BELTS ARE BACK

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 864, 7 January 1930, Page 5

BELTS ARE BACK

ORIGINAL IDEAS FOR RAYING YOUR OWN Belts are back with a vengeance. Those who have learnt the craft, of leatherwork will not be at a loss if they attempt something attractive in rose-red or jacle-green suede, clasped with a buckle set with coloured glass to harmonise. Outfits containing coloured stains for working out patterns on leather are now obtainable and clever fingers may thus embellish a length of suede with a trail of ivy-leaves, a little procession of fishes or a milky way of stars. As a matter of fact, few devices decorate leather more delightfully than an uneven sprinkling of golden stars of different sizes. A belt of fancy ribbon, backed with canvas or petersham, looks effective on an evening gown, when the pattern is followed out with tiny coloured cabochons, or with steel beads. I have seen, too, old-fashioned cameo and quartz bracelets taken to pieces and the different sections used on a belt, surrounded with fine stitchery and worked in between with gold or silver beads. An excellent way of using up an obsolete trinket. Old steel bracelets and necklets can be utilised on the same lines. BRAINWAVES! A fortune is said to await the man who invents really holeproof stockings, but here is a hint which will cut down your mending. Keep a piece of candle in your work-basket, and after washing your stockings, go over each pair and rub some candle-wax over the heels, toes and any places that are likely to wear through. You will be surprised how much longer they will wear. A manufacturer of silk stockings whispered the other day that it is always wise to wash stockings through before wearing them. This strengthens both the cheap and expensive makes. Also, if a cheaper stocking should be shiny in appearance and obviously not the “real thing” in silk, washing will remove the glossiness and give more the effect of pure silk. There are always lots of pins strewn over the floor after an afternoon’s needlework, and it’s such a bather to pick them all up one by one. Did you know that a magnet will pick up all your dropped pins and needles? Tie a string to it and it will do the work itself. All you need to do is to trail it over the carpet.