e some protection if
the hand rests on it; the worker should wear a white apron with sleeves.
The worker's hand should be cool, dry, and smooth; hot hands should
frequently be washed. The use of pumice stone cures slight roughness,
but fine work cannot be attempted if the fingers are for any reason
constantly rough. Wools and silks need a case to keep them orderly and
clean. The best way to preserve valuable embroidery is to frame it,
which, of course, is not always practicable, but it is a sure safeguard
against moth and dust.

For washing embroidery special soap should be procured. It is not well
to use any ordinary soap, for this may contain alkali, which would
injure the colours in the work. Dissolve the soap in boiling water, and
add cold to make it just warm and of the required strength. Immerse the
embroidery in the lather thus made, and work it about gently, avoiding
any friction. When clean, rinse first in warm water, afterwards in cold,
to which a little salt may be added. The water must be squeezed out
carefully and the material quickly dried. If ironing is necessary it
must be done on the wrong side, but if the work can be pinned out on a
board to dry, and in this way stretched and smoothed without any
ironing, so much the better, for the embroidery will not be flattened at
all. Another way of ironing embroidery that is not harmful is to do it
from underneath while some one holds out the material.

It is easy to prevent the puckering of work when it is carried out in
the frame; there is, however, no necessity for it to occur in hand work.
Certain stitches are more inclined to draw up the material than others,
and extra care has to be taken in working upon the cross of the fabric.
The work should be held in convex fashion over the fingers of the left
hand. Weights are occasionally attached to the corners of the work to
prevent any unconscious drawing of it up.

There are remedies for the cure of slightly puckered work. Place on a
drawing-board some clean blotting-paper, damp it evenly over with a wet
handkerchief, and then lay the work, right side up, upon it. Fix the
work down to the board with drawing-pins, inserted at regular short
intervals round the edge, endeavouring during the process to stretch the
material to its original shape. This needs doing carefully, for it is
quite possible to stretch it to a wrong shape, and it will remain as now
pinned out. Next, lay some white paper or a handkerchief upon