PUCKERED NEEDLEWORK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21165, 24 October 1930, Page 15

PUCKERED NEEDLEWORK.

There are some ■workers, in other respec tsgood needlewomen, who find it very difficult not to pucker their embroidery. This fault comes, of course, from a variety of causes. With the occasional puckerer it is probably due chiefly to an injudicious combination of background material and thread. Some materials cannot unaided stand the weight of close or heavy embroidery, but one can get' oyer this difficulty usually either by backing the ground material with a loosely woven muslin, criss-crossing over the surface with care? ful tackings so that the two materials lie perfectly flat, one against the other, or by working the embroidery on stouter material, cutting it out and attaching it to the ground material by ; one of the methods of applique, work. With the chronic puckerer the trouble mostly Results from a wrong way of holding the sewing in the hand or from the lack of a sense of tension in the worker. With the material held carefully over the convex surface of the first finger of the ' left hand and with a constant eye on the thread—few of us are blessed with the machine's ■ automatic tension —puckering I can with practice and vigilance he eu- | 1 tirely prevented, although in the case of I some stitches, such as chain-stitch, for in- I stance, worked round a curve, extra watchfulness is required. But supposing the' work to be puckered, how can it be remedied? Pressing with an iron is no cure, and, anyway, the pressure needed, is apt to flatten all the beauty out of the embroidery thread. Instead; get an old linen cloth or a piece of old cotton sheeting, wring *it out in water’, and fold in two of three thicknesses so that it may not dry too quickly. Lay the damp -cloth quite smoothly on a Bat, surface, such as a-pastry or drawing hoard ,or 'kitchen table. On this place the embroidery right side uppermost. Provide strong brass pins (steel ones are to be avoided for fear- of rust marks) j and a little hammer, and proceed to pin out the work carefully. It is best to piu along one side of the work,- preferably the way of the selvedge, putting in the | pins every inch or so, and taking care | to get the one side quite straight. Then j pin along the opposite side, drawing the i work taut and using a ruler or tape ' measure to see- that the distances are j" exact. Then pin out the two remaining [ sides; p certain amount of readjusting of j the pins may be necessary,* Leave the work on the table till it and the undercloth are both dry. If the puckering is very bad. it is a good thing before pinning out the work on the wet cloth to hold the embroidery over a bowl of boiling water, gently stretching out the material as the steam penetrates. Really bad puckering can be cured in this wav, though it may need very patient handling and a repetition both of the steaming and t pinning process. J