A VERY PRETTY CARRIAGE BAG.
[Fig. 5.]
Materials.—White and blue Berlin wool, half-an-ounce of each; two flat meshes, not quite a quarter of an inch broad, a piece of French canvas, No. 24, one-half the size the bag is desired; gros-de Naples, (the shade of the coloured wool), cord and tassels to match. With the blue wool work on the canvass, in common cross-stitch, a square of 6 stitches in every direction; miss an equal space and repeat. Thus the whole space of canvass must be prepared like a chess-board, the blue checks of one line coming between those of the previous, the third over those of the first line, and so on. Having completed this, take one of your meshes and a rug needle, threaded with white wool, work immediately over each blue square of the first line 6 stitches, thus:—Begin at the top of the stitch, lay the wool over the mesh, take two threads for the lower part of the stitch, pass the wool under the mesh, finish your stitch; repeat five times; leave the mesh on the stitches; take the second mesh, work a second row exactly alike over this; then, at the top, a third row of white stitches, four threads long, and two broad.
Turn the work, and in the space which is now over, but was first under the first row of blue squares, work with the white, the rows round the meshes, as before, and one of long white stitches.
Turn the work again, and work the next two rows of white stitches round the meshes.
Repeat the same operation over every other line of blue squares.
Now take the work cross-way, and work in white, as before, every space left; then cut the ends of the white wool.
Make up the bag with a top of silk, line it, add cords and tassels, and it is complete.
If preferred without silk, have canvass the full size for a carriage bag and work it all over.