Until recently, brightly colored hats, collars, and slippers were given to Chinese boys throughout their early childhood. These items were often made to resemble ferocious animals and were intended to frighten away evil spirits. The stitches and techniques used in these garments are very similar to those used today. The most popular stitches include satin stitches, seed stitches, close-knit stitches, and various straight filling stitches flexibly arranged for color blending, shading, or a sculptured effect. Variations of satin, back, and long-and-short stitches are used to simulate fur, feathers, or scales. Simple contouring and quilting techniques are embellished with running stitches, trapunto, facing, piping, self-fringing, tufting, and appliqué.