itch
may help to explain the construction of the form, as in the case of
leaves, for example, where the veining may be suggested; or of stalks,
where the fibre may be indicated. There is no law as to the direction of
stitch, except that it should be considered. You may follow the
direction of the forms, you may cross them, you may deliberately lay
your stitches in the most arbitrary manner; but, whatever you do, you
must do it with intelligent purpose. An artist or a workwoman can tell
at once whether your stitch was laid just so because you meant it or
because you knew no better.

Having laid your stitches deliberately, it is best to leave them, and
not to work over them with other stitching. Stitching over stitching was
resorted to whenever elaboration was the fashion; but the simpler and
more direct method is the best. The way the veins are laid in cord over
the satin-stitch in the lotus leaves in Illustration 40 is the one fault
to be found with an all but perfect piece of work.

The stitching over the laid silver mid-rib in Illustration 92 is better
judged. It may be said, generally speaking, that except where, as in the
case of laid-work, the first stitching was done in anticipation of a
second, and the work would be incomplete without it, stitching over
stitches should be indulged in only with moderation.

Stitching is sometimes done not merely over stitches, but upon the
surface of them, not penetrating the ground-stuff. Unless, in such a
case, the first stitching is of such compact character as to want no
strengthening, it amounts almost to a sin against practicality not to
take advantage of the second stitching to make it firmer.

CHURCH WORK.

It is customary to draw a distinction between church, or ecclesiastical
as it is called, and other embroidery; but it is a distinction without
much difference. Certain kinds of work are doubtless best suited to the
dignity of church ceremonial, and to the breadth of architectural
decoration; accordingly, certain processes of work have been adopted for
church purposes, and are taken as a matter of course--too much as a
matter of course. The fact is, work precisely like that employed on
vestments and the like (Illustration 86) was used also for the caparison
of horses and other equally profane purposes.

[Illustration: 86. RENAISSANCE CHURCH WORK.]

Practical considerations, alike of ceremonial and decoration, make it
imperative that church work should be