Ladies' Column.

Lake County Press, Issue 2254, 7 January 1909, Page 2

Ladies' Column.

! ftSKION AND THINGS FEMININE. Sy Miss Ida Moller. All Rights Reserved. A CORSELET DRESS. Although colour-fashions change, and each season brings with it a variety of novel shades, one never grows, weary ol navy blue, which remains in vogue year in and year out. Blue is undoubtedly the colour ot the season, the fashionable shades being those known as Saxe, Wedgwood, Napoleon, and Periwinkle—some of them rather trying when in the brighter varieties and cheaper makes ol straw (for hats) and cloth. One is likely, indeed, to have a surfeit of these new blues, which bid fair to become commonplace in a very short while. Bright blue hats trimmed with roses in a paler shade abound, and although they are pretty and charming when wellchosen and worn with dresses of harmonising blue, there is danger that some crude contrasts will meet the eye during the reign of the more vivid blues, and a word of warning is, therefore, not out of place. Concerning skirts, these are inclined to display corselet effects, especially house-skirts, and very useful is a black cloth or silk skirt, cut high in the waist and provided with detachable braces—a skirt, for instance, after the fashion of the one depicted in our fulllength sketch. This might be of facecloth, with scalloped bands, and a frill of silk, or could be cut entirely of taffetas, and would, if of silk, be useful as a theatre-skirt for those who. find the convenience of a dark skirt when journeying to places of amusement by rail or omnibus in the evenings. The blouse sketched with the skirt is of light spotted net, with a yoke-collar of guipure. The skirt can be worn without the braces, and with light or

dark blousws, ol course. The arrangement of the skirt at the foot, by the way, suggests a capital style for a renovation, when a skirt has worn through at the hem or is too short. The added fichu is an improvement, rather than otherwise. THE SILK SHIRT. Fancy materials haye won the day, and flowered and checked silks take precedence of plain Surahs and Mervs, however useful the latter may be. Nothing is smarter with a tailor-made coat and skirt than a shirt of checked or striped silk, and for blouse silks the smallest checks are preferred. The original of the simple shirt sketched if of checked taffetas in china-blue and white, with a frilled plastron of plain blue silk and little kiltings to the cuffs of the same. Similar shirts are made with plastrons of their own material, and are equally smart. A capital method of keeping the waist trim is to mount shirts and blouses into short basques, which are tucked beneath the waist of the skirt

and can be pinned to the latter if there is any risk of the shirt-waist rising. Blouses are speedily destroyed at the waist if they are not protected by the basque and are pinned through direct to the waist-band. When the blouse fastens at the back, it is a good plan

to stitch the ceinture of a. soft, draped' one, to the blouse itself, stitching along the top of the belt; the basque of the blouse can be tucked inside the skirt, of course. Belts of the straight, shapeless kind, whether of silk or kid, are now- decorated with buttonhole embroidery, and some of the silk ones are adorned with embroidered designs—flowers, dots, cross-bars, circles, and so on. A HOME MADE JAPONICA PLANT. There is nothing so pretty as real flowers and greenery for home decoration, but when flowers are scarce and palms and other foliage-plants dear, a few branches of artificial Almond Blossom or Japonica are useful for making gay our rooms. Sketched here is a pot of home-made Japonica, and girls may be interested to hear how to make the blossoms, which, when fixed to a branch, can be posed in a jardiniere, as sketched, and appear verily to be a growing pl&nt or they may he arranged as tall picked branches placed in vases. ' _ The blossoms are of pink and white or rose-red paper, but the branch itself is real The effect is decidedly Japanese, and the blossom luoks lovely when placed in a high Japanese vase on a mantelpiece or sideboard of dark oak, or in a large vase of gieen or opal glass. First, select a suitable twig, or branch from a nut or other tree, and pick off the leaves, because they would, of course, soon fade and drop off. If you are going to copy the Japonica blossom, buy some sheets of rosered tissue paper; if you prefer Almond blossom, buy pink paper, also some white, so that you can mingle pink and white blossoms together. The other materials required are thin wire, such as is used for mounting real flowers, some gold-coloured crochet silk, and a pair of scissors. Each blossom is composed of two petals of tissue paper and a little knot of gold-coloured silk (to simulate the stamens), wired to the centre of the blossom. The quickest way to work is to fold the paper into a small compass of many layers, and with a pencil mark out on the top layer the shape of several Japonica peals (sec diagram sketch, which shows shape of petals), afterwards cutting these out with a sharp pair of scissors and snipping through all the layers at once. Next, take the stamens. Take a length of crochet silk, measure off,

say, one inch or less, and to this length fold the silk backwards and forwards (afterwards cutting open the looped ends) until you have in hand half-a-dozen inch-long strips. Tie these together in the centre before cutting the silk, and you have the centre or "heart" of a Japonica blossom. To form the flower, take two Japonica petals, and lay them one across the other (see diagram in sketch). T ben take a made-up "heart" or yellow centre for the flower, "and place it on the top petal, pass a piece of wire (about two or three inches long) over the centre of the stamen and through the two petals; give the wire a twist to secure it, and then twist it to the real branch you have at hand. Proceed in this way* until the branch is handsomely dressed with knots ot blossoms. , • A'charm of these home-made plants is that they last fresh for a long period, without requiring attention. 1 hey are very quickly made and make a good show for little pains.