Use as fine a needle as possible and thread it with hair, instead of silk, or any other kind of fibre. Red and white hair is the strongest, and stronger than the ravellings of the stuff. Of course the hair has first to be carefully cleansed from grease. Pare the edges of the rent, on the right sides, quite clean and even, with a razor, so that both rent and st.i.tches may be lost in the hairy surface of the cloth.
Scissors do not cut so closely, and are liable moreover, to disturb the nap, and render the darn more visible. When this is done, fit the edges exactly together, and overcast them. Then thread a needle with a hair by the root, and slip it in, 2 or 3 m/m. from the one edge and back again pointed towards you, through the other, so that, neither needle nor hair, are visible on either side. The st.i.tches should be set slightly slanting and must be quite lost in the thickness of the cloth. The needle must always be put in, exactly at the place where it came out, and the hair not be too tightly drawn.
When the darn is finished, lay the article on a bare table, or ironing-board, cover it with a damp cloth, and iron it. The sharpest eye will fail to detect a rent, when carefully darned in this manner.
PATCHING.--As we have already said, when the defective part is past darning, it must be cut out, and a new piece of stuff inserted in its place. If the garment be no longer new, it should be patched with a slighter material than that of which it was originally made. The patch should be of the same shape, and cut the same way of the stuff, as the piece it is to replace, it should also be, just so much larger, as to allow for the turnings in, and can either be top-sewn, or else, run and felled in.
BACK-St.i.tCHING AND FELLING IN A PATCH (fig. 52).--Tack in the new piece, so that its edges over-lap the edges of the hole. The back-st.i.tching must be done on the article itself, as this renders it easier to do the corners neatly. The hem is turned down on to the patch.
Make a little snip at the corners with your scissors to prevent puckering. The back-st.i.tching should form a right angle at each corner.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 52. BACK-St.i.tCHING AND FELLING IN A PATCH.]
TOP-SEWING IN A PATCH (fig. 53).--To do this, the edges of the hole and of the patch, must first be turned in, and either overcast or hemmed, to prevent their fraying, after which, sew the two edges together. The raw edges may also be turned in with herring-boning as in fig. 39, putting the needle, only through one layer of stuff.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 53. TOP-SEWING IN A PATCH.]
DRAWING IN A PATCH (fig. 54).--Take a square piece of the original stuff, 5 or 6 c/m. larger each way, than the hole it is to fill, draw out threads on all the four sides, till the piece exactly matches the hole, and tack it into its place. Thread a very fine needle with the two ends of a thread of silk or Fil d"Alsace D.M.C No. 700, run it in at the corner of the stuff, and draw it out, leaving a loop behind. Into this loop, slip the first of the threads, which as it were, form a fringe to the patch, and tighten the loop round it, and so on with each thread, alternately taking up and leaving threads in the stuff, as in ordinary darning.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 54. DRAWING IN A PATCH.]
To put a patch into a thin material, in this manner, you must darn in the threads, a good long way, into the material, in order that the double layer of threads may be less visible.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] See at the end of the concluding chapter, the table of numbers and sizes and the list of colours of the D.M.C threads and cottons.
[Ill.u.s.tration: STRIPE OF CUT OPEN-WORK ON WHITE LINEN.]
Single and cut Open-work.
The above heading comprises every sort of needle-work, to which the drawing out of threads is a preliminary. By sewing over the single threads that remain, and drawing them together in different ways, an infinite variety of patterns can be produced. Many pretty combinations also, can be made of open-work, cross-st.i.tch, and other kinds of embroidery.
MATERIALS SUITABLE FOR OPEN-WORK.--For all the coa.r.s.er stuffs, such as Holbein-linen, Java and linen-canvas and the like, now in such favour for the imitation of old needlework, it will be best to use: Fil a pointer D.M.C, No. 30[A] and Cordonnet 6 fils D.M.C, Nos. 10 to 20,[A]
and for the finer stuffs, such as antique-linen and linen-gauze; Cordonnet 6 fils D.M.C Nos. 50 to 150,[A] Fil d"Alsace D.M.C, Nos. 20 to 100, and Fil a dentelle D.M.C, Nos. 25 to 80.
Coloured patterns can also be executed in open-work, with Coton a broder D.M.C Nos. 16 to 35, and Coton a repriser D.M.C, Nos. 25 to 50[A].
THE TWO DIFFERENT KINDS OF OPEN-WORK.--The one is called, single open-work, the Italian Punto tirato, in which the first step is to draw out one layer of threads; the other, cut open-work, the Italian Punto tagliato, for which, both the warp, and the woof threads, have to be drawn out.
SINGLE OPEN-WORK (PUNTO TIRATO).--This, in its simplest form, is the ornamental latticed hem, in common use where something rather more decorative than an ordinary hem (fig. 8) is required, and consists in drawing out one layer of threads, either the warp or the woof.
SINGLE HEM-St.i.tCH (fig. 55).--Draw out, according to the coa.r.s.eness of the stuff, two or four threads, below the edge of the turning, and tack your hem down to the line thus drawn. Fasten your thread in to the left, and work your hem from right to left, taking up three or four cross-threads at a time, and inserting your needle, immediately above, into the folded hem, three or four threads from the edge, and then drawing it out.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 55. SINGLE HEM-St.i.tCH.]
The same st.i.tch is used for preventing the fringes, that serve as a finish to so many articles of house-linen, from ravelling.
SECOND HEM-St.i.tCH (fig. 56).--Prepare your hem as for fig. 55, and work from left to right; with this difference, that after drawing two or three cross-threads together, from right to left, you skip the same number of perpendicular threads you took up below, and insert your needle downwards from above, bringing it out at the bottom edge of the hem.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 56. SECOND HEM-St.i.tCH.]
These st.i.tches, which can be used for the right side also, form a kind of little tress, along the edge of the hem.
LADDER St.i.tCH HEM (fig. 57). Complete the hem, as already directed in fig. 55, then draw out three or five threads more, turn the work round, and repeat the process, taking up the same cl.u.s.ters of threads which you took up in the first row of st.i.tches, thus forming little perpendicular bars.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 57. LADDER St.i.tCH HEM.]
DOUBLE HEM-St.i.tCH (fig. 58). Begin as in fig. 55, forming your cl.u.s.ters of an even number of threads; and then, in making your second row of st.i.tches, draw half the threads of one cl.u.s.ter, and half of the next together, thereby making them slant, first one way and then the other.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 58. DOUBLE HEM-St.i.tCH.]
ANTIQUE HEM-St.i.tCH (figs 59, 60, 61 and 62). In the old, elaborate, linen needlework, we often meet two kinds of hem-st.i.tching seldom found in modern books on needle-work. Figs. 59 to 62 are magnified representations of the same. At the necessary depth for forming a narrow hem, a thread is drawn, in the case of very fine textures where the edge is rolled, not laid; then fasten in the working thread at the left, and work the st.i.tches from left to right. Pa.s.sing your needle, from right to left, under three or four threads, draw the thread round the cl.u.s.ter and carry your needle on, through as many threads of the upper layer of stuff, as you took up below, so that the st.i.tch may always emerge from the middle of the cl.u.s.ter.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 59. ANTIQUE HEM-St.i.tCH. WRONG SIDE.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 60. ANTIQUE HEM-St.i.tCH. RIGHT SIDE.]
ANTIQUE HEM-St.i.tCH (figs. 61 and 62).--These show, the right and wrong sides of the hem; here the rolled hem is prepared as above, but the st.i.tches are worked from right to left, and the thread is carried round the little roll, so that, as shown in fig. 62, it is visible on both sides of the hem. The needle does not enter the stuff, but is carried back at once, from the outside, and put in again between two cl.u.s.ters of threads.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 61.--ANTIQUE HEM-St.i.tCH. WRONG SIDE.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 62.--ANTIQUE HEM-St.i.tCH. RIGHT SIDE.]
SLANTING HEM-St.i.tCH (figs. 63 and 64).--Bring out your needle and thread, two or three threads above the edge of the turning, between the first and second of the three cross-threads that compose the cl.u.s.ter, and then slip it under the cl.u.s.ter, from right to left. The loop must lie in front of the needle. When you have drawn up the st.i.tch, put the needle in, one thread further on, and take up two threads. Fig. 64 shows the st.i.tch on the right side.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 63. SLANTING HEM-St.i.tCH. WRONG SIDE.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 64. SLANTING HEM-St.i.tCH. RIGHT SIDE.]
DOUBLE-ROWED ORNAMENTAL SEAM (figs. 65, 66, 67).--Begin with any one of the hems already described, then counting as many threads downwards, as are cl.u.s.tered together in the first row, draw out a second thread, and cl.u.s.ter the perpendicular threads in this second line together, as shown in figs. 65 and 66. On the right side the st.i.tch is straight (fig.
67). Coloured cottons should be used for all the above patterns of hem-st.i.tch, when they are to be introduced into coloured embroideries.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 65. DOUBLE-ROWED ORNAMENTAL SEAM. WRONG SIDE.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 66. DOUBLE-ROWED ORNAMENTAL SEAM. WRONG SIDE.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 67. DOUBLE-ROWED ORNAMENTAL SEAM. RIGHT SIDE.]
SINGLE THREE-ROWED OPEN-WORK (fig. 68).--This, and the following patterns, are suitable for the headings of hems, and for connecting stripes of embroidery, and are also often used instead of lace, and lace insertion.
Fig. 68 will be found specially useful, in cases where the object is, to produce a good deal of effect, at the cost of as little labour as possible. Make six rows of hem-st.i.tching, as in fig. 55; the first and sixth rows to serve as a finish, above and below.