A FASCINATING HANDICRAFT

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 54, 27 November 1926, Page 18

A FASCINATING HANDICRAFT

DYEING WITH CRAYONS. Charming decorative effects on fabric? for -dress items and for domestic use can be obtained by a simple method of dyeing the fabric bj’ means of special crayons. The method of working these pastels is very simple. First, the material to he decorated should tie tightly stretched on a drawing board with drawing pins, and the design sketched in with one or more of the pastels. When this is finished the pins are removed and the crayoned fabric placed between sheets of blotting paper and ironed with a hot iron until the blotting paper has absorbed all the superfluous colour and the design is permanently dyed into the material.

Scarf ends, cushion covers, handkerchiefs, curtains, dadoes, and friezes for wallpaper, cork table mats, shawls, and lampshades are among the many items for every-day use which may bo effectively decorated by this process. Designs can be simple or elaborate, em-

ploying few or many colours; charming colour alliances may be obtained by working one chalk over another, and faded materials can be renewed or renovated.

For those who prefer it, designs for tracing through silk or other transparent fabrics used, can be bought. Sets of the three primary colours red, blue, and yellow, including a crayon holder, can be obtained foi’ a few shillings. HOW TO STORE CHINA Many housewives have to their cost been made acquainted with the a-pect of mildewed linen, but to discover the grey, disfiguring spots upon one's best dinner service is a less common though equally disconcerting experience As m the case of the linen, mildew in china is caused by damp, which may either arise from the rtoring cupboard being in an outside wall and not sufficiently airy, or more often by the china being put away for a considerable period without being well washed and thoroughly dried, inside and out, back and front. It is the plates and dishes that suffer chiefly, because they are usually piled up so that the air cannot reach them, and it is, unfortunately, generally good china, made of soft pa-te, which is most liable to be affected by mildew. Dealers in antique and valuable china are accustomed to giiard against, this troublesome disfigurement in their goods by storing each piece with a piece of paper between it and the next so that china does not touch china.

Should mildew appear, however, in spite of precautions, a cure may usually be effected by rubbing the spots with grease producer! from petroleum or by putting the affected pieces into a cool oven after the fire has gone out and leaving them there till the morning. As an alternative they may bo set out on a table in the sun after being treated with grease and allowed to remain in the warmth for some hours.

If the marks are very slight they will sometimes yield to a rubbing with a cut lemon dipped in starch, the mixture being left on for some time.

It is not generally’ known that eggs covered with boiling water, and allowed to stand for five minutes, are more nourishing and more easily digested than eggs placed in boiling water and allowed to boil furiously for three and a half minutes.