WOMEN'S NOTES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 290, 5 November 1934, Page 9

WOMEN'S NOTES.

FASHIONS.

(By Miss Mary Tallis.)

Summer is coming.—Did you know that this year all the small children who last year sunbathed in their woollen bathing suits are being made gay little sun-trocks in bright-coloured cottons and linens that look twice as pretty and are every bit' as comfortable? When you go on your holiday you will see them everywhere on the beaches, and since they can be run up for as little as a shilling, most mothers will want to make their children several of them. These coollooking little garments are all being made backless and as brief as possible from waist to knees, so that little figures can get thoroughly tanned. The older children seem to love to get into shorts, and in place of the grey flannel ones that little girls have previously worn, you will see them in fresh, white linen ,or in those becoming “shortsfrocks” that combine blouses and shorts in one garment. Hats and bonnets, too, are important items this summer. Have you seen the new striped linen beach hats with wide, shady brims and comiortable, gored crowns? And have you also seen the new bonnets made in light matting straw with pretty fronts that shade the eyes and are trimmed with rucliings of printed material to match the wearer’s frocks? Made in natural coloured straw, they go well with any little frock or coat. BEAUTY. A too thin back.—A too-thin back, with shoulder-blades protruding; nothing could look more pitiful. if you are thus troubled, do try and put a little flesh on your back, just enough to give it at least a chance of a dimple or two. If you’re thin all over, then you must put on weight —a little all over, but if it’s just your back that’s thin, there’s exercise and tissuebuilding creams to help you. Exercises need not be complicated to give good results. Here are two: With hands on shoulders, rotate the arms and shoulders backwards, then forwards. backwards, forwards. Then do the exercise you used to do at school: Hands on shoulders, then shoot them forward and back to shoulders, twice up as high as you can reach, and back, twice, then down to your sides, twice. A few minutes every morning—that’s all that’s needed. Then buy a good tissue-bunding food, and get a friend to massage it into your back every night. But what if your back boasts too many dimples, or perhaps, little hummocks of fat? Reduce, reduce, for beauty’s sake! Here’s a good exercise to begin with. Sit on the floor with feet straight ahead. Hold a long stock in the hands and raise it straight above the head, lowering it behind the shoulders. Raise it

again, then bring it down in front, to shoulder level. Repeat ten times. Massage and slapping are your two other forms of salvation. Ask a sister or a friend to coat the skin thinly with reducing cream, then to pinch the flesh firmly between her thumb and forefinger: The slapping can either be done with the hands,, or a rubber patter. After this minor form of torture, remove the cream with witch hazel.

KNITTING. Dainty bedroom slippers in crochet. —Materials: 2oz. of 4-ply wool in pink; 1 skein each green, mauve, rose and yellow embroidery wool; Jyd lining and the same amount of tailor’s canvas; a pair of slipper soles, size 4; a 1-in. wide strip of cardboard; and a No. 12 crochet book. Size: The directions given are for size 4 sole, but any size can be made from the same directions by simply lengthening or shortening the side parts. Tension: 7 sts. to 1-in. in width. Begin at the toe by working 11 ch., turn. On the next row miss the ch. next the hook, then work 1 d.c. into each remaining ch., 1 ch., turn. Work backwards forwards in d.c., turning each row with 1 ch. and working 2 d.c. into the first and last sts. of every row till there are 30 sts. on the needle. From here inc. in the same way, but only on every alternate row till there are 40 sts. in the row. Work a depth of ljins. straight over these sts. On the next row work across 18 sts., work 2 tog., turn. On tho following row work 2 sts. tog., and complete the row. Decrease on the same edge on each of the next 2 rows. Work quite straight on the 14 remaining sts. for' a depth of 6ins. —or more or less according to the size required. On the next row work to within 7 sts. of the upper edge, then turn and work back. On the following row work across all sts. Fasten off. Miss a sts. in the centre, then work over th 4 remaining 18 sts. and complete this side of the slipper to match the first. This completes the crochet for one slipper-top. Work another exactly the same way. Press out the crochet on tho wrong side with a hot iron over a damp cloth. Embroider small buttonhole flowers round the upper edge part of the front of the slipper, with French knots in the centre and lazy-daisy leaves between. Press on the wrong side. Cut out 2 pieces of lining, using the crochet as pattern, and allowing J-in. on all edges for turning. Cut out two pieces of canvas the same size as the crochet except at the back where J-in. must be allowed for joining. Join the back I

edges of all pieces separately. Pin a lining to a canvas piece on the inside, turn over all edges and tack neatly. Place the crochet on the opposite side . and sew all edges together. Stitcli to the slipper sole.