ws, in quite a different way. You get there parallel rows of double
stitches. Having made a half-stitch entering the material at the upper
edge of the work, bring the needle out on the lower edge of it
immediately opposite. Then, going back, put it in at the beginning of
the upper edge, and bring it out at the beginning of the lower one.
Thence take a long slanting stitch upwards from left to right, bring the
needle out on the lower edge immediately opposite, cross it by a rather
shorter stitch from right to left, entering the stuff at the point where
the first half-stitch ended, bring this out on the lower edge, opposite,
and the stitch is done.

The artistic use of herring-bone-stitch is shown in the leaves of the
tulip (84), and a closer variety of it in the pink, or whatever the
flower may be, in the hand of the little figure on Illustration 72.

BUTTONHOLE-STITCH.

BUTTONHOLE is more useful in ornament than one might expect a stitch
with such a very utilitarian name to be. It is, as its common use would
lead one to suppose, pre-eminently a one-edged stitch, a stitch with
which to mark emphatically the outside edge of a form. There is,
however, a two-edged variety known as ladder-stitch, shown in the two
horn shapes on the sampler, Illustration 22.

By the use of two rows back to back, leaf forms may be fairly expressed.
In the leaves on the sampler, the edge of the stitch is used to
emphasise the mid rib, leaving a serrated edge to the leaves. The
character of the stitch would have been better preserved by working the
other way about, and marking the edge of the leaves by a clear-cut line,
as in the case of the solid leaves in Illustration 73.

The stitch may be used for covering a ground or other broad surface, as
in the pot shape (J) on the sampler, where the diaper pattern produced
by its means explains itself the better for being worked in two shades
of colour.

The simpler forms of the stitch are the more useful. Worked in the form
of a wheel, as in the rosettes at the side of the vase shape (A), the
ornamental use of the stitch is obvious.

[Sidenote: TO WORK A.]

One need hardly describe BUTTONHOLE STITCH. The simple form of it (A) is
worked by (when you have brought your needle out) keeping the thread
under your thumb to the right, whilst you put the needle in again at a
higher point slightly to the right, and bring it out immediately below,
close to where it came out before. This and other