OUTDOOR DRESS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 40, 1 October 1892, Page 21

OUTDOOR DRESS.

Picturesque Model for a Garden Party Gown—A Practical Tennis Costume. If you pride yourself on being in the latest fashion don’t have your best dress—the one you want to wear at a garden party or race meeting—made with a basque. All the newest bodices for smart English gowns are made corselet*fashion or are ornamented with a sash. The cut shows a dress that would suit most slight women. It may be made either of crape cloth, shot bengaline cloth, foulard or plain silk. If gray or fawn crepon were selected the sash and the trimmings of the bodice and sleeves should be of silk in another color—chartreuse and fawn is a

fresh combination —edged with a narrow passementerie. The dress looks very nice made entirely of black. Attention is called particularly to the sleeves with big puffs at the top. The deep folded waist band is pretty only on a pretty figure. In the cut is shown also a pretty and practical sort of dress, suitable for any kind of outdoor amusement —tennis or rowing. It is made of coarse blue diagonal serge, and the belt is a continuation of the skirt. Every woman knows that in wearing a dress with a blouse it is practically impossible to look neat about the waist. Do what she may her skirt will slip from beneath her belt. The cut of this dress then should recommend itself to all who play tennis. It is worn with a silk shirt — red is pretty for a brunette —with smocking on the neck and sleeves, and is further adorned by a jabot of finely plaited silks. Parasol* That Delight Womankind. Parasols rtre particularly elegant this year. They are made of every conceivable color and material, some of white moire silk, striped with narrow lines of color, be-

Ing particularly errcctive, out ansoiuteiy simple. Other parasols are of lace, striped with broad ribbon, and edged with a frillof lace through which are run narrow “baby” ribbons. But the newest are of shot satin trimmed with frills of shot chiffon, withan appliqued edge of black lace. In these there arc the most delightful combinationof color. One of gray chiffon is shot with pale yellow and trimmed with white lace, a not her of a cardinal hue is shot with reseda and trimmed with black lace, while a pale pink and pale yellow raises hopes of garden partiesand recalls recollections of strawberries and cream. New Engagement Bings. The new engagement ring that the lover gives his lady lias two large stones, a diamond and sapphire or diamond ami ruby or pearls, forming the extremities of an open ring, the ends overlapping to bring one stone above another. The ring most fancied as a gift, from the girl to her be frothed is a chain of platinum and gold, with a true lover’s knot on top. It is not a stiff one, but the links must fall softly together when he takes it off, in token of the fact that her chains are light ones. Elegance in Underwear. To be stylishly dressed nowadays one must pay as much attention to one’s underwear as to gowns. The fewer underclothes the bet ter, in order to get the slender effect all women long for. The demitrained outdoor dresses necessitate the wearing of smart petticoats, as they require to be held up—not merely at a crossing or in getting in and out of a stage or carriage, but all the time. The newest petticoats are of the stiffest of rustling silk in bright colors. Shot silk is a favorite material for a flounced petticoat.

One of the prettiest of French petticoats recently seen had little baskets of flowers thrown on a black silk ground, and was trimmed with a deep pinked out flounce of pale green silk, another of pale pink a trifle shorter, and yet another of black lace. This last was run with three rows of bebe ribbon in three delicate shades to match the pattern of the silk, and ornamented here and there with bunches of ribbon loops. Mourning Bonnets. A charming little mourning bonnet is composed of gray lisse, with a very narrow black ostrich feather edge, and finished with feathers at the back. A pretty ami becoming hat has a wide, flat brim of transparent beaded net, with a black vel vet band around the edge, and a small crown, with a tuft of feathers at the back. A large gray chip straw is effectively trimmed for slight mourning with small black feathers.

Striped Gowns.

Stripes everywhere, and such very pretty stripes! They are broad, and some of them exquisitely shaded, beginning with the lighter t ints and shading into deeper t ones. Other stripes contrast with the ground work of the material. Every woman will have a striped gown, but if you are tall and thin do make the matter a subject, of ’..bought before you purchase.

Artificially Colored Flowers.

Artificially colored flowers are ajj interesting scientific novelty, and can readily be made by dipping the ends of the cut stems into solutions of different aniline dyes. A few hours' immersion is sufficient to cause the coloring matter to pass into the veins of the flowers, producing very beautiful and variegated colorations. Tulips, hyacinths, pinks, jonquils and similar flowers are particularly susceptible to this treatment, which is also instructive from a scientific standpoint, as showing the course of the natural juices of the plant and the various tissues through which the current passes. Popular Science News, authority for the foregoing, point s out. as noteworthy that the pistils of flowers thus treated are always more deeply colored than the rest of the flower. The flower of the Eucharis amazonica is not. colored at all when its stem is immersed in t he liquid, but the style only absorbs a large amount of dye.

Take your fork and those of your ueign bors on the right and left of you. Pass these through your napkin ring. Rest the handles of the forks on the table in such maimer that they will form a triangular pyramid as shown in the illustration.

Lay a plate upon the opposite ends of these forks and the stand is ready for the tureen, though until one becomes practiced the soup had better be omitted. Constructed at a moment’s notice this stand is not without artistic merit, the three forks thus arranged forming a really graceful support. A Colorless Varnish. A colorless varnish, suitable for optical instruments, prints and oil paintings and hard white wood may be prepared by dissolving ounces of shellac in one pint of rectified spirits of wine, according to The Horological Review. To this are to be added about, five ounces of well burned animal charcoal which has been recently heated, and the. whole boiled for a few minutes. If, on filteringasmall portion of the mixture through blotting paper, it is not found perfectly colorless, more charcoal must be added until the desired result. is obtained. When this has been effected, the mixture is to be strained through a piece of silk and filtered through a blotting paper. Disinfecting Ships by Electricity. The Industrial World tells that the problem of disinfecting ships seems to have been solved by sending anelectrical discharge though a tank of sea water. The effect of this is to liberate nascent oxygen, which, with the water, is conveyed by pipes t hrough the vessel and liberated by taps at the places where required. Bilge water can be disinfected in the same way, and as ill large steamers are beginning to be fit ted with electric light there will be little difficulty in adding this cheap and apparently effectual mode of pumping oxygen into the evil sun ’ling spots of a ship.