down upon the embroidery with drawing-pins and rub off
the pattern with drawing-wax. In default of the right kind of wax, the
bowl or handle of a spoon, or a large silver coin will serve the purpose
equally well, as will also some powdered graphite or charcoal. The
outlines will not of course, in any case, be very clearly defined upon
the paper and will have to be gone over and carefully supplemented
afterwards with a pencil.

Taking off the pattern with charcoal or graphite is less injurious to
the embroidery than rubbing it off with wax or metal, as the pressure
required in the latter case flattens the needle-work very considerably.
As soon as you have fixed the lines of the pattern by drawing them over
with ink, it is ready for use.

TO TRANSFER A PATTERN DIRECT ON TO THE STUFF.--Patterns cannot be
copied by either of the above methods direct on to the stuff and can
only be used when the stuff on which the embroidery is to be executed
is transparent; in the case of thick close fabrics the drawing must be
made on the stuff itself. The following is the simplest way of
transferring a pattern on to a transparent stuff; begin by going over
all the lines of the drawing with Indian ink so as to make them quite
thick and distinct, and tacking the paper with large stitches on to the
back of the stuff. Then, mix some very dark powdered indigo diluted with
water, in a glass with a small pinch of sugar and powdered gum arabic,
and using this as ink and a fine pen very slightly split, trace the
pattern that shines through on the stuff.

The tracing must be very slight, for if the embroidery be not done till
some time afterwards the lines get so firmly fixed in the stuff that one
washing will not obliterate them; the tracing ink moreover makes the
work unpleasantly sticky.

TO COPY WITH OILED PAPER.--Another rather expeditious mode of
transferring patterns on to thin and more especially smooth glossy
stuffs, is by means of a special kind of tinted paper, called
autographic paper, which is impregnated with a coloured oily substance
and is to be had at any stationer's shop. This you place between the
pattern and the stuff, having previously fastened the stuff, perfectly
straight by the line of the thread, to a board, with drawing-pins. When
you have fitted the two papers likewise exactly together, you go over
all the lines of the pattern with a blunt pencil, or with, what is
better still, the point of a bone crochet needle or t