Gossip From Milady’s Boudoir

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20768, 1 July 1937, Page 14

Gossip From Milady’s Boudoir

Steady Prop. Prop will not slide along clothesline if pegs are put each side of it. Tennis Shoes. Rub a wet sponge over tennis shoes before putting on the whitening. Syrup. When weighing syrup, flour the scales, pour it on and it will slide off quite easily. Distemper. Signs of distemper in a dog are shivering, loss of appetite, cough, loss of brightness of the eyes, and very frequently, fits. Iron Mould. Treat with a solution containing one ounce of salt of lemon and one ounce of acid potassium flyoride in one quart of water. Pad until stain disappears but do not rub hard. Rinse with water and then with diluted ammonia. Cretonne Covers. When fancy cretonne covers cannot be cleaned with soap and water, make a thick paste of starch and water and cover the soiled surface; brush off when dry. Repeat treatment until stains are removed.

Washing Eiderdown. Steep for ten minutes in a lather made with hot water and soap jelly to which has been added a little ammonia. Well work about the eiderdown in the lather and rinse to two warm waters also to which a little ammonia has been added. Needlework Pictures. Needlework pictures are the thing this year and since patriotic expression is in the air, English castles are among the most popular subjects. There is an excellent series of castles, including Buckingham Palace, to be had, or if you prefer to follow the vogue of maps, there are maps of English counties, all ready stamped on canvas and with the materials for working the design. The Puckered Seam. Nothing “gives away” the amateur needlewoman so badly as a puckered seam. Here are some professional hints as to how to avoid it: No seam should be machine stitched until the two sections have been accurately tacked together. Some materials, such as ring velvet, georgette and crepe de chine, when cut on the bias, have a way of stretching while being seamed. If it is found, after tacking, that one side is an inch or so longer than the other, do not cut off the extra bit, but unpick the stitches and rearrange the work to get the ends true. Do not fold

the two pieces over the fingers when tacking, but keep them as flat as possible, for the former method tends to cause puckering of the under portion and stretching of the upper. When sewing a seam on the selvedge of the fabric, take the precaution of shipping it at frequent intervals, making the cuts at an oblique angle to the edges. While a selvedge will remain rigid, the inner material may tend to stretch as the needle goes through it, but the slantting cuts will produce the requisite “give.” Neglect of this precaution is one of the most usual causes of puckering. The tension on the sewing machine may be slightly too tight, so that a line of stitching, rather looser than the weave of the material, draws up the seam. Test the tension stitch before putting in the work. Materials of different thicknesses and weaves call for modification of the tension as well as of the size of needle and length of stitch. When a seam puckers, in spite of all precautions, give it an all-night pressing. Cover the ironing board with a clean sheet of blotting-paper, well sprinkled with cold water, place the seam on this, face downwards and pinned straight with drawing-pins. On the inside of the seam place a linen handkerchief, also damped, and on top the largest flat-iron, barely warm. Leave overnight. In the morning the puckers should have vanished.