The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-02-07

A domestic accomplishment of auld
lang syne which is being revived is the
art of making rugs. There is often a
place in the home for such
a rug where handsome one
would be out of place. Fur
thermore, a homemade rug that is art
istic and serves its purpose is prefera-
BILE to an inartistic and cheap store rug.
Even the homely, braided rug may be
turned into an effective floor covering
for the bathroom, bedroom, or dining
room of the summer cottage or the city
apartment.
The method of making braided and
drawn-in rugs is well known. A little
skill, careful eye, and great deal of
patience are necessary, however, to
work a pattern, for, of course, there can
be no design to work from.
The woman who contemplates max
ing a cotton rug should save all her
old dimity gowns, which are usually
relegated to the rag bag. Even the I'M
worn portions of sheets which have full
filled their destiny are useful for this
purpose. Then, when the cloth is finally
torn in strips, sewed, and wound in a
firm ball, the next step is to start the
rug.
There is everything in making a good
beginning. To assure this, the rows of
strands to be braided are fastened to
board with gilt thumb lacks, which
are easily removed afterward. The
worker proceeds to braid the strands
until each one hangs from the board
like a school girls braid. When the
latter is finished, the ends are fastened
and sewed together. Afterwards. the
braids are joined with the over and
over stitch.
Sometimes the braids run crosswise
instead of lengthwise, and sometimes
they are Joined in circle. Quite often,
too, design is carried out in star,
cross or some floral pattern.
IL is quite the fashion for good
housewives to dye their old sheets and
faded gowns, as did their grand-moth-
ers, but without all the fuss and trou-
Die. Beautiful results are obtained by
dyeing with decoction of tea set with
! copperas. Other less ambitious NOR
tails are mildly extravaganza and pur-
chase the colors they wish to use in
carrying out designs. The expense is
so trifiing that it is really the cheapest
way, after all.
All sorts of color schemes may be
carried out, but one of the prettiest
ones showed a delft blue and white pat
tern, which was just the thing for
the delft blue bedroom The fringe
on the ends was made by leaving about
six inches of each strand, which was
knotted with the rug was finished.
A drawn-in rug. which is the round
and round braid, was in red and white,
with a touch of yellow. This is an
excellent way to use up odds and ends
of cotton or wooden materials.
Another pretty rug, displayed by a
woman who has the craze, is made of
bias folds on a plain background. The
latter is of burlap and the folds were
red, put on in a bow knot pattern.
The sewing machine attachment was
brought into requsition for this pur-
pose.
A rug with blue denim foundation
had a braided centr, which was In
oblong about fourteen by thirty-six.
The color scheme of this was solid
navy blue. Bias folds. about half an
inch wide. were placed around the
center, oblong also. untilp the rug was
| covered. These were of red French
| flannel, tackled IN position with navy
blue linen thread. In a star stitch.
Another rug was cross stitched. The
foundation was OF olive green burlap