This Department is conducted in the interest of Girls and Young Women, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor.
Many pretty and saleable things may be made for fairs by girls who know how to embroider. You may, for example, make a note-book by cutting a piece of white linen a little larger than the ordinary pad which you buy at the stores for five or ten cents. On this either draw in pencil or stamp a pretty pattern of leaves, flowers, forget-me-nots, or vines, or, if you choose, the letters which form a motto or a friend's name. Embroider these in delicate colors, and then cover the outside flap of the pad as neatly as possible. You will need a yard or so of ribbon to bind the back and finish off the book with a graceful little bow. A spool-case is a convenient thing to add to one's work-basket. You take two oval pieces of pasteboard, cover them very neatly with silk or linen, on which you have embroidered some dainty device, and on the inner side of each you run little shirrs of silk, in which you fasten spools of different sizes. One is always losing spools or getting them tangled up, and by this contrivance you can keep a half-dozen spools in order. Such a case as this, if properly made, should sell for one dollar at a fair. A pad for the bottom of a writing case or bureau drawer, made by laying a fold of wadding, sprinkled with sachet-powder, between two covers of silkoleen or silk, is a dainty gift, and an acceptable offering for a friend's table at a sale.
A convenient case may be made to hold the magazines which accumulate in a family by simply covering two large pieces of thick card-board with silk, linen, or canvas, on which the little artist may paint a delicate design if she prefers to do that with her brush rather than with her needle. These covers should be fastened together by long pieces of broad white silk elastic, and a neat person will be very glad to put in such a case the half-dozen papers or magazines which otherwise litter up her table. A pretty little book for engagements, addresses, etc., may be made by covering card-board with crépe paper. Make this just like the cover of a little book. Fasten inside a small pad and pencil, and to the outside attach a little bunch of paper violets perfumed and tied with ribbon.
Flowers are easily disposed of at children's fairs, and if you can secure ferns, carnations, and roses, and make them into tiny button-hole bouquets, you will realize something from your investment.
You must take pains to ask as many of your grown-up friends as possible to your little sale, as they have more money to spend than children, though children too will be welcome. The invitations may be given as you meet people, but it is, on the whole, best to have a few tickets printed thus:
AN AFTERNOON FAIR
for the Benefit of the Babies' Hospital
will be held at