RAG CARPET TO-DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1366, 17 February 1912, Page 13

RAG CARPET TO-DAY.

A name is often quite enough to kill a good thing, and the words rag carpet and patchwork have done a great aeal toward holding back two of the most attractive varieties of decorative work, says a writer in the "Age." The rag carpet of to-day is not made of rags. It is made certainly from scraps, but the better those scraps are the better is the finished work. The scraps are cut into strips, sewn together, and woven on simple frame looms into big mats that are as beautiful as. they aro useful. This is work that old folk can do, and, especially in Canada, they do it beautifully. The scraps are collected from various dressmaking establishments. Sorted as regards colour- and quality, and then made up, not in haphazard fashion, but in quite beautiful patterns. A square of light blue, for instance, is framed in a bigger square of darker blue. Then a square of brown, then one of green, and finally a broad outlining of grey. The material may be cotton, wool, t or silk, and the finished article suggests anything in the world but a "rag* carpet, even though it is made entirely of waste material. The process of making is simple enough for anyone to master, and it .is a home industry that can keep little boys, as well as girls, happily employed, while it is the best possible outlet for the <mergie3 of old folk. Equally great is the misunderstanding of patch work which is actually cotton appliqno of a very high order of merit. The foundation is linen sheeting, . or good cotton sheeting and all sorts of beautiful conventional . designs are then carried out with cotton. A bedspread bordered with an exquisite wreath of bluo convulvus and green foliage is really "patch work." So is an ecru, linen sofa cover showing a beautiful conventional border of red poppies. There are few works more fascinating than modem patch work, and the pity is that it does not get another name to travel under. GERMAN PRINCESS. The Crown Princess of Germany is a sister of the present Grand Duke of MecklenburgSchwerin, is now twenty-five, and was married in 1905. The Crown Princess has a pleasant face and much charm of manner, is clever and "witty, and always dressed to perfectionshe is generous and warm-hearted, and it is told of her that she once sold a diamond tiara worth over JJSOOO, in order to contribute a largo sum for the relief of the widows in a terrible colliery accident in Westphalia, This act was much appreciated by the German people, who find their Crown Princess a very human and most lovable woman. The Crown Princess has a fancy for walking-sticks, which sho has made to match her different gowns, and some of them are.set with rich jewels and rare enamels. She owns splendid stones of all sorts, but one of her favourite ornaments is a necklace j hung with every Easter egg that she has | received since sho was an infant. Most of the eggs are tiny, and made of the purest gold.