Here is a very pretty thing that you will be able to make for Mother. How amused she will be, when she sees these two funny cats sparring at each other, and how nice the Chair Back will look hanging over the back of father’s chair, where he puts his head.

The Chair Back is hemstitched at each side and across each end, so before we commence to make it we will find out how to do this stitch.

Shall we take a small piece of linen and try and copy the little picture we have of the stitch just for practice? When you have tacked a hem along, draw out five of the horizontal threads of your linen, just beneath the edge of the hem.

Now for the stitch itself. Hemstitching is always done on the wrong side of your piece of work, and the stitch is worked from right to left. Thread your needle with linen thread or a fairly coarse crochet cotton, and fasten the end of it to the commencement of the hem.

Now look how the needle is placed in the top part of the picture, and put yours in in the same way. Place it under four of the open threads, then pull your needle through, which draws these four threads up closely together. Then make a small upright stitch up through the hem, placing your needle as shown in the second part of your illustration. These two stitches are repeated all the way along. This is the simplest form of hemstitching, and is what is used on the sides of the Chair Back.

For ladder hemstitching you work along the other side of the open threads, just as above, taking the same group of threads. When working on coarse linen, or canvas, two or three threads need only be picked up each time, all that really matters is that you keep to the same number all the way along.

The stitch we have across the ends of our Chair Back is called serpentine stitch, and the small piece of canvas at the bottom of the picture shows how to work this. The first side is worked as in the simple hemstitching, taking up four threads each time, but in working the second side four threads are again taken up, but the needle is here put between the threads taken up on the opposite side.

When you want to turn a corner in hemstitching a square cloth, you first draw your threads out where the edge of your hem is to come each way; then you fold the material on the wrong side diagonally through the corner, turn the pointed end in until the point reaches the open threads, make a crease, turn the point back and backstitch along the crease. You have a little picture showing just where the backstitching is done. After this cut off the point beyond the backstitching, turn the corner inside out, and you have a neat little seam going diagonally from the corner to the edge of your hem (as in illustration).

You will find that these simple forms of hemstitching will be very useful to you in making all kinds of things.

To make the chair back you will want a strip of white Hardanger canvas, a yard long and about 17 inches wide; this will allow for the hems.

First measure up five inches from each end, and draw out four threads of canvas across each end, then draw out two threads at each side, about three-quarters of an inch in from the set of open threads at one end to the other; you will have to cut the threads at each end. Now tack all the hems along; you can turn in the ends of the wide hems and oversew them together.

Hemstitch the side hems in simple hemstitching, taking up three threads of canvas each time, and the wide hems in the serpentine stitch, taking two threads of canvas each time; you will remember to take the alternate sets on the second side.

Now you have only to embroider the cats. These are worked in cross-stitch, using “Peri-lusta” Pearl Knit, size 5. Shade No 249 is a pretty red that would do beautifully. Directions for working cross-stitch on canvas are given on page 26, and you will be able to copy the cats from the enlarged designs given below.

If you fold the chair back right down the centre, and start the whiskers of the cats four threads on each side of this line, they will be about the right distance apart. The bristles on the legs and tails are made by working half crosses, and those on the back by making long single strokes, the length of two crosses.

The whiskers of the cat extend the length of three crosses. Three threads of the Hardanger canvas are allowed for each cross. On the material used for the chair back in your picture, each cross worked out at about an eighth of an inch across, but if the canvas you are using happens to be a coarser one, you may perhaps find your crosses work out much larger, in which case you must go over two threads each time so as to get your animals the right size for the chair back.

Perhaps you would rather not make your chair back of Hardanger canvas at all, but would prefer to use linen, or some material that has not got wide even threads; this is not easy to count when working your crosses. In that case you must first tack Penelope canvas over your work, and embroider the cats over this; the enlarged designs in your pictures were worked on Penelope canvas, and you can see what nice large holes it has, and how easy it is to work on. And when you have finished the designs you just cut away the canvas quite close to the design, and pull the threads of canvas out of the crosses. You can put cross-stitch on to any material in this way.