CHECKED DUSTER MATERIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 531, 7 December 1928, Page 5

CHECKED DUSTER MATERIAL

HAS DECORATIVE POSSIBILITIES Plain duster material, checked in red, blue, black or yellow, is obtainable quite cheaply in different widths, and this seemingly uninteresting stuff can be used in a surprising number of ways. Duchesse sets, bed-spreads, table-cloths and mats —these, and many other similar things, may readily he fashioned with the minimum of trouble and excellent results. Touches of hand embroidery work the transformation. The squares on the material make it quite simple for a small pattern to be worked in bright-hued washing cottons, without the aid of transfers. A little flower, composed of five or six “lazy-daisy” stitches radiating round a satin-stitch circle, worked in alternate squares, will form an effective trimming for a small table-cloth. If the material be checked with blue, a plain blue border and flowers of blue, orange and lavender will • look fresh and gay. A set of table-mats might be evolved in the same way. If scarlet-checked material is used, the mats should be hound with scarlet bias binding and worked with flowers of red and yellow, having jade-green stamens and leaves. For table runners and duchesse sets, worked borders will be most effective. A border consisting of alternate daisies and leaf sprigs, for instance, is dainty and pleasing; the flowers might be carried out in every gay colour —cherry, royal, mustard, and so on, with sprigs of jade or emerald in between. Spreads for cottage bedsteads look quaint and delightful fashioned in the same style; the demure cheeriness of the fresh material thus embroidered suits an old-world scheme to perfection. Imagine a low-ceilinged little room, with whitewashed walls and long black sloping roof-beams. The floor is dark-oak stained; the rugs are of blue and grey cord; curtains, dressing-table cover and counterpane are of yellow-checlred dustering, with flowers of lavender and blue. Does the picture please you? Play-overalls for the babies, aprons for the housewife, cushion-covers for the nursery window-bench—once you begin to explore the possibilities of embroidered dustering, you’ll be surprised!