IHE SEWING ROOM

Southland Times, Issue 18975, 23 June 1923, Page 14 (Supplement)

IHE SEWING ROOM

ALGERIAN EMBROIDERY 7 SUITABLE FOR COARSE LINEN. Algerian embroidery should be doue upon thin, coarse linen. Dead white linen should never be used; dull blue, lilac, deep red, or art green linen is suitable. It is worked with soft mercerised cotton and fine chemille needles or crewel needles—those with fine sharp points and large eyes should be chosen. All stems, petals and loaves in Algerian work should be done in Oriental stitch. French knots are used for the middles of the flowers and worked with fine washing gold thread or silk. When French knots are used for the centre of flowers they should be clustered closely together. Little gilt beads are used with spangles and are threaded on the material with strong gold cotton as the beads cut silk. The needle is pushed up through the material and threaded on the spangle, which has a hole in the centre, then through the bead and back through the spangle and the material. Algerian work should be mounted on velvet or a similar material. If it is put on something like a handkerchief case the best way is to work the embroidery on a diamond-shaped piece of linen, then cover the sachet with some richly-coloured velvet or heavy silk and stitch the embroidery down on it. The edges of the linen should then be turned down and hidden with gold cord. The Oriental stitch used in this work is done like the herringbone stitch, with the exception that the needle comes out behind the last stitch and not in front of it as in the herringbone. It should be done very closely so that the material cannot be seen between. A lovely example of this work was carried out in dull salmon pink, with olive green leaves and stems and entirely outlined with gold washing thread and the ground dotted over in gold spangles.