WOMEN TO WOMEN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2628, 9 October 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

WOMEN TO WOMEN.

HOME NEEDLEWORK

(By VESTA, in the “Argus.”)

This is undoubtedly the* day of the girl vjii'o can use her needle. "Whilst our shops are full of factory-made embroideries and laces, and every article of apparel, from hats to stockings, calls into use embroidery of some description, hand work distinguishes the best and most beautiful garments. Linen and muslin hats are braided and embroidered, silk hats are braided, and some of the handsomest hats of ail depend fOr part, at least, of their beauty on broad bands of braided net. So the girl who want’s to be up-to-date, and who can use her needle, can begin with her hats, and with her own skilful fingers braid the net for her very Sunday best chapeau, and adorn with a simple-em-broidery design the linen for her Hen- }1 ley hat, or for the everyday hat she wears with her cotton gowns. If she is specially ambitious she may also braid or embroider the linen or silk for her parasols, which, more than ever before. w : ’l this summer match her frocks ancl le ts. Dresses and blouses, it need not be said, offer plenty of opportunity for the enterprising girl who does needlework well. Indeed, any girl who ean saw at all can easily learn to braid. In-signs can be bougth and transferred to the material, and an hour’s practice will show her how to hold both material ari l braid so that neither is puckered up in the sewing. Long, narrow strips of braided material or braided net cm be used by dressmakers in innumerable ways, and the very smartest yokes and sleeves and blouses will be made of net in alternate rows of tucking and braiding. Embroideries for a whole dress arc a rather more difficult matter; but it is well within the powers of many girls to embroider effective designs f..r tiie panel-like fronts of the newest linen gowns, or for coliars and cuffs of smart coats.

And the girl who does crochetwotk need not be behind here either. Her blouse may be made completely of strips of fine crochetwork joined by a narrow beading, and her bag of delicate crochet to match. Or she may confine her energies to the manufacture of a crochetwork yoke for her blouse or collar for her evening wrap, or to bands of handsome work to embellish a

linen coat. She may rival the braid worker by crocheting dainty little sprigs or medallions to be appliqued on to net for her hats or Tor blouse yokes, since this is one of the newest and most admired kinds of trimmings in tlie home of well-dressed women in America. She will, of course, have no chance in smart belts as compared with the braiders and embroiderers, although the good firm closely crochetted white belt need fear no rival for plain, hard wear. But when it comes to underwear her opportunities as great as those of the embroidery woman. Every new crochet book gives hosts of illustrations of beautiful adaptions of the work for the ornamentation of underwear. Handembroiderv and crochetwork are the

trimmings of the moment for camisoles and nightgowns. But, to be good, all I the work must he very fine and carefully wrought. The designs are as simple as possible. In crochetwork they copy to a large extent the braiding designs, the filling in being done in a square pattern which looks like a beautiful form of filet net. In embroidery they are usually small, neat designs in satinstitrh and whole embroidery. * One other form of needlework, long out of use, which is now homing to the front again, is tatting. The woman who knew, long ago, how to use her tatting shuttle had best furbish up her knowledge, for she will*soon be wanted to teach her daughters. The darning net, another accomplishment of our grandmothers, ,js even now being revived. and the girl who learns to darn a bold, handsome pattern in floss silk on fisher net, and.embellish it with long satin stitches, will be able to provide herself this summer with one of the very newest of scarves—a scarf which, even if she has no opportunity to use ic in the daytime, will be a joy to her' wh©never she goes to a theatre of an evening p:>itj •