Notes For Women

Wairarapa Daily Times, 23 March 1935, Page 6

Notes For Women

Fashions, Recipes aid lints

HOUSEHOLD HINTS. Reversible Rugs. Here is a hint for preserving reversible rugs. As soon as you have bought the rugs, back them with canvas. Tins •will keep one side absolutely clean and fresh. Then when one side gets shabby, all you have to do is to take the canvas and turn it upside down, and you have a new rug once again. .*• * *

Linoleum Economy. If linoleum, when new, is varnished on the back and allowed to dry before being put on the floor, it will last much longer. # #

Scorch Marks. • Scorch marks may be removed by mixing a paste of bicarbonate of soda and a little cold water. This will also remove perspiration and other . stains from white silks or crepe de chine. * * * *

A Cookery Hint. Juices or foods which have boiled over in the oven should be covered liberally with table salt. This will stop any further smell of burning and if left till the oven is cold, can be brushed off with a brush, leaving the oven perfectly clean. • * * *

Washing and Ironing. Woollen garments and underclothes will dry more quickly if, after hanging on the" line, the legs and sleeves are stuffed with crumpled paper. The paper absorbs the water, and also prevents shrinking by keeping the garments open. When ironing soft collars, take an old serviette, starch well, and dry thoroughly. Place this on the ironing blanket and iron all the collars on it. This gives them quite a new appearance, and the collars will not crease quickly or soil easily.

Straw Brooms. • To make your straw broom last, stand it in the copper on washing day, then plunge in cold water. If treated this •way when new, it will keep.stiff as well as. "last much longer than it otherwise would. » * * »

When You Cook. When making scones, add a tablespoonful of cornflour and they will be much finer and lighter. * * * *

Take Care of Your Hot-water Bottle. If a rubber liot-water bottle is beginning to show signs of wear, its life may be lengthened by a little care. The seams may be reinforced with strips of unbleached linen. They can be made to adhere by the use of waterproof lacquer, which is sold for- protecting brass. If a crack appears in the main part of the bottle use a patch and the rubber solution which is sold in bicycle outfits. LIGHTER STOCKINGS. Paris stands very little chance of making headway with her black stocking fashion (according to a London expert). She has threatened to launch a campaign for popularising the filmiest of black silk stockings for wear with the black ensemble, and a few smart Frenchwomen have attempted to give the fashion a lead. But a casual inspection of stockings being worn and stockings being shown in the neighbourhood of Bond Street recently seemed to suggest that if anything Englishwomen are buying and wearing much lighter stockings than has been the case for a season or two. There is no danger of a return to flesh and pink tint —for which most women will be thankful—but every, well-dressed woman is choosing suntan and other pale brown, tints, and a few silvery grey shades are making their appearance again after being in the background for a good long time . A NEW COIFFURE IS BORN. Women have decided that a change in coiffores would be good. And in that mysterious way in which a fashion is born, nearly every woman one meets seems to have placed curls at the top of her head, and flattened the liair from the- nape of the neck, either by soft waves or by brushing it up towards the summit of the head. A flower may be tucked in front of the topnot, an ornament pin or clip may hold the curls in place, or there . may be arranged a few stylised shining ringlets down the top of the head. This for evening year of course. As for the front of the head, the hair may be swept back from the forehead, or parted in the middle, or there may be two soft curls right in the middle of the forehead, or a curl on either side of the forehead, or a curl gummed to the centre of the forehead in the form of a note of interrogation. These are not fashions for tout le monde naturellement. Only a very clever hairdresser can successfully achieve such a work of art, and only a beauty can stand it. Pray heaven no ugly woman will attempt it! FASHION DETAILS.

Sequins are not all small; some are the sizo of a two-sliilling piece. A gayjacket for evening wear can be cut on much the same pattern as a bolero. It can be made in gold, each round -winking sequin the size of a two-sliilling piece. Plain marocain or crepe dresses are seen this season, accompanied by broad stiff ribbon belts in dark colours, on which aTe five or six widely spaced, large sealing wax red pailleted hearts, or throe or four emerald green good luck clovers, or even a sprinkling of sky blue stars. There are new ways with flowers (artificial). Paris plants iris—white, purple or yellow (the latter are divine on lame) —on many dresses. Paris also bunches fat dahlias under chins, or strings white lilies on the neck of a black dress. There exists a definite taste for simplicity. No —simplicity is not quite the word. This feeling has nothing to do with the nakedness and poverty of the past years. Let us say—austerity, severity, dignity. These are qualities that add to the charm of youth. Some of the new dresses are the soul of austerity itself. Such is a black crepe evening dress seen at a. recent opening, that leaves the back bare, but is high in front, and without a frill of any kind.

RECIPES FOR THE WEEK. People always seem to me to eat too much nowadays. But nothing like what they did 100 years ago apparently. I was looking at an old cookery book dated 1774, the other day, and entitled “Cookery Book of the Middle Classes,” which eontainse a typical menu suggested as suitable for an ordinary dinner. The meal began with soup, followed by a joint of beef roasted in front of the fire. After this two entrees were served —the one a species of vol-au-vent, and the other a braised chicken. Hors-d’oeuvres came next, consisting of a substantial dish of rabbit and mashed lentils and a number of stuffed sheeps’ tongues. The second service consisted of two roast hares and two chickens a la Reine. Sweets were many and various, ranging from ices of every kind and biscuits, to cakes, green peas cooked in sugar and cream, and sweetmeats. The dessert courses included plates of strawberries and a compote of cherries with whipped cream, finishing up with three different jams. Such in brief was the meal of the average man a hundred years ago. It would cost a small fortune to provide such a royal feast nowadays, even if there lives a man with an adequate appetite and sufficiently good digestion. It leads one to ask what a Frenchman of Louis XVl.’s time would have said if he had been given half a dozen artfully arranged radishes for hors-d’oeuvres, or if he had been told that potatoes, disguised in a, hundred different ways, had taken the place of a capon, the quail, and the plover’s eggs. FRIDAY IS FISH DAY. Friday is fish day—not that fish is not just as delicious, just as wholesome, and just as nutritious on Wednesday or Thursday, or any other day in the week. But in Catholic countries it is decreed that Friday should be a fast day. This has a wide meaning, and even during Lent there are few, outside convents, who observe a strict Lenten fast. At the present moment fish is the one food in the world of which there seems to bo an unlimited supply. Certain fish are in season all the year. In selecting fish care should be taken to see that the fish bo firm, smooth, moist and have a fresh odour, especially along the backbone, for this is where the fish begins to spoil, the eyes full and bright, the gills red and the fins and tail firm. Since it is not exactly a congenial task to punch a fish in the ribs, or to sniff its backbone, it is really pleasanter to select a fishman that can be trusted to send good fish. In buying fish allow one-third pound of fish without bone, or one half-pound of fish with bone, per person. LAUNDRY HINTS. Double the life of artificial silk underwear and hose by allowing three days to elapse between the drying and ironing. J Wringing in an ordinary wringing machine is detrimental to artificial silk, too. ’Get out the excess water by rolling up the material in a Turkish towel and squeeze out the moisture by compressing between the hands. Soap should never be rubbed on the silk, but dissolved in the water first.