PATTERN AND DESIGN TRANSFER SECTIO
NEEDLE WORK
FOR GIRLS' CLOTHES
The School Giif s Outfit What It Includes and How It
May Be Most Appropriately Embellished.
O society girl or bride-to-be takes more Interest in her
clothes than does the girl in school or the young lady in,
college. To most girls a season at school or college away
from home is one of the very important events of life. And even
the younger misses in school at home like to appear to equal ad- to criticize too great a display of elegance as too little.
crosswise direction. Filling upon household linen should be thicker
and higher than upon underwear.
The school year offers plenty of time in which the . school
girl may embroider the many handsome cushions which brighten
her window seat and make life cosy in her den at school Where
a girl does not know how to embroider and docs not want to learn
she can trace an embroidery design upon her linen and stitch down
upon it either an embroidery cord or one of the many pretty lace
guimpes and braids provided for hasty work and which are so pleas
ing in effect
It is a simple matter to work the sets of household linen for a
school outfit, for napkins merely have the initials worked in them
and other pieces depend for their elaboration upon the amount of
work their bwners wish to spend upon them. In no case should
the patterns be too elaborate for this purpose. Girls are as prone
vantage among their companions and playmates.
While simplicity is the keynote of dressing for very young girls,
enough latitud is allowed them in this respect to make the school
outfit a very interesting matter. In most things a good quality of
material and careful embroidery gives even better effects than elab
orate and expensive garments.
Even the most backwoodsy of pupils quickly comprehends the
value of fine needlework upon apparel, and sighs for the distinction
which this gives to its wearer.
Happily for the ambitious mother and maiden sensitive lest her
outfit might not be quite as good as that of other girls, a little ex
penditure of time and taste will accomplish wonders in the building
up of as handsome an outfit as a millionaire's daughter could enjoy.
Handwork -is the reigning fad of the day and handwork is, liter
ally, at every woman's finger ends. Materials for embroidery may
be procured at every crossroads shop and designs are to be had
almost for the asking. These have not always been accessible to
women, but a woman may purchase her newspaper and charming
embroidery designs for her wardrobe at the same time and price
nowadays.
The selection .of a school wardrobe includes a good many things
that do not enter into the calculations of a girl at any other time.
Most boarding schools and colleges demand that a pupil shall bring
a certain amount of household linen with her to school, and most
girls want to bring as pretty a supply as possible. They usually add
dainty trifles in the way of embroidered scarfs and table covers
which are not included in the school demand for sheets, towels, pil
low cases and the like.
Many, girls like to carry through .il! their belongings an individ
ual design. A stamped -embroidery pattern for a collar, for instance,
makes a lovely border for a scarf, sheet border or table cover.
Small designs for necktie ends, cuffs and pocket flaps are very lovely
when stamped in the ends and corners of household linen with the
initials of the owner in or beneath the design.
It is extremely fashionable to have one's sheets, bolster cases,
pillow slips and towels embroidered. The schoolgirl is debarred
from having as deep and gorgeous borders of embroidery mingled
with lace upon her sheets as may adorn the bed coverings of her
mother, but she insists upon having all that she is entitled to, and
that is a good deal more than the simple f emstitched edges which
her grandmother was content with when she went to school.
Embroidery upon household linen is very quickly accomplished
because the mesh of the material makes embroidery easy. Most
linens should be washed before they are worked so as to get the
stiffness out of them. Lay the design upon the article to be em
broidered and transfer it. Ferhaps the design is a short one to ex
tend upon a long border. In that case merely repeat the process
until the whole border has been transferred. Then, run a coarse,
soft thread of linen floss along the line of the tracery,' using a
double, thread for outer edges where scallops are to be worked.
Next to this run a filling thread to cover the width of the outline of
the pattern and afterwards thread a finer needle with finer linen
or mercerized cotton floss and work over the filling threads in a
A very important item in the handwork is the coat suit for
best wear and that for second best wear at school. The first should
be worked in French embroidery in silk, or some species of yarn
suited to the material of the dress. The coat. has to be embroid
ered upon the collar, cuffs, lapels and often upon a narrow vest
and pocket flaps. More embroidery than this is not suitable for a
schoolgirl. A waist, to wear beneath the coat, is more elaborately
embroidered and designs intended for collar, , cuff and necktie sets"
are entirely suitable for coat decorations. This work is all done
in the over-and-over French embroidery stitch. A belt to the waist
and, possibly, panels and decorations upon the skirt are traced m the
places desired and worked to match the rest of the suit. Self
colors are best for this kind of work, as young girls cannot wear
as richly mingled colors as may be introduced into the embroidery of .
their elders.
The second best suit at school may be traced with an embroid
ery design and then braided with soutache or some other narrow
braid. Small braid buttons and discs take the place of embroidered
dots and discs and are very chic this season. Two lines of nar
row soutache "braid outlining an embroidery design makes a most
effective and beautiful finish to a dress and is work very quickly
accomplished.
Embroidery should not be spared upon other pieces in the young
girl's wardrobe, and practically every waist should exhibit some
form of it, either in self or contrasting colors. Belts, too, require
embroidery and some delightful effects are produced with narrow
ribbons, woven for this purpose, combined with mere lines of threads.
Few stitches are required in ribbon embroidery and a few long
stitches of colored silk will work wonders in elaborating a design
which is given quite a rich effect by means of the materials used.
Older people now embroider designs upon lace, but young girls
content themselves with working a good supply of neckties and collar
bows in white and colors, and no end of collars, for a girl's neck
wear, must always be irreproachably fresh and dainty. All these
pieces should be worked with filling-in threads and over-and-over or
satin-stitch embroidery, and the same style of embroidery is most
fashionable upon a girl's underwear. Embroidery, indeed, is abso
lutely necessary upon the lingerie of young girls for lace is relegated
to older women and girls out in society. The young girl is not
supposed to wear much lace except upon her party dresses and then
the kinds lean to Valenciennes, Irish point and simple forms of filet.
A design that may be transferred to Hnen may be transferred to
any other material. The only difference that exists is in the kinds
of threads employed in doing the work, for all work t:-m young
girls' garments must be simple. Dull-tinted silks and embroidery
yarns for coarse patterns of embroidery are not only effective but
desirable upon school clothes. Bright silk embroidery is intended
for older women and, except where sharp contrasts are desired,
are not used in working designs upon school dresses.
The girl who wants to be very fashionable, indeed, takes with J
her to school a quantity of embroidered articles for her wardrobe !
and room; she exhibits embroidery from the dainty tip of her neck- f"
tie to the instep of her hosiery, but her mother has been careful that
all the designs employed are simple, the materials fine, and that no
over-elaboration proclaims lack of refinement In taste.