were a continuation of that last made.

[Sidenote: UNDOING.]

If your work is faulty, cut it out and do it again. Unpicking is not so
satisfactory: it loosens the stuff to drag the thread back through it,
and the thread saved is of no further use. Beginners find it hard to
undo work once done; but a really good needlewoman never hesitates about
it--her one thought is to get the thing right. Don't break your thread
ever: that pulls it out of condition: cut it always.

In working, it is well to keep strictly to the stitch you have chosen,
but not to the point of bigotry. One may finish off darning, for
example, at the edges with a satin stitch. The thing to avoid is
fudging. Moreover, stitches should be laid right at once; there should
be no boggling and botching, no working-over with stitches to make
good--that is not playing fair.

[Sidenote: SMOOTHING.]

When the needlework is done, do not finish it with a flat iron. That
finishes it in more senses than one. But suppose it is puckered? In that
case, stretch it and damp it. To do this, first tack on to it (as
explained on page 251) a frame of strong tape. Then, on a drawing-board
or other even wooden surface, lay a piece of clean calico, and on that,
face downwards, the embroidery, and, slightly stretching it, nail it
down by the tape with tin-tacks rather close together. If now you lay
upon it a damp cloth, the embroidery will absorb the moisture from it,
and when that is removed, should dry as flat as it is possible to get
it.

A rather more daring plan is to damp the back of the stuff with a wet
sponge. The work, instead of being nailed on to a board, may just as
well be laced to a frame by the tape. In the case of raised embroidery
there must be between it and the wood, not a cloth merely, but a layer
of wadding.

The damping above described may take the form of a thin paste or
stiffening, but upon silk or other such material this wants tenderly
doing.

One last word as to thoroughness in needlework. Those who have really
not time to do much, should be satisfied with simple work. The desire to
make a great show with little work is a snare. Ladies make protest
always, "There is too much work in that." Well, if they are not prepared
to work, they may as well give themselves up to their play. There was no
labour shirked in the old work illustrated in these pages; and nothing
much worth doing was ever done without work, hard work, and plenty of
it. Should th