Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-30
RAREST or LACE SETS
Dining Table Decorations of
These Latter Days.
NEW STYLES seen
MANY MAY BE MANUFACTURED
AT HOME.
Where Time is No Object and a Light
Purse a Considerable
One

written IOr Inc Evening StdF ny hatneflne klnS-
ston.
A quaint writer in an old English book
speaks with great admiration of the beau
tful carpets" which adorned the tables of
the English nobility of his time. Ameri-
cans do not carpet their tables today, but
their dining boards are very properly
classed as being feminine by the French,
for they are tickle as to the manner of their
adornment and insist upon being clothed
in fine linen and lace.
No dainty dame of the fashionable world
1aunts more costly lace than decorates the
table at which she seats her guests. So eX-
travagant are the styles in table lace that
they have only one recommendation besides
their beauty, and that is the fact that
when their days of service are over they
can be made up into frocks or pretty things
for the boudoir.
That woman who made her shirt waists of
drawnwork table doilies last summer has
only to detach these same doilies for table
use this new year, for drawnwork, without
wheel edges, is now in vogue.
The most fashionable styles of table lace
defy the ingenuity of the economical woman
in their manufacture, except that she may
insert bands and medallions and fancy de-
signs in lace into the linen which forms the
frame as it were. of her tabiecloth, and so
save the expense of an elegant piece of
table finery all ready to use.
French crepon and Italian iet net de-
signs, Persian lace and Russian and Ouch
esse lace lead the styles in table laces and
Chinese and Japanese embroideries the
sort affected by Fashionable people
The up-to-date woman no longer rejoices
in the fine quality of her damask, but in
making her bosom friends green with envy
over the quality and beauty of her table
lace. She discards last years table sets
just she casts aside last years frocks,
and in the space of a week or so becomes a
connoiSSeur in the selection of the latest
styles in table lace.
An Italian Model.
Italian flet net is so new and modish that
there is qualification in the fact that wo-
man may initiate it very closely by darned
work with coarse embroidery linen in a
good filet net but French crepon, the other
new lace. defies imitation. 1t seems to com
bine stitches of Irish crochet lace with point
de Venice and Russian without actually re-
sembling any of them. and it can stand any
amount of hard wear and washing, two
things which make it dearer than it's price
to hOuSekeeper'S soul.
Persian and Armenian ia BILE sets, than
which nothing is more fashionable, combine
lace with embroidery, a combination affect
ed by exclusive society. Whole tablecloths
are made of drawn-thread lace in a Pc
culiar mesh of oriental linen, which is very
artistic. fr
New world women have not only taken
the craze 1OT t0lTSS oriental their hearts,
but to their tables as well, and if it were
the style to have a japanese doll at every
plate, by way of a favor, they would GER
tainly have them. As it is. they spread
their mahogany with Persian hand-worked
lace so difficult in manufacture that it takes
months to make a piece of any size. A
single Persian harem is able to produce in
a few months enough fine needlework to
cloth the household dinner table for a
whole season.
oil Err,
On the hens and narrow linen bands of
the Persian table sets are small figures en-
bl oidered in creamy white silk of the same
tint as the linen. Even the drawn-thread
portions are adorned with this embroidery.
In all the modish table sets both square
and round pieces are to be had and doilies
always come in two sizes. Sometimes these
have linen centers, but just often they
of solid lace.
There are no floral patterns in the Persian
and Armenian table pieces, but flowers
reign in profuson of beauty on japanese
and Chinese table sets, and even dispute
supremacy with sacred dragons and highly
ornamental fish that sport among embroid-
cred waves upon the shining surface CT
Chinese grass linen and linen of heavier
weave employed by Japanese workers.
Will Wash Well.
1t may be because the Chinese have so
thorough comprehension of laundry re-
qurements that they construct their ar
ticles of materials and in style that will |
launder well. For this reason the fiat but |
exquisite embroidery done by the little |
celestials in merceriZed cotton and linen |
floss is more popular than the seperb |
pieces of raised silk embroidery that are |
executed by the Japanese
The work of the latter is, too, more en- |
pepsive, and the petals of roses and chrys- |
anthemums, of size guaranteed to take |
first prize In flower show, are over a six
teenth of an inch thick and made of six |
fCss that requires much care in the cleans
ing.
Charming effects of ara-perspective are
produced in the Japanese table pieces by
drawn-t thread medallons, about the size of
hand, in irregular shapes back of the
raised embroidery. Like everything else in
the nature of needlework, the Japanese do
d. awn-t thread work with an exquisite even
ness and delicacy astonishing in a people
to whom lace making of this character is a
new art.
An Oriental Set.
Many woman with more time than
money should be able to prepare a dainty
set of Chinese table linen with little earn
est work. To such one floral patterns
would be easiest. and the oriental style of
manufacture might be initiated by working
tiger lilies, chrysanthemums and carna-
tons or roses upon the same piece.
First, the edge should be embroidered in
small points OF uneven sizes, and then just
a few flowers sprinkled around the borders
of the piece, taking care not to make any
two flowers or leaves alike. Some imita tons
of Chinese work have only a flower in each
corner, or, in the case of an oval piece,
one in each end and three on each side.
The introduction of butterflies and wreaths
means, of course, much more labor, but
even these can be given an oriental cast
by observing that artistic principle of the
decorative artist in the east-not to place
any two objects in the same relative posi-
ton.
When the home worker sets about copy
ing Japanese work she may use only one
flower or figure in the pattern. and she has
a task before her usually too serious for
western impatience to contemplate.
Rag Bag Helps.
The American woman, on the whole, will
be better satisfied and accomplish more by
plunging head first into her scrap bag and
dragging out bits of leftover and cast-off
lace Squares and ovals may be laid out on
a paper foundation, with radiating lat
ticed pieces Of inserting of different pat