MISCELLANEOUS.
Britannia.—The stains you describe are probably of the nature of a dye, in which case you can do nothing for them. You might show them to a cleaner, or have the garment dyed a darker colour.
A. D.—The training classes held by the Home Arts and Industries Association for voluntary teachers and others, at the Albert Hall, have now opened for the Autumn Session. Bookbinding, carpentry and wood-carving, inlaying and marquetry, metal repoussé and basket-making are taught. Particulars can be obtained from the Secretary at the Royal Albert Hall, S.W.
Lily of the Valley.—To turn your light straw hat black there are several things; but the best is, we think, Berlin black, to be obtained from any oil shop.
Annette.—We regret that it is not in our power to help you to dispose of clothes, either old or new ones.
Miss A. A. L.—Nearly all large drapers sell waterproof garments, and the fashions in cloaks and mantles change every season.
Chapeau.—The velvet must be taken off the hat and steamed over boiling water in order to take out the spots. Hold the wrong side of the velvet over the steam, and afterwards go over the velvet with either a velvet brush or a piece of black crape to raise the pile again. The velvet must not be wetted in the operation, only steamed enough to raise the pile.
Fanny G.—It is not unusual for a girl to pay a visit to the family of the man to whom she is betrothed; nor is there anything wrong in it, as she should know something of them before marriage.
M. E. W.—Unless in use, you had better try to dispose of the water-bed. It will answer no purpose to put it away, and it is useless save in sickness. They will allow you for it, where you procured it, as second-hand.
Veilchen.—1. As a general rule it is better to take all such kindly attentions as meaning nothing beyond what appears on the surface. A man very often walks home with a girl out of kindness only; and there is no harm in his doing so, as in the country, where the roads are lonely, he may feel obliged to do it. If your family object to it, and if you feel it unpleasant, have one of the servants sent to meet you. It is well to discourage self-consciousness, and to accept such attentions as they are, probably, meant; that is, as the natural acts of kindness which a man feels it right to offer to a woman in need of them.—2. There are plenty of good hair washes which you can make yourself. Dr. Erasmus Wilson’s is excellent—
| ℞ | Eau de Cologne | 8 | oz. |
| Tincture of cantharides | 1 | “ | |
| Oil of English Lavender | ½ | drachm. | |
| Oil of rosemary | ½ | ” |
Mix in a bottle, and shake well.
[AN EMBROIDERED PIANOFORTE BACK.]
A PIANOFORTE BACK.
There are few places where a nice piece of embroidery can be more effectively displayed than in a pianoforte back, and the design here given may be of use to some who want to take up a piece of work, but are undecided what it shall be, by suggesting a task and giving some little assistance in the matter of design; for there is no necessity or merit in keeping close to the ones I give in these pages. It would be much better if all workers made their own designs, but some are not so gifted as others, and a little help in this particular is not therefore unwelcome. To those who feel shaky about their drawing, and who want some mechanical means of enlarging a design, I recommend “squaring.” You divide the small design into, say, one quarter of an inch squares, and then draw on your paper squares sufficiently large to fill out the surface; thus if the design is to be increased ten times the squares on your paper must be two and a half inches. It is comparatively easy to fill in each square with its corresponding portion; but in such a design as the one here given a good deal of freehand work could be employed, and those who are used to sketching should draw out the design upon the material to be worked in charcoal (use a stick of soft French charcoal for the purpose). It would be just as well to divide your material into four by drawing faintly charcoal lines, or better still rub a fine piece of string with charcoal and then get someone to hold it at one end while you hold the other and then snap it on the material. This will give you a straight line which will easily dust off.
Outline embroidery on ironing flannel is very effective, as this flannel is a pleasant-looking material with good substance, but in this matter the taste of the individual worker must decide such an issue. Personally I am very fond of embroidery worked on a brocaded material, but then the material itself is expensive.
The embroidery might be light on a dark material, say an indigo blue or deep green, or it might be in tones of yellow or some rich red material, but I must refer the reader to some recent articles on the embroidery of curtains where I have gone into the matter in some detail.
I would caution the worker against introducing a number of colours into the design. It is much more pleasing to see the whole design carried out in one tone of colour (though there may be a number of different shades) than an attempt to be naturalesque, as though you were painting a picture. The present design, though based on nature, is ornamentally rather than naturally treated. The tree might be worked in olive green or warm yellow browns. The birds should be kept very simple indeed. Think of them as shapes and not as “feathered friends.” These might be worked say in turquoise blue, as they are small objects. This will bring them off the surrounding work. The turquoise blue could be used again in the flowers at the bottom, and if we adopt the olive green harmony, the musical instruments could be worked in light golden browns and yellows.
If you work the tree in warm browns, then the birds could be worked in dark brown, the musical instruments in yellows, and the flowers at bottom in yellow with browns for stems and leaves. Here we have a harmony in yellows and browns with no contrasting or opposing colour, such as the turquoise blue in the former arrangement, and harmonies are on the whole safer and more pleasing than contrasts. Eastern nations understand this, and a reference to some of their needlework at such a place as South Kensington Museum would be a good lesson to a worker. I have in former articles advocated outline embroidery as being very effective and quickly produced. In a large work such as the piano back coarse crewels can be used with advantage, the split stitch or the ordinary one being employed, or both.
Those who enlarge the design on paper need not do more than one-half, as the other side can be reversed and repeated. The trunk of the tree could easily be sketched on so that you could enlarge the foliage of the tree and the flowers at the base. It would be better to use tracing paper and prick the design over with a coarse darning needle. Some charcoal roughly crushed up in muslin and rubbed over the pricked design will leave an impression upon the material which can be marked over with some Indian Ink, using a brush. You will find it more difficult to get the powder to pass through the side of the design you prick than the other one, so you must take care to rub the powdered charcoal well on to the design to insure it passing through the pricked holes.
[Transcriber’s Note: The following changes have been made to this text.
Page 383: aleady to already—occupation already.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Fact.