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PREFACE - Needlework, as a school subject, includes such varied occupations as sewing, cutting and shap­ing, and knitting. In this book, which is in­tended as a guide to teachers, these subjects are developed in so far as they may be presented to pupils in elementary or secondary schools and continuation classes. No pretence is made to deal with elaborate or intricate work such as might be required of advanced or professional workers.

INTRODUCTION - Needlework is one of the most valuable forms of handwork practised in schools. Many other forms are taught chiefly on account of the muscular or the intellectual training they pro­vide, the actual exercises performed in school being rarely continued in after life; while needle­work, besides having considerable value as a means of education, is also of the greatest prac­tical value after school days are over.

01. SEWING - While most children are very eager to sew something, they do not naturally hold a needle or a piece of work in a manner likely to produce the best result. The best result may be taken as the production of good work with the least possible expenditure of time and energy. The best method of working will usually be found to be also the most graceful. The teacher, therefore, must help the pupil from the beginning to form the habit of using needle and thimble properly.

02. CUTTING OUT - Cutting out is, for most children, a fascinating occupation. Good cutting is as essential as good sewing to the finished appearance of a garment, for a badly-cut garment can never be well made; but for good cutting out a pupil must be gradually prepared by knowledge and practice of various kinds.

03. CONSTRUCTION - It is a good plan to allow children occasionally to make something entirely on their own initia­tive. The effort is valuable to the pupils, and the result instructive to the teacher, although the articles produced may be valueless from a practical point of view. In work produced by children who have had no instruction what­ever in Needlework, an ambitious effort at construction is noticeable, and such folds and stitches as are used are solely for the purpose of construction, and are not used for any neat­ness or beauty that they may add to the work.

04. DECORATIVE - The decoration applied to school needlework must necessarily be of an elementary kind, since both time and ability are required for the pro­duction of elaborate embroideries; which, more over, would be out of place on the somewhat simple articles made in school. To teach chil­dren the elements of good decoration, however, is to put them on the right lines for independent work in the future.

05. REPAIRING - Repairing is essentially practical. work. It is as important that a girl should learn how to keep clothes in good order as that she should be able to make them. The work is naturally less attractive than making, as it lacks the flavor of adventure imparted by a piece of fresh new material. Worn garments, also, are less easy and pleasant to handle.

06. KNITTING - The same principles apply to the teaching of knitting as to the teaching of sewing. The pupils, in learning the first and simplest stitch, are learning the whole process of knitting, and therefore plenty of time must be allowed for the hands to accustom themselves to the new kind of work before fresh difficulties are introduced.

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