If I Had My Own Blue Box:

Cassell’s Household Guide: Being a Complete Encyclopedia of Domestic and Social Economy Volume II, 1869 (published in London and New York.) While this is the final part of the entry, to me it seems like it should be the first or the second.

Nearly all embroidery is, when circumstances will permit, best worked when stretched in a frame, and lengths which are too great when stretched at one time, may be put in the frame in successive pieces. The best kind of frame for canvas is one in which the material is secured by blunt points, attached to the sides and covered with a wooden bar, cut half round, and having a groove, of a same width as the points, running along it; the canvas is stretched and the sides secured by screws. But all other materials would be injured by being fixed by such points, and must, therefore, be secured to the frame by being sewn to webbing. A frame capable of holding a piece of work three feet square is a convenient size, and costs about 10s. 6d. It is better that the frame should exceed the size of the work by some inches, and it is well, to secure a good purchase, that the material should be sewn to the extreme end of the webbing on either side. The selvage sides of the material should be sewn to the webbing, so as to leave an equal space at either end, with strong, double thread, in stitches of six to an inch, and a piece of tape to secure them, stitched along the wool ends of the material. The frame is then put together, stretched and secured by its pegs, and the woof ends are in their turn secured by sewing through the tape through the tape and over the opposite bars with twine.

In working at the frame, there will, at first, be some difficulty experienced in using the left hand simultaneously with the right, and particularly in bringing up the needle from beneath in the exact spot. The power of doing this can only be attained by perseverance, and the beginner should practice till the needle can be used as well with the one hand as the other. The worker should sit in as upright position as possible, and the frame should be fixed accordingly; as regards to light, a side light is best. In doing long stitch or gold bullion embroidery, both hands are rarely required above the frame; in couching, one hand guides the silk along the material, while the other sews it down, and in applying nearly all edging cords, the hands are occupied in the same way. While working with floss-silk it is necessary to keep the hands smooth, or they will catch it, and It is not well, for the same reason to wear rings. Perfect cleanliness of the hands is, of course, indispensable.

The implements required are needles, which should be large in proportion to the silk they have to carry, and with large, round eyes; from 7 to 9 are the sizes most often in use; the former few sewing-silks, and the latter for crochet and other coarse silks. Nos. 8, 9, and 10 are good sizes for gold bullion. Pins of a small size will be found requisite. As both hands are employed, two plain silver thimbles should be provided, scissors, &c.  A stiletto will be required, and a steel piercer rounded and pointed at the end, and then becoming flat-sided, will be useful for regulating gold bullion, passing, pearl-purl, &c.

The embroidery paste, of which we have spoke is made by adding to three tablespoonfuls of flour as much resin as will lie on a shilling, mixing them smoothly in a half pint of water, stirring, mixing them smoothly allowing them to boil five minutes, when the paste should be turned out and left till cold.

The silks to be used are floss, Dacca, Berlin, three-cord, crochet-twist, and seedling. In the best old work, floss is the silk chiefly employed, either in vertical lines kept down by cross rows of fine gold thread, or split fine for flesh and hair; sometimes a thick line of it is used for outlines, while at others ,rows of twisted silk sewn down with it are used for that purpose. Dacca is a floss-silk , so made as to be easily divided into two filaments or plies, which can again be subdivided to any extent which is necessary, besides being more easily split than floss. Dacca is made in more shades; the English is he best, the French being deficient in softness and brilliancy. Berlin has a smooth, loose twist, and is well adapted for flat masses of colour, as also for scrolls and leaves. Three-cord is a close-twisted silk of three plies and best simulates gold bullion. The apricot shade is very beautiful, but, as it turns white, the more metallic yellows are to be used in preference. Three-cord is made in other colours that gold, but not in such variety as Dacca or Berlin; the French is not equal to the English. Crochet-twist is also of three piles, but is coarser and less tightly twisted than the above. It is most valuable of larger designs to be used in imitation of gold, and may be either applied in modern embroidery over card, or couched, either single or double, by stitches of purse silk, or it may be used as a substitute for cord in edging appliqué. Purse-silks are of three sizes – coarse, medium, and fine. The first is used in places where three-cord would be too clumsy; the second when a strong, even, and tolerably fine silk is needed; the third for such purposes as couching crochet-silk on an even surface. In sewing-silk, there is only one first-class quality, which should always be used (drapers’ silk on reels is value-less), and the best is bough in hanks, of from half an ounce to an ounce. Passing, that is gold thread, should be couched with sewing-silk.

Where twist-silk is being used, it is not possible to fill gaps with extra stitches, as in using floss; every stitch must, therefore, be laid with regularity, the piercer being constantly used to keep it in place; care should be taken that the stitches are of uniform tightness, and a needleful should never be gone on with when the silk dulls or strains, but another should be taken at once.  A large-eyed needle should be used, and never too great a length of silk – twenty-seven inches is a very good length for a needleful.

Pearl-purl is gold cord , which resembles a close string of beads, and is used for edging bullion embroidery; it should be sewn down with single silk, previously waxed and the stitches concealed. Spangles are frequently useful for enriching embroidery; they are made both flat and concave, the latter have the best effect. Passing is a bright, smooth thread, formed by silver-gilt wire spun round yellow silk. Generally speaking, it should not be pulled through material, but should be couched and sewn down with colored silk.

At present day, an important employment for the various kinds of embroidery we have described, is the decoration of church furniture; for which, indeed, such methods of work are alone properly applicable. The number of domestic purposes to which, also, it is now growing fashionable to apply them, is very large, some of the most favourite being, as borders for curtains and tablecloths, as hangings for mantelpieces, and, in narrow strips, to be affixed to various articles of furniture.

Cassell’s Household Guide: Being a Complete Encyclopedia of Domestic and Social Economy Volume II, 1869 (published in London and New York.)

Of all the stitches used in embroidery, the long stitch is that in most general use, and all shaded work be done in it. In the somewhat fashionable “Brenton work,” however, shaded forms are filled in with short stitches taken promiscuously, instead of long stitch. In using it, all stitches should be taken from the outside edge of the figure, and worked towards the centre. In a figure of equal sides, the first stitch should be taken from the very centre of the edge, and the work proceeded with from first one and then the other side of this stitch. In working leaves and scrolls, the stitches ought, invariably, to be take in a slanting direction. The lighter parts of the leaves are first worked in from the edges, and the darker shades towards the central veins filled in afterwards, the veins themselves being put in last; gold should not be applied till after the silk-work is done. The last thing is to put a neat and careful outline to the leaves. In shaded work, the upper side of the design, upon which the light would be supposed to fall, should be worked in the lightest shade, and the high lights should not be so dark by four degrees as those shades next to them. In leaves, scrolls or conventional forms, a small number of shades, and those arbitrarily used look best, but more may be introduced with good effect in draperies. In fig. 1 we give a diagram of shading in long stitch, from the petal of a flower, in old English embroidery. Satin stitch is most useful for making raised leaves, &c, as in Chinese conventional flower, fig 2. The chain stitch, which is an imitation of the old tambour stitch, is formed by carrying the thread at the back of the fabric, catching it through, and laying it along the surface with a fine crochet-hook, which is, under a modern name, the same instrument as the old tambour-needle. Basket-stitch (fig 3) is formed by laying any even number of rows of twine, from four upwards, upon the foundation, and securing them there; the silk, &c, is carried over these two at a time. This is useful for borders. Couching was much used in old work. Passing or gold thread is frequently applied in this way, being laid over the ground and secured by short stitches in coloured silk over each single thread. These last are sometimes introduced promiscuously; sometimes so arranged as to form a variety of diapers and patterns, as in figs 4, 5, 6 and 7. Sometimes, as in fig 8, instead of these short stitches passing over every thread, the couching is accomplished by other threads crossing at right angles, and secured by stitches. Twist-stitch is produced by working equal stitches diagonally, one behind the other on an  even line, as in Fig 9. French knots are frequently used and pretty for forming the centres of flowers and in diapers, they are supposed to be introduced in several of our designs. They are made by first bringing the needle through the material, taking the tread and holding it with the left hand midway between the needle and work, and with the right hand twisting the needle round the silk in such a manner as to form a loop; this having been slipped down to the point of the needle, the latter can be repassed through the stuff, close to the place where it came through, and while it is drawn down by the right hand, the silk is held by the left, till the loop settles into a knot upon the surface.

Cassell’s Household Guide: Being a Complete Encyclopedia of Domestic and Social Economy Volume II, 1869 (published in London and New York.)

In ordinary flat embroidery, no applied materials, as of pieces of fabric, cord, or spangles are used, nor is any part of the pattern part of the pattern raised by cardboard, or other packing beneath it, and the design depends entirely for its effect upon the coloured stitches used in it. This was the kind of work most in vogue in the days of our grandmothers, and it is, as admits of shading, the most delicate and beautiful, if not the most striking kind. The beautiful Eastern embroidery – Indian, Chinese, and Japanese – is mostly of this class, and may, In arrangements of colour, form good examples for imitation.

In raised embroidery, different substances are placed over the material to give it the effect of relief to the stitches. An approved modern method of working, is by taking cardboard – that known as thin mounting-board is good – tracing upon it the design to be raised, and cutting it out, care being taken to leave sufficient points of attachment in the more delicate parts of the design. The pieces of card have then to be sewn strong in their places, upon the material which is to from the ground, with cotton, and the bits of cardboard left for support cut away. If the design is to be still further raised, as would be recommended in working the large fleur-de-lis in fig 8, a line of even twine should be sewn down over the center of the figure, and over this a silk or gold thread can be worked. More than one row of twine should not be used, or the effect will be spoilt; and the thickness of it must depend upon the amount of relief required. If the figure is to be worked in gold or gold colour, the card beneath it should be coloured with gamboges. Fig 8 is a design for an embroidered curtain-border, with an edging of velvet, the principal parts of the pattern to be worked in relief; this will look very handsome if the fleur-de-lis is worked in gold thread or gold-coloured silk. Fig 9 is a mantelpiece hanging, in which the fan-shaped flowers are also in gold, raised upon card, the line of twine being near their outer extremity; they may, however, if preferred, be worked in coloured silks; the ground should be dark velvet. In fig 10, which is intened for the border of a table-cover, the raising of the embroidery is effected by merely laying on the coloured cord up the centre of the running pattern, and sewing it down.

Cassell’s Household Guide: Being a Complete Encyclopedia of Domestic and Social Economy Volume II, 1869 (published in London and New York.) This shorter passage I am allowing to stand alone because I had not considered appliqué a form of embroidery. I would love to hear readers’ thoughts on this.

In appliqué, which is a very ancient and always a favourite method of embroidery, broad, flat masses of colour are gained by fixing one fabric over another. In fig 7 we give a design for a mantelpiece hanging to be worked in this manner. For appliqué the materials chosen are usually velvet, silk, cloth, and cloth of gold or silver; when velvet is used it should always be silk velvet. In may be employed for a variety of purposes, such as cushions, curtains, the covering of chairs &c., and though shading cannot be attempted in it, it produces rich and fine effects in flat patterns.

The ordinary method of preparing the materials is, by stretching some thin grey holland, say about a shilling a yard, on a common embroidery frame and covering it evenly with paste. The paste used by shoemakers, and to be bought from them will do, but in the section which we shall devote to materials, a receipt for proper embroidery paste will be given. The material must be laid upon the holland and smoothed till it adheres evenly. It will require about twenty-four hours to dry, and after being removed from the frame, the designs which are to be formed in the material may be traced upon the back of the holland, and cut out with a sharp pair of scissors. The above preparation refers more especially to cloth, velvet, &c; for silk, white lawn is preferable, as a black and whit starch should be used with it instead of paste; and indeed for all white materials a white back-lining should be used. Different parts of the design may of course, be formed in different colours, each to be prepared in the same way. Being cut out, they have to be laid upon the background, which, in our illustration, is supposed to be of black, or dark purple, or maroon cloth, and fastened to it round the edges with sewing silk. There are two ordinary ways of edging the pieces the pieces laid on in appliqué, that which has the richest effect is bordering them with a moderately stiff cord (as shown round the trefoils in our illustration) and sewing over this with silk. Gold-twist makes the most splendid bordering of this kind. The other is that shown round the semi-circular pieces at the roots of the stems, and which consists in working round the applied material with bright-coloured silk in button-hole stitch. It will be observed that a considerable space is left between these stitches to give them their full effect.

Cassell’s Household Guide: Being a Complete Encyclopedia of Domestic and Social Economy Volume II, 1869 (published in London and New York.) We propose in the course of this article to give some description of the various methods of working and of the stitches used in them, as well as of the materials required. We shall also give a series of original designs, but we trust that our readers will not, after perusing the above remarks [previous post] content themselves with merely copying these, but will use them only as stepping stones to embroidery work in which patterns will be of their own devising.

The methods of embroidery practiced at different times and in different times and in different countries, as well as the various stitches employed in them, are almost endless. Taylor, the water poet, in 1640, mentioned by name no less that twenty-one distinct stitches as being in vogue among the English embroideresses of his day. We have not, however, at the present time to deal with the antiquarian aspects of embroidery, but to speak of it as it may be applied to modern practice.

Between ordinary German wool-work and legitimate embroidery there is an intermediate style, which has latterly been somewhat freely practiced. It is susceptible of far better effects than the former, and is by now means difficult. Over the ground of German wool, worked in cross-stitch upon canvas, diapers such as those given in figs 1 to 6 are over-stitched on silk. Thus treated the German wool-work loses its objectionable flatness, and gains great brilliancy. While on the subject of German wool-work, we would beg our readers to remember, if they continue to practice it in preference to better styles of embroidery, that though it is capable of being enriched as above, it is a method of work which is, artistically speaking, exceedingly limited, and really fitted for the production of flat patterns only, such as geometric designs, of conventional ornaments, In cross-stitch it is impossible to shade objects in such a manner as to give them any satisfactory resemblance to nature, and the representations of animals and flowers which have been attempted in it, are as numerous as they have been lamentable failures, and ought merely to be preserved as examples of bad taste.

I came across an interesting section on embroidery in Cassell’s Household Guide: Being a Complete Encyclopedia of Domestic and Social Economy Volume II, 1869 (published in London and New York.) The book divides it into two parts. I will divide it up a little more for ease of reading. I find this article to be interesting because it shows one mid to late nineteenth century perspective of a skill many of us try to imitate. I will start with this section looking at history with a bit of contemporary observation… “The art of embroidery was originally derived, like many other of our arts and sciences, from the Spanish Moors, by whom it was introduced into Europe early in the Middle Ages. As applied to tapestry hangings, it was at first ued among Christian nations for the decorations of churches, and for employment on State occasions only, till Eleanor of Castile set the example of using it for domestic purposes, which was soon generally followed by the wealthier classes. Throughout the Middle Ages needlework embroidery, chiefly for hangings, but also for some other uses, formed the great occupation of ladies when not engaged in domestic or other duties; and the beauty of their work, together with the invention and design which they displayed in it, are such as might well raise the admiration and envy of the ladies of the present day. These old works have not merely the conventional prettiness which is generally the only, though not the invariable, characteristic of modern needlework, but have often real artistic beauty, and display not merely fancy, beu even imagination, in the designs. In this respect certainly they have little in common with modern “fancy work,” which is apparently so called in a sarcastic sense, from the utter absence of any fancy displayed in it. The modern lady, instead of exercising her inventive powers, simply copies a pattern set before her, stitch by stitch, without the slightest idea of deviating from it if its forms are bad, or of developing this mere copying and counting of stitches demands too much mental exertion, and she must either purchase her “fancy work” ready begun, and the pattern laid out for her, or perhaps even with the ornamental group of flowers or other device already finished, and with nothing left to be done beyond filling in the back ground. This degeneracy in skill and taste from even the standard of those qualities in their own grandmothers, is in great measure to be attributed to the substitution of so limited a style of work as German wool embroidery for the more beautiful and legitimate styles that preceded it. In Berlin wool-work, as it has usually been practiced for the last forty years, anything like real beauty or flow of fancy is an impossibility. That this absence of invention and good taste in their lighter occupations, should continue among ladies is neither necessary pations, should continue among ladies is neither necessary nor desirable. An abundant fancy is a characteristic of the female brain, and ladies would be far happier and better in many ways if they would allow its free development. Few things could be better calculated to effect this than a return to the graceful and beautiful occupation of their female ancestors. There is at the present time much desire for this shown among the upper classes, and legitimate embroidery is again rapidly becoming a fashionable employment.