Artistic embroidery

Egyptian embroidery was done on linen or cotton, the threads of the material being almost or entirely pulled out one way, and the remainder embroidered with bright-colored silk. The effect was very rich and showy; but the peculiar art of doing it has been lost.

Some specimens of Egyptian embroidery in the time of the Pharaohs, now in the Louvre, are described as follows: one has narrow red stripes on a broad yellow stripe, wrought with a pattern in needlework; another piece is on blue, and worked all over in white embroidery, in a kind of netting-pattern, the meshes of which outline irregular cubic shapes.

Silk embroidery on linen is an old fashion revived; and it was used particularly on coverlets and curtains in the form of outline work. This was often done in one color only; and in a bold, set pattern, it was very effective. A more flowing or branching design, well enclosed in lines and borders, looks equally well, with the worker’s name or monogram, and the date added.

These coverlets and curtains were sometimes made of Bolton sheeting, rather as a foundation than a ground—being nearly covered with an appliqué pattern of flowers and leaves in cloth, and the stems worked in crewel or silk. The small vacant spaces were often filled with a very simple diaper.

Strong linen makes the best ground for outline work; and a pattern in silk is more durable as well as pleasanter to work. It must be remembered, though, that in silk embroidery for articles that are to be washed, great care must be taken that the embroidery does not fade into one pale, undistinguishable hue.

To prevent this, the silks should first be unwound, cut into pieces of a suitable length, and thrown into boiling water. If, after boiling for several minutes, they retain their color when dried, they may be “warranted not to fade.” It is recommended to boil but one shade at a time—using fresh water for each one.

Many useful and pretty things may be made of embroidered linen; and it is particularly pleasant for summer use. Tea-table cloths look well with ends embroidered towel-fashion, or bordered all round— outline-work being more suitable for this purpose than filled-in embroidery, as it will bear washing better.

Embroidered linen makes very nice tidies; and original designs, or figures from Japanese fans, will often transform these conveniences into works of art. White linen decorated with blue only is very pretty when the other furnishings are blue.

Bedroom hangings are very pleasing in this linen outline-work—also pieces to hang above washstands and borders for brackets.

EMBROIDERED FRUIT DOYLEYS.

These may be made very dainty and charming—suggesting (not filling in) the most perfect little pictures. The skill of the worker should bring out the idea clearly without the aid of detail.

A few descriptions lately met with will furnish illustrations of this kind of work.

A set of very small doyleys, about six inches square, had the edges ravelled out in fringe nearly an inch deep—the border serged with fine thread to keep the flowing strands in place. Half an inch from this, and half an inch in width, were a number of threads drawn out all around, giving the appearance of an insertion. The cross threads were then drawn backwards and forwards over each other, four strands at a time, and stayed with one row of thread, like the old-fashioned herring-bone—forming a cross at each corner.

In the centre of each doyley was embroidered with Japanese silk a cup and saucer, a teapot, a pitcher, etc., in graceful forms, and soft, shaded colors—all according to the design and taste of the embroiderer. They were scarcely more than outlines—the impression given being more of quiet artistic beauty than of the object represented.

On another little doyley is sketched a slender Indian jar; beside it, a bed of reeds, or water-grasses, seems to sway and rustle in summer airs—so pliant are the stems, so free the groupings. As if just risen from this cool quietude, a flight of birds soars upwards and away.

The jar is wrought in gold-color, red, blue, and soft drab. A few bars, ovals, dots, and lines indicate the rich decoration. The reeds which, of course, are not shaded, are done in brown and a dull green. The rising birds are dark blue. It hardly need be said that both reeds and birds are conventionalized—the reeds being the slenderest shadows, and the birds mere converging lines.

Directions for this kind of work are given as follows:

Select close, even linen, of the kind used for sheeting, and a yard and a half in width, and be careful to see that it has no uneven threads; half a yard and one inch, the latter to allow for shrinkage and uneven ends, is sufficient for one dozen doyleys. Have it washed in strong, boiling-hot suds, well rinsed, and then boiled in clear water to remove the starch and render it pliable; rinse from clear cold water, and put it to dry without any addition of bluing.

When dry, cut off the selvedge; and pull a thread at top and bottom that it may be cut perfectly straight. Do not attempt to cut any part of the work without first pulling a thread as a guide, for it is impossible to have it perfectly regular either by creasing it or by following an unpulled thread.

Divide the linen into two pieces, each of which will be a quarter of a yard in width, by a yard and a half in length. Each of these pieces is to be cut into six—giving twelve pieces, each nine inches square. Ravel them all around until you have a fringe seven-eighths of an inch in depth; it is better to make a faint pencil-mark on each of the four sides before commencing, that the fringe may be perfectly even. With No. 100 unwaxed cotton and a fine needle, whip them around—taking up four or five threads on the needle at once, and having the stitches as even and regular as possible; do not use knots, but run the cotton along at beginning and end—commencing with a thread long enough for the whole side, and avoid catching the fringe in the work.

Place the doyley straight before you, and with a rather coarse needle mark a point seven-eighths of an inch from both the upper and left-hand sides—then mark a point half an inch below this one, and parallel with the left-hand side of the doyley; with a pair of sharp-pointed scissors cut the linen from point to point.

Turn the linen around so that the left-hand side shall be the upper one, and the lower at the left hand; cut a slit in this corner corresponding to the other, and continue until each corner has been cut. It would be better to practice the cutting on a piece of paper first; and when you find the cutting at each corner is at right angles with the one below it, the work is right. With the needle-point pull a thread loose at the top and bottom of the slit cut, drawing it along until you come within three-eighths of an inch of the slit cut in the other corner. Cut the linen from thread to thread, and repeat at the other three corners. When finished, there will be eight cuts in the doyley—the two on each side parallel to each other.

With No. 80 unwaxed cotton, button-hole around each one as neatly as possible; then pull out all the threads on each side that were made free by the cutting. These threads are now to be herring-boned, using a fine needle and the same cotton; this is done by commencing at one end of the threads, and taking up four threads on the needle, draw the cotton through them, bringing it up at right angles to the work; take another stitch in the same place, only catching the body of the linen slightly with the needle and cotton.

Repeat this until you come to the other end—when, turning the doyley upside down, commence taking up the threads again on the needle, only taking two threads from each cluster of the row before; this makes a sort of ladder-work in the border, much prettier than if the threads were taken in corresponding clusters.

When they have all been herring-boned, the fascinating work of decoration begins. For silk, letter D button-hole twist is the most satisfactory in all colors, except shades of red and green. There are four shades of blue: navy that is almost black, a navy that is bright, a bright sky blue, and a very delicate one; brown of two shades; gold-color, lemon, and two shades of sage-green. Bright red shading on scarlet, and entirely free from a Solferino tint, deep and bright rose peach blossom, and a turquoise-blue are best when on quills.

Having boiled and dried the silk, it will be found in using it that it is three-stranded; but it must be separated and only one strand used in working. This should be carefully moistened when it becomes flossy and uneven. Green is the most difficult color to manage; and it is only the old-fashioned apple-green found in skeins that will be at all satisfactory.

The designs should be drawn on the doyleys with a sharp lead-pencil—being careful not to soil the work by wrong outlines and erasing. If the latter is necessary, it is better to wash out the marks with warm water and soap than to use any other method; and then begin outlining again.

A set done in fans, of different shapes and decoration, are as pretty as one could desire. If it is impossible to draw from one lying before you; cut a pattern in pasteboard and outline with the pencil. The different periodicals occasionally give beautiful styles of fans; and the cheap Japanese fans are very suggestive in the way of color and figure.

Outline them in bright blue, with an inner line of pink; navy with light blue; sage green with pink; or any other colors that contrast or harmonize; make the stick and ribs of bamboo color, or gold. An open fan is beautiful outlined in gold, sticks and all; with sprays of star-shaped flowers done in red, stems in gray, and leaves in green. These flowers, etc., are only outlined, not done in the solid satin-stitch, and should be as delicate as possible.

The stitch called Kensington is used; and is the one familiar to all embroiderers, in both flannel and muslin, as stem-stitch. The needle is kept with the point toward the worker; and you are constantly working from you.

Very quaint and pretty designs can be taken from Japanese print-plates, tea-trays, and cabinets. Two fans, one-fourth open, the one in the middle, the other at one corner, are very effective; but when an open fan is used, one is sufficient for a doyley.

A spider’s web, hanging from a branch just coming over one side of the doyley, is extremely pretty. Outline the stems in gray, leaves in green, and the web in light-blue—making it out perfectly round, but longer one way than another; have some of the rays to project a little, others caught on the branches—and from one of the lower ones a spider dangling, while in the rib a stitch or two of black makes a good representation of his prey. Give a little color in one of the lower corners by a few rushes—one or two of which should have a few red tassels.

An apple-bough with a leaf of green here and there; tiny flowers of red and pink, some of which have drifted off before a gentle wind, make beautiful designs; but when one’s eyes are open to them, it is astonishing how many ideas are gathered here and there that would otherwise be lost. A walk among one’s flowers, a border in a magazine or art-journal, will give suggestions in some form or other.

The cold marble of one’s dressing-table or bureau loses its cheerless aspect by the color one of these covers gives it. A piece of linen a yard and a half long and three-eighths in width, should be fringed an inch and a half at front and back, with a much deeper one at the ends. Work a border an inch deep, a quarter of a yard from the herring-bone at each end, and meeting the herring-bone at the sides.

Use red, bright gold, and light blue, with a touch here and there of navy blue. A spray of wistaria at one end, and apple-blossoms at the other, are very pretty. Tray-covers should be from a yard square to seven-eighths one way, and a yard the other. Fringe and herring-bone them, decorating only the corners, as the centre is so covered that decoration would be lost.

These very explicit directions have been taken almost entire from a late periodical; and will be found so full and satisfactory, that almost any needlewoman, on reading them, might successfully attempt this pretty work.