For the Bride

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 68, 21 March 1931, Page 19

For the Bride

A novel idea for the girl who is preparing her bottom drawer is to add an autographed tablecloth (says a London writer). Special friends might be asked to contribute their signatures, or the plan of one girl might be adopted. She used one corner for childhood friends, another corner was occupied by immediate relations of her own and her future husband, the third was filled with tho signatures of oflico friends, while the fourth corner was left untouched. Here she added new friends that she made later as a bride. .First of all, choose a piece of white or coloured linen. About 54 inches square is a good size. Turn up a, hem of about one and a half to two inches all round, and hem neatly; mitre each corner. A simple touch of embroidery to cover the hemming should then be worked. It would look very smart with two rows of long stitches, each stitch -Jin in length, and -Jin distance between each stitch. The bottom row >of stitches should be about -Jin below the top one. Crosses could be placed between each block of stitches. If' preferred, hemstitching, buttonholing, or featherstitching could take.the place of this design. IN VARYING COLOURS. After making it up, the next step is i to obtain the signatures of 'all the friends who are to feature on the'clu.th. They should be asked to write their signatures on fairly thin paper, aud as big and clearly as possible. The signatures should then be traced on to the cloth (but only one or two at a time, .as the carbon soon rubs off) by means of a piece of carbon paper and a very sharply pointed pencil. When one or two names have been transferred to the linen, it is quite a simple matter to go over the outlines J with needle and thread in very neat and tiny stitching. It is best to use a stranded cotton, guaranteed fadeless, for embroidery, so that big, bold signatures may be outlined with two or three strauds, while the smaller and less distinct ones arc worked with only one thread. Choose tho prettiest and brightest colours, and tho cloth will look as gay as a lovely flower garden —the flowers being the well-known signatures of all your best friends and relations. An original idea is to let the people who sign their names, choose the colours' in which these are to be embroidered. Ask* them what colour they associate with themselves. You will be amused to find that Aunt Nellie, say, who is so meek and sweet, chooses verm'illion red, while dashing Mr. Brown votes for pale blue! If you buy a collection of different-coloured skeins of embroidery cotton when you start the cloth, this will be easy to arrange.