|
57. Of
course, the
HOUSE and
BODY LINEN is regularly mended
every week, but every housewife knows that there are times when
linen should undergo a more "thorough repair"-ing than it
receives weekly. The linen list should be examined, the linen
counted, the list corrected, and any new linen carefully made
and marked. Sheets should be turned sides and middle and
re-hemmed, or rather re-sewn, for the hems of all house-linen
should be sewn, not hemmed. Old tablecloths may be cut up into
tray or lunch cloths, old finger-napkins be darned and fringed
into d'oyleys for vegetables or for placing under pie-dishes.
58. Faded
CHINTZ HANGINGS
make excellent dusters, neatly hemmed
round, and very pretty fringed d'oyleys may be made out of small
squares of holland, either bleached or unbleached. New
tablecloths or dinner-napkins may be marked in satin stitch
embroidery in white or in ingrain colours. Do not forget to
re-mark any linen that has had the hems cut off and the marks
turned in.
59. For
MARKING
with ink, use a quill pen and Bond's
marking-ink. The writing should be neat, and the word ironed as
soon as written. For ironing after marking, a small board about
a foot square should be used, and kept for the purpose. It
should be covered with a thick flannel, nailed on, and with a
clean linen cover tacked on. The iron-rest must never be placed
on the table, in case of the heat drawing the polish into
blisters. To ascertain if an iron is hot, scatter a drop of
water on it; the water should fizz and roll off in haste to
escape. Always try the iron on a coarse cloth first before
placing it over the name, and do not keep it on more than a
second if the iron is hot, as it should be. Never mark clothes
or linen when it is returned from the wash, unless
perfectly dry,
which is not often the case. The ink runs on a damp
surface, and an untidy mark appears in place of a neatly-written
name.
60. As
the HOUSE-LINEN
requires inspection and mending, so the
body-linen of the household should undergo revision during
leisurely winter days, and every article should be re-taped,
re-buttoned, darned, and mended. New sets of clothes should be
cut out and made. It is best, in cutting out, to tear the skirts
of chemises off from the piece, and use the remainder for the
smaller parts, as sleeves, gores, bands, &c.. Gores are usually
cut from the upper part and added to the lower. In making
under-clothing, whether by hand or by machine, care and
exactness of detail should prevail. The machine-worker should
take her place at the window, with the machine well cleaned,
oiled, and worked for a few seconds without being threaded up.
The seams should be prepared and handed to her. Let us take six
chemises for an example. The gores must first be stitched, then
felled, so the twelve gores must be handed to her lightly tacked
in position. While she is stitching these, the fells must be
turned down and tacked; she then fells these; while felling, the
finished gores are being tacked in their proper places, and the
chemise length closed on each side; the twelve sides and the
other side of the gore are then stitched and felled in due
succession. The sleeves follow in the same order, and the band,
if plain; if made with much tucking and stitching, much
adornment with insertion, it is best to complete the bands
before beginning the skirts; get sufficient tucking done in
strips from three to five tucks in a strip; arrange and baste
them with the embroidery or lace at night, as the work is light
and easy, and can be taken up or left at will. Then the
stitching can be completed altogether. The difficulties met with
by some ladies in working their sewing-machines are, we regret
to say, very much their own fault; of course, we do not mean to
say that if a lady buys a common imitation of a good machine at
about a quarter of the real cost, she must not expect to have
some trouble with her "bargain"; but a lady possessing a Wilcox
and Gibbs, a Wheeler and Wilson, a Silencieuse, or a Little
Wanzer, should not have anything but praise to give her iron
seamstress. But no machine will work though without oil, and
they all require clean and kind treatment, to be kept under
cover, to be well oiled and wiped with a soft cloth, to have the
needle set properly, the stitch and tension in unison, and the
cotton or silk suitable to both the needle and the fabric. In
working upon dressed longcloth, it is well to soap the seams, as
one would do in hand-sewing, to avoid breaking our hand-sewing
needles, but the easiest mode is to ask the housemaid to wash
out the longcloth, when torn into lengths, with plenty of soap
and water, and to iron it out smoothly for cutting out; this
will give a very pleasant softness to the work, and allow its
being stretched very nicely. In working in thin sleezy fabrics,
some machines draw the work in with the teeth of the feed-box;
this issue remedied by placing strips of paper below the work
and atitching through all; the paper tears away very easily
afterwards. Another fault common to machine-workers is the
over-quick pace at which they drive the machine, a pace at which
they can scarcely guide the work or see the stitches. It is the
nature of women when riding and driving to go very fast; and so
we drive on our machines, and are surprised that we cannot keep
our stitching as even as we should like to see it. To cure this
rapid driving we must practice working the machine slowly;
braiding is good practice for this, and teaches one to manage a
machine better than any other kind of work.
61. HAND-MACHINES
are exceedingly convenient when really good,
as the Little Wanzer, &c. The work can be done easily and far
more quickly than by hand, and it is very pleasant to sit at the
table at work as in hand-sewing.
62. Attention
to HOUSE-LINEN
should comprise the careful
inspection and repair of the muslin curtains, which should be
"roughed" in October. These should be darned, and lace sewn on
where accidentally removed. Long curtains half worn-out will
make capital short muslin blinds; be sure to choose small
designs in buying your curtains, if you destine them to this
use in the future. Make wide hems if you wish brass rods to
pass through them for window screens, and use patent
Valenciennes lace for trimming them; it washes admirably and
wears well. Stair-covers and holland druggets, too, must be
mended by prudent housewives.
|