FEMININE REFLECTIONS.

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 434, 16 August 1928, Page 5

FEMININE REFLECTIONS.

Women the World Over

ARTISTIC GLASS Another field for women’s creative powers is being exploited by Mrs. Graydon Stannus, who has opened a factory in London for the production of artistic and novel glass. Mrs. Stannus is an expert in old Irish glass, and takes a very active part in the manufacture of the most delicate pieces. A SOCIALIST Mrs. B. M. Draper, the woman Socialist Mayor of Deptford, and the only feminine Mayor in the metropolis of London, was presented at their Majesties’ first Court of the season by Lady Joynson-Hicks, the wife the Home Secretary. She is the first Socialist woman Mayor to be presented. IN ICELAND Recently a complimentary banquet was tendered to Kristin Sigfusdottir, a notable woman writer of Ice land. A story of perseverance lies behind her succes, for she taught herhelf to read and write, and it was not until her sixth child was seven years old that her first book was published. During the period she has been writing she has carried out her housework and helped on the farm. A play from her pen has already been produced, and she has had two striking novels published. A DECOY Miss Elsie Marr, a Tottenham typist, has won the praise of the Recorder at the Old Bailey, £5 reward and a week’s holiday for an undertaking that few members of her sex would care to follow. Warned that thieves had planned to break into the office where she was employed, she remained at her desk to keep them from suspecting that detectives were hidden in an adjacent room. The thieves sought to intimidate her and flung pepper in her eyes, when they were seized by the detectives, who quickly appeared on the scene. FOR THE BELGIANS Mrs. W. J. Daly is the first Victorian woman to be awarded the Gold Palm of the Order of the Crown of Belgium. Recently she was presented with that decoration by the Consul for Belgium. Mrs. Daly is well known for her hospitality to Belgians visiting Australia.

IN SARK Dame Beaumont, daughter of the former Seigneur of Sark, is the second woman to have become virtual ruler

of the island. Recently she decreed that the tithes due to her from the people should he paid in bags of grain to be deposited at her gate. This she considers an incentive to the inhabitants to grow their own wheat, rye and barley. USE THE RIGHT NEEDLE SEWING MADE EASY Women for the jnost part are unaware of the amount of work that may be ruled out by the use of the right needles for various purposes. There is a big, specially constructed needle by means of which leather handbags or the strappings of fibre suitcases may be stitched when they come to grief. It works with the precision of a sewing machine, and gives a most professional air to the article on which it is used. Waxed thread is used with it. Then there is the special carpet needle, with the aid of which shabby ends of rugs may be backed with webbing quite easily and quickly. An ordinary needle will refuse to slide in and out of the thick weave, but the carpet needle gives no trouble. There is also the fur needle, with a flat, spear-like point, which will not tear the pelt. For sewing leather gloves, the same sort of needle is productive of neat work. The bead needle is invaluable when small beads have to be threaded. So slender is it (hardly more than a wire) that you simply plunge it into a dishful of beads, and withdraw it again with half a dozen impaled upon it. The moss stitch needle, for embroidering, is a lightning worker, and the needle for making looped trimmings of wool Is just as rapid.

MAKING MONEY IN THE KITCHEN I have heard recently of a girl who needed to earn money for herself, yet could not be spared from home. Many ideas occurred to her as a means of making money, but eventually she decided to utilise her talent for cooking, and start home cooking classes. She arranged to allow inexperienced cooks to prepare in her kitchen, under her supervision, special dishes which they could carry home and use when entertaining friends—dishes that would give a simple entertainment a real “party” touch. Girls who had married without any knowledge of ] household cookery were specially cattered for once a week, when simple lessons in bread-making, the cooking of vegetables, soups, puddings, etc., were given. Making a Start Making a start did not call for much capital. The biggest outlay was for special utensils, pots and r>ans, which were needed in numbers and in a variety of sizes. The originator of this enterprise had, of course, the use of the home kitchen and gas stove, hut as she hacl the latter fitted with a sliilling-in-the-slot meter she was able to tell exactly the cost of the gas used. She is now making a good thing of her enterprise. A list of lunch, tea, and supper menus is arranged, according to the season of the year, so that pupils have well-balanced meals to choose from. The instructor has current prices at her finger ends, and can tell a pupil how to serve an attractive meal that will belie its cost. Another branch of her work is to instruct nurses and young mothers in the art of making children’s food interesting, palatable, and varied. The Best Customers From all these sources my enterprising acquaintance reaps benefit. But her most faithful pupils are women whose husbands desire, for business or other reasons, to bring friends home for a pleasant meal, and who want to ensure culinary success by preparing the dishes beforehand under the supervision of their teacher. Arrangements are made with local tradesmen to supply goods at practically a moment’s notice, but the best method is found to be for the pupil to plan the menu with the instructress the day before, find out exactly what she will need, and then bring along all requirements, except spices, flavourings, sauces, and other condiments, which the instructress supplies for a small extra fee. GARDENS AND CANDLES If you have no lantern and the electric torch has run out and you want to go into the garden on a dark night tap an empty bottle round the bottom until it breaks, turn it up the other way and press a candle into the neck of the bottle. '

FASHIONABLE FRIVOLITIES By Daphne Davidson Sometimes I hunt round the shops to see what really attractive possessions, odds and ends, fripperies and accessories, I might possess, if I had heaps of money to spare. And I never have any difficulty in coming across them. Just at the moment I am greatly attracted by the new buttonholes. Actually I am most fond of reproductions of real flowers, and I find the bouquets of old-fashioned blossoms quite irresistible. Bunches of velvet pansies seem most popular and the vogue for sprays of orchids and such like exotic blooms, has come to an end. Violets appear year after v and retain their charm, while c fads come and go, and, so far as I can see, there is a craze for posies of mignonette, syringa buds, cornflowers and such like. RED SILK BELTS Attractive waistbelts, I think, can do much to lift a simple suit out of the ordinary. The fashionable waistbelt of the moment is of plaited silken braid, finished with a buckle of stone. Sometimes these are multi-coloured, but, more often than not, they are one shade only. Red is enjoying a vogue. A pretty design was fastened with a cut crystal clasp. Striped silk belts, something like college colours, are quite the latest thing for sport’s wear. These finish with dull gold buckles. Afternoon belts are remarkable for the originality of the fastening. One I saw,, was fastened with two hearts, one of gold, and the other of silver. The amazing popularity of a flimsy handkerchief to hang out of a small pocket, or through a belt, is as strong as ever, and I have noticed delectable affairs of hand-painted chiffon. Pastel shades are, of course, well to the fore, and I see that green, a delicate grass shade, is more in evidence than any other colour. Pine gold lace edgings are a novelty, and a very expensive one at that. It is nothing for a wisp of chiffon to cost a guinea or 255. NECKLACE OF BUTTONS Quaint jewellery, which in the accepted sense of the word can hardly be called jewellery at all, is eagerly sought by smart women. I saw a novel choker necklace composed of bright green buttons threaded on silvered gut, and all sorts of amazing things are done with ordinary brass buttons, linked on single, double or treble chains. Apart from the übiquitous handkerchief collar, scarves are much in demand. These are frequently shown with a natty little hat to match. Spotted effects of all varieties are in season, but subtler and smarter effects are obtained with braid. I predict a great future for braid, or at least for the uses to which braid can be put as an elegant trimming. A scarf of th& palest cyclamen crepe de chine was bordered with a mosaic-shaped pattern of braid in a lovely pearly hue. Braid-adorned flaps to handbags, in many colours like mosaic work, are beginning to have a vogue among smart women. KEEPING LINEN WHITE Fine linen and fine lace should be wrapped in blue tissue paper to keep them from getting yellow. An old sheet which has been dipped in strong blue water and thoroughly dried is all efficient substitute for the blue tissue paper.