Baby Garments

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 27, 16 January 1931, Page 32

Baby Garments

A BABY’S layette is a simpler affair nowadays. than it was. The tiny garments are not so elaborate, though every bit as pretty. Silk cloaks, for example, have been replaced by carrying shawls. The old colours are being adhered to strictly, "pink for a girl, blue for a boy." Peach colour is being widely used, especially for trimming the cot and for the addition of bows to woolly bonnets or jackets. Some delightful samples of little knitted jackets I saw the other day were in palest primrose shades and were meant to be worn over white and parchment robes. The small bootees were to match, and had tiny satin bows as trimming. On the newest bootees, ehickens, ducks, or kittens, are embroidered in bright colours, with red and orange felt for beaks and eyes. Some of the little coats have the same quaint figures set around their hems. ‘These animal motifs ‘make an instant appeal to a baby. Making Bath Salts Her is asimple method of making your own bath salts. Put the required amount of carbonate of soda erystals into an enamel basin, add a few drops of sandalwood oil, and stir with a wooden spoon. Then add your perfume-almost one teaspoonful to .p pound of crystals-and re-stir. Oil of rose, geranium, verbena, or violets can be used. To colour the bath salts, add very strong tea which has been allowed to stand for some time. This makes the salts a deep cream, and, as it is not a dye, it is harmless, and will not come off in the water. Coffee or cochjineal can also be used if a pinkish tint fs preferred.

Mechanical Ability in Women OR four: years a group of scientific investigators at an American University have been working out experiments which prove that men and boys do not excel women and girls in mechanical ability, reports the Women’s Wngineering Society. Social pressure frequently prevents girls from taking up ‘professions hitherto considered "masculine," but there is no doubt that women are just as capable as men when it comes to jobs needing a high degree of mechanical skill and knowledge. A Famous Novelist THOSE who enjoy reading the light and very modern novels of Berta Ruck will be interested to hear how they are produced. Miss Ruck never "worries" her stories, and they are all based upon the roughest and sketchiest of scenarios. "I believe in letting my characters take care of themselves directly they have learned to walk," she said to an interviewer. Nor does Miss Ruck smoke while she is writing, or at any other time for that matter. She is just off to Berlin by aeroplane to get some night club scenes for her next book. A Humorous Incident N#@A8 Chequers, in Buckinghamshire, the country residence of England’s Prime Ministers, there stands a small hotel run by the Society of Friends (commonly known as Quakers). There are two sets of .charges, according to whether the "guest" is a "friend" or not. According to the "Daily Mail," an amusing incident took place during an informal meeting of Cabinet Ministers held at Chequers. It appeared that there was not room for all the members to stay the night at the Prime Minister’s residence, so one distinguished Minister, who was accompanied by his wife, decided to put up at the Jordan’s Hostel, of which he had heard interesting reports. On their arrival late that night they asked for a room, and were at once asked by the good lady in charge: "Are you Friends?" "No," replied the Minister in some confusion; "married."

Some Novel Ideas ERE are some useful household tips that I have recently tried: To remove fruit stains made on pudding cloths, put: an eggshell in the water in which the cloths are scalded. When washing green vegetables we all add salt to help clean them, but I wonder if any have ever tried using vinegar instead. Try it, for it removes the dirt very quickly and also improves the flavour. Never throw old felt hats away, but try to find time to make children's slippers out of them, Do it this way.

Unpick a child’s old slipper and place it flat on the hat, then cut out two soles and two uppers, allowing for turnings. Then. stitch up the back of the uppers to form the heels. Next stitch the soles on and turn inside out. Slip soles in and finish with button and buttonhole. Another novelty that is sure to be popular are picture-frames of lookingglass. . They are not quite one inch wide, and have a centre of lookingglass, with a tiny beading of wood at each side, so that firelight or lamplight reflected in the glass makes a most artistie effect. A Subtle Compliment T is a curious fact (says'a writer in a London paper) that the average man never notices a2 woman’s dress until it is nearly worn out, and then he begins to like it and to ask her to wear it. Is not that a subtler compliment to the woman than the artful man’s praise of a dress as a piece of artistry? It means, does it not, something like this: "What you wear, considered as material of a certain cut and colour, has no significance for me. Only in so far as it becomes part of your personality does it please. A new frock is your dressmaker’s; an old frock is you, and therefore I like it, though it is falling into rags."

It is said that broper feeding would remove 80 per cent. of the illnesses in the country in 6 year;