ON MOUNTING FRAMES AND TRACING DESIGNS
A great deal of Church embroidery is done, for convenience in working,
on linen, in small frames, and afterwards cut out and transferred to the
richer material, silk, velvet, cloth-of-gold, or whatever it may be.
Great care should be exercised in the choice of the linen, which should
be unbleached and closely and evenly woven, coarse or fine, according to
the nature of the work to be done on it. The inexperienced would do well
to buy their linen not from drapers, but from the best embroidery shops,
stating for what purpose they require it, whether for heavy gold-work,
fine floss, &c.
[Illustration]
To stretch the linen on to the frame, cut the linen, ‘by the thread,’
rather wider than the webbing which is attached to two bars of the frame.
Turn down the edges evenly. Run a piece of string into the two sides that
are going to be laced upon the other two bars. The linen should now be a
little narrower than the length of the webbing, to which length it is now
stretched by a pin at each end and one in the middle. Over-sew the linen
to the webbing firmly with strong linen thread; remove the pins; roll up
till the linen is a little shorter than the side bars. Insert the ends of
these into the holes provided, and stretch evenly either by pegs, or,
in the case of screw-frames, by screwing up the wooden screw-nuts (which
ought to have been previously placed as near the central blocks as they
would go). Lace up the sides of the linen tightly and evenly, with good
string, fastening each end firmly. The linen is now ready to receive the
design, or, if the work is to be done upon silk or velvet, that is put
on now, over the linen. Loosen the frame a little, either by unscrewing
a turn or two, or by moving pegs. Pin each corner of the silk on to the
linen, stretching the silk a very little tighter than the linen; sew all
round with fine, strong silk, or thread, and tighten up the frame again
after it is on.
The design must be well within the size of the mounted linen.
Two straight lines, crossing each other at right angles in the centre,
should next be run into the linen with fine silk, right across from end
to end, as a guide for tracing. Similar lines should be drawn lightly on
the tracing; both sets of lines and angles must be accurate; they are
easily done by means of a ‘set-square.’
_Transferring._ There are many ways of transferring a design to the
material it is to be worked upon. The easiest and _least_ satisfactory
is by means of ‘ironing off’ transfers. This limits one to the stock
patterns, often of very inferior artistic value, which can be bought at
the shops. The process gives a smooth even line, rather thick, which must
be allowed for in choosing the design, as it must be well covered in the
working. It is only suitable for fairly simple and bold designs.
The easiest method by which _original_ designs can be transferred is by
the use of carbon paper. The blue is the most satisfactory, the paper of
which is thin and blue on both sides, but of course it does not show up
well on a dark ground. Before using, when new, it should be laid flat
on a table, and rubbed all over with a piece of coarse flannel. There
is also a fine green and a yellow, either of which is better for very
delicately coloured ground. Black should never be used, and I have not
hitherto met with a really satisfactory white carbon paper at all.
The design should be accurately traced on good tracing-cloth, especial
care being taken with all geometrical forms, which should always be drawn
with mathematical precision; the slightest inaccuracy generally seems to
reappear at ‘compound interest.’ It is a good plan when practicable to
leave any large circles that may form part of the design untraced till
after the greater part of the embroidery is done, and in any case to test
them with compasses. Having then a perfect drawing to start with, see
that the centre fits to centre and rectangular lines correspond with the
same lines on the frame, and pin it carefully in place with fine steel
pins. Place a piece of carbon paper between the tracing and the material
in the frame, and then go over all the lines of the tracing firmly and
clearly with a well sharpened H.B. pencil or an onyx tracer. A porcupine
quill or a good knitting-needle will make a very fair substitute for the
onyx. The worker must bear in mind that pressure upon any part of the
surface which has carbon paper underneath will leave a mark upon the
material, and therefore should be careful not to rest the hand upon it
or make false lines or pin-marks. A hand-rest can easily be arranged, if
one be found necessary, by placing a block of wood or a few books on the
table on each side of the frame and laying a board on the top. It is also
important that the underneath part of the linen in the frame should be
in immediate contact with some hard, smooth surface, such as plate-glass
or a hard polished board, before beginning to trace the design.
Another method of transferring designs is the time-honoured one of
pouncing. The drawing should be on tough paper or parchment. Pin-holes
are pricked all along the lines of the drawing at pretty close intervals;
a thin sheet of cork or hard felt laid under the parchment prevents
creasing or cracking. The principal lines may be pricked with a larger
pin than the small details. When the pattern is sufficiently pricked out
it is pinned to the material, and coloured chalk in fine powder dabbed
through the pinholes. The drawing must then be very carefully removed,
and the dotted lines which result from the pouncing gone over with a fine
sable brush with Chinese white, or any good water-colour, mixed with a
little pure gum-arabic and a trace of ox-gall.
Another way is to trace the design in ink upon leno or tarlatan, and,
after pinning it in place as before, go over the lines with a strong
quill or ruling pen, using Chinese white or water-colours as before; this
also gives only a dotted line, but is quite sufficient for coarse work,
and is the best method I am acquainted with for tracing on thick woollen
material.
Yet another method suitable for delicate material and not too complicated
design is to take an extra tracing of the pattern on _thin paper_, and
after tacking the edges of the paper down to the silk on the frame,
_stitch round the outline_ of the design with fine sewing silk of any
colour that will show up on the ground. When all is thus marked out, tear
away the paper, leaving the stitches upon the silk.