PATTERN AND DESIGN TRANSFER SECTION
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CHRISTMAS GIFTS
Ideas for Hand-Embroidered Presents
YOU want to make a really acceptable present to a friend
Eg this season let it be embroidered by hand, whether your gift
JL take the form of a hatband, a Directoire sash, a pincushion,
a dressing table scarf, a work-bag or some even more practical and
useful arts.cle, such as close friends and relatives may present to one
another. At braided or embroidered coat or, vest is something which
every woman will hail with delight while the beautiful workbag for
Eunice comes in very handy to hold William's collars and cuffs at
college if he is at all neat about keeping his laundry where the floor
does not have to be wiped up in search for it.
Handbags and workbags are indispensable to the Directoire gowns
which are being worn indoors and out of doors this season. Silk
ones, richly embroidered, serve for a variety of purposes ; they hold
lorgnettes and such other trifles as one requires at matinee or theatre;
they contain dancing slippers and their pretty accompaniments when
wanted for a party, and, if built for street use they contain all the things
necessary to a vanity bag, and a few more besides. The pattern
offered for siTch a bag may either be braided or embroidered, accord
ing to the use for which the bag is (intended, and the work may be
done in raised French embroidery or in rope-stitch, with course twist
ed silk. When intended to wear with a gown "it should be made of
the color and, possibly, of the material of the dress and the embroid
ery should harmonize with that upon the dress on which it swings.
A work bag, pure and simple, is constructed of brighter and lighter
hues than one would select for personal wear. The splash of bright
color makes one's costume for the house look so cheerful, as the
gay bag lies in the lap and its owner wields a needle in some delicate
fabric taken from it.
Black and gold would make up a very handsome embroidery com
bination to be used with a black or yellow gown, while dark wine
color, worked with many tints of rose and pale pink forms a beau
tiful combination for a workbag. Gold and silver embroidery upon
white or pale blue is effective for evening wear, for, when one goes
to a party one does not want to swing a" bright silk reticule against
a costume of some contrasting color.
The design shown for bags is equally handsome for use as a
waist front, dress panel or overskirt corners pattern. The work may
be done with silk, metal threads, sequins sewed down upon the tracery,
beads, put on in the same manner, tor soutache braid. A good em
broidery pattern comes into play for many objects and this decoration
worked on the end of a bureau scarf, with cotton floss, by no means
looks the same as when the work is done on velvet or satin with other
materials.
The jewelry case has one end finished with scallops and the
other made like an envelope flap and embroidered with satinstitch em
broidery, outline or rope-stitch or even trimmed with beads or se
quins! A good many women do not learn embroidery easily, but any
body can sew beads or sequins down upon a traced design and this
form of embroidery is very attractive. '
Jewef cases should be interlined with wool or a flannel strip,
whatever the lining material may be and it is usually silk or satin.
The outer side isceasily made of satin or silk, although velvet and
thin kid are much employed for this purpose. It is easy to bead or
braid designs on kid and velvet but by no means so easy fo make
effective needle embroidery with silk floss in the usual French stitch.
This is so fashionable that it would be best to select a stout quality of
peau-de-soie or satin for the jewel case as these are admirable Jo
work upon. This design would be very effective if embroidered in
the end of a necktie or Directoire sash, the corners of a dressing table
cover, pillow shams, baby pillows, dress cuffs andwaist motives,
and as a finish on the top pi a mouchoir. or glove case. It is one of
those dainty, easily worked patterns that serve - f Of many articles of
both useful and decorative quality.
Every season sees sdme new fancy in theway of pincushions
but ever, with the novelty pincushion doll, tambourine or tinted apple,
there appears the ever-popular regulation cushion with its .detachable
top which may be laundered and so kept always fresh and charming.
With sucn a top one has only to add silk or lace ruffles around the
colored silk of the cushion and pin the top in place. In this case
the cushion top would be pretty made of satin or silk and worked
with French raised embroidery, or, if the top is to be laundered, it
should be made of sheer lawn and worked with mercerized embroid
ery floss. As in all the designs where the needlework takes this charac
ter, first outline the design with-a thread run in large stitches upon the
tracery. A double thread-is best if the design is to be raised- Fill
in the pattern by running soft filling floss back and forth' in the design
till it is raised to the desired height, and then work crosswise, over
the filled-in pattern, with fine mercerized floss. The work cannot be
"too close and eVen in this part of it, as the" design wilt depend for'
its beauty upon the regularity of the crosswise threads. Colored silk
floss also makes a pretty finish to a lawn cushion top, but one has
to be careful and select only floss that will launder, as colors that
run will spoil the prettiest embroidery ever accomplished.
The outside scallops may be worked in the same way as the
other outlines' of Ihe design, or they may be buttonholed over a filling
thread, if one prefers. The embroidery edge is prettier than button
holing for this kind of article, although buttonholed edges are de
sirable when an object has to be frequently laundered.
There are several methods of working the butterflies shown in the
cushion design. These, dainty butterflies, by the way, would make
charming motives to embroider upon a dress front, collar tabs and
cuff panels, and they might be worked effectively in theends of ties
and Directoire belts and sashes. In this case they may be worked
solid or else the outlines of the butterfly could be worked in over-and-over
stitch across a filled-in tracery and the inner portions of the
wings might be done in tiny French knots, darned work, appliques
of silk or .filet lace, or in velvet, if the cushion top is made of silk or
satin. In any case the dots on the wings should be worked like the
edges of them, and, if colors are used, these dots want to be of a
rich hue that will contrast handsomely with the coloring of the but
terfly. . , -.
Omitting the butterfly center a very attractive doily design may
be made of the cushion top pattern, and the housekeeper knows no
more accptable gift than a nice set of hand embroidered doilies.
It would be hard to mention anything in the way of a Christmas
gift that it is not now the fashion to embroider. Slippers and hosiery,
hatbands and crowns, parasols and Directoire sash ends all demand
embroidery.
Many mingled hues of silk threads arc to be seen in the new em
broideries. Broad hatbands are worked in flowers colored in "all the
hues that nature knows and many that she never-heard of. One fad
is to get a broad band of gold or silver or even straw-colored filet net
of a very large mesh, and work upon that raised patterns of flowers
and leaves in metallic or raised silk embroidery. Sometimes this em
broidery is rapidly and effectively accomplished with narrow ribbons,
made for embroidering purposes. Such a hat band appears very
dressy and adds much to the beauty of the towering domes of feath
ers and drygoods that now surmount women's heads. .
Lace waists, embroidered with silk flowers, are among the articles
which women need to adorn for a. winter campaign of gayety, and
embroidered waists and dress yokes and collar sets are not to be
-overlooked among the family Christmas gifts. . "
Crocheted waistcoats and neckties for men are among the needle
work novelties which women are preparing to give their brothers-and
fathers for Christmas presents, while no girl forgets to knit or crochet
an automobile scarf for her men friends. Embroidery, however, is
what every man wants tipon his smoking jacket and it b not much
trouble for skilful fingers to place it there. What with embroidered
picture frames and photograph cases, to say nothing 'of cushions,
pretty things for use and ornament in the den, and the smoking outfit;
a man manages to surround himself wfllf plenty of the season's fash
ionable needlework and not a 'few men are deft with the needle and
can embroider most-xquisitely.
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