ath contempt.

The nobler the material, the more essential it is that it should be of
the best. Poor satin is not "good enough to work on;" it looks poorer
than ever when it is embroidered.

Satin should be stretched upon the frame the way of the stuff, and it
should not be forgotten that it has a right and a wrong way up. If it is
backed, the linen should be fine and smooth: on a coarse backing, the
satin gets quickly worn away, as you may see in many a piece of old work
that has gone ragged.

"Roman satin" and what is called "_satin de luxe_" (perhaps because it
is not so luxurious as it pretends to be) are effective ground-stuffs
easy to work upon; but there is an odour of pretence about satin-faced
cotton.

A corded silk is not good to embroider; the work on it looks hard; but a
close twill answers very well. Silk damask makes an admirable ground
beautifully broken in colour, if only it is simple and broad enough in
pattern. Generally speaking, you can hardly choose a design too big and
flat; but something depends upon the work to be done on it. In any case,
the pattern of the damask ought not to assert itself, and if you can't
make out its details, so much the better.

Brocade asserts itself too much to form a good background. There is a
practice of embroidering the outlines, or certain details only, of
damask and brocade patterns. That is a fair way of further enriching a
rich stuff; but it is embroidery merely in the sense that it is
literally embroidered: the needlework is only supplementary to weaving.

Tussah silk of the finer sort is easy to work in the hand. The thinner
and looser quality needs to be worked in a frame, and with smooth silk
not tightly twisted.

[Sidenote: THREAD.]

With regard to the thread to work with: The coarser kinds of flax are
best waxed before using. The crewel to be preferred is that not too
tightly twisted. Filoselle is well adapted to couching, and may be laid
double (24 threads). French floss is smooth, and does well for laid
work; for fine work bobbin floss, or what is called "church floss," is
better; the slight twist in filo-floss is against it; very thick floss
may be used for French knots.

For couching gold, a very fine twisted silk does well. Purse silk, thick
and twisted, lends itself perfectly to basket work. Working in coloured
silks, one should take advantage of the quality of pure transparent
colour which silk takes in the dyeing. The palette of the embroid