SWEET SCENTED PILLOWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2711, 15 January 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

SWEET SCENTED PILLOWS.

• An American paper gives some advice on the making of sweet-scented pillows, for which hops, lemon, verbena, rose geranium, roses, lavender and clove pinks are suitable material: Erst of all the pillow stuffing must bo well dried. Lay the leaves or flowers in an -airy shaded room, and toss them about gently every day that they may not collect moisture anjjJ. mould. When tliev are quite dry, you are ready to stuff the pillow. Take enough raw cotton to fill one-half of the pillow, tear it in small pieces, and lay it in a big pan and dry it out well in the oven, lhis makes a fluffy filling. Now mix the cotton with the dried flowers and leaves, fill up the cushion of ticking, and sew it firmly. It is ready for the outer covering. Of course, if vou prefer it-, you make a pillow of hops or rose leaves or lavender alone, but it will not be so comfortable as the pillow that is partly baked cotton, and since you want tx> put your head on it, why not make it comfortable ? Hops must be used by themselves and so must lavender. But one may make truly delicious blends by mixing dried lemon verbena, rose geranium, rose petals, and clove pinks. Choose your rose petals from the oldfashioned flat doublo "ink roses they 7 are the sweetest sort. ... Pine pillows have a refreshing woodsy perfume and fern leaves dried have a delightful mysterious odour that makes one remember the belief of childhood, that one could put fern seeds into one s eyes and ever afterwards would be able to see fairies. Clover makes sweet pillows, too, redolent of now mown hay. The common oink clover makes the sweetest sort, though white clover may be used. As for the covers, choose something distinctive and individual. A little pillow of rose leaves and lemon verbena, covered with rose-colored linen, with a little rosebud stencilled on it, is most unusual and charming. For a lion- pillow choose a linen cover of dull green and embroider your monogram . iii mercerised) cotton exactly the same tone in one comer. The cover for a pine- pillow might- Well be of rough tan crash or linen with a stencilled pattern of green or brown on it. or else with a- smart monogramblock letters —embroidered in brown in one corner. Fern-leaf pillows should he covered with creamy linen, rather heavy in quailty, with green- fern leaves embroidered or stencilled upon it. Make, the cover in the form of two squares, considerably larger than the pillow, and work long buttonholed eyelets through both, lacing them together over the pillow with a ribbon of dull .green. At the corner where the ribbon ties, slip two or three big, green beads on loops and ends.

To cover pillows, a cover of the popular Russian crash in cool grey* would bo appropriate, and it it is stencilled lightly with butterflies, or dragon-flies, it will add to its daintiness. Or it might be embroidered in small, flat squares in rose-colored cotton. The flower-perfumed pillowy will be found useful for the afternoon on lounges in the hammock. Slip them under your head and they will perfume your hair with just- that touch of delicate fragrance. If you are troubled with insomnia- try the hop or the pine pillow—they will help you to sleep if nothing else will.