Materials For Practice

White Muslin, 4x3 Inches.

Cotton, No. 80-100.

Needle, No. 10-11.

Application

Undergarments, ball covers and sails.

Use

In seams where great strength and neatness are required.

Fitness

The overhand stitch for the first sewing followed by the hemming stitch in the fell makes a very durable seam.

Rule

Take the two pieces to be joined, turn a small fold on the raw edge of each piece-the turn on one piece should be twice as deep as the one on the other. Overhand the two pieces together, having the narrow fold toward the worker. Overhand the seams according to the rule for overhand-ing, press open the seam, turn the wide edge over the narrow and hem it down. The seam should be flat.

Practice

See gusset or as in fell and French seam.

Fine drawing (see description) is used to hold two selvages or two pieces of heavy cloth in a seam. It is the stitch used in sewing together the seams in the leather or felt coverings of balls.

Counter-hemming is used in seams where the materials are made to overlap a little and are then hemmed on both sides. Sails for toy boats can be made of wide cotton or linen tape counter-hemmed together; when made thus they look much more like real sails than when the forms of mainsail and jib are merely cut from muslin and hemmed around the edge. If boys are in the classes, they can readily whittle boats and use the sails on them. The children should first carefully baste the strips together before counter-hemming them. The raw edges above and below must also be turned in and hemmed when the sail has been sewed together. Talks on boats and sails, and illustrations of sail-cloth, sail-needles and thimbles all add greatly to the interest.