Handicraft for Girls Part 15

a. _The Loop or Shank b.u.t.ton_--Place the b.u.t.ton in position with the loop at right angles to the edge of the cloth. Hold the b.u.t.ton with the left hand and overhand the loop to the cloth. Pa.s.s the thread to the under side and fasten.

b. _Four-Hole b.u.t.ton_--In sewing on flat b.u.t.tons insert the needle from the right side and back in order to hide the knot under the b.u.t.ton. Place the b.u.t.ton in position and hold a pin across the b.u.t.ton for the purpose of lengthening the st.i.tches. Put in five or six st.i.tches diagonally across the b.u.t.ton and over the pin. Change the position of the pin and repeat. Slip the pin out, pa.s.s the needle through the cloth only, and wind the thread around the threads between the b.u.t.ton and the cloth. Pa.s.s the needle through the cloth and fasten securely.

c. _Two-Hole b.u.t.ton_--Place the b.u.t.ton so that the st.i.tches will come at right angles to the edge of the cloth, with the pin across the b.u.t.ton. Proceed as with the four-hole b.u.t.ton.

=Sewing on Hooks and Eyes.=--In sewing hooks and eyes on a garment it is best, where practicable, to cover the ends with the lining of the garment or with a piece of tape. In sewing them on the edge of a hem or facing turn the edge of the hem back over the ends of the hooks and eyes and hem it down. Where they are to be covered they should be strongly overhanded to the garment first. When covering is not feasible place the hook or eye in position and b.u.t.tonhole around the top, beginning at the right-hand side and inserting the needle under and up through the hole, throwing the thread around the needle as in the b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tch. The hook should be sewed down at the point before breaking the thread. The worked loop is often used in place of the metal eye. For this purpose cut a stiff pointed piece of cardboard the length of the desired loop and work the loop over this, when the cardboard can be easily slipped out. The loop is worked from left to right with the blanket st.i.tch the same as the bar of the b.u.t.tonhole.

=Sewing on Lace.=--When sewing lace to an edge always hold the lace next to you. Lace may be put on straight or gathered. At the top of most laces will be found a coa.r.s.e thread woven into the lace for the purpose of gathering. Before drawing this up divide the lace and the edge upon which it is to be placed into halves, quarters or eighths, depending upon the length, and pin, with right sides together, at points of division. Then draw up the thread, arrange the gathers even, and overhand to the edge with fine even st.i.tches. If the gathering thread is not in the lace, put it in and proceed as above. If the lace is to be put on plain hold it loosely to the edge and overhand.

A. SEWING LACE AROUND A CORNER:

When sewing the lace on plain to round a corner, overhand to a point as far from the corner as the width of the lace. (This point may be designated A, and a point an equal distance from the corner on the other side B.) From A measure on the lace twice its width and pin at the corner. Allow the same fullness on the other side and pin at B. Continue overhanding from B, leaving the corner until later, when the gathering thread will be put in, gathers arranged and the lace overhanded to the edge. If the lace is wide baste it in place at the corners before overhanding.

When sewing gathered lace to an edge, to round a corner proceed as above with this exception: The same fullness must be allowed on the corner that is allowed on the straight edge, in addition to that required to carry the lace around the corner without drawing. For example: If one-half the length of the lace is allowed for fullness on the straight edge, at the corner allow two and one-half times the width of the lace instead of twice its width.

B. SEWING TWO ENDS OF LACE TOGETHER:

The manner of sewing two ends of lace together will depend upon the kind of lace to be joined, the pattern, strength, etc. The first aim to be considered is to have the joining strong enough so that it will not pull apart. The second is to join it so that it will show as little as possible. Several methods are suggested:

a. Lace made up of units can be easily joined by overhanding these units together.

b. If the pattern permits, cut the lace with the pattern, lay one edge over the other and b.u.t.tonhole over each raw edge with fine thread.

c. Sew the lace right sides together, in a narrow seam. Lay the seam flat and b.u.t.tonhole over the raw edge and at the same time down to the lace.

d. Turn a narrow fold on one piece to the right side and on the other piece to the wrong side, slip one under the other and hem down the two edges as in the hemmed seam.

=Tucking.=--Crease the first tuck where desired. For the second tuck measure from the first and allow twice the width of the tuck plus the desired s.p.a.ce between. Repeat for the successive tucks.

PUTTING A RUFFLE INTO A HEM-TUCK.

This makes an excellent finish for the bottom of underskirts, petticoats and drawers. Measure up from the bottom twice the width of the desired hem plus one-fourth of an inch for the seam and crease for a tuck.

St.i.tch the tuck. This will leave the raw edge extending one-fourth of an inch below the edge of the tuck. Place the ruffle along this edge, wrong sides together, and baste in a quarter-inch seam. Baste the tuck over the seam and st.i.tch along the edge.

CHAPTER VIII.

TEXTILE FIBERS AND FABRICS.

The fibers used in the manufacture of cloth are of two different natures, vegetable and animal.

The vegetable fibers may be divided into three distinct cla.s.ses:

1. The cotton, having soft, lint-like fibers, one-half to two inches in length, is obtained from the seed-pods, called "bolls."

2. The fibers from flax, hemp and jute are flexible and of soft texture, ten to one hundred inches in length.

3. The hard or leaf fibers, including manila, sisal, istle and the New Zealand fibers, all having rather stiff woody fibers, one to ten feet long, are obtained from the leaf or the leaf stem.

The animal fibers are obtained from the wool bearing animals such as common sheep, Angora and Cashmere goats and the hair of the camel.

The silk fiber is obtained from the coc.o.o.n of a caterpillar.

SILK.

Silk is the most beautiful of all fabrics. It is made from the fiber produced by the silk-worm which is a species of caterpillar. So perfectly does this little worm do its work that no spinning is required. This fiber, placed under a microscope, looks like a gla.s.s thread. It is the light playing along this smooth surface that gives to silk its beautiful l.u.s.ter.

Silk first came to Europe from China where the industry had been cultivated for many centuries. It is said this was begun by a woman, the wife of an Emperor, in the year 2600 B. C., and the culture of the mulberry, upon the leaves of which the silk-worm feeds and thrives, forty years later.

Several unsuccessful attempts have been made to introduce the cultivation of the silk industry into the United States. As the business requires a large amount of cheap labor for a short time during the year, it has not as yet been found profitable. Machines are of little use, except in reeling the silk.

The moth lays its eggs, about five hundred in number, in August or September, and they hatch the following May, just at the time the mulberry comes into leaf. These little caterpillars are hatched and fed in-doors, and they eat like hungry school-boys for a month or more, until they are about three inches long. At this period they sicken and cast their skins, after which they begin eating as eagerly as ever. In about a month, however, the worms stop eating altogether, crawl up on the twigs which are placed on large trays, and begin to spin their coc.o.o.ns. There are two little openings in the head of the worm, from which comes two thread-like substances resembling glue, from which the silk is made. These stick close together and form a flat thread. The silk-worm by moving its head about, wraps this thread around its body, wrapping from the outside inward, until it has completely inclosed itself in this silken blanket. Then it goes to sleep. If left to itself it would in two or three weeks bore its way out of this silky covering and come forth a feeble white moth. But as the cutting of this hole in the coc.o.o.n injures the fibers, only just enough for the next year's crop are allowed to come out. The rest are stifled in a hot oven.

After the outsides of the coc.o.o.ns are removed they are placed in hot water which softens the gum that is in the silk so that it can be wound off on reels. The silk fiber is all in one piece, and about one thousand feet long. There is always a portion of the coc.o.o.n which is too tangled to be wound, and it is made into what is called spun silk. Spun silk is carded like wool. The removal of the natural gum, by boiling in strong soap suds, effects a considerable loss in weight, the cleansing process, however, causing it to take on very beautiful tints. This loss has led to the weighting of silk by mixing cheaper materials with it.

An artificial silk is made from the fiber of the ramie plant which grows in China and Malay. This is sometimes known as China silk. Mercerized cotton has also been treated so as to very successfully imitate silk.

COTTON.

=The Plant.=--Cotton is one of the most important vegetable fibers, distinguished from all other fibers by the peculiar twist it possesses which makes it especially adapted to spinning. It is cultivated between the twentieth and thirty-fifth parallels north of the equator. This is known as the cotton belt. Within this belt lie the cotton districts of the United States, Northern Mexico, Egypt, Northern Africa, Asia and India.

Although cotton is cultivated mainly for the fiber surrounding the seeds, its by-products, the seeds and stalks, are of great commercial importance, being manufactured into oil-meal, oil cakes, cottolene, etc.

There are about fifty species of the cotton plant but only a few are cultivated, the best known and most commonly used being the "American Upland," which is now cultivated in many parts of the world. The two varieties grown in the United States are the "Sea Island" and the "Upland." The former is much more valuable because its fiber is longer.

It is cultivated on the islands and low-lying coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The latter, while not so valuable, furnishes most of the crop and is grown over a wide area.

The plant grows from seven to ten feet high. The leaves are sprinkled with small black dots. The hollyhock-like flowers are white and yellow when they first open, but two days later they turn a dull red.

Surrounding the flowers are three or four cup-shaped green leaves which together are called squares. These remain after the petals have dropped, to serve as a protection to the bolls.

Cotton thrives best in a rich, deep soil with a hot, steamy atmosphere.

It should have plenty of moisture while growing and a dryer period during the ripening and gathering of the crop. The most of the cotton crop is planted by the twentieth of May. Six weeks after it begins blossoming the first bolls are ready for picking. This is done by hand, and as the bolls do not all ripen at the same time, it is necessary to go over the field many times, and the picking often lasts until the middle of December. The cotton is gathered into baskets hung from the shoulders of the pickers.

=The Preparation of the Fiber.=--After the cotton is picked it is taken to the gin which separates the fiber from the seed. Until the cotton gin was invented in 1793, by a Connecticut teacher, then living in Georgia, the cultivation of cotton was not profitable, as one person could only clear the seeds from five or six pounds a day. This machine has revolving teeth which drag the cotton between parallel wires, leaving the seeds behind. With this machine a slave could clean about a thousand pounds in a day. This gave a wonderful impetus to the cotton industry, and its cultivation increased enormously.

After the seeds are removed the cotton is put up into bales weighing about five hundred pounds each, and is then ready for s.h.i.+pping. When these bales are received at the factory the cotton is so closely matted together that it must be broken up or loosened. This is done in the blending room where it is first run through heavily weighted and spiked rollers which pull the cotton apart. It is then blended or mixed to make it of uniform quality. After this it is taken to the carding room. Here the fibers are drawn parallel to one another and bits of leaves and unripe fibers removed, when it is put through the drawing frame, consisting of a pair of rollers. These parallel, untwisted fibers are now called "slivers." From the drawing frame these "slivers" go to the slubbing machines where it is lightly twisted and wound on bobbins. This process is repeated on similar machines each one drawing the thread out and twisting it a little more, until it is finally ready for spinning.

=Spinning.=--Two systems of spinning are in use at the present time, ring spinning and self-acting mule spinning. The former is done mostly by women and children, and produces a hard, round irregular yarn. The latter machines, operated only by men and very strong women, are complicated, but produce an exceedingly soft and fine yarn.

The thread used for sewing and for the manufacture of lace is made by twisting several fine threads together. Sewing thread is usually composed of from six to nine threads spun separately and then twisted into one. Thread is sometimes pa.s.sed very rapidly through a flame which burns off the fuzz making it very smooth.

=Weaving.=--Three operations are necessary in the manufacture of cloth; First, the separation of the warp threads on the loom, so that the shuttle containing the woof can pa.s.s through. Second, the movement of the shuttle, back and forth, among the warp threads. Third, the beating up the woof.