Transcriber’s Note
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A list of these changesis found at the end of the text.
CONTAINING
CLEAR AND PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS
IN
PLAIN AND FANCY NEEDLEWORK,
EMBROIDERY, KNITTING, NETTING, AND CROCHET.
WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS,
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE VARIOUS STITCHES IN THOSE USEFUL AND FASHIONABLEEMPLOYMENTS.
NEW-YORK:
J. WINCHESTER, 30 ANN-STREET
1844.
If it be true that “home scenes are rendered happy or miserable inproportion to the good or evil influence exercised over them bywoman—as sister, wife, or mother”—it will be admitted as a fact of theutmost importance, that every thing should be done to improve the taste,cultivate the understanding, and elevate the character of those “highpriestesses” of our domestic sanctuaries. The page of history informsus, that the progress of any nation in morals, civilization, andrefinement, is in proportion to the elevated or degraded position inwhich woman is placed in society; and the same instructive volume willenable us to perceive, that the fanciful creations of the needle, have[iv]exerted a marked influence over the pursuits and destinies of man.
To blend the useful, with the ornamental and to exhibit the gushingforth of mind, vitalised by the warm and glowing affections of theheart, is the peculiar honor and sacred destiny of woman. Without herinfluence, life would be arrayed in sables, and the proud lords ofcreation would be infinitely more miserable and helpless than the beaststhat perish. To render then those “terrestrial angels” all that ourfondest wishes could desire, or our most vivid imaginations picture,must be, under any circumstances, a pleasing and delightful employment;while for a father or a brother to behold her returning all the carebestowed upon her, by the thousand offices of love, to the performanceto which she alone is equal, is doubtless one of the most exaltedsources of human felicity.
Providence has, in a remarkable manner, adapted woman’s tastes andpropensities to the station she was designed to occupy in the scale ofbeing. Tender and affectionate, it is her highest bliss to minister tothe wants, the convenience, or the pleasure of those she loves; andhence, her inventive powers have been, in all ages, called into earlyand active exercise, in the fabrication of those articles calculated toaccomplish those desirable ends. Amongst these, Useful and Ornamental[v]Needlework, Knitting, and Netting, occupy a distinguished place, andare capable of being made, not only sources of personal gratification,but of high moral benefit, and the means of developing in surpassingloveliness and grace, some of the highest and noblest feelings of thesoul.
To become an expert needle-woman should be an object of ambition toevery fair