HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23004, 6 October 1936, Page 17

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Before making buttonholes, machine stitch the material according to the size required before cutting. This will prevent fraying.

A mustard plaster will not burn the skin if white of egg is used instead of water for mixing. Warm camphorated oil is better still. Always apply olive oil to the skin when the plaster is removed to prevent soreness.

When cutting out or sewing velvet, use needles in place of pins to keep the pattern in position, and there will be no marks where the needles have been. Use silk instead of cotton for tacking seams and hems, as this has no effect on the material. # •'• # , To clean a mackintosh, lay it flat out and rub with a nail brush, with cold soft water and yellow soap. Rinse in cold water, but do not wring. Shake it and hang in the open air, never near a fire, and never use not water. If there are any very greasy marks, rub with a little turpentine.

Unless very small or of very light consistency, most puddings require about two hours* boiling; but if very rich, such as Christmas puddings, they require from six to ten hours boiling ' * * Place a piece of paper at the bottom of the dustbin. Roll everything in newspaper you put in. This keeps it cleanT dry, and free from smell, and makes dustbins last a lifetime. It pre. vents washing dustbin out, and animals do not knock it over for the bits. Also gets rM of surplus newspapers. * * * Fuller's earth is a capital thing to remove any oily mark on clothes, it can be done in quite a simple way. First, place the article flat on the table, then sprinkle fuller's earth on the oily mark. Fold smoothly and leave it for a few days. Wash the article afterwards if necessary.

To clean ivory, rub it with fine sand or knife powder applied on a piece of damp newspaper. Then wash it in new milk and polish with a silk handkerchief or clean chamo s leatner. Handles of knives should be cleaned in this way occasionally. | « ■■;• "■

Don't turn sheets sides to middle—they are uncomfortable; Slit lengthways, cutting out worn part, undo hem and dye to match colour scheme of room, then make into curtains, hanging selvedge to centre of window: Saving on curtains buys new sheets. Old table linen treated thus makes excellent cushions to match.

To remove general stuffiness and tobacco fumes quickly from the lounge whilst the guests are in the dining room, burn a few teaspoonfuls of eau-de-Cologne in a strong saucer in the room. This makes the atmosphere clean smelling and sweet for the guests' return.

Soap and hot water will often remove fresh writing and printing ink stains, especially if the soap is well rubbed into the stain. This treatment is a good preliminary for removing all ink stains. If it succeeds, well and good; if it fails, no harm is done, and other methods may be applied. On washable linen, cotton, silk, and wool cover the stain with crystals of oxalic acid and allow boiling water to soak through, subsequently washing the fabric well. In the case of cotton and linen the oxalic acid treatment may be followed by bleaching with javelle water. Ink stains on delicate materials are best removed with a solution of potassium permanganate. Another safe method is to spread a paste of French chalk and water over the stain and work it round and round so long as it takes up ink, renewing it as it becomes discoloured. Soaking with milk—for two or three days, if necessary—may take ink stains from fragile material, and can do no harm if it does not, but the milk must be renewed from time to time. Red ink stains should be soaked in sodium perborate solution for a. few hours. Marking ink stains are very difficult to deal with. If the marking ink is one that'must be pressed with a hot iron before being washed, the stain will almost certainly yield to soaking in photographic "hypo" solution. If the stain is on cotton or linen, soak javelle water into it and quickly rinse with weak ammonia and wash well in hot. soapy water.