Housekeeper.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 447, 10 November 1904, Page 7

Housekeeper.

HINTS ON HOME DRESSMAKING, WHEN cutting out drosses from paper patterns good margins should be allowed, as turnings are rarely allowed for on the patterns, and if a frock is cut too narrow or too short in the first instance a good deal of time must needs be spent in adding to it afterwards. Drosses slfould be tried on before the -seams are . stitched, more tacking threads holding the various parts together until the frock has been tried on and fitted. Tho pattern of a yoke that is to be of transparent lace insertion, or of bands of insertion and feather-stitch-ing, should bo cut out in brown paper and tho bands of insertion, etc., laid upon it and stitched together. The hems of skirts should be provided with a muslin interlining, as they wear better in this way. Cuffs are also improved by an interlining if they aro intended to stand away from the sleeve or are required to be somewhat stifflooking. Tho yoke to a cotton, delaine, or silk skirt (or, indeed, to a skirt or blouse of any other material) must be lined, even though the skirt is an unlincd one—unless the yoke is intended to be transparent. The soft cuffs of a skirt should also be lined. Care must be taken to strengthen the placket at the end and to allow a good turnover, or insert a fly-lap so that the placket is neat and does not show the underskirt beneath. A safety hook and eye will avert this.

PAINT AND POWDER.

Paint and powder have boon used for toilet purposes from time immemorial, and it is believed that cosmetics were better understood in the days of ancient Egypt than they are even to-day, A professor of a German University, in his researches among Egyptian mummies some years ago, discovered, we are told, certain cosmetics used by the ladies of fashion in the land of the Pharaohs in tho time of Princess Aft. entomed and embalmed some 3,400 years ago. The beauties of to-day are not, perhaps, much in advance of Cleopatra, after all, in their manner of making up. One who has made deep researches into the subject has recorded that ' the Egyptians weie verj cleanly in their habits, and after their baths they rubbed themselves with fragrant oils and ointments—compounded by the priests by ingredients (myrrh, frankincense, etc.,) which, for tho most part, came from Arabia. An Egyptian beauty was well supplied with cosmetics, and she; knew how to use red and white paint for the complexion and kohl to increase tho brilliancy of tho eyes.' Kohl,, according to a fashionable hairdresser, is' used by English women in fairly large quantities to-day—by actresses, in particular. It is a powder and applied with a stump. Kohl is, I believe, harmless, and is used by women of the East for protecting their eyes from the fierce glare of the sun. It is less perceptible than greasepaint when applied, and therefore more suitable for day use.

SLEEP AND SLEEPLESSNESS.

Dr. Robert A. Fleming recently lectured on sleep to the Edinburgh Health Society. He said that an adult should have seven to eight hours' sleep, but tho amount depended on the kind of work done during the waking hours. Manual labour meant the necessity for more sleep, and a feeble intellect needed much more sleep than a highly-educated one'. A child with its developing brain and mind needed much more sleep than an adult. A newly-born infant should sleep twenty-hours at least out of the twenty-four; a child of one to two years, sixteen hours; a child of four, twelve jhours; a child of ten, ten hours. At the age when a child becomes a man or a woman rather more sleep was needed than for an adult. Old people required much loss sleep, unless the mind failed, and then they needed a child's allowance. The bed should be fairly hard ; a hair mattress was probably best: no feather-bed should even be allowed to exist for a day, unless in an antiquarian museum, and should never be slept on : it is far too airless and hot. The temperature of the bedroom, should bo 55 degs. to £0 degs. The hour for retiring to rest was a somewhat difficult matter to settle. The i.beauty sleep supposed to be obtainable before midnight was a fiction. So long as we got our eight hours of sleep it matters not at what hour we sought our couch, and the misery of rising much before daybreak on a winter morning was hardly compensated for by the joys of bed much before twelve. In summer early rising was in every sense a pleasure, in winter it was a penance. Possibly the very commonest phenomenon associated with sleeplessness was cold feet. This was readily understood. Cold feet meant blood in excess in brain and internal organs, and, therefore, no sleep was possible till the feet were warm. A hot bottle was in no sense of the word a luxury—in such a case it was a necessity, and one which should always be considered. For the full-blooded, a hot bath, or hot foot-bath before bed might procure sleep; for the too bloodless, a stimulant, and for the sleepless brain worker some manual labour in tho garden, or plenty of exercise, walking, cycling, etc., so as to tire the muscles, which greatly aid sleep. In those who suffer from insomnia tea and coffee should never be taken at night, as they stimulated the brain; and the utmost pains should be taken to avoid using the brain for the consideration of difficult"problems just before going to bad.