WORK.
A Mother is thanked for the recipe she kindly gives for a description of embroidery, especially her own:—For the foundation, prepare as proposed for crazy work in our part for November, 1886. Get artificial flowers of velvet, old or new, the brighter the better, and of all varieties. Tack them on the sprays, large or small, or grouped; then use buttonhole-stitch to fasten down every flower in coarse crewel silk, of the respective colours required by the flowers, finishing round the larger flowers and leaves with gold tinsel cord, and using small yellow beads for flower seeds. The stems should be made in shaded greens with crewel-stitch, and the whole effect is very brilliant.
Teetee.—With reference to your helping to support your mother and yourselves by dressmaking, no friends worth keeping would cast you off on that account. No disgrace is attached to honest work, but you would show consideration for the feelings of others by working under Christian names, a common practice amongst dressmakers and milliners; and this little act of delicacy for your relatives’ sake will be appreciated by them, supposing the family name be one of any distinction—a common one would not matter. We advise you to get some lessons in fitting from a good tailor, as women dressmakers fail signally on this point, as a general and almost universal rule.
SPRING
“MARCH WINDS,
APRIL SHOWERS,
BRING FORTH
MAY FLOWERS.”
Lover of the G.O.P.—On no account take any notice of such a note. It was a most intrusive and impertinent act on the part of a strange man to drop it into your lap in the railway carriage. It showed that he mistook you for a girl lacking grievously in self-respect and in any knowledge of propriety.
Fidelis.—We have advised our correspondents very many times against such advertisements, which are almost all catchpennies, and intended to delude and swindle the foolish and unwary. We have no knowledge of each separate advertisement, and we speak only as a general rule, of course.
E. H. E. K.—The best cotton to use for knitting a quilt is No. 6, with No. 12 needles. In asking how much cotton you would require, you never mention the size of the quilt which you mean to make, but after knitting one of the diamonds you will know how much you have used, and also the number of diamonds you will require, and you can calculate from that. If you keep to one maker you can always match the cotton exactly.
An Irish Doctor’s Wife.—To make a stitch, put the thread before the needle. A slipped stitch means one that is passed from one needle to the other without knitting it. We think you would find it easier to induce some experienced knitter to give you a few instructions.
Kascheu.—1. The cracker nightdress case may be made in plush. This case resembles a cracker in shape, the two ends being secured with drawstrings about four inches from the edge, and this frilled part is lined with satin. The nightdress is placed in the centre, where the bonbon of a real cracker is secured. 2. For plush embroidery, coarse silks are used, and the patterns are worked in outlines. The material presents such difficulties that the embroidery is never very elaborate. The watch pockets to match the cracker nightdress case are shaped like half a cracker, and are placed upon the foundation upright. The watch pockets are hung up by a ribbon, and are gathered at the top.