ssing the iron backwards and forwards over it until it be quite dry.

If creases should come in the ironing where they ought not to be, dab
them over lightly with a sponge moistened with water and a few drops of
starch and pass the iron over them again.

After ironing the whole length of lace, pull it out crossways from left
to right, and from right to left and iron it all over once more. This
does away with the artificial stiffness and gives it the agreeable
softness and pliancy of new lace.

TO PIN OUT LACE.--In order to pin out lace in a thoroughly
satisfactory manner, you should provide yourself with a wooden drum,
about 30 c/m. high and from 50 to 60 c/m. in diameter, large enough to
rest upon the knees.

The outside circumference of the wood should be padded and covered with
grey or white ticking.

The pins must be exactly the size of the picots they are to pin down;
you will require extremely fine ones for Valenciennes and coarser for
other kinds of lace: steel pins are of no use whatever, because of their
liability to rust. Cover the cylinder with blue paper (less trying for
the eyes than any other) and take only just as much lace out of the damp
cloth as you are likely to be able to pin out before it gets dry,
keeping the remainder covered up.

Lay the lace upon the drum and pin the footing down first in a straight
line, sticking the pins in pretty closely and at regular distances
apart; then pin down each picot separately, taking care not to open them
if they have kept their original shape and to shut them up by twisting
them if they have got untwisted.

If you find the pinning out troublesome and cannot get it all done
before the lace dries, damp the picots with a sponge as you proceed.

Lace should never be pinned out when it is dry as the threads of the
picots are then very apt to break and torn picots destroy the value of
even the choicest lace.

Raised lace has to be stamped out from the wrong side with a lace awl or
kind of pricker of bone made for the purpose. Some professional
lace-cleaners use this implement even for Valenciennes lace but we
cannot recommend it, seeing that it is a lace that is by nature
perfectly flat.

Let the length of lace you have pinned out remain on the drum till it be
quite dry; if you have several yards to pin out, wind it round and round
the cylinder. Cover up the lace as you proceed and put each length away
as soon as it is ready in a blue paper bag, so as to ke