The Pink Sun-bonnet.
A sun-bonnet—what does it make you think of? Doesn’t it remind you of your last summer holiday—the country, the birds, the flowers? Close your eyes and try to imagine it. Can’t you almost feel the heat, and hear the hum of the insects, and hear, too, the rattle of the pails, as you used to hear it when Maggie, the rosy-cheeked milk maid, wearing her pretty lilac sun-bonnet, went down to milk Brindle and Beauty and Cherry. You thought that sun-bonnet looked so pretty, and kept the sun from Maggie’s head and neck so beautifully, and you wished you had one too. You will wish it again, when you go to the country for your next holiday, and I expect you will want one when you are working in the sun in your own garden at home.
THE SUN-BONNET READY FOR WEAR.
Suppose, therefore, you start to make a sun-bonnet for yourself. This one, that is shown in the picture, is really very easy to make. It is of a pretty pink print, with tiny flowers on it. But perhaps your favourite colour is not pink. Probably, you want a lilac one. Whatever colour you decide on, get ½-yard of print that shade, and you are ready to start.
Cut off 18 inches along the full length of the print, and hem along one edge. About 1 inch from the hem make a ¼-inch tuck, and 1 inch from this, another tuck. Now fold your print in half, and join up the two edges for the back of the bonnet with a French seam, which is described in the chapter on “Dolly’s Underwear.”
Your sun-bonnet is now rather square in shape. To get it rounded at the back, take hold of the point and draw it down a little way on to the seam at the back. There catch it with a few stitches.
No sun-bonnet is complete without a frill, so the next thing is to sew this on. Cut off 18 inches of print 5 inches wide, hem along one side and both ends. Gather the other side, and draw it up until it is the length of the bottom edge of the bonnet beyond the second tuck. Sew it on the inside to the bonnet edge, leaving a little piece of the edge above the gathered piece. Turn in the edge, and hem it over the seam. This makes it quite neat. The edges along where the frill does not come are also hemmed up.
For the strings, cut off two lengths of 14 inches, each 1½ inches wide. Hem each side and one edge. Turn the opposite edge in, and sew it neatly to the inside of the bonnet.
Your sun-bonnet is now finished, and you will be able to ask nurse to put it into the trunk the next time she is packing to take you to stay at the farm. Won’t Maggie be surprised when you arrive with a bonnet like hers, only just a few sizes smaller!
[A Red Satin Housewife.]
THE NEEDLE-CASE CLOSED.
What a tiresome way needles have of getting lost, haven’t they, and even whole packets of needles have a trick of disappearing nobody knows where. Every little girl who does any sewing really needs some safe place in which to keep her needles. This little housewife, which is shown both open and closed, is just the thing. You can stick odd needles in the flannel, and slip packets of needles in the pocket at the end. If you always remember to do this, you cannot very easily get them mislaid, and the little red housewife will be quite a friend to you. And what is more, it is not difficult to make.
THE DOUBLE FEATHER-STITCHING.
To make one exactly like that in the picture, you want a piece of crimson satin, 12½ inches long by 3¾ inches wide, a piece of white flannel, 10 inches long by 2¼ inches wide, some crimson embroidery silk, salmon pink embroidery silk, some crimson sewing silk, and a pearl button.
The Housewife When Open.
First lay your flannel on the wrong side of the satin. If you put it on quite straight, you will find there is ¾-inch of red showing each side of the flannel, and 1¼ inch at each end. At each side turn down a hem of satin, so that it comes over the edge of the flannel. Tack and hem it. Now turn down and hem each end in the same way. You will have wider hems here.
Having hemmed the satin to the flannel all round (taking care that the stitches do not go right through to the right side of the satin), turn down 2 inches at one end, to make the little pocket you see in the picture, sewing it neatly at each side with oversewing stitches. Oversew also the open ends of the opposite hem.
Now you know how to feather-stitch, don’t you, or if you do not, you will see on [page 5] how it is done. Work single feather-stitch with salmon pink silk down each side and end of the housewife. The inside is now divided up into four divisions, by double feather-stitch worked in crimson. This is worked in the same way as single feather-stitch, only that you take first two stitches one way and then two the other, instead of one each way. A little piece of double feather-stitching has been separately worked for you to see how it is done.
At the end opposite the pocket, make a loop in red silk of two threads, covered with blanket stitch. This is described in the chapter on “Dolly’s Bed.”
Now, starting at the pocket end, fold the needle-case over and over, and just opposite where the loop comes, sew a little pearl button, and the housewife is finished, and quite ready for you to stick your needles in.
You can use silk quite as well as satin for your housewife, and if you like any other shade better than red, make it of your favourite colour.
