Fig. 105.Fig. 105.
This pattern darning, however, is so pretty that it is often possible to make use of it in embroidery work for all kinds of purposes. It makes a very good background if there is sufficient space to show the pattern, if there is not, the irregular darning might be used instead, for it would in that case be just as good and much quicker to work. To pattern-darn the ground with the ornament upon it left in the plain material, perhaps not worked upon at all, is a very effective method of carrying out a design, seefig. 106for example. Again it might very well be used for the conventional carrying out of draperies in the same way as inpoint couché rentré ou retiré.[6]The draperies on thefigure in thefrontispiececould easily be carried out with silk thread in the darning stitch, in fact this method of decoration more closely resembles the early couching than any other; it is not quite as satisfactory because the single threads of the background that are picked up prevent the ground showing nothing but silk. Bands of this work may be seen ornamenting needle books or work cases; it shows to best advantage when worked finely with floss or filosel silk, the coarse twisted silks are too thick for the purpose.
Fig. 106.Fig. 106.
Patterns can be carried out in line, they can be worked quite solidly, and there is a method that lies between these two known as open filling. The open and solid fillings are often used together in the same piece of work; examples of this can be seen on the XVIIth century wool-work curtains, the large scrolling leaves are sometimes partly worked openly and a portion, possibly reflexed, filled in with solid stitches in gradating colour; see for an examplePlate VIII.This has a very good effect, itprevents the work looking too heavy, shows up the form more clearly, and allows of more variety in the stitching. With open fillings the outline surrounding them must always be some firm decided line, such as is made by a band of satin or long and short stitch, or, in the case of larger forms, by several rows of different line stitches worked closely together, one inside the other, most likely in different shades of colour. A filling of open work can be carried out in a variety of ways; it may be a decorated trellis, a regular dotting of some kind, or some geometrical pattern in outline, or some light stitch such as an open buttonhole (seefig. 107), which would be treated each as a diapering over the form to be filled. It does not much matter what the filling is as long as it is dispersed pretty regularly over the space, giving the effect at a little distance of a light pervading tone, and when examined closely exhibiting an interesting small pattern. The open filling method can be used entirely throughout a design with very pretty effect; an example of this may be seen on an embroidered coverlet and pillow case in the Victoria and Albert Museum.[7]The pattern, composed of vine leaves and grapes, is carried out in dark brown silk on a linen ground, the leaves being all outlined with satin stitch. There is wonderful variety in the patterns, no two alike, which form the open fillings of the leaves; this makes them most interesting to examine, and is evidence of enthusiasm in their designing.Fig. 108, a leaf taken from this specimen, shows one method of filling a form with open work.[8]Fig. 109shows a collection of patterns taken from the same piece of embroidery. It will be observed that small stitches of the same length compose the pattern, which can be designed upon squared paper and easily copied on to the linen ground by always picking up the same number of threads. To look well these little forms must be accurately worked,and they or similar kinds can be used upon flowers, leaves, beasts, draperies, or anything else quite indiscriminately.Fig. 110, from a cap in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is a drawing showing the same kind of open filling in use upon a bird.[9]
Fig. 107.Fig. 107.
Fig. 108.Fig. 108.
Fig. 109.Fig. 109.
Fig. 110.Fig. 110.
A quicker way of carrying out these geometrical fillings is by using such formsas a lattice and throwing the lines from side to side across the shape to be filled, fixing them down, where they cross each other, with couching stitches; the interstices left between the threads can be filled in with little stars, crosses, or dots (seefig. 111). Buttonhole stitch, if made use of as an open filling, would be taken in lines straight across a form, the stitches being worked possibly two or three closely together and then a space, and so on.
Fig. 111.Fig. 111.
Fig. 112suggests another method of lightly filling a leaf with a conventional veining and dotting. There is no limit to the variety which can be obtained in this method of working.
Fig. 112.Fig. 112.
Open fillings are effective for use upon any work that is intended to be seen with a light at the back; they make very decorative the various forms they fill, in such things as muslin window blinds, curtains, fire screens, whether hand screens or the larger type. For articles of this kind the patterns should be rather more solid and less lined in character;fig. 113, taken from a window blind exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum, exemplifies what is meant; most of the patterns illustrated infig. 100could be treated in amore solid manner if necessary, and would look equally well that way. When working upon transparent grounds special care must be taken with the reverse side as well as with the surface, for the work to be practically alike upon both sides; there must be no threads running from one form to another nor any visible fastening off of ends.
Fig. 113.Fig. 113.
Darned netting, orlacis, as it is sometimes called, might almost come underthe heading of either lace or embroidery. It is used effectively with other kinds of white linen work, bands or squares of it being let into the linen; the contrast of the solid with the more open work gives a pretty effect.Fig. 114is an example of this work. The darning is done on a plain netted ground which can beprepared by the worker if acquainted with netting, if not, the squares can be obtained ready for working upon. The pattern must be designed upon squared paper as for cross stitch work, then it is simply a question of following out the pattern upon the square net ground. Every square of the patterned part must be crossed in each direction by two lines of darning, which should about fill it up. The various lines are run in and out as continuously as possible, so as to avoid unnecessary fastening off or passing from one part to another. When a fresh thread is required, join it with a knot to the end of the last one (see figs.165and166), and darn the ends in neatly with the other threads. These knots are often used in embroidery, for they are both strong and small. Detached stitches and parts must be worked by themselves; the thread should not be carried from one to the other. The work must be done in a frame and carried out with a blunt-pointed needle. The same thread is used for the netted ground and for the darned pattern. A method of work that the French calldessein réservéis, in result, rather similar to this, but it is workedin just the reverse way. The pattern, whatever it may be, is left in the plain linen, and the background has certain threads in each direction withdrawn at regular intervals, whereby the effect of the squared net ground is obtained.
Fig. 114.Fig. 114.
Drawn Thread Work—Hem Stitching—Simple Border Patterns—Darned Thread Patterns—Corners—Cut or Open Work—Various Methods of Refilling the Open Spaces.
Drawn Thread Work—Hem Stitching—Simple Border Patterns—Darned Thread Patterns—Corners—Cut or Open Work—Various Methods of Refilling the Open Spaces.
This method of work is the acknowledged link between embroidery and lace, and was possibly the origin of the latter. Drawn work is that in which the threads of either the warp or the weft of the material are withdrawn and those remaining worked into a pattern, by either clustering together or working over them in some fashion. The cut or open work, as it is sometimes called, is that in which both warp and weft are in places cut away, and the open spaces thus formed are partlyrefilled with a device of one kind or another.
The work is most often carried out in white thread on white linen, but coloured threads may occasionally be introduced with advantage. It is a durable method of work, and particularly suitable for the decoration of various house-linens, things that must undergo daily wear and wash; its rather unobtrusive character too makes it the more suitable for this purpose. The work is used in conjunction with other kinds of embroidery, perhaps making a neat finish to an edge, or lightening what would otherwise be too heavy in appearance.
Drawn thread and cut work can be carried out with such detail and fineness as to really become most delicate lace. In this chapter, however, it is intended to be treated rather as an adjunct to other embroidery, therefore only elementary work will be discussed. More attention might with advantage be paid to the design of this kind of work, for more might be done with it than sometimes is. For one thing, there is very little variety in the patterns, and the result often seems a spidery mass ofincomprehensible threads with no very perceivable plan; perhaps if more attention were paid to the proportion and massing of the solid and open parts, a better result might be attained. Neatness and simplicity are good qualities in the pattern, the method of work not being suited to the expression of the various larger and bolder types of design.
In drawn work the question is how to treat the remaining warp threads after the weft has been withdrawn. They can be clustered in bunches in different ways with ornamental stitches added, or be entirely covered over with darning or overcast stitches in such a way as to form a pattern.
The beginning of most drawn thread work is hem stitching, the two edges marking the limit of the withdrawn threads have usually to be hem stitched before any pattern can be carried out. One method of doing this is in progress infig. 115. In order to work it, draw out three or four threads of the warp and tack the hem down to the top edgeof the line thus made. The diagram explains the remainder of the working.
Fig. 115.Fig. 115.
Fig. 116shows in the first example clusters of four threads drawn together at each edge by hem stitching in such a way as to form a ladder-like pattern. This and the one below are the ornamentations of a plain hem that are most commonly seen. The variation in pattern in the lower one is obtained by drawing together on the lower edge two threads from two consecutive bunches in the upper row instead of just repeating over again the same divisioning as before. These two examples are drawn to show the reverse, not the working side.
Fig. 116.Fig. 116.
Another way of disposing of the undrawn threads is to cover them with a kind of darning stitch, as illustrated infig. 117. This kind of work is more solid than the other, and is for that reason very durable. This example is commenced at the right-hand corner, where the threads are drawn loosely in order to explain the working. The needle, which should have a blunt point, takes the thread to and fro alternately over and under two clusters of warp thread, drawing them together alittle during the process; half-way down, the needle leaves the first set of threads and continues working with the second and a new set (see needle indiagram). When this is worked down to the base the needle takes the thread invisibly up the centre of the worked part to the point where it is required for the continuation of the pattern. The working of this simple pattern explains the principle upon which all kinds of pretty and more complicated designs can be carried out. The darning thread may be coloured; in a more intricate design two or three different colours might be introduced.
Fig. 117.Fig. 117.
Fig. 118.Fig. 118.
Fig. 118shows another pattern in thesame kind of work. The darning stitch begins by working to and fro over and under four clusters of warp threads, part way down it continues over the two central ones only, leaving the outside clusters alone for the present. It finishes up, as at the beginning, to and fro over the four. The threads that were left are next covered with an overcast stitch, the adjoining ones in each case are caught together in the centre in order to form the X shape that recurs along the pattern. This darning kind of work is very closely allied to weaving, and especially the kind often seen in Coptic work, in which bands of the woof threads are purposely omitted in places, whilst the fabric is being made,in order that a pattern may be hand-woven in afterwards to take their place. Many beautiful examples of this work are on view in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Fig. 119.Fig. 119.
In working a drawn thread border round a square shape, at each corner there comes an open space that requires a filling.Fig. 119shows two wheels that are commonly used to ornament such places. The square in the first one has a preliminary groundwork of threads thrown across from corner to corner and from side to side, all meeting and crossing in the centre. The working thread is brought through at this point and the wheel commenced by taking a kind of back stitch over a bar and bringingthe needle up beyond the next bar. It then takes the thread a step back and over the same bar and brings it up beyond the next; this goes on until the circle is of sufficient size, the stitches growing a little longer in each succeeding row. In the diagram the thread is loosened at the end to explain the working. The lower example is a commonly used wheel, which is made by the thread running round alternately over and under a bar until the wheel is completed. It should be as solid as the upper one, but is purposely left loose in the diagram. Either of the wheels could have a line of buttonhole stitching worked round the edge as a finish. This figure shows also the two usual ways of making firm the raw edges in cut work—the square shape is bound by an overcast stitch, and the round one by buttonholing.
Cut work can be most interesting both to look at and to carry out. In the XVIIth century Italy was famous for itspunto tagliatoor cut work. John Taylor mentions "rare Italian cutworke" in "ThePraise of the Needle." This poem may perhaps be of interest to some; it was prefixed to a book of embroidery patterns of cut work named "The Needle's Excellency." It ran through twelve editions, the first of which was printed in 1621, and sold at "the signe of the Marigold in Paules Churchyard." Copies may be seen in the British Museum Library; in the Bodleian, Oxford, in the Ryland's Library, Manchester, and occasionally elsewhere.Fig. 120shows a pattern taken from this book.
There are several distinct varieties of cut work, for instance, that known as renaissance embroidery, which is usually composed of an arabesque design from which the background is cut away, leaving the pattern in the linen; the cut edges are outlined and protected by an overcast stitch. The pattern has to be specially planned with the idea of holding strongly together, but, if necessary, buttonholed bars can be added to form strengthening ties in any weak part.
Another kind of cut work is that known asbroderie anglaise, and sometimes as Madeira work, over which our grandmothers spent much time, perhaps without adequate result. The pattern is followed out by round holes pierced in the linen with a stiletto and then overcast round the edges. At the present day the work is done mostly by machinery, though hand work also is procurable.
Fig. 120.Fig. 120.
Perhaps the prettiest kind of cut work is that in which various-shaped spaces are cut out of the linen, and these filled in, inpart, with some design built up with stitches. There are various methods of refilling the spaces cut out, one of the simplest is a diapering formed by some lace stitch, such as an open buttonhole. As a rule, the decoration of the open spaces is based upon bars of thread that are either composed of warp or woof threads left, instead of being cut away, or else upon fresh threads thrown across in various directions. The pattern is planned on and about these strengthening ties, and where necessary receiving support from them. An ingenious worker will soon devise ways of refilling the spaces by all kinds of interesting patterns, which can be geometrical or floral, or any kinds of objects that can be attractively represented in conventional fashion, such as figures, birds, insects, ships in full sail, or anything else. It must, however, be remembered that the various forms filling the spaces are for use in the way of strength as well as for ornament, and that the work is often put upon objects that have to endure daily wear.
Open work is frequently mixed with other, and especially with white embroidery, and such things as counterpanes may beseen arranged with a chequering of alternate squares of embroidered linen and open work.
Fig. 121shows in progress a simple method of filling a space, mainly making use of the strengthening threads that have been left at regular intervals over the cut part. The threads are covered with an overcast stitch, and alternate squares of those that recur over the space are decorated with a cross. This is made by the working thread, after reaching the right point at the centre of an overcast line, being thrown across the space and then twisted back over itself to the starting-point, where it is in the right position for continuing the overcast line. The crosses being put in at the same time as the overcasting of the bars renders some forethought necessary to get each in at just the right time and place.
Fig. 121.Fig. 121.
Another kind of filling can be seen in progress infig. 122. The stitches used in it are overcast and buttonhole. With the help of this last-mentioned stitch patterns of all kinds can be carried out, for each succeeding row of the stitch can be worked into the heading of the last row, and in this way it is possible to build up any required shape. This figure is a workingdiagram of a piece of cut work of which the completed square with its surrounding decoration can be seen infig. 34. After overcasting the raw edges a diagonal thread is thrown across (E D on plan), upon which the pattern shall be built up; the thread is taken once to and fro andthen twisted back again for a third crossing. Commence by overcasting the threads from point D, and upon reaching the part where the pattern is widened out, change the stitch to an open buttonholing (as shown on line B). It is worked openly in this way in order to leave space for another row of the same kind of stitching to be fitted in from the opposite side, which is the next thing to be done. Then an outer row of buttonhole stitch is worked on each side of the central bar and into the heading of the first row of stitching; this is shown in progress where the needle is at work. The entire pattern is carried out in this way, first laying down foundation threads in the necessary places and then covering them up with either overcasting or buttonhole stitch as required. It is easily possible to carry out flowers and all kinds of other things sufficiently well to make them pleasantly recognisable.
Fig. 122.Fig. 122.
Introduction—Materials—Precautions for the Prevention of Tarnish—Ancient Method of Couching—Its various Good Points—Description of Working Diagram—Working a Raised Bar—Examples of Patterns Employed in Old Work—Illustrations upon Draped Figures—Usual Method of Couching—Couching Patterns—Outline Work—Raised Work—The Use of Purls, Bullions, &c.
Introduction—Materials—Precautions for the Prevention of Tarnish—Ancient Method of Couching—Its various Good Points—Description of Working Diagram—Working a Raised Bar—Examples of Patterns Employed in Old Work—Illustrations upon Draped Figures—Usual Method of Couching—Couching Patterns—Outline Work—Raised Work—The Use of Purls, Bullions, &c.
Gold and silver threads have always played an important part in embroidered work, and are a most valuable addition to the worker's stock of materials, for they give a splendour and richness that is not obtainable in any other way. They have been utilised from the earliest times in both embroidery and weaving; in scripture and other ancient historical writings there is abundant proof of this fact.
The earliest form of gold thread in use was the pure metal beaten into thin plates and then cut into long narrow strips; thatit was sometimes rounded into wire form is very probable. The first wire-drawing machine is said to have been invented by a workman at Nuremberg, but it was not until two centuries later that the drawing-mills were introduced into England.
Gold thread, similar to that we now use, entwined about a silk one, is mentioned in a XIVth century Latin poem; also, it is known that in the XIIIth century our English ladies prepared their own gold thread before working it in, and it was of the same type as ours, the gold being spirally twisted round a thread of silk or flax.[10]
To be a skilled worker with gold thread needs considerable application and practice. There is much variety in the work, some branches of it being more simple to manipulate than others. It is desirable for all workers to understand something of gold work, for it is frequently employed in conjunction with other embroidery, as well as alone.Fig. 123shows a couched line of gold thread outlining some silk embroidery, which gives a pretty jewel-like effect of something precious in a setting of gold.
Fig. 123.Fig. 123.
Gold embroidery may be divided roughly into three main classes, outline work, solid flat work, and raised work. Outline work is, as far as technique is concerned, one of the simplest forms of gold embroidery. The pattern is followed round with a gold cord or double thread of passing, fixed either visibly or invisibly with a couching stitch; the work needs but an interesting design and suitable background to be most successful.Fig. 124illustrates a portion of a design, carried out with gold cord upon a velvet ground, which has been further enriched by the addition of little applied white flowers. The raised work, and that which introduces the use of purls and bullions, is at once more complicated, and perhaps hardly as pleasing as the simpler flat work.
Fig. 124.Fig. 124.
The method of applying the gold to the material is usually by couching ofone form or another, for most of the threads are too inflexible to be stitched through. The ground, if it shows at all, is usually a rich stuff, such as velvet, satin, or silk, in order to be in keeping with the valuable thread. If the ground chosen is difficult to work upon, the embroidery is carried out upon linen, and the finished work afterwards applied to the ground. If both background and pattern are solidly embroidered, linen can be used as the permanent ground. It is usual to have two layers of material for working upon, for gold threads are heavy and require the support of the double ground. There are several advantages in this double material, as the old workers knew, for we find they commonly used two. The under-layer can be a strong linen, and the surface one silk, satin, or a fine linen, as required.
A variety of metal threads are manufactured for embroidery purposes, and they are all obtainable in gold, silver, or imitations of these; aluminium thread has been made lately, and has the advantageof being untarnishable, but its colour and quality do not seem quite satisfactory, and it is not popular. The imitation threads are never worth the using; they tarnish to a worse colour, and are more difficult in manipulation; what goes by the name of real gold, is silver or copper, plated with the more valuable metal. The pure gold thread is said not to be so practical as this, being too brittle; but somehow or other it was more successfully manufactured in the past than nowadays, for some gold work six centuries old exhibits beautifully bright threads.
The following list comprises the chief threads used in this work:—
Passing.—This is a bright smooth thread, resembling in appearance a gold wire; it consists of a narrow flat strip of gold spirally twisted round a silken thread. It can be obtained in different sizes, the finest qualities going by the name of tambour. Most passing has to be couched on to the material, but it is possible to stitch in the tambour like ordinary thread.
Purl.—This resembles a smooth round hollow tube of metal, very pliable and elastic; when pulled lengthways it isfound to be constructed like a closely coiled spiral spring. It is manufactured in lengths of about one yard, and for use it is cut into small sections of any required size with scissors or a knife. There are several varieties of purl, namely, the smooth, rough, check, and wire check. The smooth has a bright polished appearance, which is obtained by a flat gold wire being spun spirally round; the rough has a duller and more yellow appearance, which is owing to the wire having been rounded; the check is bright and sparkling, and consists of the flattened wire spun in a different way, so that parts of it catch the light and sparkle; the wire check is the same thing, but duller and of a deeper yellow, owing again to its being made of the round wire.
Bullion.—This is the name given to the larger sizes of purl.
Pearl Purl.—This is manufactured in the same spiral tube-like fashion as the other purl, but the gold wire is previously hollowed out in thisinverted U symbolshape, the convex side being the one exposed. This, when spun round, has the appearance of a string of tiny gold beads. It is frequently used as an outlining thread.
Various gold twists and cords can be obtained; they are composed of several threads twisted up in the usual cord fashion, each ply consisting of gold spun round a silk thread.
Plateis a flat strip of metal commonly about one-sixteenth of an inch wide; it can be obtained in different widths.
Spangles.—These are small variously shaped pieces of thin metal, usually pierced with a hole in the centre for fixing on to the material. They are frequently circular in shape, and either flat or slightly concave; the latter are the prettier. Many fancy shapes also are obtainable, but they are inclined to look tawdry, and suggestive of the pantomime.
Cloth of Gold and Silver.—This is a fabric manufactured of silk, with gold or silver thread inwoven in the making. It is not now so much used as formerly, when it was in great request for robes of kings and other high dignitaries of church or state.
A special make of silk for couching down gold thread is obtainable in various colours. It is called horsetail or sewings, and is both fine and strong.
Padding for use in raised gold work is usually yellow, and for silver, white or grey. Yellow soft cotton, linen thread, or silk, are all used for the purpose.
Various precautions can and must be taken to keep the gold thread bright, for under unfavourable circumstances it rapidly assumes a bad colour; the silver thread is even more liable to tarnish than the gold, and it turns a worse colour, going black. There is a special paper manufactured to wrap threads in, and the stock supply should be kept in a tin or air-tight bottle; this is in order to protect the metal from damp, which is most injurious; to do this is a difficult matter in the English climate. Linen used for working upon, or as backing, is best unbleached, for sometimes the chemicals used in the bleaching process have a deleterious effect upon the gold; a piece of gold embroidery wrapped up in cotton wool for preservation has been found completely spoiled by some chemical in this wool, which proved more disastrous than exposure to air would have been. Gas, strong scents, handling (especially with hot hands), all have an evil effect, and so should beavoided as much as possible. Work even whilst in progress should be kept covered as much as is practicable, and should not be allowed to hang about; the quicker it is done the better. A piece of finished work can be polished up with a leather pad or a brush, similar to a housemaid's brush for silver-cleaning purposes; this of course, must be used with care.
Gold thread can be couched on to the material in two distinct ways, one of them in use at the present day, the other one that was commonly practised in the XIIIth and XIVth centuries. About the second half of the last-named century the earlier method was supplanted by the present one. Almost every example of early gold thread work exhibits this obsolete and ingenious method of couching. The Syon cope and the Jesse cope in the Victoria and Albert Museum may be mentioned as famous examples. M. Louis de Farcy[11]draws especial attentionto this beautiful method of working, to which he gives the namepoint couché rentré ou retiré, and strongly urges its revival; he points out many distinct advantages it has over the method now in use.
The durability is very great, owing to the couching thread being upon the reverse side, where it is protected from wear and tear, and being out of sight can be made strong and durable. If a thread is accidentally broken it does not necessarily give way along an entire line, as may easily happen in the present method. A proof of this point can be seen upon the beautiful Ascoli cope lately in the Victoria and Albert Museum, about which there has been so much discussion of late as to in what country it originated, and who was the rightful owner. The early couching worked entirely over the background of the cope is in a state of perfect preservation; portions of the gold thread drapery have here and there been couched by the other method, the tying down threads have, in those parts, mostly disappeared, and the gold hangs loose and ragged upon the surface.
By the way in which it is worked, there results a particularly pleasing and evensurface, agreeably varied by play of light and shade. Another advantage of the ancient method is that the completed work is very flexible; this point will appeal to those who have experienced the extreme stiffness of a large surface of ordinarily couched metal threads. Flexibility is an invaluable quality for any work destined, like copes and curtains, to hang in folds.
Representations of draperies upon figures are well expressed, for by the way in which they are worked there comes an indentation along the lines marking the folds; this emphasises them rather happily, and also breaks up the surface in a satisfactory manner.
Fig. 125is a diagram that will aid in explaining the working, it gives both the front and the reverse side. This has been found to be the simplest and the most practical method of obtaining a result similar to the early examples; there is, however, no means other than examination of result whereby to get at this obsolete method. To all appearance there is upon the surface a kind of satin stitch worked in gold passing, the stitches carrying out some geometrical pattern, such as a chevron or lattice; but atthe back a linen thread is seen running to and fro in close parallel lines in the same direction as the surface thread, and at regular intervals encircled by the gold passing, just as if this was intended to couch down the linen thread.
Fig. 125. Front. Back.Fig. 125.Front. Back.
The ingenuity and satisfactoriness of the method must be admitted by all who give it a trial, and it is interesting to conjecture how it may have arisen. Possibly weaving suggested it to the embroiderers, for, take away the intervening material, and it is not unlikewoven work, and these two arts would very likely be the accomplishment of the same person. Perhaps the commonly used method of taking a coarse thread through to the back (seefig. 167) suggested it, for this is briefly the whole process.
In order to try the couching, a two-fold ground material must be firmly stretched in an embroidery frame, a strong linen underneath and a thinner closely woven one upon the upper side. Some fine gold passing and some strong linen thread, well waxed, are required to work with, also an embroidery needle with long eye and sharp point, the size, which is important, depending upon the threads in use; the needle has to pierce the two-fold ground material, making a hole only just large enough for the passage of a double gold thread.
If the linen has a regular even thread the drawn pattern shown in the diagram can be worked by counting the threads of the ground fabric, but if this is difficult or impossible, as in the case say of a twilled surface, a careful tracing must be made upon the linen; a beginner may find this the easier way in any case.
The end of the gold thread, which bynow, in readiness for working, will be wound upon the bobbin or spindle, must be passed through to the back at the starting-point, the top left-hand corner in the diagram. The linen thread secures it at the back and then comes through to the front upon the traced line exactly beneath (see arrow onplan). It now encircles the gold thread which the left hand draws out rather tautly, and then returns by the same hole to the back, pulling the metal thread through with it. There is knack in taking the gold thread only just through and leaving the completed stitch straight and flat upon the surface. The process is now repeated, the linen thread coming through to the front again upon the next traced line, and so on. When the base of the pattern is reached the gold thread is taken through once upon that line, and then commences a like journey upwards.
This practically explains the couching; variety is obtained by change of pattern, but the method of carrying it out is always the same. Figs.126,127, and128show three patterns taken from old examples of this couching.