Broad stitch,
Rosemary stitch,
Chip stitch,
Raised work,
Geneva work,
Cut work,
Laid work,
Back stitch,
Queen's stitch,
Satin stitch,
Finny stitch,
Chain stitch,
Fisher's stitch,
Bow stitch,
Cross stitch,
Needlework purl,
Virgin's device,
Open cut work,
Stitch work,
Through stitch,
Rock work,
Net work, and
Lent work.

"All which are swete manners of work wroughte by the
needle with silke of all natures, purls, wyres, and weft
or foreign bread ('braid'), etc., etc."

_Part 2._

PLAIN WORK AND WHITE WORK.

We are told that the primal man and woman sewed in Paradise.

To "sew," in contradistinction to the word to "embroider," is derived
from the Sanskrit _su_, _suchi_, and thence imported into Latin,
_suo_.[318] To prove how highly esteemed needlework was among the
Romans, I may mention that the equivalent of the phrase "to hit the
right nail on the head" was _rem acu tangere_, "to touch the question
with the point of the needle."

"Plain work" is that which is necessary. As soon as textiles are
needed for covering and clothing, the means are invented for drawing
the cut edges together, and for preventing the fraying where the
material is lacerated by the shaping process. Hence the "seam," the
"hem," and all the forms of stitches that bind and plait. These
necessary stitches constitute plain needlework, and are closely
followed by decorative stitches, which in gradation cover the space
between plain needlework and embroidery.

Semper has given us his archaeological theories for the origin of
needlework and its stitches.

These are his arguments, if not always his words. He says: "The seam
is one of the first human successful efforts to conquer
difficulties."[319]

A string, a ribbon, a band, may serve to keep together several loose
things; but by means of the seam, small things actually become large
ones. For example: a full-grown man can, by its help, cover himself
with a garment made of the skins of many small animals. When Eve sewed
fig-leaves together, she made of these small pieces a garment of
patchwork.

Acting on the principle of making a virtue of necessity, accepting and
adorning the severe facts of life, seams came to be an important
vehicle of ornament. The Gauls and Britons embroidered the seams of
their fur garments. "We may judge of the antiquity of the seam by its
universa