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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 27, 1908)
PATTERN AND DESIGN TRANSFER SECTION It 1 t s; M M ?! S3. 'M NEEDLEWORK TO BEAUTIFY THE HOME : "y NCE upon a time nearly everything in the way of household H y linen was hemstitched; now everything is scalloped and em- Jf broidered. " In old. times the embroidery occupied a central space or. a border above the hemstitching. AH that is changed, and to-day the smartly equipped housewife embroiders her linen above" scallops and, if these are large, works a small figure or dot in the middle of. each shell It often happens that noother decoration than the scalloped bor der, or. edge, is used, and this is fashionable, not. only upon table centerpieces with their accompanying doylies for plates and finger bowls and carving cloths, worked in the same pattern, but also upon the upper border of sheets and edges of pillow cases. No matter how small or of what style a scallop may be, it is always refined looking and exhibits an air of newness that shows the housewife who pro vides it to be up to date. Scalloped edges impart a dressy appearance to a table for, after all, what is prettier than the verisimilitude of the flutings of a shell? The pretty outline of doylie and cent?rpiec edges upon the damask of the tablecloth makes any table attractive in appearance and, since most embroidered central designs are hidden by dishes and plates, the scallop is the main thing, after all. : There are three ways of working scallops, on household and table linen : one is the buttonhole stitch, which is serviceable when an arti cle has to be laundered very often; the other is with the regular A padded embroidery edgingstitch, which has an appearance of button holing but is much more closely done and is without the knot which characterizes buttonhole stitch ; and , the third way to scallop is to pad the edges of the articles to be embroidered and work them with over and over stitch. '' . , All these ways should, for the sake of greater strength along the edge, be first outlined upon the outer and inner edges of the scallop design. The outlining is done with a loose cotton floss in a long run ning stitch, The stitches, whether they be long or short, should lie evenly upon the stamped design and neither be pulled tightly nor al lowed to sag loosely upon the material, since they insure the even ness of the embroidery which crosses them. Buttonholing does not require this outline, but if it is done with an ordinary thread, the work wears and sets better. .. , In the case of embroidery stitch edging the outline threads are filled in between the wider parts- of the scallop with long filling, ot padding stitches and afterwards the scallops are crossed by closely , laid and very even stitches caught, on the edge, inside the thread, ' much like buttonholing, but without the knot. By finishing each stitch. inside the turn of the thread, before another stitch is taken, the work ing thread forms an outline edge of its own which strengthens the work. -vPadding is .not always necessary between the outline stitches unless one likes a raised scallop. The larger the scallop the prettier it is when raised . m '--.' : The third way to workf a Scalloped edge is Jike the other, in be ginning with an outlined and padded edge. The padding is prettiest when quite high , in this style of scallop, which -is the most attractive of all, and much in vogue among the French and Japanese and there fore, in fine and high class American goods. - : : To work the smooth-edged scallop, cross the padding with fine floss, working over and over the filled-in scallop, laying the stitches very closely and drawing them firmly in place. The result is like satin, so' smooth is the finish,' and, for this reason, French embroidery; goes by the name of satinstitch. The small designs, floral or other wise, are all; worked in exactly the same fashion, and, if the pattern is large, ;tho outer portions ,of leaves and petals are outlined and padded and then embroidered in satinstitch, also, only the stitches are longer; Very long stitches are only desirable in silk and crewels, 'and such things as will n'everjje washed, for the reason that they have .not the firmness of the short stitch and jianot keep their form as well. The most popular style this season for working bedroom sets is to stamp a scalloped, design all around the table cover, bureau scarf. pillow sham, and to stamp the same thing along the top of the sheet, 'a edges of the pillow cases and all around the valance of the lawn f r bedspread. It often happens that a woman has not time to work the f "valance of her bedspread. In this case she. will hemstitch it or buj( of the spread she will stamp with -the ' small designs shown in the corners or, if she has time for more elaborate work, she will arrange the pattern so as to stamp a regular or ah irregular garland effect around Ihe upper and lower , ends of th spread, with just enough embroidery at the sides to connect the head and foot designs.; It is customary to work a design of some sort in the middle usually the monogram of the person who owns the spread. Around this the fashion varies as to whether a wreath, circle of scallops or some other and more elaborate pattern of flower or scroll shall enrich the center. One ofthe most charming conceits of the times is to have one's " jj. individual flower worked mto the household linen. ' This; has been a fad of some growth in many directions, and women embroider their favorite flower upon Jheir hosiery, underwear, bedroom linen, and such small articles of personal attire as can be decorated in this man ner. It is even the fad to work one's monogram upon one side of the front of articles of underwear. v1-- ; ; This fancy extends throughout the house and some of the mono grams upon spreads of heavy linen are immense, while pillow shams often exhibit proportionately large monograms." '' : ; : ' , " Initial letters and monograms upon towels may be of any de- -sired size, but medium large ones are most popular. Raised embroi dery is always more elegant and beautiful upon household linens than any other sort, and pure white working materials are preferable to colors. , .. r,v j 0:.,.i:t.:;::;i:-'"i. Fringed towels are no longer as much in evidence as they were .. in the long ago. Scalloped and hemstitched towels are replacing them to a great extent, and embroidered designs and monograms in the ends of towels are the rule, rather than the exception.4 i Madeira embroidery is one of the most fashionable forms of needlework upon table and household linens. . It is particularly smart upon the table and most designs in small figures lend themselves to this""form of work. For instance, where the foliage and flowers are small, one has only to snip a hole down a leaf and punch one in a flower wjth a stiletto and work these in a narrow embroidery or but- . tonhole stitch along the edges instead of filling in the leaf, and em broidering it with satinstitch. ' J '' This is a season when brides set about supplying themselves with household linen and, since a bride cannot embroider it all herself, think howshe welcomes the assistance of a friend who is willing to perform this pleasant task for her to the extent of at least one set of sheets and their accompanying pillow slips and shams and dressing table cover. . " ,V - : x .--:J.i.T .'fO r,-. -t;.; - Double uses can be made of designs for household articles; they may, if the design is small, be transferred to . wearing apparel, both for grown jpeople and children. 1 At this season embroidery is in especial demand for Christmas, gifts and one, can safely; give embroidered pieces to anyone at, the holiday season with the certainty that they will receive a pleasant welcoirie. - .. :'; ?- 'JT--r'HP'--'-r;''?'-- - If the article made for a friend is to supplement her dining room equipment it is well to embroider buffet runners and centerpiece 'sets with scalloped edges and a. simple design so that, if the mistress of the house combines these pieces with some of her own there will be little, if any, noticeable differencein the pattern. - - -r It is a new fad of the winter to surround raised figures and mon ograrris in the end of carving cloths and the sides or ends. of table" cloths, with a medallion background made up of seeding. This me dallion takes different shapes and its arrangement enriches the design. 1 1 i
