o be drawn with the
needle. The voided outline, by the way, as on Illustrations 39, 40, is
not only the frankest way of defining form, but seems peculiarly proper
to satin-stitch; and it is a test of skill in workmanship: it is so easy
to disguise uneven stitching by an outline in some other stitch. The
voiding in the wings of the birds in Illustration 40 is perfect; and the
softening of the voided line, at the start of the wing in one case and
the tail in the other, by cross stitching in threads comparatively wide
apart, is quite the right thing to do. It would have been more in
keeping to void the veins of the lotus leaves than to plant them on in
cord.

Satin-stitch must not be too long, and it is often a serious
consideration with the designer how to break up the surfaces to be
covered so that only shortish stitches need be used. You might follow
the veining of a leaf, for example, and work from vein to vein. But all
leaves are not naturally veined in the most accommodating manner.
Treatment is accordingly necessary, and so we arrive at a convention
appropriate to embroidery of this kind. It takes a draughtsman properly
to express form by stitch distribution. The Chinese convention in the
lotus flowers (Illustration 40) is admirable.

[Illustration: 39. SATIN-STITCH IN FINE TWISTED SILK.]

It is the rule of the game to lay satin-stitch very evenly. Worked in
floss, the mere surface of satin-stitch is beautiful. A further charm
lies in the way it lends itself to gradation of colour. Beautiful
results may be obtained by the use of perfectly flat tints of colour, as
in Illustration 40; but the subtlest as well as the most deliberate
gradation of tint may be most perfectly rendered in satin-stitch.

[Sidenote: TO WORK SURFACE SATIN-STITCH.]

SURFACE SATIN-STITCH (not the same on both sides), though it looks very
much like ordinary satin-stitch, is worked in another way. The needle,
that is to say, after each stitch is brought _immediately_ up again, and
the silk is carried back on the upper instead of the under side of the
stuff. Considerable economy of silk is effected by thus keeping the
thread as much as possible on the surface, but the effect is apt to be
proportionately poorer. Moreover, the work is not so lasting as when it
is solid. The satin-stitch on Illustration 58 is all surface work. It
looks loose, which it is always apt to do, unless it is kept stretched
on the frame, on which, of course, satin-stitch