82 NEEDLEWORK^ This section of Every Woman's Encyclopedia will form a practical and lucid guide to the many branches of needlework. It will be fully illustrated by diagrams and photographs, and, as in other sections of this book, the directions given are put to a practical test before they are printed. Among the subjects dealt with will be : Embroidery Knitting Darning with a Sewing Embroidered Collars and Crochet Machine Blouses Braiding What Can be done with Lace Work Art Pafchwork Ribbon Drawn Thread Work Plain Needlework German Appliqu6 Work Tatting Presents Monogram Designs. Netting Sewing Machines etc., etc. THE REVIVAS^ 0¥ HEEDLECRAFT By Mrs. F. NEVILL JACKSON Attthor of "^ History of Hand-made Lace^ etc. HE importance of the modern revival of fine needlework can hardly be over-estimated. Commencing tentatively at the end of the nineteenth century, it was not till the beginning of the twentieth, that the horrors of the Berlin wool period, in which our mothers and grand- mothers had so long been immersed, were completely cast aside. Mid - Victorian needlework excelled in natural effects to the total exclusion of dehcate suggestions brought about by diverse materials, or of the production of form bent to the uses of ornament. The result was the reproduction of nature as we see her in nightmares. Anyone with a memory sufficiently long to carry back twenty years can recall how a cushion-cover might be decorated with a rose-bud or auricula shaded in so realistic a manner that one -almost stooped to pick the flower, and dared not. rest one's head upon it lest a thorn might prick. NEEDLEWORK PICTURES Nor was it considered a waste of time and energy to reproduce badly, line for hne, a full- sized picture by a mid-Victorian artist ; the art of the needle being misdirected in copying the art of ihe brush, instead of being used with a full reahsation of its hmitations, and an intelhgent deteimination to attempt no details beyond the scope of the materials at command. It was the same with the lace-making of the Victorian era. Much energy was wasted at the time of the introduction of machine- made lace by endeavouring to force lace which had been made by hand to compete with it. How much better, instead of im- poverishing the patterns, working with poor materials, and giving the lacemakers starva- tion wages, in order to lower the price of real lace, would it have been to enrich the designs and work with truer and fuller beauty . Had this been done, hand-made laces, instead of competing with machine-made, would have risen still further above them, and -remained on a separate plane, unrivalled in artistic beauty in needlecraft, while the machine productions would have taken a lower, but none the less quite legitimate place, FRENCH EMBROIDERY In writing about the revival of needlecraft, it is unnecessary to mention France, for where there has been no decadence there is no need of revival. The nimble fingers of the French embroideress have never flagged, nor have they been employed on unworthy subjects. The purity and fineness of French taste rejected all the Berhn horrors, or, with inimitable acuteness and judgment, took what was inoffensive to good taste, rejecting all that was base. Needlecraft is so important a handmaid of the arts, and holds such a prominent place in the social life of every country, that it is impossible to imagine beauty, comfort, and refinement in our lives without it. All that may be called a woman's most intimate possessions are beautified by needlework, and
