nexed engraving, will be found the most convenient. Its use will be fully described when speaking of raised embroidery.

PURSE STRETCHERS.

The above engraving will convey a better idea of this little machine than any we are capable of giving. It is used for stretching knitted, netted, and crochet purses.

The purse, when finished, before the ends are drawn together, should be sewn up at the mouth, and passed over the wooden cylinder, as represented above; it should then be slightly damped, and the screws tightened, taking care not to strain it too much. By this simple process, the stitches become more firmly fixed in their relative positions, and the purse assumes, and afterwards retains, its proper shape.

PURSE MOULDS.

The above engraving represents two kinds of purse moulds, of wood or ivory, on which short purses are worked.

The one,

called a moule Turc, has small brass pins fixed round the edges of its largest circumference. A purse may be made on this mould by fixing the silk by a loop over one peg, and twisting the silk separately round each of the others, the silk being held in the right hand. When this first row is done, wind the silk once again round the peg with the loop, and with a steel point or needle pass the first stitch over the second, and continue the same over each peg as each successive stitch is made, and so on, row after row, until the purse becomes of a sufficient length. The work as it proceeds falls into the hollow of the mould. When all the rows are finished, draw the bottom together, and, as each loop is taken off the pegs at the top, pass a silk through them, which will prevent their unravelling, and strengthen the purse for sewing on the snap. A purse of this description will take a large sized skein of netting silk:-it may be mounted either with a snap or a diable.*

On the other mould or cup, a very pretty bourse en feston may be made, either with two coloured silks, or silk and gold. Since the introduction of crochet, however, these moulds have not been much used.

CHAIN MOULD.

The above small mould is for making neck chains. These are

* Diables, or purse bars, are wires of steel, gold, or silver, with ornaments at the ends, over which a ring is passed to secure the mouth of the purse; the ring is attached by means of a chain.

to be made with middle-sized netting silk, exactly in the same manner as that described for a purse on the moule Turc.

FORK FOR A CHAIN.

The above represents an ivory fork, used for making neck chains, which, if done with very fine silk, perfectly imitate the small French hair chains. If a coarse silk be used, a very strong

watch guard may be made.

CHAPTER XII.

Framing Work.

"All sortes of workes, almost that can be nam'd
Here are directions how they may be fram'd."
JOHN TAYLOR.

REAT care and nicety are required in dressing
a frame;-much of the success of the work, and
ease in its execution, depend on this preliminary
arrangement, which, from it not seeming of im-
portance, is but too generally neglected.

FRAMING CANVAS.

Having ascertained, by counting or by measurement, that the canvas corresponds with the size of the design, in order that the latter, when worked, may be of the dimensions desired, turn down the canvas about half an inch, and having herring-boned it, sew it by a thread to the webbing of the frame. Soft paper, six or eight times doubled, should be smoothly placed round the bars, if the length of the canvas render it necessary that it should be

rolled, that part only being left extended in the frame, on which the work is to be commenced. By means of the nuts or pegs, it should be gradually stretched, and the selvedges braced to the side-bars with fine twine, tightening them by degrees until the canvas is strained perfectly tight and even.* It is of great advantage that a small length only should be stretched at one time, as the work becomes less exposed, and the needle-woman is not obliged to reach over her frame,-a position both fatiguing and inelegant. A short time will suffice to change the position of the work, winding it gradually round the bars as it proceeds, and if this be carefully managed, it will rarely be found either drawn or uneven, when finished.

It is advisable, as a general rule, that canvas work should be commenced at the lower part, on the left hand, more especially if the subject be one where a sky is to be introduced; which, as being the most delicate, should always remain until the last. The working from Berlin patterns being rather more methodical than painting, it will be found that the stitch is truer if worked upwards in this manner.

FRAMING CLOTH AND CANVAS.

In framing these two materials together for working on cloth in cross or tent stitch over canvas, if the article for which the work is intended does not require the cloth to exceed in size the breadth of the canvas, the cloth should be cut half an inch smaller each way, as, when framed, it will stretch much more than the canvas.

The advantage of the side bars of a frame being made with a screw is here evident, as the canvas can be finally tightened by giving each nut a turn

or two.