Welcome to my blog about Home Arts Needlecraft Magazine! I "discovered" this publication about 2 years ago and fell in love with it to the extent that I had to start collecting issues as I ran across them. The magazine began publication with its September, 1909 premier issue, and continued through March, 1941. It has been interesting to follow the changes through the 30 plus years the magazine was published. It is a great source for needlework, fashion, recipes and short stories. Through my journey of sharing my issues online, I hope to discover a pattern of what was popular in different forms of needlecraft over the 3 decades. I hope you enjoy my blog as much as I am (so far!) enjoying posting articles and projects from the issues. Thanks for visiting!

Monday, November 12, 2012

Hints for the Woman Who Embroiders

(January, 1912, page 5)
When heavy padding is desired under embroidery, try using little wads of raw cotton instead of filling in the padded space with many, many stitches of darning-thread.
To pad a scallop, catch up a bit of raw cotton in your fingers and roll it between thumb and forefinger until it is of the length of the scallop, thick in the center but tapering to a mere thread at each end.  Lay this on the scallop and with a few stitches catch to the material.  Embroider over it in the usual way.
Flowers have their petals padded by making little cushionlike wads of cotton and catching them down to the material, well inside of the working line, with ordinary sewing-cotton.  Coin-dots and ribbon designs are treated accordingly.
Another method for padding a plain scallop will be appreciated by those who deprecate the time and labor usually taken for the work.  It is a genuine “short cut,” accomplishing the same result very quickly.  Purchase fine white cotton soutache braid, which is inexpensive.  You can easily shrink this by putting it in hot and cold water alternately.
Iron it straight and stitch it evenly by machine with long stitches to the scallop on the goods.
The braid should be laid just inside the markings.  With this help, the actual padding will take but a few moments, and the buttonholing will be even and firm.
Here is a wrinkle which is not generally known, and will be useful to the woman who hates to embroider on hoops:  Baste your material very firmly on stiff brown paper in such a manner that there is no danger of slipping.  You may bend and crush your work to your heart’s desire without danger of disturbing the design.
If the paper catches in the stitch, it need not cause you any uneasiness, as it can easily be torn away after the work is completed.

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