January, 1911 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 27 
A living-room showing appropriate hangings for the windows 
New Cretonnes and Taffetas 
By Mabel Tuke Priestman 
DISTINCT stride in advance of previous 
years can be noticed this season in the 
wealth of unusual and beautiful cotton 
fabrics. There is a gradual falling away 
from the French ribbon and rose cretonne 
ettects that have so long been popular and 
a more compact and all-over effect is 
shown in nearly all the materials. Among the new fabrics 
is a unique pattern in tan colored linen; it is partly covered 
with a strong design of brown nasturtium leaves and copper 
flowers; four broad stripes almost entirely cover the yard 
wide material. It is being much used for covering cushions 
for brown wicker chairs, and for loose covers on furni- 
ture; but, perhaps, it is most attractive when employed as 
hangings in a bungalow or summer cottage. It is often 
very difficult to find a fabric strong enough in feeling for a 
man’s bedroom, but this brown and copper nasturtium fills 
a long felt want in this direction. It is sold for a dollar 
a yard. A varied selection of imported cretonnes can be 
purchased from forty-five to seventy-five cents a yard. These 
are particularly attractive when used with the new jasper 
stripes or plain papers; a bower of color is introduced by 
the use of these decorative cretonnes. Most of them have 
birds of one kind or another; one of our illustrations, Fig. 
1, shows a cretonne partly covered with birds and butter- 
flies, while a tree yielding roses, peonies and fruit on the 
same branches introduces a brave array of color and shows 
to what lengths the conventionalizing of flower motifs can 
be carried. In a large room with a four-post bed, white 
paint, and mahogany furniture, it is charming when used 
for hangings, couch cover and bed drapery. 
Another of these cretonnes, Fig. 3, shows peacocks wait- 
ing by a fountain, other lordly ones strut among the foilage; 
a trellis gate-way balances the fountain, while butter-cups, 
iris, and every other imaginable flower, are dotted about at 
intervals. Such a cretonne would have to be used in a large 
Fig. |—A cretonne with birds and butterflies 
Fig. 2—A foliage design in chintz 
Fig. 3—Peacocks drinking from a fountain 
