modifications still than
those we have hitherto been dealing with.

You want, for example, to embroider a rather large running ground
pattern on a piece of stuff, that is relatively too small for the
subject; or a small and rather minute pattern on a large surface on
which it is likely to look, either too insignificant, or too crowded and
confused and the chances are, if you do not know how to draw, you will
either think it necessary to get a draughtsman to help you or you will
give up the piece of work altogether, deterred by the difficulties that
confront you. You need not do either if you will follow the directions
here given.

Take a sheet of large-sized quadrille paper which if necessary you can
prepare for yourself; trace your pattern upon it, or rule the squares
direct upon the drawing, as shown in fig. 886.

[Illustration: FIG. 886. DIVIDING THE GROUND INTO SQUARES BEFORE
COPYING.]

On a second sheet of vegetable paper, rule squares, a fourth, a third or
half as small again as those on the first sheet. Thus, if the sides of
the first squares be 15 m/m. long and you want to reduce your pattern by
one fifth, the sides of your new squares should measure only 12 m/m.

If, on the contrary, you want to enlarge the pattern by one fifth, make
the sides of your squares 18 m/m. long.

Then you follow, square by square, the lines of the drawing, extending
or contracting them, according to whether the pattern is to be enlarged
or diminished.

To copy a pattern directly from a piece of embroidery and enlarge or
diminish it at the same time, proceed as follows: fix the embroidery on
a board, stretching it equally in every direction; then measure the
length of the drawing, divide the centimetres by the number of units
corresponding to whatever the proportions of your copy are to be, and if
there be any fractions of centimetres over, subdivide them into
millimetres, if necessary, into half millimetres and make your division
by whatever measure you have adopted; take a pair of compasses with dry
points, open them sufficiently for the opening to correspond to the
number and the distance obtained by the division; plant a pin with a
thread fastened to it, at the point indicated by the point of the
compasses and repeat the last operation all along one side of the
embroidery and, if possible a little beyond it, so that it may not be
defaced by the marks of the pins. All you now have to do is to pull the
threads in perfectly