Pink flowers look best on a dark olive ground. Blue and red should never come together in a dress. The effect of all sprigs, spots, or stars will be greatly improved by working, on the _right hand_ of each, a shadow of a colour similar to the merino, but of a _much darker_ shade. This dark shade along the right-hand side will give the sprig a relieved or raised appearance; and, if well done, will make it look almost as if you could take it up with your fingers. Executed by a skilful embroidress, or by one who is a proficient in drawing, this mode of producing a shadow, that seems to come from behind the sprig, will be found extremely beautiful. We are surprised that is not more generally known and practised.
Previous to working a dress, it is well to have the breadths of the skirts measured, and cut apart. The remainder, of course, is to be reserved for the body, sleeves, and pelerine; but do not have these parts fitted and cut out before embroidering. Though by that means you may save the trouble of doing a few unnecessary sprigs, you will lose more than you will gain; for the pieces, if cut out, will stretch out of shape, and ravel at the edges, so that it will be very difficult to put them _well_ together when wanted. Also, if previously cut out into their respective shapes, the pieces cannot well be worked in a frame, which is always the best way of doing embroidery.
You may work the dress with either soft-twisted silk, (not too fine,) or with Berlin wool or crewel. If worked with silk, it cannot possibly be washed to look well. _Floss_ silk should never be used for this or any other embroidery, as, though it fills up well, and looks beautifully at first, it almost immediately wears rough and fuzzy. Embroidery-st.i.tch is far more elegant than cross-st.i.tch, having none of its stiffness, hardness, and ungracefulness; and being, besides, more easy, expeditious, and manageable; and capable of a far greater diversity of forms.
Prepare on a pasteboard drawing-card, an exact pattern of the sprig, drawn and coloured precisely as it is to be worked; and you may put a dark back-ground behind one side of the sprig, of exactly the same tint as the merino. Mark the distances of the sprigs by measuring their places on the merino with a pair of compa.s.ses, (often called dividers,) or by means of a piece of card. Designate the place of each sprig by a dot with a red or white chalk pencil; the dot being the centre of the sprig. Rub, on a saucer, some water-colour paint of any colour that will show plainly on the merino, (which should first be stretched in a frame.) If you cannot get a frame, or prefer working on your hand, baste, under the place occupied by each sprig, a small circular bit of stiff writing-paper; and be careful, while working, not to catch up the paper with the st.i.tches of your needle. When done, remove the paper, and the sprigs will look smooth and even. If you attempt to work it merely on your hand, with no paper beneath, it is impossible to prevent its puckering and drawing up.
Fine embroidery must be worked with extremely close st.i.tches in rows or ridges. Every other st.i.tch should be short, and every other one long. In every row, the alternate long and short st.i.tches should fit in, by extending a little beyond those of the neighbouring row, so as to blend well. If you have no knowledge of drawing, get your pattern-sprig done by some person that draws well, and that is familiar with the effect of lights and shades.
If your dress is to have a belt of the same, you may work a long strip of merino for that purpose; the pattern being so arranged that the flowers will form a close row or straight wreath. Allow this strip of merino full wide, so that there may be an ample sufficiency for turning in at the edges. Sleeve-bands, also, may be worked in this way.
A two-yard-square of merino, embroidered in coloured flowers, and trimmed with a deep fringe, makes a beautiful shawl. On a dark brown or purple merino, flowers entirely of shaded blue, with light brown leaves and stalks interspersed among the green ones, will have a beautiful effect; very superior to the common tasteless and gaudy calico-style of introducing flowers of all colours--red, blue, and yellow. An olive merino shawl may have pink flowers entirely; a slate, or dark gray, or a purple will look well with rich gold-coloured flowers. In all flower-borders, the introduction of brown leaves among the green will be a decided improvement. If the merino is _light_ brown, or light gray, or _pale_ olive, the flowers may be scarlet, cherry-colour, or crimson. For a black merino, the embroidery should be of shaded gray.
Keep beside you, while working, a number of needles threaded with all the different shades of silk, and stuck in a flat pin-cushion, or something similar, so as to be always ready for use.
EMBROIDERY ON BOTH SIDES.--For this purpose, the embroidery-frame must be placed in a perpendicular or upright position, and two persons employed together; both equally skilled in needle-work. Get a carpenter to make an upright stand, somewhat in the form of a towel-rail, and about the usual height of a work-table; having broad feet, that it may stand steadily, and a broad cross-bar just above them, and a shelf at the top, on which to lay the needle-cushions, silk b.a.l.l.s, &c., with a raised ledge on each side of the shelf, to prevent their rolling off.
At each end of this shelf there must be slits down, into which put the upright ends of the embroidery-frame, secured with wooden pegs.
We will suppose that the article to be embroidered the same on both sides, is a plain canton-c.r.a.pe shawl, or a square of merino _intended_ for a shawl. Stretch the shawl tightly in the embroidery-frame, sewing it strongly to the linen; the pattern having been drawn on both sides with a camel"s-hair pencil dipped in water-colour paint, of a tint a little darker than the shawl. The two ladies who are to work it, must sit one on each side; and as one sticks in the needle, the other must draw it through, and stick it in for the next st.i.tch; to be drawn through by her companion. The fastenings on and off must be neatly concealed under the st.i.tches. By thus working together, (each alternately sticking in and drawing out the same needle,) both sides will, of course, be embroidered _exactly_ alike, so that not the slightest difference can be perceptible. It is in this manner that canton-c.r.a.pe shawls are embroidered in China. The sewing-silk must be of the best quality, not too fine or slack-twisted. Floss-silk will not do at all.
EMBROIDERING STANDARDS.--Military standards have been successfully embroidered in the above manner. They should be made of _very thick_, strong India silk, satin not being the same on both sides. Instead of sewing-silk, standards had best be worked with chenille, such as comes on purpose for embroidering. Have a needle for every shade. An embroidered standard should always be copied from a painted model, executed by an artist; the model to stand in such a position that each of the two embroiderers may see it all the time. An outline of the model must be drawn on the silk. The most durable colour for a standard is deep blue. Part of the embroidery (stars, for instance) may be done in gold or silver thread.
FINE COLOURING FOR ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS.--For light blue and pink, buy, at a drug or paint store, what are called blue saucers and pink saucers.
They contain the most beautiful tints of these colours. To use them, take a large clean camel"s-hair pencil, and dipping it into some water, liquefy a portion of the paint that is on the saucer, till you get the exact tint you desire. When you have enough, pour off the liquid into a teacup, and add a _small_ drop of lemon-juice to each tea-spoonful of the colour. The lemon-juice (if used properly) will brighten and set the colour; and is indeed superior to any thing else for this purpose. But _too much_ of this, or any other acid, will destroy the colour entirely.
Therefore be very careful in employing it; though no colouring for artificial flowers will be bright and clear without the addition of _some little_ acid. Put the book-muslin, jaconet, white silk, or whatever materials the flowers are to be made of, into the cup of liquid dye; and when the muslin has thoroughly imbibed the colour, take it out, stretch it evenly, and dry it in the shade. Then press it with an iron _entirely cold_. A mixture of colour from both the blue and pink saucers will make lilac.
_For a yellow colour._--Get six cents" worth of saffron; put it into a bowl, and pour on cold water, in quant.i.ty according to the deepness or vividness of the tint that you wish. When it has infused sufficiently, pour off the liquid; and, in proportion to its quant.i.ty, add to it, carefully, four, five, or six drops of lemon-juice.
_For green._--Buy, at a druggist"s, one ounce of French berries. Put a tea-spoonful of them into a common-sized tea-cup of boiling water.
Cover it, and let it infuse half an hour or more. Then (having poured it off) add to the liquid (according to its quant.i.ty) about five or six drops of lemon-juice. This infusion of French berries makes a bright gra.s.s-green. To render it lighter, add some saffron yellow. To make it darker, put to it some blue from the blue saucer.
_For a brown dye._--Infuse, in cold water, some pieces of bark from the white or black walnut tree; exposing it for several days to the sun and air, while it is soaking.
_Crimson._--You may make a beautiful crimson for shading artificial flowers with a camel"s-hair pencil, by taking some of the fresh petals of the piony, when the flower is in full bloom. Lay them on a plate, and mash and press them with the back of a silver spoon, till you have extracted as much of their red juice as you want. To about twelve drops of the piony-juice, add one small drop of lemon-juice; and use the colour for _shading_ the flowers, not for dyeing them.
_For a bright red shading._--Press out, in the above manner, the juice of full-blown bergamot flowers; adding, also, (as above,) a drop of lemon-juice to brighten and set the colour.
_Blue shading._--A beautiful blue shading can be obtained by pressing and mashing on a plate, the flower-leaves of the common blue flag or iris; adding, always, a very little lemon-juice. With this, and a camel"s-hair pencil, you can put the shades and streaks into blue flowers, whose first tint has been dyed from the blue saucer.
A mixture of crimson piony-juice, and blue flag-juice, will make a fine purple for shading.
When a little touch of dark brown or black is required for flowers, dip into water the end of a cake of umber, bistre, or indian ink, from a colour-box; rub the paint on a plate, and apply it with a camel"s-hair pencil.
All these dyes and shading colours for artificial flowers will (_as we know_) be found beautiful on trial. An exact knowledge of the precise proportions of the colouring materials cannot, however, be correctly obtained without a little practice.
DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING A TABOURET.--A tabouret is a square stool, tall enough for a grown person to sit on, and about the usual height of a chair. Get a carpenter to make a strong square box of well-seasoned wood, planed smooth both inside and out. Instead of having the lid or cover-piece _exactly_ at the top, it should be placed below it, four or five inches down the inside, so as to leave a vacant s.p.a.ce between itself and the upper edges of the box; to the sides of which it must be well secured, either with glue, or with small headless tack-nails. The wooden bottom of the box must be placed two or three inches up, so as to leave a s.p.a.ce at each end of the lower corners for concealed castors, that will cause the tabouret to be moved easily on the carpet.
The carpenter"s part of the work being thus accomplished, the remainder of the tabouret can be easily completed by the ladies of the family, and at far less cost than if done by an upholsterer. We have seen beautiful tabourets made in this manner, and looking as if made entirely at a shop.
Get about seven or eight yards of strong, broad, very stout webbing, such as is used by saddlers or trunk-makers. You may either procure it of _them_, or at one of the large fringe stores. Nail the webbing to the upper edges of the box, across the vacant top, so as to interlace in small open squares. This is to give elasticity to the seat when finished. Make a square cushion of thick, strong brown linen; allowing it, each way, three or four inches larger than the top of the box; as the linen will take up that much, at least, in sewing and stuffing. Sew the linen strongly round three sides, and leave the fourth open, for putting in the stuffing. Then stuff it, hard and evenly, with curled horse-hair, which you may obtain at a cabinet-maker"s or an upholsterer"s. Afterwards, cover this cushion with damask, cloth, velvet, or some other handsome and durable article, and bind the edges all round. Next cover the four sides of the exterior of the box with the same material as the outside covering of the cushion; stretching it on very tightly and smoothly, and securing it to the wood with small tack-nails. While one person is driving in the nails, another must hold the box fast, and stretch and smooth the covering. When this has been neatly accomplished, nail on the cushion to the top edge of the box, above the webbing; hammering the tacks into the binding. Finish by tacking a handsome fringe all round the cushion, so as to conceal the binding. If you cannot get a fringe _exactly_ the colour of the outside cover, choose one that is a good contrast,--either much darker or much lighter. A light blue tabouret may have purple, brown, black, or deep orange-coloured fringe. One of crimson or scarlet may have a fringe of black, dark green, or gold-colour. For a green tabouret, the fringe may be black, purple, or lilac. A brown or purple tabouret may have a light blue or gold-coloured fringe. A gray one may be fringed with dark brown, dark green, or purple. Light blue may be fringed with a very dark blue; light green with a very dark green; pink with crimson; light brown with a very dark brown; and bright scarlet with _very deep_ crimson. You may suspend, all round, deep festoons of thick, rich cord, corresponding with the fringe; one festoon to hang at each of the four sides. The corners may be finished with long ta.s.sels.
In a similar manner, you can make an excellent and handsome footstool, employing a carpenter to construct the frame or box.
The footstool may be covered with rich carpeting, trimmed with worsted fringe.
THE SUMMER HEARTH.--Summer blowers, of handsomely ornamented iron, are now much used to conceal the empty coal-grates, during the season of warm weather. Like chimney-boards, they render the room very close, by entirely excluding the fresh air that may enter from the chimney.
Certainly, in a bed-chamber, it is best that the fire-place should always be left entirely open. A frame made to fit in exactly, and having open slats, like a Venetian door, is a good screen for a summer-hearth.
These screens are best when divided down the middle, like a pair of Venetian shutters; one or both of which may be left open at night, if in a sleeping room. To sleep in a room from whence all external air is entirely excluded, cannot be otherwise than prejudicial to health; and rarely fails, sooner or later, to undermine the const.i.tution. Many people accustom themselves to sleep with the window-sash farthest from the bed a little open all the year round, (except when the rain or snow comes in that direction;) and in consequence of having acquired this salutary habit, these persons rarely take cold from any exposure to a draught of air. On this subject, the author can adduce the evidence of her personal experience.
Another good chimney-screen is a maple or walnut-wood frame, filled up with open wire-work, painted green like a wire fender, and fitting exactly into the fire-place. These frames should have two bra.s.s k.n.o.bs near the top, for lifting them in and out. Chimney-boards, of course, can only be put into open fire-places, where wood is burnt in cold weather. On the hearth of a vacant Franklin stove it is usual to keep a large jar of flowers, which should be renewed every day or two.
Where there is no summer-blower, it is usual to decorate the empty grate with cut paper. This may be done in a very pretty manner by obtaining a sufficient quant.i.ty of coloured, glossy writing-paper, of such tints as will harmonize best with each other. For instance, green and lilac; green and light pink; light blue and dark brown; blue and buff, or cream-colour; purple and yellow; two shades of green--one very dark, the other very light; or two shades of blue--one much lighter than the other. Cut this paper, lengthways, into long, straight strips; in breadth, about three or four inches. Fold these slips lengthways, and evenly; and, while doubled, cut their edges with sharp scissors into a fringe. Then wreathe these double fringes thickly and closely round the bars of the grate, securing them with pins. On each bar there should be two wreaths, each of a different colour or shade. Twist or wrap these two wreaths together, so as to conceal the iron entirely; beginning the first twist or fringe from the left hand, and crossing or entwining it with one of another shade or colour commencing from the right. If well arranged, this mode of decorating an empty grate has an excellent effect. The bars should previously be well cleaned, and the back and whole interior of the grate completely blacked. Tissue-paper is too soft and thin for wreathing the bars of grates. Coloured writing-paper will be found much better; or, indeed, any nice paper that is thick and smooth, and of the same colour on both sides.
TISSUE-PAPER HEARTH CURTAINS.--There is an infinite variety of patterns for tissue-paper drapery to conceal empty coal-grates. The most simple is to take a sufficient number of long sheets of this paper; fold each sheet, lengthways, in four or six; and with scissors cut through the edges of the folds, so as to form scollops or points when opened out; leaving at the bottom of each sheet a s.p.a.ce to be cut into a deep fringe. Having opened out the sheets, have ready part of the handle or stick of an old broom, cut to fit the length of the aperture or slit left open at the back of the grate for the draught. This stick must be covered with baize or cloth sewed on tightly. Sew to this covering the long streamers of cut tissue-paper, gathering them at the top so that they may hang down full and double. Then lay the stick nicely in the aperture at the top of the grate-back; fasten it securely, and let the drapery fall over the outside of the bars, so as to conceal them.
The following is a very handsome way of arranging hearth curtains. Have ready a sufficient number of long sheets of tissue-paper. Some of them may be white, others of a delicate pink. They are to be cut out in a handsome open-work pattern. You may take your pattern from muslin-work, flowered ribbon, furniture chintz, wall-paper, or table-covers. The more open it is the better. To render it accurate, first draw the outline on stiff paper, and then cut out that paper accordingly. Lay this cut out model upon a sheet of the pink tissue-paper spread out on a smooth common table, and kept down by weights at each corner. With a pencil, go round the model, and trace its outline upon the tissue-paper. Then with a sharp penknife or scissors, cut it out with great care and nicety. If you use a penknife, keep the tissue-paper stretched out smoothly upon the table, all the time you are doing it.
Next, take two more sheets of the pink paper, and cut the upper part of each sheet into the form of curtain-falls; festooned at the top, and descending long and low at the side. Ornament them with a handsome cut pattern, and scollop the edges.
The white tissue-paper is not to be cut or decorated with an open pattern or flowering. It is to form a lining for the pink, through the open work of which the white is to appear. The form or arrangement of this white paper is to fit or correspond with that of the pink, only that the white must be allowed two or three inches deeper at the edge, that it may project out beyond the pink. These projecting white edges are to be cut into a fringe. Additional fringe must be made of white tissue-paper, and twisted together so as to represent cords; the cords to be finished with ta.s.sels made of rolls of white paper fringe, fastened to the cords very neatly by sewing them on with a needle and thread. Observe that none of the _white_ paper is to be cut out in flower patterns, or any sort of open work. It is only to furnish lining, fringe, cords, and ta.s.sels for the pink. Observe, also, that the fringed edge of this white lining is to appear beyond the scolloped edge of the pink outside.
When all is ready, arrange it handsomely in the fire-place, so as entirely to conceal the whole of the grate. It must be fixed at the top by sewing it to a covered piece of broom-handle, made to fit the draught aperture. The two long straight pieces of pink paper, with their white lining underneath, are to go on first. Then put up the festoons with their falls, having their white lining beneath, with its fringe appearing beyond the pink scollops. Then put on, at proper distances, the white cords and ta.s.sels. The effect, when complete, will represent at the back, closed pink curtains, with their white lining appearing through the cut-out flower pattern; over them, two festoons and falls of pink lined with white, opening in front with their white fringe, and white cords and ta.s.sels. In these festoons and falls, the cut-out flowers of the pink paper outside, show the white paper lining beneath.
If well executed, these hearth curtains will (as we have seen) have a most beautiful effect. The pattern or flowering of the cut work is displayed to great advantage by the white lining. In one parlour you may have hearth curtains of pink and white; in the other of green and white, or blue and white.
Hearth curtains of tissue-paper may be fixed to the front ledge or slab that goes along the top of the grate, provided this ledge is wide enough. Leave, uncut, at the top of the sheets of paper, a plain piece to fit the ledge. To keep down this paper upon the ledge, prepare three heavy weights (for instance smooth stones) covered with thick silk or satin, and decorated with large bows of ribbon of the same colour. In this way, by keeping it down with weights on the top, we have seen a very handsome drapery of cut out tissue-paper entirely concealing a Franklin stove.
MARKING THE KEYS OF A PIANO.--Beginners on the piano (children especially) sometimes find much difficulty in learning the affinity between the keys and the notes. After acquiring the gamut theoretically, it is frequently a long time before they can apply it practically to the keys of the instrument, so as at once to find the right key on looking at the corresponding note. The process may be much accelerated (and indeed made perfectly easy) by some grown person marking on the keys the letters that designate the notes. By the following simple method this can be done without any injury or defacement of the ivory. Take a sheet of thick smooth writing-paper, and cut out of it as many little square pieces as there are white keys on the piano. Paste these papers on the ivory; and when _perfectly_ dry, mark on each with common _blue_ ink the letter belonging to that key. It will be best to do this in Roman capitals. If the natural keys are thus distinctly designated, the learner will find little difficulty from the flats and sharps, or black keys, being left unmarked.
The learner will thus in a very short time become familiar with the correspondence of the keys of the piano and the notes in the music book; and will soon be at no loss in finding them. It is well, however, not to remove the marks in less than a month or two. Then loosen the papers by wetting them with a little water; take them off, and wipe the keys first with a wet and then with a dry cloth. Blue ink of the common sort will leave no trace upon the ivory; but good black ink might probably leave a slight stain, unless the paper was very thick. Therefore do not use it.
The learner having thus become thoroughly acquainted with the keys while they were lettered, will not find the least difficulty in remembering them after the marks are taken off.
TO USE A PAPER-KNIFE.--In using a paper-knife to cut open the leaves of a new book, keep your left hand firmly pressed down upon the open page, while you hold the knife in your right. This will prevent the edges of the leaves from cutting rough and jagged. Cut open the tops of the leaves before you run the knife up the side-edges, and cut with a short, quick, hard stroke. The most serviceable paper-knives are of ivory, and without a handle; the handles being very apt to break.
The best way of writing your name in a book is on the inside of the cover; but if the paper that lines it seems likely to cause the ink to run or spread, cut out a handsome slip of fine smooth paper, write your name upon that, and paste it on nicely. If you put your name on one of the fly-leaves, it may be torn out; and if written on the corner of the t.i.tle-page, that corner may be snipped off, should the book fall into the hands of a dishonest person.
HOUSEHOLD TOOLS.--Much inconvenience and considerable expense would be saved, if it was the universal custom to keep in every house a few tools, for the purpose of performing at home what are called small jobs; instead of being always obliged to send for a mechanic, and pay him for executing little things that might be very well done by a man or boy belonging to the family; provided that the proper instruments were at hand. The cost of these articles is very trifling, and the advantages of having them always in the house (particularly in the country) are beyond all price. In a small private family it may not be necessary to keep more than a few of these things; but that few are almost indispensable to comfort. For instance, there should be an axe, a saw, a claw-hammer, a mallet, a screw-driver, a bed-screw, a gimlet, one or two jack-knives, a pair of large scissors or shears, and a trowel. If there were two gimlets, and two screw-drivers, (large and small,) it would be better still. Likewise, an a.s.sortment of hooks, and of nails of different sizes, from large spikes down to small tacks; not forgetting a supply of bra.s.s-headed nails, some large and some small. Screws, also, will be found very convenient. The nails and screws should be kept in a wooden box, with divisions or part.i.tions to separate the various sorts; for it is very troublesome to select them when all mixed together.
No house should be without glue, chalk, putty, paint, cord, twine, and wrapping-paper of different sorts. And care should be taken that the supply is not suffered to run out, lest the deficiency might cause delay and inconvenience at a time when most wanted.