Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-02-22
ODDS AND ENDS,
Pretty Ways of Utilizing Discarded Pieces
of Furniture and Bits of Finery.

Pretty Ways of Utilizing Discarded Pieces
of Furniture and Bits of Finery.
Sometimes fashion is very good to
people with small purses. 1t has made
lounge rugs so much the rage that the
owner of the shabbiest old family sofa
or divan may transform it into an ele-
CANT looking piece of furniture at o
small cost.
Take as foundation an old and much
shrunken flannel blanket which by dint
of frequent washings had become of a
yellowish shade (if it is of home weav-
ing so much the better), and make it of
the right width to cover your lounge
nicely, falling almost to the floor. Look
among the bundles in your piece bag
for breadth or two from an old woolen
dress, which, like a thrifty housewife,
you have laid aside against the hour Of
use; tear it into strips from nine to
twelve inches wide; line with old paper
muslin, to give body, and baste in the
edges; with a bit of chalk draw on these
strips a running vine with leaves and an
open petalled flower. or scatter dog
wood blossom and leaf here and there
over them. Work these in old gold and
dull reds if the goods is blue, in fainter
reds and dead gold if it is red. using
outline or short and long Kensington
which fills in very rapidly with crewels.
Baste these strips lengthwise on the
blanket, leaving space about as wide
as the strip between each and applique
them with crazy stitches or herring
bone, using black crewels Fifty cents
worth of crewels will more than suffice.
Stripes from golden brown serge,
cashmere or flannel dress, worked with
darker browns, the designs afterward
outlined with gold, make a very rich
cover. If any old goods which you may
happen to have is too light dye it Fin
ish with hem or heavy fringe.
One of these shrunken blankets dyed
a dark brown and worked with crewels
n gold, wood, golden and seal browns
in interlaced rings and crescents makes
a very nice rug. These are easily drawn
with an inverted tumbler Bits of dark
colored cloth cut in crescents, feur-de-
lis or circles, interlined, basted on and
appliqued with crewels is another way
of ornamentation.
A very pretty little ornament, and a
useful one, too, for lady's bureau can
readily be made from the small shells
that you have gathered while at the
seaside last summer. Drill holes in the
shell with a small awl, one hole at the
point, and one on either side at the top,
then tie the shells together with baby
ribbon, any color that suits the maker,
the one made being of orange This
being done, cut out piece of cardboard
in the shape of a circle sufficiently large
to form a bottom for the little basket
Cover this piece of cardboard with silk
of the same color as the baby ribbon.
Fasten the shells by means of the lat
ter to the bottom and then line the in
terror with silk of the same color as
that on the bottom, making it into
puffs, and there you are When COM
pleted you have a neat and handy re-
ceptacle for rings and jewelry and also
pretty ornament You can vary the
style and have the little basket square
or oval shaped. The cost is triflinp.
the effect rich.-N. Y. Recorder.