[Illustration: COLLARS of white muslin embroidered. Nineteenth century American. _Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York_] The threads used were flosses of linen or cotton, preferably the latter, which were almost entirely imported. With these restricted materials, wonders of ornamentation were performed. The stitch, quite different from that of crewelwork or picture embroidery of the preceding period, was the simple over and over stitch we find in French embroidery of the present day. The leaves of the design or pattern were frequently brought into relief by a stuffing of under threads. Everything was embroidered; gowns, from the belt to lower hem, finished with scalloped and sprigged ruffles in the same delicate workmanship, were everyday summer wear. Slips and sacques, which were not quite as much of an undertaking as an entire gown, were bordered and ruffled with the same embroidery. The amount and beauty of specimens which still exist after the lapse of nearly a century is quite wonderful. Small articles, like collars, capes and pelerines, were almost entirely covered with the most exquisite tracery of leaf and flower, a perfect frostwork of delicate stitchery, with patches of lacework introduced in spaces of the design. The designs were seldom, almost never, original, being nearly always copied directly from what was called "boughten work," to distinguish it from that which was produced at home. Many beautiful and skillful stitches were used in this form of work. Lace stitches, made with bodkins or "piercers," or darning needles of sufficient size to make perforations, were skillfully rimmed and joined together in patterns by finer stitches, and open borders, and hemstitching, and dainty inventions of all kinds, for the embellishment of the fabrics upon which they were wrought. With these materials and these methods most of the women of the different sections of the country busied themselves from a period beginning probably about 1710 and extending to 1840, and it is safe to say, notwithstanding the apparent simplicity of life between those dates, that at no period in the history of woman was as much time and consummate skill bestowed upon wearing apparel. Many a young girl of the day embroidered her own wedding dress, and during the months or years of its preparation suffered and enjoyed the same ambition which goes on in the present, to the acquirement of some wonder of French composition, or costly ornament of point lace and pearls. [Illustration: _Left_--BABY'S CAP White mull, with eyelet embroidery. Nineteenth century American. _Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art_ _Right_--BABY'S CAP Embroidered mull. 1825. _Courtesy Mrs. Isaac Pierson, Canandaigua, N. Y._] [Illustration: COLLAR of white embroidered muslin. Nineteenth century American. _Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art_]