WORK FOR LITTLE FINGERS.
Is it not wonderful, when you think of it, that with four little fingers and a thumb, two bright eyes, and the exercise of a subtle quality called taste, so much may be done to make home attractive? The young folks who have been asking the Postmistress what they should make for Christmas gifts no doubt read Aunt Marjorie Precept's "Bits of Advice" on the subject last week. But perhaps they will like to hear about some of the pretty things the Postmistress saw when, one very stormy day, she took a walk through some of the New York stores and bazars on their account. She looked specially for easy and pretty things which could be made by small but skillful fingers. A holder for the whisk-broom pleased her fancy. A frame of willow was covered with maroon silk, over which bands of black velvet were crossed, and embroidered with daisies. The willow frame may be purchased, or an ingenious boy could easily make one for his sister. A lining of old gold with bands of scarlet, or of pale blue with garnet bands, would be very striking and harmonious, and such a broom-holder is really artistic.
A graceful present for a young lady is a hair-pin box, mounted—of all things in the world!—on a wheelbarrow. Here comes in the boy's bracket-saw, to construct the barrow, into which the box must be very neatly fitted. The box must be stuffed with sawdust, and tufted closely with worsted, either by knitting-needles or with the crochet-hook, as you please. The wheelbarrow may be made of any common wood, and gilded, or it may be of black walnut, or basswood, without any other ornament than its carving.
Very elegant wall-pockets are made of old hats. Indeed, the possibilities of old or new straw hats are endless. You take a roughly braided bathing-hat which you wore last summer at the beach, line it with azure satin, twist it into any graceful shape you please, on the upper surface of the flaring brim paint or embroider a group of flowers, and to the lower attach a large bow of ribbon with broad loops, and you have an ornament which sets off the wall splendidly. The deep crown forms the pocket, and the brim makes the picturesque part, and you would hardly suppose that with so little you could do so much toward the brightening of a dull room. Father's summer straw hat (which you hid away in the attic, so that he should be compelled to buy a new one) will lend itself to your ideas of the beautiful very readily. Line it with crimson flannel, fasten a cluster of wheat, a bunch of summer grasses, or a few spears of oats to one side, and tack one bit of the brim down with a bow, and there you are with the scrap-basket, which is just what you need in the sitting-room or library.
Nothing provokes the neat housekeeper's anger like the scratching of matches on the walls, and it is very hard to teach some people never to deface the house in this way. Any little eight-year-old girl or boy can make a splendid match-scratcher by taking a round piece of wood, covering it with velvet, silk, morocco, or Java canvas, on which a little pattern has been worked, and then gluing on its reverse side a piece of sand-paper. Finish it with a loop of ribbon, and present to Uncle John or Cousin Ralph, and while they may appreciate its delicate hint, they will not resent it as personal.
A dozen sheets of blotting-paper, fastened together with a bow, and bearing on the outside a dainty little pencil drawing, either a cute little Kate Greenaway sort of picture, or a landscape, or a few wild roses and ferns, with a motto, is an acceptable gift to either a lady or a gentleman. Still prettier is this gift when a little panel picture, wood or card-board covered with satin, and then painted, is laid on the upper surface of the packet.
People who board are often quite bothered to find a good method of keeping account of the weekly wash. A laundry-cushion, which is simply a pincushion with the words shirts, collars, cuffs, handkerchiefs, etc., in a row down one side, with the numbers from one to a dozen corresponding to the articles, is a very convenient device for them. They need only stick a pin into the number of each article they have sent away, and count the things when they are returned. The writing on this cushion can be done with indelible ink.
A shaving-case, made of two pieces of pasteboard cut into the shape of a mug, covered with silk, and filled with tissue-paper, a little pasteboard handle at one side, is easily made, and will be acceptable to almost any gentleman.
The pretty articles here described were seen at the Exchange for Women's Work, No. 4 East Twentieth Street, New York city.