THE SEWING MACHINE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22619, 6 January 1937, Page 3

THE SEWING MACHINE

USE IN EMBROIDERY DESIGN AND COLOUR SOME ATTRACTIVE RESULTS The machine age they call this, hut, "here embroidery is concerned, that is certainly a misnomer, especially where the possibilities of machine-embroidery are being rather slowly realised. Design has lagged so far behind technique that to most people machineembroidery still stands for the cheap, the second-rate; much work that is even now being turned out unfortunately justifies the attitude. 13ut times are changing; the standard of embroidery sent out from the majority of workrooms is higher than ever before, the importance of design in this craft, as in others, is constantly stressed, and it is generally accepted that, because marvellous effects of light and shade can be obtained with a machine, there is all the same no reason why technical skill and energy should be squandered upon an imitation of a watercolour, but should rather evolve its own special idiom. It is not, however, with what tbese LIOO embroidery machines can do that we arc here concerned—although with some seven types of stitch to their credit tbev are worth writing about—but rather with what can be done with the ordinary domestic sewing machine. To begin with, it should be realised that there is nothing dully mechanical about the job; there is almost as much scope as in hand-embroidery and just as great a need for a sense of design and colour and a knowledge of simple stitches, but, added to all this, mastery of the machine is essential, and greater mental alertness than is always present when working by hand. All the adaptation that the ordinary sewing machine needs is the removal of the pressor foot, the raising of the thumb-screw which regulates the stitch and the placing of a small metal coverplate, to be purchased for a shilling or so, over the feeder of the machine. It is the worker who regulates the length of the stitch by her manipulation of the embroidery ring; for this both hands must be free, so a treadle is essential. As for a suitable type of design, diagram No. 1 shows a small mat which is simple and straightforward to work. A close-textured material is best for the inexperienced—a linen or nainsook for instance. In this case off-white linen was chosen, with nigger and pinky beige for the embroidery. It is enough to trace on merely the main lines of the design; the detail is better "drawn in" with the needle. To prevent puckering in the working the material must be lightly and evenly stretched in a round embroidery frame. This should then be placed so that the design comes under the needle of the

machine and should lie hold firmly but easily between the hands. Beginning with the little border that connects the corner squares stitch along (lie parallel lilies and the zig-zag ones from left to right (diagram No. 2). Cover them with satin-stitch, which is worked by moving the embroidery ring backward and forward in the direction of the stitch. Two horizontal satinstitches worked side by side complete the border. The flower, leaves and stalks in the centre group are treated in the same way; there are light fillings on the leaves and flower, that on the latter consisting of parallel lines of satin-stitch (diagram No. with zig-zag satin-stitches or little blocks of satin-stitch between them. The centres of the berries should be pierced with a stiletto; a circlet or satin-stitch is then worked. Outline the square at each corner (diagram No. 4) with two rows of ordinary stitching to give firmness to the edge, then cut out the square. Work satin-stitch over the stitching at the edge, llien, at icgular intervals, stitch the lines across the square, first perpendicularly and then horizontally, and work the sat.n-stitch , pattern at each crossing.