TO STIFFEN LACE.--Dip the lace when perfectly dry in thin starch prepared as follows.
Take as much fine wheaten starch, as you think you will require, divide it into two portions and dissolve both in cold water. Boil the one portion and when it has so far cooled as to have ceased to steam, stir the cold starch into it and dilute the whole with cold water to the consistency of thick cream. If the lace is to be slightly coloured, add a few drops of black coffee, or dilute the starch with weak tea or guimauve water; the coffee will give it a dark cream colour, either of the latter a pale greenish hue.
Dip the lace in the mixture and squeeze it out gently without wringing it to get rid of all the superfluous liquid, then lay it flat on the left hand and beat it for a few minutes with the right to work the starch well in; repeat the whole process twice, then roll the lace in fine linen and leave it there till you are ready to iron or pin it out, as the case may be.
TO IRON LACE.--After the lace has lain for an hour or two in the cloth, iron it if it be machine-made and if it be Irish Guipure or real point lace of any sort, pin it out.
Before you begin to iron, hold the lace tight in your left hand by the footing and with the right hand pull out all the picots, along the edge of the lace, to an equal length, then lay it out flat upon a board covered with white flannel and iron it with a moderately hot iron, pa.s.sing the iron backwards and forwards over it until it be quite dry.
If creases should come in the ironing where they ought not to be, dab them over lightly with a sponge moistened with water and a few drops of starch and pa.s.s the iron over them again.
After ironing the whole length of lace, pull it out crossways from left to right, and from right to left and iron it all over once more. This does away with the artificial stiffness and gives it the agreeable softness and pliancy of new lace.
TO PIN OUT LACE.--In order to pin out lace in a thoroughly satisfactory manner, you should provide yourself with a wooden drum, about 30 c/m. high and from 50 to 60 c/m. in diameter, large enough to rest upon the knees.
The outside circ.u.mference of the wood should be padded and covered with grey or white ticking.
The pins must be exactly the size of the picots they are to pin down; you will require extremely fine ones for Valenciennes and coa.r.s.er for other kinds of lace: steel pins are of no use whatever, because of their liability to rust. Cover the cylinder with blue paper (less trying for the eyes than any other) and take only just as much lace out of the damp cloth as you are likely to be able to pin out before it gets dry, keeping the remainder covered up.
Lay the lace upon the drum and pin the footing down first in a straight line, sticking the pins in pretty closely and at regular distances apart; then pin down each picot separately, taking care not to open them if they have kept their original shape and to shut them up by twisting them if they have got untwisted.
If you find the pinning out troublesome and cannot get it all done before the lace dries, damp the picots with a sponge as you proceed.
Lace should never be pinned out when it is dry as the threads of the picots are then very apt to break and torn picots destroy the value of even the choicest lace.
Raised lace has to be stamped out from the wrong side with a lace awl or kind of p.r.i.c.ker of bone made for the purpose. Some professional lace-cleaners use this implement even for Valenciennes lace but we cannot recommend it, seeing that it is a lace that is by nature perfectly flat.
Let the length of lace you have pinned out remain on the drum till it be quite dry; if you have several yards to pin out, wind it round and round the cylinder. Cover up the lace as you proceed and put each length away as soon as it is ready in a blue paper bag, so as to keep the whole perfectly clean.
In conclusion we may remark that the cleaning of lace should only be undertaken when you are fairly sure of not being interrupted, as more especially the pinning requires to be finished off as quickly as possible.
TO WASH COLOURED COTTONS AND WORK DONE WITH THE SAME.--In order to test the fastness of the dyes, untie the skeins and pour boiling water upon them, leave them to soak for about a quarter of an hour, soap and rub them lightly with the hand from end to end and rinse them out thoroughly in as many changes of cold water as may be found necessary, until the water remain perfectly colourless.
Squeeze out all the water you can and let them dry quickly without exposing them to the sun.
Coloured cottons are often washed in vinegar, because it is supposed to affect the colour less than water does. We have come to the conclusion after several trials that this is a delusion, for the good dyes keep their colour without the aid of vinegar and the bad ones wash out in spite of it.
The fast colours lose none of their beauty in the process nor does it affect the quality of the cotton; any excess of colouring matter which the fibres of the cotton may have absorbed in the process of dyeing is got rid of by this means.
If a piece of work has been done with unwashed cottons and the colours run in the first washing, you have only to rinse it out in several changes of tepid water to restore it to its original freshness and if you want to give it a yellowish tinge, it should be dipped it in weak tea or coffee.
MATERIALS.--It was stated in the preface that our readers would find the choice of colours and material rendered comparatively easy to them by the notes affixed to the ill.u.s.trations, but these notes, in spite of all the care bestowed upon them must still have remained very incomplete had it not been for the following tables which we were fortunately enabled to append to our work and which will help every one to choose their own materials without having them actually before them. The strokes that are affixed to each number indicate the exact size of the thread, so that to find out the number you want to buy you have but to lay your pattern thread, stretching it slightly, on the strokes, in succession, till you come to the one that matches it in size.
With regard to the colours, the names and shades of which have been cla.s.sed in the second table with the greatest care, and of which our workers have no less than 460 to choose from ([3]), all those referred to in connection with our ill.u.s.trations are quite fast dyes ([4]), save in a few instances in which we were forced to make an exception in favour of a doubtful colour to secure a harmonious effect.
A complete table of colours must of necessity include certain more or less staring shades, which though they may not be to every one"s taste cannot on that account be left out.
We conclude our work with the well-meant and by no means useless recommendation to our readers, never to begin a piece of work of any considerable size without first making sure that the colours they intend to use are fast and providing themselves with a larger supply of materials than even on a close calculation they think they are likely to require, lest they should find themselves under the disagreeable necessity of having either to leave their work unfinished or finish it with materials that do not match. There is generally a slight difference in tone between cottons that have been bought at different times, and there is also a reasonable likelihood, considering their great variety, of some mistake being made in the number by either buyer or seller in ordering a fresh supply.
[Ill.u.s.tration: All of the above articles, excepting those marked with an asterisk, are contained in the D.M.C colour card.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Made in all numbers in ecru, white, black and the 450 shades names of the colours, see next page.]