The One-Eyed Fairies :: CHAPTER IX MARGARET'S NEW MIDDY BLOUSE

CHAPTER IX MARGARET'S NEW MIDDY BLOUSE

“Yes, he was pleased,” said Margaret to Sir Bodkin and the One-Eyed Fairies who asked her how Jim liked his marble-bag.

“Well, I say it’s very pleasant when people like what you make for them,” said the King wisely.

“To-day I want to do something for Mother. Of course it’s on something for me but she had such a lot of baking to do to-day she couldn’t finish the new middy blouse that I need to wear to-morrow. We wear them in ‘gym,’ you know, and out in the country in the summer,” said Margaret.

“In Jim?” asked Sir Bodkin somewhat mystified.

“Gymnasium,” explained Margaret, suddenly remembering that her little friends, though sharp, might not be so keen on knowing about things belonging to the great outside world.

She went through some simple exercises

“What’s that?” the Fairies all asked breathlessly.

“Oh,” laughed Margaret, “it’s a big room with bars and ladders and horses and rings in it. All kinds of things to do stunts on.”

She could see her little friends were still not understanding very well what she was talking about.

“I’ll show you some of the things we do and you will see why I wear easy clothes like bloomers and middy blouses,” she said and went through some simple exercises of bending, twisting, and stepping.

“Oh! how funny!” cried the Fairies.

“Hush!” commanded the King frowning at them. “Very interesting, My Lady,” he said turning politely to Margaret, “and what is there about the blouse to be finished?”

“It’s all done but the eyelets for the lacings,” she said.

“Oh! they’re easy and fun,” he told her. “You’ll need a stiletto to punch the holes. Then you overcast the edges of the hole so the lacings can go in and out easily.”

“Where shall I get a stiletto and what is it?” Margaret asked Sir Bodkin. She thought he was a very funny little man to be always asking for the queerest things.

“Your Mother must have one in her work-basket or her sewing-table or her embroidery-bag, I’m thinking,” he replied.

“I’ll look. I don’t want to disturb her ’cause she’s so busy. But she doesn’t mind when I look through her things if I leave them just as I find them,” she told him. “What does the stiletto look like?”

“It’s made either of bone or of ivory or of steel and is about four inches long. It’s very sharp at one end to pierce the material and the other end is usually fancy,” he explained.

Margaret thought she could find it and went out of the room to search for one among her Mother’s things. While she was gone Sir Bodkin and the One-Eyed Fairies tried to bend and twist and turn as they had just seen their little mistress doing a short time before. They looked very funny as they tried to do these exercises. They were so stiff.

“Is this it?” Margaret asked running back into the room and holding up a white bone stiletto.

Sir Bodkin turned around quickly to look. Margaret was laughing to see how funny they all looked doing stunts.

“Yes,” answered he, “that is what we are looking for. Where do you want the eyelets placed, My Lady?”

Margaret took up the new white middy blouse to show the King the slit down the front.

“This makes it easier to put my head through and has to be laced with a lacing after I slip it on,” she said.

“Three eyelets on a side would be about right, I think, don’t you?” he asked Margaret.

“Yes,” said she.

Then he told her to measure, with the tape measure, the eyelet places evenly apart on each side of the slit. She marked them with a lead-pencil dot one-half inch from the edge.

“Now we are ready to punch the holes,” he said.

Margaret took the stiletto and pushed the sharp point up through the two thicknesses of goods where each dot was marked. She turned it around and around to make the hole evenly shaped.

“Some like to punch from the right side down, but I prefer to punch from the wrong side up,” Sir Bodkin said.

When the holes were ready Sir Bodkin told Margaret to get some fine white twist or embroidery cotton. Calling a large-eyed Stitcher, the King had Margaret harness him ready to begin.

“Have your stiletto ready and keep pushing it through the eyelet as you go along whipping the edge. This keeps the shape nice and round,” said the King. “Now, sir, do your work,” he then said to the Stitcher, who stepped from the wrong side through to the edge of the hole and sang:

“First run around the edge,
We take a little run.
Then over it and over it
The stitching is done.

Step over to the wrong side,
Then through to the right
Not far from the edge,
And pull the thread tight.
Then over again,
And so on, you see,
Keeping stitches as tiny
And close as can be.”

Making eyelets

Every few whipping-stitches Margaret would leave Stitcher sticking in his tracks on the edge and take up the stiletto with her right fingers and put it through the eyelet from the wrong side. This kept the shape round.

“When you have gone around the eyelet edge, step through to the wrong side and fasten the thread,” said Sir Bodkin.

This Margaret and Stitcher did after each eyelet was finished. Soon the six were all done.

“I think it’s great fun!” cried Margaret looking with pride at the pretty little round eyelets ready for their lacing.

“Sometimes eyelets are used in embroidery,” said Sir Bodkin, “so you will know how if you ever should wish to do that kind.”

The One-Eyed Fairies skipped across the table and disappeared into the work-basket for Margaret’s mother, Mrs. Allen, could be heard calling her little daughter to come to her.

“She’ll be so pleased to see these and surprised, too,” whispered Margaret to Sir Bodkin as he stood on the table.

“Yes, My Lady,” he replied. He made a low bow to his little mistress and slipped into the work-basket. Margaret hurried to her Mother’s room with the finished middy blouse.

“Well, I must say you and the One-Eyed Fairies certainly are very clever indeed,” you could have heard Mrs. Allen remark if you had been standing outside her door just then.

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