leave
no marks when, after pouncing in the pattern, you remove the threads.
Before finishing the pouncing of a pattern, see that it is the right
size for the purpose it is intended for.

Supposing that you are tracing a border with a corner, you should
measure the length it will occupy and then by a very light pouncing, you
can mark the points from which the pattern will have to be repeated. It
may be that a gap will be left in the middle, which, if not too large,
can be got rid of without altering the pattern by pushing the whole
thing a little further in and so shortening the distance between the two
corners.

Should the gap however be too large for this, you will have to make a
supplementary design to fill up the place. The same thing would be
necessary in the case of your having to shorten a pattern.

TO TRANSPOSE AND REPEAT PATTERNS BY MEANS OF LOOKING-GLASSES (fig.
885).--We have referred to the necessity that often occurs of adapting
patterns to certain given proportions; this can in most cases be done
easily enough without the help of a draughtsman, especially in the case
of cross stitch embroideries, by means of two unframed looking-glasses
(Penelope mirrors, as they are called) used in the following manner.

If you want to utilize a piece only of a straight border, or after
repeating it several times, to form a corner with it, you place the
mirror in the first instance across it at right angles, at the place
from which the pattern is to be repeated, and then exactly diagonally
inwards.

To make a square out of a straight pattern, you take two mirrors and so
place them that they touch at the point where the diagonal lines meet,
as represented in fig. 885, and you have your square at once.

This is all easy enough, but before beginning any large piece of work it
is necessary to consider carefully which parts of the drawing will best
fill the centre and which are best suited to form the corners, as it is
not every part of a straight pattern that is adapted for repetition.

A few preliminary trials with the help of the mirrors will better show
the importance of these explanations than anything further we can say on
the subject.

[Illustration: FIG. 885. TO TRANSPOSE AND REPEAT A STRAIGHT PATTERN BY
MEANS OF LOOKING GLASSES.]

TO ALTER THE PROPORTIONS OF A PATTERN BY DIVIDING THE GROUND INTO
SQUARES (figs. 886 and 887).--Cases will occur where it will be found
necessary to subject the pattern to greater