WORK COLUMN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XX, 15 May 1897, Page 621

WORK COLUMN.

IE problem of supplying sufficient decorative variety for dinner tables is one that assails most housewives, whoseexpenditure has to be directed rather by the laws of necessity than artistic taste. Where a good deal of money can be expended in the buying of antique embroideries, brocades and beautiful flowers, and finger bowls are separated from the plates by the finest of real lace, it is easy enough to vary the schemes of colour, and make daring experiments, which need never be re-

peated if unsuccessful ; but where our successes depend absolutely on our own time and trouble, there are moments when one thinks with regret of the days when a pot of ferns was considered an excellent artistic substitute for the still earlier reign of the highly elaborate cruet. In the sketch accompanying will be found a group of very pretty table accessories, consisting of long centre piece, squaie for water bottles, which are the means for introducing a very effective bit of colour, and d’oyleys of two patterns. Now, these are made of quite ordinary white linen, hem-stitched round the edge. The first thing to be done when commencing

to decorate them is to rule out squares of about two and a-half inches ; in each square is worked either vine-leaf or a bunch of grapes against a background, filled in with yellow flax thread ; the grapes are outlined with purple thread and the leaves with green. The mats and the

d’oyleys are treated in the same way, the latter being further ornamented by a torchon lace edging. The effect is an exceedingly happy one, with just that amount of solidity that one likes to see about dinner-table accessories. While I am about it I may as well continue on the same subject and give another group of d’oyleys, somewhat different to these. Number one is also made on linen with three squares running across it diagonally of drawn thread work, the plain pieces in the opposite corners being filled up with Mount-mellick work done in very fine thread. Next to it is a d'oyley of thin Indian silk, carefully fringed out all the way round ; in the centre is a group of blackberries worked with foliage, and a very pretty set for dessert might be made by working a different fruit on each d’oyley. The background, too, might be varied ; take for instance white for strawberries, pale brown for blackberries pink for cherries, mauve for plums, and so on. Pieces of work like this should never be sent to the wash, but either be carefully manipulated at home or else placed in the hands of a

really good cleaner. The other d’oyley is of Tussau silk in its natural shade, and the three curious curls on one half of it are worked with gold thread, the spray of plumsand foliage being lightly outlined in their natural tints. lam glad to say cut-glass is coming much more to the fore than has been the case for some years. It requires careful cleaning and rubbing after being washed in order to make it look its best, but well repays the trouble thus bestowed. Another matter connected with the table is the important question of lighting, which nowadays scarcely ever receives the attention it merits. Of course to those who can command the luxury of electric lighting I have no advice to give, but few know the beautiful effect of ordinary candles. A Pagoda shaped rush basket looks extremely pretty if a tiny row of pretty candle lights are arranged so as to hang round the projecting edge of the roof, they must, however, be well shaded, or tired eyes will be the result.