ost useful one for many purposes. It is difficult to
distinguish from a fine chain when done, but in the working it much more
resembles stem stitch. It can be carried out in the hand or in a frame.
This stitch, frequently seen upon ancient work, was much used for both
draperies and features; the lines of the stitching usually, by their
direction, expressing moulding of form or folds of drapery. To work it
(fig. 38)--Bring the thread through at the lower end of the traced line,
then insert the needle about one-eighth of an inch further along, and
bring it through on the line two or three threads nearer the
starting-point; whilst bringing it through take it also through the
centre of the working thread, which thus splits each stitch.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] No. 184, 1898.

CHAPTER V

STITCHES--(_continued_)

Satin Stitch--Long and Short Stitch--Stem Stitch--Overcast
Stitch--Back Stitch--Buttonhole Stitch--Tailor's Buttonhole--Fancy
Buttonhole Edgings--Flower in Open Buttonhole Stitch--Leaf in Close
Buttonhole Stitches--Petal in Solid Buttonholing.

SATIN AND SIMILAR STITCHES

Satin stitch is perhaps the most commonly used of all stitches. It is
more quickly worked by hand, but for complicated work the help of a
frame is required. Floss silk thread is seen to greatest advantage in a
stitch of this kind, for it shows off the glossiness of silk
particularly well. It is straightforward in the working and needs no
further description than is given by the diagram (fig. 39). The stitches
may vary in length, they must neither be impracticably long nor, on the
other hand, too much cut up, lest the silky effect be partly lost. These
stitches lie close together and in parallel lines; the chief difference
between satin and several other closely allied stitches being that these
others may radiate or vary in direction according to the space to be
filled. The stitch is usually worked in oblique lines; stems, leaves,
and petals would be treated in this way; sometimes it is worked
regularly having regard to the warp and woof of the material; it would
be treated thus when used in conjunction with cross or stroke stitch.

[Illustration: Fig. 39.]

It will be seen that there is as much silk at the back as on the front
of the work. There is a method of carrying out the stitch by which this
waste of material at the back is avoided; the thread is returned to the
front close to where it went through instead of crossing over an