and vertical lined effect will be produced, giving a subdued pattern. The dark checks on the design paper are the tricot or horizontal line effect; the grey checks the vertical lines or hair line effect. It will be seen at the edge of each dice how the colours are changed in both warp and weft by the two dots coming together. The crosses along the bottom and to the left side of the design show the dark threads and dark picks coming alternately with the white ones.

Fig. 82 is a small figure pattern arranged in this manner, the reversing of the colours being done by the jacquard, as may be seen from the dots on the design. Almost any figure may be treated in this manner, but simple patterns, not too irregular or broken in outline, will perhaps be found most successful.

These fabrics may be made in either woollen, worsted, or cotton for dress goods. About 36 threads of warp per inch of 2/30’s worsted, and 32 threads of weft per inch, is a good setting for them; and in any mild contrasts of yarns, such as two shades of grey, they are very pleasing.

Coming now a step further towards the damask or figure patterns, we have still great scope for variety, without much, if any, knowledge of drawing being required from the designer. This consists of spotting small geometrical figures over the cloth, the body or ground of which may be plain, twill, or any texture desired. Fig. 83 is a pattern of this description with a plain ground. The figures are arranged in satinette or 4-end satin order. Of course, the ground might be a twill if desired, and the figures may be of any form that ingenuity can suggest. They may be solid, and a twilled texture used to bind them if the flushes of warp or weft are too great, and part of the figure might be warp flush and part weft flush; in fact any variety that the designer can arrange to produce a good effect on the cloth, which, if the warp and weft are of different colours, may be made very effective. Any arrangement for the figures may be used if suited to the size of the figure and the space they have to occupy to suit the repeat of the pattern. The 4-end satin gives two figures on one diagonal, and two on the other diagonal alternately; one figure on each diagonal may be used, and also three figures on each with equally good effect, subject, of course, to some extent to the size and form of the figures. Five and eight-thread satin arrangements are two of the best that can be used if a greater number of figures are required in each repeat of the pattern. To arrange a pattern in satin order, the usual way is to rule the repeat into as many squares in length and breadth as there are threads in the satin to be used. Thus, for a 5-thread satin, rule the repeat into five squares in length and the same in breadth, or twenty-five squares in all, then place one of the figures into each of five of these squares, the order being that of the 5-end satin twill. A draughtsman would either sketch these figures on the design paper, or sketch one of them on a piece of plain paper, trace it, and transfer it to the different positions it would occupy on the design paper, and then paint each of them independently. But a designer, without a knowledge of drawing, would mark out the spaces on the design paper for each figure, and, having made one of the figures the required shape on the checks or small squares, would copy the others from this. In Fig. 83 let 2a be the first figure formed, it being started in the second square upwards and first row. Now, the second figure can be similarly begun in 4-thread satin order, which would bring it to square No. 2, and it is begun in the same position in this square that the first one was begun in square No. 2a. The third figure falls to the third square from 3a and 3, but as this figure is turned round for variety, the point for beginning it at figures 1 and 2 must be marked, and an imaginary square run round it, and it must be kept in its position in the square, or the centre of the figure may be found by counting the checks in either of the first or second figures and this figure wrought from the centre; or, again, as the figure is six checks greater in length than in breadth, it must be set three checks to one side, and the top point should rise three checks higher up above the large square of the design paper on which it should be started; but with a plain ground it is sometimes necessary to move the figures one check out of position to allow the plain to fall in regularly all round them. This figure is set one check down. Fig. 4 is copied from Fig. 3, and is in the same position. With a twilled ground or irregular figures, it will not matter if the ground does not fall in quite regularly round them.

If it was required to make a pattern similar to Fig. 83, but with five figures instead of four, and preserve the same density of ground structure round them, it could be calculated as follows:—Fig. 83 is on 44 checks broad and 44 long. Now 44 × 44 = 1936, and on this there are four figures, then 1936 ÷ 4 = 484. As five figures are required 484 × 5 = 2420 checks for design. If there are to be as many checks across the design as up it, find the square root of 2420 for the number of checks, as [sqrt]2420 = 50 nearly. If the pattern is not to be square, the proportion may be found for each side by making two calculations, one for the greater number of checks squared, and the other for the lesser number of checks squared, and extracting the square roots for the two sides of the required pattern; or, suppose the warp to be to the weft in the proportion of 10 to 12, then state, as 12 is to 10, so is 50 to 42, the number of checks across the bottom of the pattern; and as 10: 12:: 50 to 60, the number of checks in the length of the pattern, and 42 x 60 = 2520, which is nearly the same as 50 squared = 2500 for a square pattern. But if this is for adding extra weft to the cloth, the size of the pattern would be reduced, which might bring the figures too close together and would alter the shape of them; in this case the addition should be made to the number of checks in length, making the pattern 50 broad and 60 long, or to contain 3000 checks, and the length of the figures should be increased in proportion. Of course this will produce a finer cloth. Fig. 84 is a pattern arranged with five figures on it.

A great variety of patterns may also be formed by arranging dice or squares in various ways, some of which, as may be seen on the Indian fabrics, make very pretty patterns. It will thus be seen that there is plenty of scope for the ingenuity of a textile designer without his being of necessity a draughtsman; but a knowledge of drawing will generally be of assistance to him. For the more elaborate patterns, the designer does not require to have the same knowledge of manufacturing that is required for these small patterns.

Twilling.—It has already been shown how the patterns are bound or twilled to form the texture of the cloth for ordinary repeating patterns on a straight over-tie; but when a turn-over or gathered tie is used, the twilling of one half of the gathered portion will, on the cloth, be the reverse, or run in the reverse direction to that of the other portion, and this is often a disadvantage to this description of tie, as one half of the border or pattern, whatever it may be, will look coarser than the other. It frequently happens that to avoid the stiffness of a clean turn-over pattern, which must always have a clear cutting line through the centre of it, so that, if cut up, one half would, if turned over, be exactly the same as the other, a portion of single, or a turning portion, is placed in between the two turned-over portions, which in many cases adds very considerably to the effect of the pattern, though it is often almost useless. Fig. 85 is a pattern of the turn-over type, and, but for the interlacing of the bands in the centre, might be wrought with a simple gathered tie. For this pattern the portion marked B would require to be single, and A turned over to C. Perhaps it is in floral patterns that this form of tie is of most service. When a single tie takes up too much machinery, and a double over or gathered tie would make the pattern too stiff, a small portion of single introduced, as at B, is of great service to the designer in making a pleasing pattern.

When twilling a pattern of this description, the portion marked A would be twilled straight across, and this twilling would be continued to the centre of B, as shown in Fig. 86, which gives the idea, the spots in the centre being taken as the single portion. The portion marked C is repeated from the first part A by the harness, and does not require to be put on the painting; in the figure it is shown (in different type) as it would fall on the cloth. It may be seen that the twilling dots on the last line of A and the first line of C are alike, and that every pair of lines corresponds, moving from these to the edges of the pattern. Now a turn must be made in the twill in the single portion so as to make it join correctly with C, and this should be done in such a manner as to prevent it from showing plainly on the cloth, or having too long floats on some of the threads while others are too closely bound. This must be done by setting the dots out of their places on a few lines in the centre, so as to make the join produce as even a texture as possible. Advantage should always be taken of any portions of the pattern that come on this part, such as the spots in Fig. 86, to turn the twill round the edges of them. By following the dots on the design paper, it will be seen how they are brought in at the join. Any twill may be broken similarly, but a different number of threads in the single will alter the arranging of the dots to join the two twills together; however, when the principle is understood, it can easily be worked out.