The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-03-15
Touches Here and There that Help to
Make Home Happy.

A hard wooden rocker may be made
into very comfortable easy chair with
little trouble. Take an old WORKOUT
comfortable or a feather pillow if you
have one to spare, and fit it to the
back of the chair. Make cushion for
the seat of the chair out of any thick
soft goods, and cover both with pretty
lowered chintz or goods suitable for
upholstering. If the chair is to be
placed in the dining-room or kitchen,
calico or yellow linen will make suit
able covering. Fasten on to the chair
by tapes or ribbons.
Very dainty little foot-stools may be
made for the parlor at small expense.
First purchase two wooden boxes about
a foot long and ten inches wide. They
may be bought for five cents apiece.
Cover first with an old piece of carpet
ing-or carpet lining is better-and
tack smoothly on. Then cover with
crimson paper muslin, also lining the
inside of the box. Buy yard and a
half of deep crimson velveteen and a
package of brass-headed tacks. Put
the velvet on smoothly and tightly and
fasten with the tack, placing them at
equal distances. A tassel of wool or
silk placed at each corner will improve
these dainty little articles of furniture.
A portable cradle, made by a clever
mother in Brooklyn, has been greatly
admired. The cradle was crocheted
out of strong brown macreme cord in
the long and open stitch, and made in
the form of q hammock. 1t was run
with blue ribbons and supported on
poles of pine, vanished and orna-
mented at the hook by q cluster of
blue ribbons. The whole thing could
be folded into q very small bundle, and
pillow and blanket were all that was
necessary to make the baby sleep COM
fortably!
Housekeepers who are crowded for
closet room can make very neat and
pretty wardrobes in their bedrooms
First have three boards foot wide, put
up one on top, four feet long, and the
others six feet. Varnish these with
shellac. Make a curtain of muslin or
chintz-or double curtain is prettiest
and suspend it from the top by
means of a thick cord. Run the cord
through the top hem of the curtains,
and then secure the ends to the boards
This permits the curtains to be drawn
aside with ease. A pretty Vatican or
Greenaway picture done in outline
work will make the curtains more eff
fective.
Napkins OF linen are now turned up
on the corner and embroidered with
the initials or monogram. When done
in red or blue cotton, the effect is good
and the colors will not run when
washed.
Very pretty pillow-shams and bed
spreads may be made out of coarse
white cotton netting. Make the spread
and shams of the exact size required,
and work in white embroidery cotton
in some simple design. A large mon
ogram is usually worked in the center
of the spread, and also the shams.
Blue or pink silesia or cambria is placed
on the bed and pillows before putting
on the covers, and bows of satin ribbon
of the same color ornament the shams.
Velvet albums for photographs are
now very fashionable. They are in
tended to hold from two to six pictures
and open out fiat. One can easily be
made at home at half the expense if
purchased. Take piece of plush or
velvet any shade you desire, and cut it
an inch and a half wider than the pho
tographs to be placed in it, and as long
as you desire; if for two pictures ten
inches will be sufficient. Line with
satin, leaving places for the picture to
be slipped in, and make in the form of
book. Tie with broad ottoman or
satin ribbons of the shade of the velvet
N. Y. Journal.