the hole. In darning cashmere or woollen stockings it is best to allow the warp to be very slack as wool shrinks considerably in washing. Wool should be used for darning woollen stockings.

Fig. 7. Weaving with worsted

Fig. 8A. The first step in darning

Fig. 8B. The second and last step in darning

Photograph by Mary G. Huntsman

The Right Way to Darn

Have you ever belonged to a sewing club? If not, try to start one and see how much fun there is in it. The club should meet either on Friday or Saturday afternoon, after the school work is finished. Every girl should bring her stockings to darn and another piece of work, so that when the darning is over she will have something to work on. If there are more than four in the club it is a very hard thing to keep up. Three is the ideal number for it. It is better to have a small number—three, for instance. A large club is apt to be distracting, but three or four little girls, with the right helpful spirit, will find such meetings very instructive and entertaining.

II

BACK-STITCHING, OVER-CASTING, CREASING A HEM AND HEMMING, ROLLING A HEM, FRENCH HEMMING, SEWING ON TAPES AND HOOKS AND EYES

Fig. 9. The right way to hold your scissors

Stitching is witching," the song book says, and it is true, for after we know that stitch there are a hundred and one things we can do. Some people call it back-stitching and we must try to remember that, so that we shall understand of what they are talking. Get mother to give you a piece of material to practise on that has a stripe in it. Now take your scissors (Figure 9) and cut out two three-inch squares. Baste the two squares together a quarter of an inch from the edge. Hold the square over the first finger of the left hand ready for the back-stitching. Let the basting run up and down over your finger. Start from the top and make a small stitch backward, on the right side of the material, instead of forward as you did in running (Figure 10). Pass the needle under until you have a stitch twice as long on the wrong side as that on the right. Take the next stitch backward close to the end of the last one on the right.

Fig. 10. Back-stitching

Remember that the stitch you take backward is only half as long as the one you take forward. Stitching always looks very different on the wrong side, but on the right side it ought to look like machine stitching. This stitch might be called the lion stitch, because it is so strong. It is used to join two edges together, as for the seams in bean-bags or cushion covers.

In places where there will not be much strain we use a quicker stitch, which is called the half-back stitch (Figure 11). This is very much like the stitching of which I have been telling you. The wrong side will look about the same, but on the right side instead of the stitches touching there will be a space, then a stitch of equal length.

Fig. 11. The half-back stitch

The next stitch to learn is the combination-stitch, which is made up of both the running and the back-stitch (Figure 12). It is a stitch that is greatly used for sewing long seams, as on underwear. By this stitch we can cover the distance in about half the time that back-stitching would take.

Fig. 12. The combination running and back-stitch

Whenever you can avoid making a knot, do so, because it spoils the look of your work on the wrong side. You can start your work, if it is a seam, for example, by making two or three stitches on top of each other. Follow the thread of the warp or woof of the material as much as possible. After fastening your thread, make two fine running stitches forward and one back. Keep the stitches the same length.

Fig. 13. Over-casting

Over-casting is used on unfinished or cut edges to keep them from fraying (Figure 13). The stitches all slant from right to left. Take the stitches one eighth of an inch deep and one quarter of an inch apart.

Fig. 14. Over-handing

Over-handing is fine over-casting and used to connect two finished edges together (Figure 14), as when sewing lace on ruffles, or joining selvages. What is the selvage? It is the edge of the warp. The next time mother goes shopping ask her to take you with her. When she tells the salesman she wants so many yards of goods, whether it is for kitchen towels or a dress for herself or for you, notice how the goods is measured. The salesman will measure along one of the finished sides of the goods. These finished edges are called selvages.

Fig. 15. The seam opened

Make the