crewel-stitch, but gives a heavier line, in higher relief. In effect it
resembles rope-stitch, but it is more simply worked. You begin as in
ordinary crewel-stitch, but after the first half-stitch you take up
1/8th of an inch of the material in advance of the last stitch, and
bring out your needle at the point where the first half-stitch began.
You proceed, always putting your needle in 1/8th of an inch in front of,
and bringing it out 1/8th of an inch behind, the last stitch, so as to
have always 1/4th of an inch of the stuff on your needle.
[Illustration: THE WORKING OF G ON CREWEL-STITCH SAMPLER.]
[Sidenote: TO WORK D.]
THICK OUTLINE-STITCH (D on sampler) is like thick crewel-stitch with the
exception that, as in ordinary outline-stitch (B), you keep your thread
always above the needle to the left.
[Sidenote: TO WORK E.]
In BACK-STITCH (E), instead of first bringing the needle out at the
point where the embroidery is to begin, you bring it out 1/8th of an
inch in advance of it. Then, putting your needle back, you take up this
1/8th together with another 1/8th in advance. For the next stitch you
put your needle into the hole made by the last stitch, and so on, taking
care not to split the last thread in so doing.
[Sidenote: TO WORK F.]
To work the SPOTS (F) on sampler--having made a back-stitch, bring your
needle out through the same hole as before, and make another back-stitch
above it, so that you have, in what appears to be one stitch, two
thicknesses of thread; then bring your needle out some distance in
advance of the last stitch, and proceed as before. The distance between
the stitches is determined by the effect you desire to produce. The
thread should not be drawn too tight.
[Illustration: 13. CREWEL WORK AND CREWEL-STITCH.]
[Sidenote: TO WORK G.]
You begin STEM-STITCH (G) with the usual half-stitch. Then, holding the
thread downwards, instead of proceeding as in crewel-stitch (A) you
slant your needle so as to bring it out a thread or two higher up than
the half-stitch, but precisely above it. You next put the needle in
1/8th of an inch in advance of the last stitch, and, as before, bring it
out again in a slanting direction a thread or two higher. At the back of
the work (Illustration 12) the stitches lie in a slanting direction.
[Sidenote: TO WORK H.]
To work wider STEM-STITCH (H). After the first two stitches, bring your
needle out precisely above and in a line with them, and put it in again
1/8th of an inch in advance of the last stitch, producing a longer
stroke, which gives the measure of those following. The slanting
stitches at the back (Illustration 12) are only two-thirds of the length
of those on the face.
CREWEL AND OUTLINE STITCHES worked (J) side by side give somewhat the
effect of a braid. The importance of not confusing them, already
referred to, is here apparent.
CREWEL-STITCH is worked SOLID in the heart-shape in the centre of the
sampler. On the left side the rows of stitching follow the outline of
the heart; on the right they are more upright, merely conforming a
little to the shape to be filled. This is the better method.
[Illustration: 14. CREWEL WORK IN VARIOUS STITCHES.]
[Sidenote: TO WORK SOLID CREWEL-STITCH.]
The way to work solid crewel-stitch will be best explained by an
instance. Suppose a leaf to be worked. You begin by outlining it; if it
is a wide leaf, you further work a centre line where the main rib would
be, and then work row within row of stitches until the space is filled.
If on arriving at the point of your leaf, instead of going round the
edge, you work back by the side of the first row of stitching, there
results a streakiness of texture, apparent in the stem on Illustration
13. What you get is, in effect, a combination of crewel and outline
stitches, as at J, which in the other case only occurs in the centre of
the shape where the files of stitches meet.
To represent shading in crewel-stitch, to which it is admirably suited
(A, Illustration 41), it is well to work from the darkest shadows to the
highest lights. And it is expedient to map out on the stuff the outline
of the space to be covered by each shade of thread. There is no
difficulty then in working round that shape, as above explained.
In solid crewel the stitches should quite cover the ground without
pressing too closely one against the other.
[Illustration: 15. CREWEL-STITCH IN TWISTED SILK.]
It does not seem that Englishwomen of the 17th century were ever very
faithful to the stitch we know by the name of crewel. Old examples of
work done entirely in crewel-stitch, as distinguished from what is
called crewel work, are seldom if ever to be met with. The stitch occurs
in most of the old English embroidery in wool; but it is astonishing,
when one comes to examine the quilts and curtains of a couple of hundred
years or so ago, how very little of the woolwork on them is in
crewel-stitch. The detail on Illustration 13 was chosen because it
contained more of it than any other equal portion of a handsome and
typical English hanging; but it is only in the main stem, and in some of
the outlines, that the stitch is used. And that appears to have been the
prevailing practice--to use crewel-stitch for stems and outlines, and
for little else but the very simplest forms. The filling in of the
leafage, the diapering within the leaf shapes, and the smaller and more
elaborate details generally were done in long-and-short-stitch, or
whatever came handiest. In fact, the thing to be represented, fruit,
berry, flower, or what not, seems to have suggested the stitch, which it
must be confessed was sometimes only a sort of scramble to get an
effect.
Of course the artist always chooses her stitch, and she is free to alter
it as occasion may demand; but a good workwoman (and the embroidress is
a needlewoman first and an artist afterwards, perhaps) adopts in every
case a method, and departs from it only for very good reason. It looks
as if our ancestors had set to work without system or guiding principle
at all. No doubt they got a bold and striking effect in their
bed-hangings and the like; but there is in their work a lack of that
conscious aim which goes to make art. Theirs is art of the rather
artless sort which is just now so popular. Happily it was kept in the
way it should go by a strict adherence to traditional pattern, which for
the time being seems to have gone completely out of fashion.
Quite in the traditional manner is Illustration 14. One would fancy at
first sight that the work was almost entirely in crewel-stitch. As a
matter of fact, there is little which answers to the name, as an
examination of the back of the work shows plainly enough. What the
stitches are it is not easy to say. The mystery of many a stitch is to
be unravelled only by literally picking out the threads, which one is
not always at liberty to do, although, in the ardour of research, a keen
embroidress will do it--not without remorse in the case of beautiful
work, but relentlessly all the same.
The only piece of embroidery entirely in crewel-stitch which I could
find for illustration (15) is worked, as it happens, in silk; nor was
the worker aware that in so working she was doing anything out of the
common. Another instance of crewel-stitch is given in the divided skirt,
let us call it, of the personage in Illustration 72.
Beautiful back-stitching occurs in the Italian work on Illustration 89,
and the stitch is used for sewing down the _applique_ in Illustration
94.
CHAIN-STITCH.
[Illustration: 16. CHAIN-STITCH AND KNOTS.]
CHAIN and TAMBOUR STITCH are in effect practically the same, and present
the same rather granular surface. The difference between them is that
chain-stitch is done in the hand with an ordinary needle, and
tambour-stitch in a frame with a hook sharper at the turning point than
an ordinary crochet hook. One takes it rather for granted that work
which was presumably done in the hand (a large quilt, for example) is
chain-stitch, and that what seems to have been done in a frame is
tambour work, though it is possible, but not advisable of course, to
work chain-stitch in a frame.
Chain-stitch is not to be confounded with split-stitch (see page 105),
which somewhat resembles it.
[Illustration: 17. CHAIN-STITCH SAMPLER.]
[Illustration: 18. CHAIN-STITCH SAMPLER (BACK).]
[Sidenote: TO WORK A.]
To work chain-stitch (A on the sampler, Illustration 17) bring the
needle out, hold the thread down with the left thumb, put the needle
in again at the hole through which you brought it out, take up 1/4 of an
inch of stuff, and draw the thread through: that gives you the first
link of the chain. The back of the work (18) looks like back-stitch. In
fact, in the quilted coverlet, Illustration 69 (as in much similar work
of the period), the outline pattern, which you might take for
back-stitching, proves to have been worked from the back in
chain-stitch. The same thing occurs in the case of the Persian quilt in
Illustration 70.
[Sidenote: TO WORK B.]
A playful variation upon chain-stitch (B on the sampler, Illustration
17) is effected by the use of two threads of different colour. Take in
your needle a dark and a light thread, say the dark one to the left, and
bring them out at the point at which your work begins. Hold the dark
thread under your thumb, and, keeping the light one to the right, well
out of the way, draw both threads through; this makes a dark link; the
light thread disappears, and comes out again to the left of the dark
one, ready to be held under the thumb while you make a light link. This
"magic stitch," as it has been called, is no new invention. It is to be
found in Persian, Indian, and Italian Renaissance work. An instance of
it occurs in Illustration 64.
[Sidenote: TO WORK C.]
A variety of chain-stitch (C on the sampler, Illustration 17) used often
in church work, more solid in appearance, the links not being so open,
is rather differently done. Begin a little in advance of the starting
point of your work, hold the thread under your thumb, put the needle in
again at the starting point slightly to the left, bring your needle out
about 1/8th of an inch below where it first went in but precisely on the
same line, and you have the first link of your chain.
[Sidenote: TO WORK D.]
To work what is known as cable-chain (D on the sampler, Illustration 17)
keep your thread to the right, put in your needle, pointing downwards, a
little below the starting point, and bring it out about 1/4th of an inch
below where you put it in; then put it through the little stitch just
formed, from right to left, hold your thread towards the left under your
thumb, put your needle through the stitch now in process of making from
right to left, draw up the thread, and the first two links of your chain
are made.
[Sidenote: TO WORK E.]
A zigzag chain, of a rather fancy description, goes by the name of
Vandyke chain (E on the sampler, Illustration 17). To make it, bring
your needle out at a point which is to be the left edge of your work,
and make a slanting chain-stitch from left to right; then, putting your
needle into that, make another slanting stitch, this time from right to
left--and so to and fro to the end.
[Sidenote: TO WORK F.]
The braid-stitch shown at F on the sampler (Illustration 17) is worked
as follows, horizontally from right to left. Bring your needle out at a
point which is to be the lower edge of your work, throw your thread
round to the left, and, keeping it all the time loosely under your
thumb, put your needle under the thread and twist it once round to the
right. Then, at the upper edge of your work, put in the needle and slide
the thread towards the right, bring the needle out exactly below where
you put it in, carry your thread under the needle towards the left, draw
the thread tight, and your first stitch is done.
[Illustration: THE WORKING OF F ON CHAIN-STITCH SAMPLER.]
[Sidenote: TO WORK G.]
A yet more fanciful variety of braid-stitch (G on the sampler,
Illustration 17) is worked vertically, downwards. Having, as before, put
your needle under the thread and twisted it once round, put it in at a
point which is to be the left edge of your work, and, instead of
bringing it out immediately below that point, slant it to the right,
bringing it out on that edge of the work, and finish your stitch as in
the case of F.
These braid-stitches look best worked in stout thread of close texture.
In covering a surface with chain-stitch (needlework or tambour) the
usual plan is to follow the contour of the design, working chain within
chain until the leaf or whatever it may be is filled in. This stitch is
rarely worked in lines across the forms, but it has been effectively
used in that way, following always the lines of the warp and weft of the
stuff. Even in that case the successive lines of stitching should be all
in one direction--not running backwards and forwards--or it will result
in a sort of pattern of braided lines. The reason for the more usual
practice of following the outline of the design is obvious. The stitch
lends itself to sweeping, even to perfectly spiral, lines--such as occur
in Greek wave patterns: it was, in fact, made use of in that way by the
Greeks some four or five centuries B.C.
[Illustration: THE WORKING OF G ON CHAIN-STITCH SAMPLER.]
[Illustration: 19. CHAIN AND SURFACE STITCHES.]
We owe the tambour frame, they say, to China; but it has been largely
used, and abused indeed, in England. Tambour work, when once you have
the trick of it, is very quickly done--in about one-sixth of the time it
would take to do it with the needle. It has the further advantage that
it serves equally well for embroidery on a light or on a heavy stuff,
and that it is most lasting. The misfortune is that the sewing machine
has learnt to do something at once so like it and so mechanically even,
as to discredit genuine hand-work, whether tambour work or chain-stitch.
For all that, neither is to be despised. If they have often a mechanical
appearance that is not all the fault of the stitch: the worker is to
blame. Indian embroiderers depart sometimes so far from mechanical
precision as to shock the admirers of monotonously even work. Artistic
use of chain stitch is made in many of our illustrations: for outlines
in Illustrations 24 and 72; for surface covering in Mr. Crane's lion,
Illustration 74; to represent landscape in Illustration 78, where
everything except the faces of the little men is in chain-stitch; and
again for figure work in Illustration 81. In Illustration 19 it occurs
in association with a curious surface stitch; in Illustration 64 it is
used to outline and otherwise supplement inlay. The old Italians did not
disdain to use it. In fact, wherever artists have employed it, they show
that there is nothing inherently inartistic about the stitch.
HERRING-BONE STITCH.
HERRING-BONE is the name by which it is customary to distinguish a
variety of stitches somewhat resembling the spine of a fish such as the
herring. It would be simpler to describe them as "fish-bone;" but that
term has been appropriated to describe a particular variety of it. One
would have thought it more convenient to use fish for the generic term,
and a particular fish for the specific. However, it saves confusion to
use names as far as possible in their accepted sense.
It will be seen from the sampler, Illustration 20, that this stitch may
be worked open or tolerably close; but in the latter case it loses
something of its distinctive character. Fine lines may be worked in it,
but it appears most suited to the working of broadish bands and other
more or less even-sided or, it may be, tapering forms, more feathery in
effect than fish-bone-like, such as are shown at E on sampler.
Ordinary herring-bone is such a familiar stitch that the necessity of
describing it is rather a matter of literary consistency than of
practical importance.
The two simpler forms of herring-bone (it is always worked from left to
right, and begun with a half-stitch) marked A and C on the sampler are
strikingly different in appearance, and are worked in different ways--as
will be seen at once by reference to the back of the sampler
(Illustration 21), where the stitches take in the one case a horizontal
and in the other a vertical direction.
[Sidenote: TO WORK A.]
To work A, bring your needle out about the centre of the line to be
worked; put it into the lower edge of the line about 1/8th of an inch
further on; take up this much of the stuff, and, keeping the thread to
the right, above the needle, draw it through. Then, with the thread
below it, to the right, put your needle into the upper edge of the line
1/4th of an inch further on, and, turning it backwards, take up again
1/8th of an inch of stuff, bringing it out immediately above where it
went in on the lower edge.
[Sidenote: TO WORK B.]
What is called "Indian Herring-bone" (B) is merely stitch A worked in
longer and more slanting stitches, so that there is room between them
for a second row in another colour, the two colours being, of course,
properly interlaced.
[Sidenote: TO WORK C.]
To work C, bring your needle out as for A, and, putting it in at the
upper edge of the line to be worked and pointing it downwards, whilst
your thread lies to the right, take up ever so small a piece of the
stuff. Then, slightly in advance of the last stitch, the thread still to
the right, your needle now pointing upwards, take another similar
stitch from the lower edge.
[Illustration: 20. HERRING-BONE SAMPLER.]
[Illustration: 21. HERRING-BONE SAMPLER (BACK).]
[Sidenote: TO WORK D.]
The variety at D is merely a combination of A and C, as may be seen by
reference to the back of the sampler (opposite); though the short
horizontal stitches there seen meet, instead of being wide apart as in
the case of A.
[Illustration: THE WORKING OF E ON HERRING-BONE SAMPLER.]
[Sidenote: TO WORK E.]
What is known as "fish-bone" is illustrated in the three feathery shapes
on the sampler (E), two of which are worked rather open. It is
characteristic of this stitch that it has a sort of spine up the centre
where the threads cross. Suppose the stitch to be worked horizontally.
Bring your needle out on the under edge of the spine about 1/4th of an
inch from the starting point of the work, and put it in on the upper
edge of the work at the starting point, bringing it out immediately
below that on the lower edge of the work. Put it in again on the upper
edge of the spine, rather in advance of where it came out on the lower
edge of it before, and bring it out on the lower edge of this spine
immediately below where it entered.
[Illustration: THE WORKING OF F ON HERRING-BONE SAMPLER.]
[Sidenote: TO WORK F.]
In close herring-bone (F on the sampler, Illustration 20) you have
always a long stitch from left to right, crossed by a shorter stitch
which goes from right to left. Having made a half stitch, bring the
needle out at the beginning of the line to be worked, at the lower edge,
and put it in 1/8th of an inch from the beginning of the upper edge.
Bring it out again at the beginning of this edge and put it in at the
lower edge 1/4th of an inch from the beginning, bringing it out on the
same edge 1/8th of an inch from the beginning. Put the needle in again
on the upper edge 1/8th of an inch in front of the last stitch on that
edge, and bring it out again, without splitting the thread, on the same
edge as the hole where the last stitch went in.
If you wish to cover a surface with herring-bone-stitch, you work it, of
course, close, so that each successive stitch touches its foregoer at
the point where the needle enters the stuff (F on the sampler,
Illustration 20). It will be seen that at the back (21) this looks like
a double row of back-stitching. Worked straight across a wide leaf, as
in the lower half of sampler, it is naturally very loose. A better
method of working is shown in the side leaves, which are worked in two
halves, beginning at the base of a leaf on one side and working down to
it on the other. There is here just the suggestion of a mid-rib between
the two rows.
[Illustration: THE WORKING OF G ON HERRING-BONE SAMPLER.]
[Sidenote: TO WORK G.]
The stitch at G on sampler, having the effect of higher relief than
ordinary close herring-bone (F), is sometimes misleadingly described as
tapestry stitch. It is worked, as the back of the sampler (21) clearly
shows, in quite a different way. You get there parallel rows of double
stitches. Having made a half-stitch entering the material at the upper
edge of the work, bring the needle out on the lower edge of it
immediately opposite. Then, going back, put it in at the beginning of
the upper edge, and bring it out at the beginning of the lower one.
Thence take a long slanting stitch upwards from left to right, bring the
needle out on the lower edge immediately opposite, cross it by a rather
shorter stitch from right to left, entering the stuff at the point where
the first half-stitch ended, bring this out on the lower edge, opposite,
and the stitch is done.
The artistic use of herring-bone-stitch is shown in the leaves of the
tulip (84), and a closer variety of it in the pink, or whatever the
flower may be, in the hand of the little figure on Illustration 72.
BUTTONHOLE-STITCH.
BUTTONHOLE is more useful in ornament than one might expect a stitch
with such a very utilitarian name to be. It is, as its common use would
lead one to suppose, pre-eminently a one-edged stitch, a stitch with
which to mark emphatically the outside edge of a form. There is,
however, a two-edged variety known as ladder-stitch, shown in the two
horn shapes on the sampler, Illustration 22.
By the use of two rows back to back, leaf forms may be fairly expressed.
In the leaves on the sampler, the edge of the stitch is used to
emphasise the mid rib, leaving a serrated edge to the leaves. The
character of the stitch would have been better preserved by working the
other way about, and marking the edge of the leaves by a clear-cut line,
as in the case of the solid leaves in Illustration 73.
The stitch may be used for covering a ground or other broad surface, as
in the pot shape (J) on the sampler, where the diaper pattern produced
by its means explains itself the better for being worked in two shades
of colour.
The simpler forms of the stitch are the more useful. Worked in the form
of a wheel, as in the rosettes at the side of the vase shape (A), the
ornamental use of the stitch is obvious.
[Sidenote: TO WORK A.]
One need hardly describe BUTTONHOLE STITCH. The simple form of it (A) is
worked by (when you have brought your needle out) keeping the thread
under your thumb to the right, whilst you put the needle in again at a
higher point slightly to the right, and bring it out immediately below,
close to where it came out before. This and other one-edged stitches of
the kind are sometimes called "blanket-stitch."
The only difference between versions such as B and C on the sampler, and
simple buttonhole, is that the stitches vary in length according to the
worker's fancy.
[Sidenote: TO WORK E.]
The CROSSED BUTTONHOLE STITCH at E is worked by first making a stitch
sloping to the right, and then a smaller buttonhole-stitch across this
from the left.
The border marked D in sampler consists merely of two rows of slanting
buttonhole-stitch worked one into the other. Needlewomen have wilful
ways of making what should be upright stitches slant awkwardly in all
manner of ways, with the result that they look as if they had been
pulled out of the straight.
[Illustration: 22. BUTTONHOLE SAMPLER.]
[Illustration: 23. BUTTONHOLE SAMPLER (BACK).]
[Sidenote: TO WORK F.]
The border at F, known as "TAILOR'S BUTTONHOLE," is worked with the firm
edge from you, instead of towards you, as you work ordinary
buttonhole. Bringing the thread out at the upper edge of the work to the
left, and letting it lie on that side, you put your needle in again
still on the same edge, and bring it out, immediately below, on the
lower one. You then, before drawing the thread quite through, put your
needle into the loop from behind, and tighten it upwards.
[Illustration: THE WORKING OF H ON BUTTONHOLE SAMPLER.]
[Sidenote: TO WORK G.]