The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-27
FOR FEMININE READERS
HOW TO $40 UP. CoLORED COTTON
GOWNS TO MAKE THEM LIKE NEW.
The Man who Wants a Wife Should
Consider the Girls Mother-Hats
Worn Tipped Forward.

Good managers usually do the greater
part of their spring and summer sewing
and renovating in the quiet of Lent. says
a writer in the New York Tribune. The
fashions for simple cotton gowns and shirt
waists, of which no woman can have too
many are determined by this time, and
whatever is needed in this line may just as
well be made now as later. The old lawns
should also be brought out and done up,
and, if necessary, altered in accordance
with the changes in fashion.
1t is an easy matter to do up lawns If one
does not attempt to do too many at once.
Careful women now wear a properly made
lawn for an entire season without sub
hitting it once to the all-destructive hands
Of the ordinary laundress. Raw starch and
coarse aIkalf soaps are ruinous both to
fabric and color, and If one cannot do up
ones own dresses. or attend closely to the
matter, it pays to have them cleaned by a
regular cleaner.
If the work is properly done and the gar
ment is made up substantially, so that it will
not pull out of shape when worn, it will
last as long without being done up again as
& light silk. But it must be worn as the
silk is worn-with shields and the proper
underwaist to protect the lining. 1t may
also be sponged off occasionally at the neck
and wrists, where it touches the flesh, and
the silk should be similarly treated. Use
little alcohol in the water.
If lawn or cotton is put in the general
wash, it is sure to be shrunk and pulled out
of shape before it is ironed, even if it is not
faded and starched to bcerdlike stiffness,
and the ironing completes the work of de-
struction. The average laundress irons cot
ton goods on the outside and laboriously
polishes them, whereas all these goods
should have a dull finish, as they will have
If they are cleaned properly. They should
have no more stiffness than when they were
new.
The first process in cleaning lawn or
cotton gown is to rip all puffs and gather
ings which cannot be reached with an iron
on the under side, as all parts of the gar
ment must be pressed on the wrong side in
order to give the dull, soft appearance of
new goods. All the best cottons are color
proof If washed or cleaned with white nom
resinous soaps, rinsed thoroughly, and dried
as quickly as possible in dark room. Ex-
anime all parts of the goods after ripping.
and clean off all grease spots and badly
soiled places with a little brush dipped IN
hot soapsuds. The edge of the skirt is usu-
ally the part most soiled. If 1t Is heavily
stiffened, the stiffening must be ripped out
and done up separately.
After this the entire skirt may be thor
oughly rinsed through four or five successive
rgaters. The last water should be clear. Do
not use any blueing unless the dress is a
clear white or blue, in which cases use
little pure West Indian indigo. 1t can no
longer be found at grocery stores, but must
be purchased at drug store. There is. TO
market substitute for the blue bag that
equals this.
On the theory that it is always best to let
well enough alone it is not wise to insist
that laundress who is accustomed to
good make of manufactured blue should use
indigo, because she would probably make
bad work of it. In an intelligent cleaners
bag into the last rinsing water will give to
a white lawn just the proper pearly tint it
should have. If the lawn is white, per-
fectly boiled starch is the best stiffener. If
it is dark, use glue water.