CHAPTER IV.
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.
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.