wearing apparel, and household linen. Plain gold thread and gold
thread with a thread of coloured silk twisted round it, are very
effective used together.

Thus in fig. 245, the trees, foliage and flowers, are worked in plain
gold, the grasses, in gold shot with green, the butterflies in gold with
red, the two birds in gold with dark blue, and gold with light blue.

Two threads of gold should be laid down side by side and secured by
small catching stitches, set at regular intervals from one another, and
worked in Fil d'Alsace D.M.C No. 200,[A] of the same colour. Where the
design requires it, you may separate the gold threads, and work with one
alone.

The second specimen of Chinese embroidery, fig. 246, resembles the
first, as far as materials and execution are concerned, but the design
is different. The grotesque animals, flowers and shells it represents,
can be worked separately, or connected together so as to form a running
pattern.

STRIPE WORKED IN VARIOUS STITCHES (fig. 247).--All the designs
described thus far, are worked in the same way, but the stripe now
presented to our readers introduces them to several kinds of gold
thread, and a variety of stitches. The small, turned-back petals of the
flowers are worked in plain gold thread, and outlined with crimped; the
rest of the petals are worked in darning stitch, with plain gold thread.
The latticed leaves are edged with picots, worked with bright purl. The
other parts of the design are all worked with a double gold thread, the
stalks in dead gold, the leaves in crimped. The gold thread is secured
by overcasting stitches in gold-coloured thread, Jaune d'or 667, but it
looks very well if you use black or red thread for fastening the crimped
gold and dark or light green for the leaves and tendrils.

[Illustration: FIG. 247. STRIPE WORKED IN VARIOUS STITCHES.]

GOLD EMBROIDERY ON A FOUNDATION OF CORDS (fig. 248).--In the old
ecclesiastical embroideries, especially those representing the figures
of saints, we often find thick whip cords used as a foundation, instead
of cardboard, for the good reason that the stiff cardboard does not give
such soft and rounded contours as a cord foundation, which will readily
take every bend and turn that you give to it. In the following
illustrations, we have adhered strictly to the originals, as far as the
manner of working the surface is concerned, but have substituted for the
cord, which in their case has been used for the fo