These may be made from a piece of plum-colored material on a true bias, two and one-quarter inches long and one and one-quarter inches wide. Sew the ends together on the wrong side. Turn, gather one end one-eighth of an inch from the edge. Pull the thread up tight and sew. This makes the “blow” end. Turn the lower edge in one-eighth of an inch and gather. Fill with cotton to which a piece of tie wire has been attached and pull close to wire and sew. Add as much cotton as necessary to procure the right shape before finishing.
Raisins—
These may be made from gathering a folded circle of plum-colored material one-eighth of an inch from the edge, but used without filling with cotton. Sew to the end of looped tie wire and wind the wire with brown gum tissue. Arrange in a cluster. Always warm the tissue before using so that it will adhere.
Grapes—
These are made the same as cherries, except a cluster would have several sizes. They are beautiful made from black velvet. A cluster of grapes to sew flat to hat may be made by covering different sizes of button molds and arranging them on a hat to look like a cluster.
Mourning Millinery
Hats worn when one is in mourning are nearly always small and made of black crêpe with a few folds of white crêpe near the face. The covering of crêpe is always lined, preferably with sheet wadding to give the soft appearance desired. The trimming is of milliner's folds or flat flowers made of the crêpe.[98-1] The mourning veils used may have a simple wide hem sewed down by hand or an applied hem. The applied hem is much the handsomer finish.
Applied hem on a veil—
For a hem three inches wide, cut a strip six inches in width and long enough to reach around the edge of the veil plus three inches for each corner. It takes that much extra length to mitre a corner of a rectangular veil.
Fold this strip lengthwise in the middle and baste with fine running stitches one inch from the fold to hold the fold flat. Measure this strip at the edge of the veil to locate the place where the fold must be mitred at the corners. Cut a V-shaped piece from this fold to within one-quarter of an inch of the fold. Cut through both thicknesses. Sew these raw edges together in a seam one-quarter of an inch deep and the result will be a mitred corner. Each corner should be carefully planned and mitred before sewing to the veil. Next turn both raw edges down toward the inside one-quarter of an inch and baste separately. Slip the edge of the veil between, pin carefully in place, baste and slipstitch the edges to the veil. Both edges may be stitched at the same time. If this work is carefully done, the result more than repays the time spent upon it.