Page:Embroidery and Fancy Work.djvu/157



Like many other kinds of fancy work, netting is just now coming into fashion. Our grandmothers netted, as our mothers tatted, industriously, netting boxes and stirrups being as familiar a sight then as the tatting shuttle was some fifteen years ago, and as the crewel and silk cases are now. It is a work that can be applied to a great variety of purposes, from curtains down to fichus or breakfast caps. Guipure d'art which is worked on netted squares has always been in favor, but its seeming difficulty has deterred many from attempting to make it. The following directions for plain and fancy netting and for making Guipure stitches are made as plain as possible, and will be found easy to follow when the manner of forming the netting stitch has been once mastered. This can be learned from the directions, but is much more easily learned in a lesson from one who understands netting.

You will need for this work, a netting needle, a mesh, and twine, cotton, or linen thread. Formerly, the netting was fastened to a braid or ribbon loop, called a stirrup from its being held on the foot, but a more 153