The best method of getting the pattern on to the material is to draw it on directly with a brush; since this, however, is not always possible, other ways of doing it can be employed.

The pattern can be transferred to the background by a process called pouncing. To do this fix some tracing-paper over the design and carefully take the outline; a good margin of plain paper should be left round the outside in order to prevent any of the pounce getting accidentally rubbed on to the embroidery. The next process is the perforation of the pattern. Lay the tracing upon some substance of the nature of thick felt, then with a pricker or a needle, held in an upright position, pierce tiny holes all round the outline of the pattern, very close together. This completed, attach the perforated tracing securely to the material, the smooth side of the perforations towards the stuff. Both material and tracing paper may be fixed to a board with drawing pins. Next, rub the pounce, which consists of finely powdered charcoal or of white chalk, lightly over the perforated parts with a soft pad, keeping the rubbing always in the same direction; once or twice at the most over the surface is quite sufficient, often too much is rubbed through, which afterwards is only in the way. The pad, first dipped into the pounce, is rubbed preparatorily upon some paper to remove the superfluous powder, and then upon the actual work. Carefully remove the tracing-paper; there should now be visible upon the surface of the material, in charcoal dust, a perfectly clear reproduction of the pattern. Should, however, the impression be blurred, it is quite easy to flick everything away with a duster and repeat the process. The causes of failure would most probably be that the perforations were too large or too far apart, or that there was some movement of either paper or material during the process. It is necessary for the pattern to be permanently fixed upon the ground material; blow lightly to remove any superfluous powder, then, with a brush dipped in light red oil-paint moistened with turpentine, trace a fine clear line over the powdered pattern. When this is dry, what is left of the charcoal can be lightly dusted away. Red is in most cases a good colour to use for tracing purposes, for if by chance any tracing should show or come off on the thread it will be a clean-looking colour, and one comparatively easily removed in any after cleaning.

Red or blue carbonised paper is used for tracing patterns; it is not a good medium though it may be an expeditious one. If it is used, an after painting over the outline will make the marking permanent.

When pouncing or painting is difficult, a method of indicating the pattern upon the stuff is to trace the design on tissue paper, and tack it to the ground material with cotton, the stitching of which should follow the outline of the design, and be kept as much as possible upon the front. The thin paper is then torn away, and there will be some suggestion of pattern left upon the material.

Transparent ground stuffs need only be laid upon the pattern; then the tracing can be taken directly on the stuff.

Paste is sometimes in request for embroidery purposes; the following is a good recipe—Pour rather less than half a pint of cold water into a saucepan, add to this a piece of carpenter's glue about the size of a small filbert and place it on the fire to heat. Put three teaspoonfuls of flour into a basin, and with cold water mix to a smooth paste; when the water in the saucepan boils add it to the paste, stirring well all the time; then place the mixture in the saucepan and boil for about two minutes. When cold it is ready for use. It may be required as a preservative; for instance, canvas work when finished can have a thin coating of paste rubbed over the back in order to preserve the stitches from giving or running; when the work is to be used for such things as furniture coverings this may be a good thing to do. Applied work is sometimes pasted on to its new ground, and a backing may be fixed to the surface material by paste. The more all this can be avoided the better, for its tendency is to give a stiff mechanical look to work; professional people, however, are rather fond of the paste pot. Paste, if used, must be of the right kind, or it will do more harm than good. It should be very fresh, and have no acid in its ingredients, of which gum arabic must not be one if any after stitching has to take place through the stuff, for gum makes it hard and less penetrable. The paste must be applied and allowed to dry thoroughly before the work is removed from the frame. A finger makes a good brush for the purpose. The paste should be put on as thinly and evenly as possible, care being taken not to rub on the cross of the material, since this might stretch it unevenly.

Shoemakers' paste is easily procured, and can be used for embroidery purposes. This is made from rye flour, and is very strong. It is harmless if perfectly fresh.

A good many things go to the keeping of work fresh and orderly, which is a very important matter. The work must be kept carefully covered up when not in use; finished parts can sometimes be covered whilst the work is going on, for the covering is easily raised when comparison with the part in progress is necessary. The work should have some protection if the hand rests on it; the worker should wear a white apron with sleeves. The worker's hand should be cool, dry, and smooth; hot hands should frequently be washed. The use of pumice stone cures slight roughness, but fine work cannot be attempted if the fingers are for any reason constantly rough. Wools and silks need a case to keep them orderly and clean. The best way to preserve valuable embroidery is to frame it, which, of course, is not always practicable, but it is a sure safeguard against moth and dust.

For washing embroidery special soap should be procured. It is not well to use any ordinary soap, for this may contain alkali, which would injure the colours in the work. Dissolve the soap in boiling water, and add cold to make it just warm and of the required strength. Immerse the embroidery in the lather thus made, and work it about gently, avoiding any friction. When clean, rinse first in warm water, afterwards in cold, to which a little salt may be added. The water must be squeezed out carefully and the material quickly dried. If ironing is necessary it must be done on the wrong side, but if the work can be pinned out on a board to dry, and in this way stretched and smoothed without any ironing, so much the better, for the embroidery will not be flattened at all. Another way of ironing embroidery that is not harmful is to do it from underneath while some one holds out the material.

It is easy to prevent the puckering of work when it is carried out in the frame; there is, however, no necessity for it to occur in hand work. Certain stitches are more inclined to draw up the material than others, and extra care has to be taken in working upon the cross of the fabric. The work should be held in convex fashion over the fingers of the left hand. Weights are occasionally attached to the corners of the work to prevent any unconscious drawing of it up.

There are remedies for the cure of slightly puckered work. Place on a drawing-board some clean blotting-paper, damp it evenly over with a wet handkerchief, and then lay the work, right side up, upon it. Fix the work down to the board with drawing-pins, inserted at regular short intervals round the edge, endeavouring during the process to stretch the material to its original shape. This needs doing carefully, for it is quite possible to stretch it to a wrong shape, and it will remain as now pinned out. Next, lay some white paper or a handkerchief upon the surface of the work, and then place upon it a flat weight that presses equally on every part of the embroidery. Leave it undisturbed for a night, and the puckering will probably be cured. Work, if not puckered, may be improved by going through this process, which practically amounts to a mild ironing, but without any injurious effects.

There are various points about the thread that should be known. To commence a new thread run a few stitches in the material upon the right side upon a part that will afterwards be covered by the working. This is a better way than a fastening on the wrong side, for it is both neater and more secure. A knot made at the beginning is fairly safe, but it is undesirable for several reasons. The needleful should not be lengthy lest it gets worn before it is all worked in. With some threads it is important to thread only the proper end into the eye of the needle, since one way they will work in roughly and the other way smoothly. An end of a coarse thread can be taken through to the back of the material by the help of a fine one; the fine thread is brought through from the back by the needle, it then encircles the coarse one, and returns to the back by the same hole, pulling the coarse thread with it, as in process in fig. 167. Taking it through by the aid of a thick needle would make too large a hole. Thread can be knotted into the eye of the needle if for any reason it is required to be quite safe from accidental unthreading. The neatest way of doing this is to pass the needle through the centre of the thread and draw it tight; this is a useful trick for any unskilled worker with needles and thread, for re-threading also may be a difficulty. When work has to be unpicked it is better to cut the threads rather than do any drawing out, for they are in any case unfit for further use, and this method wears the material less; a beginner must not shirk unpicking if first-rate results are to be obtained.

FRAME WORK

Certain stitches and methods of work cannot be carried out except with the help of a frame, others are hand stitches, and some few can be worked either way. Work done in a frame takes longer than that done by hand, and is rather more fatiguing. Each method has its advantages; in the frame it is perhaps easier to get good technique, for difficulties such as puckering the material, irregular stitching, and so on, are more easily avoided, also it is more possible to see the effect of the whole whilst the part progresses. In frame work a thimble is required for each hand, for one pushes the needle through from above and one from below. It is a rest to be able to reverse the hands, so both should be equally dexterous in either position.

To dress the frame correctly is an important preliminary, for unless done well the effect of much after labour may be spoiled. In the chapter upon tools and appliances in fig. 9 is shown a piece of linen stretched in the frame ready for commencing work.

The square of material that is seen to be inserted in the centre of the stretched linen is to show how a very small piece or a portion of a large surface could be stretched in the same sized frame. A corner may require marking or a small detail of embroidery carrying out upon it. A portion is cut out of the centre of the stretched linen, and the piece or part of the material to be worked stitched securely to it, as illustrated in the diagram. The remainder of the material, if there is any, can be folded up and pinned out of the way over the rollers.

To return to the dressing of the frame—the linen to be stretched, before being fixed in place, must be hemmed or herring-boned down at the top and base and then sewn with overcast stitches to the webbings, inclining during the process to pucker the webbing rather than the material. The side pieces can now be put through the holes at the ends of the rollers and the metal pins inserted, or nuts adjusted, as the case may be, in order to stretch the material to the right tension. The raw edges at the sides must now be turned in or bound with tape, and a string securely attached at intervals along the edge; this is for lacing the string through that now braces the material to the sides of the frame (see fig. 1). The screw-sided frame has an advantage over the side pieces shown in fig. 9, in that in the former an extra turn can, at this point, be given to the nuts to still further stretch the material; on the other hand, some workers prefer the flat side pieces, thinking that they make the frame more rigid.

If the material, when fixed to the two webbings, is too long for the frame, it must be wound round one of the rollers until of the correct size. This must be done carefully, for a delicate fabric might get damaged in the process; the roller can be padded with soft paper, and an interlining of tissue paper can be inserted and wound up with the material. It may not always be desirable to do this winding round the rollers; in that case fine glazed holland can be stretched in the frame, and the part to be first embroidered fixed to it. When the first part of the work is completed, the holland is cut out of the frame and fresh pieces substituted as the work goes on. If it is not wished that the stitches should be taken through both surfaces, as would here be the case, it would be possible to cut the linen partly away underneath, and use it only as a kind of inner frame for stretching the material on, in a way somewhat like that already described (see fig. 9).

A backing to the material, however, is often a necessity—perhaps heavy work may be put on it or the stuff itself is fragile; in such cases there must be a backing of some kind. This usually consists of fine holland or linen, which is first stretched in the frame and then has the surface material securely stitched to it with overcast stitches, care being taken that both materials are equally strained.

To frame velvet, sew it to the webbing by the selvedges or that way of the material, since the pile with that arrangement is more manageable when the embroidery is in progress.