ext chapter.

MATERIALS (fig. 692).--The braids used for making Irish lace are an
English speciality and manufactured exclusively in England; they are
very various in shade, width and thickness, and are to be had white,
unbleached, grey and pale yellow, narrow and wide, coarse and fine in
texture, with and without holes, open edge and picots, with large
medallions and small.

Fig. 692 represents the kinds most commonly used, in their original
size, together with a specimen picot, or purl, as they are called in
England, for the outside edge, also to be had ready made, for those who
do not care for the trouble of making them themselves.

For the stitches and bars by which the braids are joined together, the
best material is Fil a dentelle D.M.C,[A] (lace thread) a smooth even
thread, now made in every colour to match the braids.

[Illustration: FIG. 692. PATTERNS OF THE DIFFERENT TAPES AND BRAIDS USED
FOR IRISH LACE.]

TRANSFERRING DESIGNS FOR IRISH LACE.--The best way is to trace them on
oiled tracing linen with a watery ink, free from greasy matter. This
tracing linen, which is of English make, is white, glazed on one side
only; the unglazed surface should be turned uppermost, as it takes the
ink better.

As this tracing linen is quite transparent, the pattern can be
transferred to it at once without recourse to any other process.

It will be found less trying for the eyes to lay a piece of transparent
coloured paper, or stuff, under the pattern whilst you are copying it.
The Irish lace designs are almost all drawn with double lines, between
which the braid is tacked on with small back stitches. We may mention at
once that it is advisable to make the stitches longer on the right side
than on the other, or at any rate to make them of the same length.

TACKING DOWN AND GATHERING IN THE BRAIDS (fig. 693).--Where the lines
of the pattern describe a curve or a circle, the outside edge of the
braid, as shown in fig. 693, must be sewn down firmly, so as to form
little folds or gathers on the inside edge, which are first tacked down
and then gathered in with small overcasting stitches in fine thread, so
as to fit exactly to the pattern.

[Illustration: FIG. 693. TACKING DOWN AND DRAWING IN THE BRAIDS.]

The stitches, made for the bars and the fillings, must never be drawn so
tightly as to drag out the edges of the braids and thus spoil the
outlines of the pattern. Nor should the stitches be caught into the
tracing c