How to Mark Linen

What is more natural and appropriate than that a woman should express her individuality by putting her initials on all of her household linens in the most attractive form possible? Of course, the mark on some pieces has an entirely utilitarian purpose, but there, too, it may be attractive.

To deal with that kind first: the mark for laundry identification. We all know the pen-and-ink mark with its institutional look, like in a hospital, and even worse, the rubber stamp or stencil. Then there is the name-tape, neat but not particularly individual. By taking just a little more time cross-stitch initials can be worked on sheets, pillowcases, and family towels with a difference in result from the first-mentioned marks that is well worth the effort. The letters should be the perfectly plain block kind, a half-inch high. It is not necessary to do the work over canvas. That takes too much time, and one soon becomes expert in keeping the crosses even. Care should be taken to have each new cross start from the holes of the cross last made, and working with the twist of the thread will also help to make each cross more distinct.

Using different colors to designate bed linen belonging to narrow and wide beds facilitates finding the right set in the linen-closet. An individual color, suitable for the room, may be used for each separate bedroom, if the housekeeper likes to keep close track of wear and tear. And the date of purchase can be easily included in the marking, by adding, after or before the mark, a single stitch, two stitches, or a "star" stitch.

And as a further assistance in filing the mark should be made in a similar place on each article of a kind. Near a corner is a good position on sheets. Just which one depends upon how it is folded in laundering; in fact, the laundering folds control the placing of marks in any article, and since all laundresses do not follow the same method no definite placing can be suggested. The mark should never be worked in the extreme corner - first because a margin around it is better in appearance, but chiefly because the stitching would soon be worn out by the clothespins. On towels the mark is quite generally placed in the center just above the hem. Towels are usually folded in thirds, with the center third uncovered.

Never attempt to do cross-stitching over a stamped pattern, whether letters or decoration. Be the stamping ever so perfect, the material is apt to stretch, and the stamp becomes more an annoyance than a help. Canvas is the best way for transferring an elaborate pattern that cannot be followed free hand. It comes in several sizes for fine and coarse thread. The coarsest is the size needed for the wool cross-stitching, or petit point.

Outline, or etching, stitch is sometimes used in making the identification initials. But it is neither so durable nor so pleasing in appearance as cross-stitching.

A business woman who is clever with her fingers as well as her head makes initialed insets with filet crochet. She sets them into dressing-table covers and on the ends of guest towels for her little house in the country. The piece measures one and a quarter inches in height, is four inches long, and contains four initials.

They are crocheted out of ordinary crochet cotton No. 60 with a steel crochet-hook that will carry thread of that size - No. 11 in an imported hook. The money cost is negligible, and quick fingers make them in odd moments without much time cost, either.

Continue: How to Embroider & Stitch Linen.