WOMEN’S NOTES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 227, 23 August 1935, Page 15

WOMEN’S NOTES.

FASHIONS. (Bv Miss Mary Tallis.) Holiday frocks. —Spots are still “in.” They appear on silk, satins, and, most attractively of all, on crisp piqtie voiles. Almost any time of the day is the correct time for wearing taffeta. It has largely taken the place of chiffon for evening, afternoon, and the races. You will see it worn to the ankles at garden parties and teas, flowered, coin dotted, plaided, and plain. Its weight ranges from the most paperv to heavy taffeta faille. In Paris, Vionnet uses deep cherry, rich emerald, and cornflower blue taffeta for some of her loveliest gowns. Most of these taffeta gowns are carefully fitted to the knee, except at Lanvin’s, where the skirts are huge and circular, fitted at the waist and hanging in deep, overlapping folds. This circular skirt is the newest thing tor more or less formal afternoon wear. Taffeta creeps into every clothes problem —for general wear one finds threequarter cloaks of taffeta cloque (blistered). Cloth capes are lined with check or plaid taffeta. Every A r oinnet coat is worn with a plaid taffeta blouse and scarf tied in a huge how. In fact, no really chic costume will be without its touch of taffeta. Do you notice that skirts are a little shorter and a little fuller? Paris is pleased to have them so. About two inches, the big houses say, so that’s one little job you must do—shorten last year’s frocks. BEAUTY. The lazy way.-—AYe are probably the first generation to make a fetish of activity. Our ideal is to get there; to be up and always doing. But there are wise medical men who have grave misgivings regarding this mode of life. It burns us out too soon. We don’t live as long as our placid grandmothers did. We are stamping out many diseases of bacteria, but we are succumbing more and more to breakdown and fatigue. At thirty, or forty, we may look younger than our grandmothers did, but we are older in nervous exhaustion and deep corroding strain than they were at sixty or seventy. An up-to-date plan of living should provide for new leisure and set up a new r ideal—an ideal not of doing, but of doing nothing. We should learn to live with case and composure, instead of with rush and excitement. And spring is a good

time to start this new life. It is little use trying to tell you how to pattern your life on this new plan. It may take a generation or more to establish the slow tempo. Still there are a few suggestions that may Jie useful. One is, take naps. Y'ou have no idea what a daily nap will do for your looks. In small, unthoughtof ways you make most of your wrinkles. You frown from effort, let your mouth drop from fatigue, cringe from noise, 6quint at glare. Unconsciously, you string yourself up to resist those slight, but repeated shocks and strains. That state of taut resistance all day long makes frowning and drooping and squinting lines a habit. One way to break that habit is to break your day-long tension with a period of rest —a nap. Let go, and go to sleep. Scientists agree that sleep is in deep, important ways a tonic and an anti-toxin. It restores and renew'S and rejuvenates vour tissues and your spirit. To help you to keep young and fresh you need a nap just as much as your children do. Take it at the same hour as they do. Or take it in the late afternoon and wake up rested and bright to welcome your home-coming husband and young folk. If you are out of the habit of daytime sleeping, begin by lying down in a cool, dark room for 15 minutes a day. Tie a black scarf over your eyes to keep out all consciousness of daylight. THE HOME.

Making renovations. —To freshen carpets: A good way to freshen up a soiled carpet is to rub dry bicarbonate of soda well into the pile, then brush out thoroughly with a stiff brush. If tea or coffee is. spilt on a carpet, rub it hard at once with a cloth until the stain disappears. This method is always successful if used immediately. Ink stains should be mopped up at once with water, then clean with carpet soap. For dry ink stains do not use strong chemicals, as they will take the colour out of the carpet. The safest way is to cover the stain with baking-powder and squeeze on enough lemon-juice to moisten it well. After a few minutes wipe it off, and repeat the treatment. Any slight stain that is left can be washed out. Tar stains will come off directly if rubbed with a little eucalyptus oil. Soot stains should be covered with dry salt and brushed out. Never use soap and water for soot. To remove rust from cop]>er.—A rusty copper is not fit to use, as it causes iron-mould stains on the

clothes. It can be put right again, however, by heating the dry copper and whitewashing the inside. '1 he whitewash remains on a long time and can be renewed easily when it is necessary. Felt hats.—Soft felt hats can be renovated by removing the trimming and soaking in a shallow bowl with about a pint of petrol, after which they should be brushed inside and out until they are clean. Do the work out-of-doors, and away from any naked light, as petrol is highly inflammable. When the hat is clean, wipe it firmly with a dry cloth. Grease stains.—By far the best plan to clean off grease stains is by dabbing them with a pad of cottonwool soaked in a non-inflammable cleaning spirit. First, make a ring round the outside of the stain, then work towards the centre. For candle-grease on a carpet, there is nothing better than a hot iron and blotting-paper.