HINTS TO BRIDE’S FRIENDS

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17503, 10 September 1928, Page 5

HINTS TO BRIDE’S FRIENDS

(By Dorothy Maxwell.) A social affair that will he, greatly appreciated by a bride who expects to keep house is a “common everyday” shower. Girls who generally plan showers have never had the responsibility of keeping house and they arc apt to forget that many of the lovely things they get ior the bride-to-be are articles for which site will have only orcasional use. They do not realise how many homely tilings there are about their own homes without which the establishment could hardly lie run, nor how often a bride finds herself quite at a loss in the Arst days of her housekeeping because she lias never thought of them, either. For instance, who ever offered rags to a bride? Certainly none but an experienced housekeeper. And yet, plain rags and lots of them arc among the Arst things needed in every new home. And here is a hint for the bride: Don’t hesitate to ask an older housekeeper for this help if you need it, even if she is a stranger. There are very few of us who do not appreciate your dilemma and are not willing to help you out of it.

A clean, worn table-cloth is a boon to a new home, as it fills many an occasional need for mending. Men’s shirts with the starched parts cut, off are what a good housekeeper chooses for wiping windows because they leave no lint. Old underwear makes Iho best dish-cloths and mops; worn stockings make good oil mops and the driest kind of protectors for the hands and sleeves when doing dirty work, as well as dust-cloths. Some kind of soft flannel is almost indispensable for cleaning silver that is not used every day. Dish and hand towels, all made of the same material, hemmed, laundered and ready for use, make a novel and much appreciated gift. Choose rather line, unbleached crash, ol' a quality that absorbs water well. If you are not a good judge, by all means ask an experienced housekeeper to buy Iho material. Then be sure to make the towels of a size preferred by the bride, not according to someone elsc’s ideas as to what she ought to want. If she is going to have loops of tape on her hand-towels, make these in ; the same way. Her initials, worked j in turkey-rod cotton, may bo put In one corner, and those of the girl who I made that particular towel in another i corner. Some girls outline-stitch a j jolly rhyme at one end, too.

Another useful gift is a small tablecloth intended to hold four plates and to he used on a card table. These arc made of beautiful flue linen, in small patterns. With the initials or monogram embroidered in one corner, such a cloth makes a present even less expensive than a piece of silver would be. and is far less apt to be duplicated. Indeed, there is no harm done if it is duplicated, because they arc just big enough for the doll-house meals enjoyed by the bride and groom, they save laundry bills, they may serve as covers for the table between meals, and no woman can have too many, especially if she entertains in even a small way. One of the most acceptable gifts can be made only with the assistance of the bridegroom’s mother or sisters. It is a dainty book of recipes: “The Things His Mother Used to Make.” One 1 saw contained many favourite family recipes and at the back of the booklet were some pages headed “Sisterly Tips.” On these were written some of the bridegroom’s favourite food combinations, as well as other hints designed to help the young, wife to make the new home as smooth running as the one frorn which her husband had come.