ODD PIECES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19959, 17 November 1934, Page 11

ODD PIECES

Odd pieces are a temptation to everyone. No one really likes throwing them away because of a feeling that they will come in some time, states the “Manchester Guardian.” This may be true in a village institute or where doll-dressing takes place regularly on j an extravagant scale, but odd pieces are more the cause of inartistic demonstrations of human nature than almost anything else. Patchwork has, of course, arisen from odd pieces, and patchwork used to be praiseworthy when stuffs were scarce. Those who do patchwork now take the greatest care to keep to some design in which odd pieces would not serve at all. Ragrugs are on the same principle. Any rags will not do for those who are not merely stringing pieces of stuff together with no particular design.

Odd pieces have, however, become the reason for all sorts of vagaries, such as a brick sewn up in serge and used to prop open a door. This is all very well and the serge prevents the door from being scraped, but why must a sunflower be worked upon it with which to make it ridiculous? Odd pieces are accountable for many displays of mats. It is true that some mats are wanted, but many are not, and they would be far better used up as kettle-holders, though even these have to suffer from feather-stitching—another outlet for the superabundance of human energy. Odd pieces are sometimes converted successfully into garments, and everybody remembers the strange waistcoats and other articles which emanated from odd pieces during the war. Where the odd piece is really immoral is when it has an ulterior motive. People do not really want to make somethinggood or useful with it; they want to let off steam at all costs, with the result that we live in a world which is surfeited with mats.