_DESIGNING AND TRANSFERRING DESIGNS._
This is a most important part of the work, and one that is done in
various ways. Patterns can always be stamped at the various fancy-work
stores, or bought all ready for working; but the embroiderer, with
original ideas and some turn for drawing, prefers to do this herself.
Worsted patterns may often be used for outlines, as they are generally
correct in this respect, and the leaves particularly are well drawn.
But those who are able to take their models from nature will have
less stiffness in their work; and a little practice in this way will
sometimes develop powers hitherto undreamed of. Large single flowers of
all kinds are easiest to begin with; and a lily, or a wild rose, for
instance, will be found quite easy to manage.
A pencil-drawing or a water-color painting can often be accommodated
to embroidery; and a too spreading branch or cluster may be made more
compact by a little management. A spray of apple-blossoms, which is
a particularly desirable model, will frequently over-step the bounds
assigned to it in one way, and not sufficiently fill them up in
another. The best way to manage is to take a piece of paper the size of
the article to be embroidered, and divide it by lines into four equal
parts. The outline of the branch can then be sketched on it; and the
result will probably be that two of the squares are filled, one barely
touched with a leaf, and the other quite empty. More blossoms, leaves,
or twigs, can be added on one side and taken away on the other; if the
whole ground is not sufficiently covered, a butterfly, or a bird, may
be introduced to furnish a bare corner.
The suitableness of any design for the purpose to which it is to be
applied depends upon whether its position is to be a horizontal or an
upright one.
Borders of upright sprigs, intended for a horizontal position, single
or grouped, require a line or two below, which serves to keep them
together; without this support they look disjointed, and each sprig
is too independent of the others. They need not touch the line--but
one near at hand seems to keep them from falling into space. When the
sprigs are large a series of lines should he used; and for this purpose
very pretty designs are often found in Oriental china.
[Illustration: Fig. 40.]
The combination in Figure 40 is simple enough in detail, but
very effective to edge a bordering. It is done in chain-stitch,
ladder-stitch, and point russe.
Small borders are often improved by a mere line on each side; and
the same effect is produced by sewing the bordering on material of a
different shade.
Birds and butterflies are naturally associated with flowers; they
give an air of life, and often serve to balance the inequalities of
a design. Butterflies are particularly appropriate from their great
variety both of size and coloring; and being worked like other artistic
embroidery, without any elaboration of detail, they are very easily
done.
Vases, which frequently occur in the fashionable designs, should either
be represented by some material laid on, or worked in lines only--the
outline with the pattern on it, as it would appear in a pencil drawing
without shading.
A beautiful piece of silk embroidery was worked on a ground of
bronze-green satin. There were sprays of convolvulus springing from a
vase of gray satin; the flowers were white, edged with pure blue--not
the purplish blue of the natural flower, for that would not have
harmonized so well--and yet there was nothing unnatural in the effect
of the color. The leaves were of yellow and gray greens, and the stalks
a brownish green.
Then, to give warmth and life, some sulphur butterflies hovered over
the garlands. Thus, though in the coloring of the design the component
parts only of the bronze-green ground were used, the effect was perfect.
TRANSFERRING DESIGNS.
Designs are traced in various ways, according to the nature and color
of the material to be embroidered.
For a light-colored ground, the best method is to trace the pattern on
tissue or other thin paper, lay the material flat upon a table, and
fix the place of the pattern upon it very exactly. Then put a piece of
carbonized blue or black paper, face downward, on the material, between
it and the paper pattern; and with a stiletto, or other hard-pointed
but not too sharp instrument (a metallic pencil or a knitting-needle
will often answer the purpose), trace over all the lines of the design,
taking care to keep the paper pattern from slipping, and that the
fingers do not press too heavily on the transferring-paper, or more
color will come off than is desirable.
An _old_ sheet of paper is more satisfactory than a new one; and
it is advisable to rub the latter gently with a cloth before using it,
to remove any unfixed coloring.
Pouncing is a more complicated process than tracing; but for
dark-colored materials it is safer.
The design must first be drawn on thick paper, and then pricked along
the lines with a pin. The paper should then be held up to the light to
see that the holes are clear, and close enough together to make the
pattern plain.
When the pattern is fixed, face upward, on the material, dust it over
with starch tied up in thin muslin so that the fine powder goes through
the holes. Flour will answer the purpose, and may be best applied about
the pattern with a soft brush.
The paper must then be taken up very carefully, lifting it straight
upward off the material so that it does not blur the little dots of
white, which ought to be in regular order underneath--marking out the
design. The lines of the pattern should be traced at once, as indicated
by the dots, with the original design before the eye, with white
tracing paint.
There is also a _blue_ powder for delicate light materials, that
might be injured by the carbonized paper.
Another method, when the nature of the design will permit it, is to cut
out the pattern in paper, place it on the material, and trace round the
edges with chalk. Then remove the paper, and go over the chalk outline
with Chinese white--renewing it where it is defective.
The richer the fabric, the more care, of course, is needed in
transferring the design; and transparent materials should have the
pattern basted underneath. Embroidery in floss is often done on black
net--for which the design should be managed in this way.