WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 284, 24 April 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

i (Conducted by "Eileen"). FOR HOME SEWING. To mark the length of a new skirt", select a, table that will strike you well below the hips, chalk the edge heavily, then hold yourself perfectly erect and make a complete turn, slowly, pressing closely against the chalked edge of the table. From the chalk line made in this way on your gown measure off the num-' her of inches that will give the skirt' exactly the proper length at any one | point; and when you have determined this point measure the same length all the way round. After hemming the skirt you will find that it hangs perfectly. Use a magnifying glass to copy pat-' terns illustrated in magazines, like thot« for Irish crochet, neckwear, cross-stitch curtains, etc. It will simplify the work. With a large reading glass stitches may be very easily counted. To mend a frayed table-cloth baste a piece of sheer muslin or organdy firmly (.ii the wrong side of the cloth, keeping the threads as nearly as possible in theiv proper position; then place that part of the cloth in an embroidery hoop and darn over and under the frayed threads and into the firm cloth an inch or two, on either side. Use, if possible, linen! thread pulled from a piece of left-over new table linen. After laundering the' mended place in the cloth will hardly be noticed. When jturning a hem on linen keep, a glass of warm water at hand : and dip the fingers into it frequently. The stiffness of the heavy linen will yield and the work may be accomplished ..much more quickly and accurately. TEARS OUT OF DATE. Tears, to put it in plain terms, are quite out of date (says a writer in the Lady's Pictorial). No one, to cull an expression from the schoolroom, "blubs" nowadays. Even in the nursery it is distinctly bad form to give way to tears after a certain age has been reached, and if on the slightest provocation the women of to-day were to let their feelings ooze from their eyes, as a man once said, they would most assuredly lay themselves open to be promptly avoided as bore 3. That women feel less because they do not indulge in the embarrassing practice of publicly weeping is not for a moment to be maintained. It is only that we have learned to our mutual benefit to keep ourselves under better control, and it is, indeed, well that this is so. The woman of this early part of the twentieth century does not lead the same sort of existence as the woman of tne early nineteenth century. Our nerves, as we are being so constantly reminded, are put to severe • tests, and it would never do in these circumstances for us to let ourselves go in floods of tears. For, if we are such bundles of nerves as we are represented to be, wc should certainly be perpetually weeping were we as ill-controlled as our grandmothers. But for the period in which they lived tears well sc: ved thorn, and it has only li", n bpca'ise we have found something 1 liiit ansivers the purpose better that we do not make use of the same watery weapons. WOMEN AND HOBBIES. "Hobbies! Such a waste of time!" someone exclaimed in my hearing a few days ago. "Think what he could do in the time he wastes over that rubbish. The speaker quite forgot that the business man spoken of kept himself fresh and green by the time spent in his little home workshop after business hours were over. He no sooner entered its doors than all the worries of the day were thrown aside. With his carving tool in his hand, he forgot the fact that to-morrow-held more worries to be faced, that an extra rush of work was to be expected owing to some unforeseen happening in the money market. This man never knew what it was to suffer from brain fag or any of the hundred and one ailments that overtake the man who works too strenuously with his brain without relaxation. Sometimes the hobbies are appalling. One man I knew had a mania for buying up doors. Usually they were cupboard doors; then he built a cupboard around them. He haunted auction sales, in eager pursuit of doors, until at last there was not an available corner left in the whole house that did not possess a cupboard. His wife was in despair, especially when one day he turned up in front of a man wheeling a barrow on which were an abnormally long pair of doors. "They're for a wardrobe," he said gleefully. "You said you wanted one in the boys' room." They were too long for comfortable working in the workshop, so were carried up into the boys' room, the boys ) being turned into another room for the 1 occasion. Then the wardrobe was built. . Alas! the builder had forgotten to measure the height, and it was too tall for the low-ceilinged room. The stairs were too narrow to allow its being taken [ downstairs. So it lies on its back and is used by the boys as a receptacle for their treasures. As no one can reach anything without diving bodily into the immense wardrobe they are happy, but their mother is not. Their father has turned his attention to rigging up a patent set of bunkers in the coal cellar. His wife wonders what he will do next. Tint she liardlv realises the fact that her husband has never missed a day at business since she married him, while his colleagues are always complaining of their nerves and undergoing various treatments and cures. | For the woman who is all day at work it is wonderful the relief a hobby will afford. Tt completely changes the train ol thought and prevents the continual strain on the brain from long-sustained attention to one subject. To some, physical exertions appeal strongly. To these, in the summer long walks, collecting subjects for a small home museum will prove interesting. A microscope can be procured quite cheaply, and the long winter evenings | may be devoted to studying the objects I procurable during the summer. There ' are manv societies for nature study that j enn be joined. And in this way friends [.may be made.

The fees -are very moderate, usually including an interesting series of lectures during the winter. This appeals to the woman who wishes to make her hobby both mental and physical. The making of quaint silhouette pictures is ratner an uncommon hobby. But I know a lady who, though quite unable to draw, cuts out with a small pair of embroidery scissors the daintiest groups of tiny lads and lasses and animals, which she mounts in scrap-books to present to friends and hospitals. Another lady, an invalid, forgets her ailments in painting beautiful cards, which are sold to benefit her favorite charities. Another, who leads a strenuous lite, keeps a sort of informal registry office for all the young girls in her parish. Her hobby is to find them places and. to look after them generally. Nothing makes her so happy as to commission her to find you a servant.