These slips will require frequent laundering.
The lithographed pillow is a thing to be avoided by a girl of refined taste. You would not hang lithograph posters in your bedroom so why feel that it is all right to buy a lithograph pillow?
The chief point to remember in getting little accessories for your room is to keep the colouring as harmonious as possible. Avoid getting the popular things of to-day which are apt to be an eyesore to you to-morrow.
Do not decide quickly to carry out your room in school colours, there will probably be a dozen of the girls who will do this very thing and you will be tired of it before your course is through. A fraternity pillow is to be expected as there are dozens of ways that it may be treated and look quite different from the other girls' pillows.
The general way in which a school or fraternity pillow is made is to cut out of felt the letters, figures and any design that is to be placed on it. The background may be broadcloth, ladies' cloth or felt. Use one of the school or fraternity colours for the appliqué and the other for the background.
One of the handsomest fraternity pillows I ever saw, was one belonging to a Hamilton College man. Hamilton's colours are buff and bright deep blue. The fraternity's colours were black and gold. A handsome piece of Hamilton blue broadcloth was selected for the background. The fraternity pin was reproduced in colour in fine filo silk. The gold silk was a perfect match to the gold in the pin. Even the background of the pin, which was black enamel, was represented by very fine Kensington stitches. The rope-like edge of the pin was reproduced on the pillow by little rope-like sections heavily padded and worked in gold silk. On the back of the pillow were his initial and his class year below. No beruffled ribbons or gaudy cord detracted from its richness. It was a square cushion and its only finish was a large button in each corner where the end was gathered and tucked in to give a round effect.
The school girl of to-day is learning to eliminate the unnecessary trumpery things that cheapen the room and serve as dust gatherers. Outside of the pillow, bed or table covers and an occasional bag for fancy work, laundry or gloves there is no ornate display of handwork. Even the walls are left bare with the exception of a framed print or a few family photographs.
Try if possible and see if you can get a plain paper for your wall. More than one really charming room is spoiled by having an atrocious paper on it. It is really impossible to try to be artistic with an ugly wall paper.
Since stencilling has become so popular, it is not an uncommon thing to have the entire room stencilled.
Suppose you had planned to have your room in lilac, green and light gray. White can be substituted for the gray but it soils more readily than the latter. The floor should be polished and a couple of small rugs or one larger one be used on the floor. The lilac shade should predominate in the rug. The covers should be of the gray or white with a stencilled design in green and lilac. A pretty way to treat the pillow is to get inexpensive lilac material of a coarse texture. Cut a square about fourteen or fifteen inches. Cut four strips of white or gray five inches wide by twenty-five inches long. These strips should be finer than the lilac or of a different weave. Baste one strip on each side of the lilac square. Mitre the strips at the corners. A design is then stencilled on the four strips in lilac and green. The backing of the pillow should be in plain lilac.