# Embroidery and Fancy Work/Drawn Thread Work

DRAWN THREAD WORK.
This work, like netting, dates very far back, and many old and beautiful specimens are to be found in different public museums. Extremely fine work, resembling Honiton sprays on a net foundation, has been done in this style, but the work is too intricate and involves too much strain on the eyes, to find favor now-a-days. Very beautiful effects can, however, be produced, without unduly straining eyes or patience. It is always best to begin on coarse material, as the stitches are much more easily mastered, than with fine linen. Crash, Java canvass, and various grades of linen are used for this work. It is ornamental enough alone, but it is often associated with outline, Holbein, or Russian embroidery. Colored or golden silk and crewels are also used instead of thread and often with very good effect. Some very fine work of this description is done in Mexico, and it is sometimes called Mexican work. Another name for it is "Punta Tirata."
Hem-stitching is the simplest form of this branch of fancy work. In olden times most children were taught to hem-stitch as part of the systematic training in needle-work then considered necessary, but for the benefit of those who have not learned, I give the following directions, repeating the advice to begin ​on rather coarse material. A bureau cover or a stand cloth of butcher's linen, cotton momie cloth, or crash, is a good thing to begin on. Measure off a good depth for your fringe. If you wish to knot it, allow two or three times the length of the finished fringe.
Half an inch from the fringe, draw the cross or weft threads out for a distance of about three-quarters of an inch. Leave a bar at either end which should be neatly buttonholed with linen thread.
Thread an ordinary sewing needle with No. 70 cotton; beginning at the right hand, pass your needle under four or five warp or lengthwise threads, draw it up at the left hand, and passing back to the right hand take a fine hemming stitch, and go on as before. This is for the upper line. The lower one is done in the same way, only reversing the hemming stitch. Having hem-stitched both sides, take a needleful of rather coarse linen thread, about twice as long as the width of your work. Fasten it securely to the centre one of the end bars; fasten three of the clusters of threads together with a loop-stitch, which is formed by passing your thread over the clusters, and (making it describe a large scallop below your work) put your needle at the right hand in above the working thread, passing under the clusters, and bringing it out below the working thread, and inside the scallop formed by the loosely hanging thread. Draw this up so as to form a firm knot, and go on to the next cluster. When finished, the connecting thread should appear as a perfectly straight line, neither tight enough to pucker the work, nor so loose as to look untidy. Where a greater number of threads have been drawn, having fastened the working thread as before, pass over eight clusters, and putting your needle in, bring it out again between the fourth and fifth clusters, putting it in again on the ​right hand of the first cluster and draw it out again at the left of the first four clusters. Draw it through and repeat. This stitch is extremely simple and is generally known, having been in common use for Java canvass work, as well as for linen. Where articles are to be subjected to much washing, it is not as desirable as the various arrangements of thread clusters by means of the knot first described.
Other arrangements of drawn threads are shown in Figs. 69-72.
Fig. 69.
The manner in which these designs are worked is so easily seen in the cuts that a written description would be superfluous.
The worker can employ her own ingenuity in devising new combinations, while the use of colored wools, and the addition of rows of Holbein stitch, lend interest and variety to the work.
Fig. 70.
Fig. 71.
Fig. 72.
DRAWN THREADS AND SPUN STITCHES.
For this pattern a frame is necessary. One used
Fig. 73.
for guipure netting will do, in which the work must ​be strained, after the threads are drawn and the hem-stitching done. Care should be taken to have the material stretched tightly, so that the clusters of threads will be perfectly straight. The work can be basted on a piece of stiff paste-board instead of being stretched in a frame. In this case, the work should be firmly fastened to the card-board, care being taken to stretch it tightly.
Draw all the threads of the material out of one way to the depth of three inches and a half; divide the strands into sizes by working over the edges of each with a slanting loop, for the entire length, then crossing this line of stitches with a second
Fig. 74.
one (see top of design); next work the straight bars, seven-eighths of an inch from the edge, top and ​bottom, and one line straight across the centre for the entire length of your work; these are the foundation threads to work your pattern to. The knots and loops forming the oval are the next part to work, and the spun stitches are made by interlacing these loops. The arrow indicates the mode of forming these stitches.
These patterns, while effective and very handsome, are very easily worked. The most tiresome part is the drawing of the threads, and the hem stitching. It is rather improved by washing than otherwise.
Fig. 74 is a combination of drawn work, and the
Fig. 75.
stitches used in guipure d'art.
Fig. 75 shows the manner of forming the square holes in which the stitches are to be worked, just as in guipure d'art. It would be well to try this ​pattern on a spare piece of linen, so as to be sure of drawing a sufficient number of threads. If too many are drawn, the extra holes can be worked with some of the many fancy stitches given under the head of Guipure Netting.
I have already, under the head of "Outline Stitch," given hints as to many articles in which drawn work may be effectively used, but a few more suggestions may be useful. A very pretty apron can be made of a huck-a-back towel which has fringe and one or two bordering stripes. Draw the threads for about half an inch through the centre of each stripe, and work them with some simple arrangement of the threads. Knot the fringe. The upper end of the towel devided into three parts gives a pocket, and the ends of the strings, all to be worked to correspond with the apron.
Many handsome table-cloths are further ornamented by bands of drawn work, and when in use are placed over a cloth of red cotton flannel. A scarf for the sideboard is very handsome bordered with bands of deep drawn work and handsomely knotted fringe. An appropriate motto worked in old English text adds much to the beauty of such a cloth. "Good Diet with Wisdom best Comforteth Man" is good for this purpose, or Macbeth's advice "Now good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both."
The homely saying "Prayers and Provender hinder no Man," is another good motto, which might appropriately be worked in rustic letters.
​A pattern that can be used for the same purpose is worked as follows:
Draw warp and woof threads out so as to form a succession of open squares, leaving sixteen to twenty threads between each. Buttonhole round the outer edge, or if a hem is used as a border, hem-stitch it neatly round. Fasten the thread firmly to the edge, and loop twice into each side of the first square, and
Fig. 76.
when you come to where the threads are left, divide them in half and loop through one half of them. Cross the thread over the undrawn parts, and continue till all the squares are worked round and the left threads are secured. Work three buttonhole stitches into each looped stitch. Join the last buttonhole stitch to the first, thus forming a wheel, and carry your thread on (concealing it as much as possible) to the next square, which work in like manner. Ruffles or flounces worked with two or three rows of this pattern form a beautiful trimming for white dresses, and it also makes a handsome border for linen cambric handkerchiefs, d'oylies, etc. Fig. 72 is a simpler form of this pattern.
​Figs. 78 to 81 give patterns for a different style of
Fig. 77.
work. Worked on some of the softer linen materials,
Fig. 78.
such as momie or oatmeal cloth, it is not at all difficult
Fig. 79.
of execution, though, of course, it takes much more ​time. Grasscloth d'oylies bordered with this work, executed in gold thread and one or two colored silks are very beautiful.
Fig. 80.
Fig. 81.
For Fig. 82 the threads have been drawn so as to form regular squares which are worked alternately with point de reprise and point d'esprit. It is meant for a cloth for the centre of the table to be laid over a handsome colored table cloth.
​Very handsome side-board or bureau scarves may be
Fig. 82.
worked in oatmeal or momie cloth, with three or four shades of brown carpet thread, using open designs, such as Fig. 70 or 73. The plain strips between the rows of drawn work should have decorative stitches or some conventional design in outline worked with the different shades of the linen threads. Fringe tied in Macramé knots forms an appropriate finish for such scarves.