The Distatt.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 2271, 29 January 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Distatt.

A LADY'S LETTER.

(Home Paper),

The fashion of wearing ornaments in the coils of hair is by no means decreasing in favour. Ornamental pins of various devices take the place of ordinary hairpins. Real jewels are worn, not only in tho hair, but appear on head-gear also. Jewel-cases are ransacked for articles that havo been laid aside as obsolete to furnish ornaments for caps and bonnets. The example was set by our beloved Princess of Wales, who wore a handsome diamond in her bonnet when she was at the Edinburgh Exhibition. I do not commend the fashion, on account of the numerous risks attending this display, which are too obvious to need comment, and it is a bad practice to place such visible tempation in servants' way.

It will interest many young mothers to learn that the Empress Eugenie is taking an especial interest in the advent of a certain expected illustrious little stranger. A suitable gift from the Empress to the Princess would be a christening robe made of the lace shawl that wis oxpressely worked for Eugenie's wear when she and the late ex-Emperorof the French visited our shores in state a quarter of a century ago. The shawl in question was a most costly specimen of the lace-worker's skill. It occupied several hands for some months, the lilies of France and the emblematic floral devices of Great Britain being represented intermingled in the design. If the Empress has preserved this interesting historic relic, the treasure may possibly become an heirloom in an English Royal family. It is well known that the ex-Empress of the French is much attached to the Princess Beatrice, and it is said that she will not be forgotten in her will.

Apropos of lace, I hear that the Marchioness of Londonderry is endeavouring to give an impetus to the manufacture of Irish lace by offering prizes for Carrickiraoross lace designs for dress flounces and other trimmings.

I wonder if my readers have seen or heard of that ingenious contrivance, the work chair. It is constructed out of a tiny folding child's chair, and serves the purpose both of a work receptacle and a seat. Though, withal, being very substantial, I confess I should not like to trust my weitrht on so fragile a foundation. The webbing seat of the chair is removed, and a well bag is let into the aperture. There is a drawn mouth to the bag, with ribbon runners let in about two inches from the edge. These draw when the work is inserted, and form a neat seat in the chair. The back is first padded and covered, and then a pocket, with an elastic at the top, is fastened on, and this serves to hold the worker's implements, handkerchiefs, and other trifles. When she changes her sittingroom the chair folds together, and in that form is as portable as a camp-stool, and certainly lighter. Anyone with a small chair of that description named, a few scraps of chintz or silk, and a hammer and brass-headed nails, could manufacture a work receptacle, useful, artistic, and novel. The "tuck-away table" is also a most admirable contrivance, especially suited to small rooms or where an occasional table is needed. It is about a yard in circumference, and there are hinges in the centre, so that, when not in use, both top and legs fold together. When so folded the table can be stowed away behiud a chair or against a wall —or, iudeed, anywhere—without taking up any appreciable amount of room. Unlike the useful Sutherland, the tusk-awav table folds directly across the middle, and in that case forms two flaps, lying flat against each other. I have seen these tables charmingly painted, and so decorated they are very ornamental, either closed or open. Where they are elderly people who seldom leave their armchairs a table of this sort is most convenient as a rest for a light meal, book, candle, work, and those things with which the aged like to surround themselves when the limbs grow stiff and locomotion less easy than it used to be.

At a certain stall in one of our bazaars, devoted to the sale of work done by reduced ladies, I saw a charming wastepaper basket made in macratne. It was stiffened in some manner, and then interwoven with ribbon, tied here aud there in butterfly bows. It was a most dainty receptacle, worthy a niche in the handsomest drawing-room, the cost of the basket being 5s only. There is a lady who, through the agent employed at this stall, undertakes plain needlework. The garments are hand-made, and the work is of the daintiest description, the prices charged for it being strictly moderate. I thought some young ladies preparing their trousseaux, and desiring to combine charity with the possession of beautiful handwork, might feel inclined to send an order to a woman sister on whom fortune has smiled less kindly than on themselves.