1867.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
1S5 
(W For other Household Ilem-i, see "Basket" pages.) 
Work-Baskets and Bags. 
PRIZE ESSAY BY JIISS ETA St. COLLINS, ROCHESTER, If. Y. 
BAG KEVERSED. 
Every lady, whether a woman or little girl, should 
have a convenient receptacle for the implements 
which are nec- 
essary for her 
use in sewing. 
A household 
work-box, bas- 
ket, or bag, is 
a household 
nuisance. Each 
person should 
have her own 
thimble, wax, 
thread, needles 
scissors, etc., 
and a place to _^ 
keep them ; pjg i. —grandmother's bag. 
and the man- 
ner in which she keeps the latter is a pretty sure 
index to her habits of neatness and order in other 
respects. So great a variety in the style of these 
articles lies 
within reach 
of each of 
us, that our 
individuality 
can in no way 
be better dis- 
cerned than 
1 in the choice 
[ wemake.Our 
'minister tells 
us that copy- 
ing is a suicidal act, aud that the spirit of the 
aphorism is applicable to the commonest incideuts 
of daily life. Why not, then, to our selection of 
an article which presents so great a variety of 
forms ?— not that he can mean, in this case, that we 
should each have a work-box unlike those we see 
about us, in 
order to ex- 
press our in- 
dividual i t y, 
for it would 
be but an- 
other form of 
the same act, 
and equally 
suicidal in 
its nature ; 
rather that 
each should sufficiently understand her own needs 
aud preferences, as to have a choice even in so 
small an item as this. Graudmother thiuks there 
is nothing quite so convenient as her work-bag, 
fig. 1, the mag- 
ical properties 
of which are 
universally ac- 
knowledged ; though none of us would think of 
constructing such another with a hope of its won- 
derful properties being inherent in bags of that 
description, as everything that belongs to Grand- 
mother part iikes of the same nature. It consists 
of a round piece of box-board, covered, and sur- 
rounded with pockets. Turned wrong side out, 
Fig. 3. — BAG OPEN. 
-1— BAG STRINGS. 
Fig. 5. — WORK BASKET. 
(fig. 3,) and emptied of its contents, it is easy to see 
how it is made. The pockets, fig. 3, are eight in 
number, Those, and the inside of the bottom board 
are of gray merino. The upper edge of the pocket 
is scalloped with dark blue saddler's silk, which 
is the outside 
color. A rub- 
ber cord holds 
the gray pock- 
ets so tightly 
drawn up that the bag stands of its own accord, 
when the strings, figure 4, which are ran in tha 
outside from opposite directions, are loosened. 
Mother's work-basket is made on the same prin- 
ciple. It is a basket lined with pockets, fig. 5, in- 
stead of a bag. The inside is made separately, and 
afterwards fastened firmly to the basket at the bot- 
tom of the pockets. 
The top could be 
simply made fast 
with coarse thread 
to the basket, 
though that would 
not look so neatly 
finished as it would Fl §'- 7 -- e °ttom oe pockets. 
wound with ribbon over the top of the basket, and 
through the material of the lining, with bows tied 
over between the pockets, where the strain upon 
the lining is greatest, in the way mother's basket is 
finished off. The pockets, fig. 6, are 
made in a straight piece, just long 
enough to fit the top of the basket. The 
bottom of the row of pockets, fig. 7, 
is slightly gather- 
ed to fit a circle 
of the same material which 
fits the bottom of the basket, jfe 
Katie has a standing work- 
basket of willow, with three 
compartments. She has vari- 
ous nice little contrivances 
among which are " crabs." 
composed of three pieces of stiff pasteboard of an 
oval shape, two inches in width by three in leugth, 
neatly covered with silk, and sewed together at two 
Fig. 8. 
to hold her work, 
A crab like this is 
needle-case. 
10. — needle-book, open. 
of the edges. By a slight pressure at the ends it 
opens, aud reveals a cozy little room large enough 
for small work, and convenient to carry in a dress 
pocket. In this crab, which is brown on the out- 
side aud blue within, I see Katie has a bunch of 
tape trimming, and 
a spool of thread, 
No. 50. In another 
gray and pink one 
there is some ruf- 
fling, narrow lace, 
and 100 thread ; 
while stowed away in the drab crab I discover her 
tatting shuttle, fig. 8. It is one Grandfather made 
from the centers of two old fine-tooth combs, 
placing a couple of strips of ivory between the 
outside pieces, aud riveting the whole firmly to- 
gether. Katie 
says it is en- 
tirely owing 
to her sup- 
ply of crabs 
that 6he al- 
ways has a va- 
riety of light 
work ready 
for any emer- 
gency. Her 
needle- book, 
figure 9, al- 
though large, 
appropri- 
Fig. 13.— WORK BOX. 
ate to her basket, which is large and roomy. It is 
of bronze morocco, bound and lined with blue, 
with leaves for needles at one end, and a place for 
the thimble in tha side of the broad flat cushion at 
the other cud of the case, fig. 10. Thcro is a mo> 
rocco pocket between the silk pocket and cushion. 
My needle-case, fig. 11, is smaller, and is therefore 
better suited to my work-box, fig. 13, where every 
inch of space is precious, and accordingly econo- 
mized. It rolls up into quite a small compass, 
and lies under the tray, or sometimes in the tray, 
Fig. 13. — THREAD CASE. 
beside my button-box. Between these and the 
cushion, is a narrow depressed division for knife, 
pencil, stiletto, buttons, tape, needle-book, etc. 
The scissors, tape-measure, emery, thimble, shut- 
tle and pin-case beloug in the division opposite the 
thread; while under the tray is a ball of welting 
cord, box of hooks 
and eyes, case of 
skeins of silk, fig. 
13, scissors' sharp- 
ener, sticks and 
roll of tape, pa- 
pers of floss and 
French cotton, 
Afghan needles, a 
crab or two, and a 
dozen little bun- 
dles of work in 
various stages of 
Fig. 14. — WORK BOX. 
development, besides a thousand and one other ar- 
ticles, which do not legitimately beloug to the 
box, yet are most conveniently kept here. 
Jennie's work-box, fig. 14, which is a tidy little 
affair, is a hexagon of stiff pasteboard covered with 
silk — gray on the outside, aud scarlet within. Ou 
three of the side pieces are fastened pockets of the 
same material with which the basket is lined. On 
one side a covered strip of thin pasteboard, fig. 15, 
is fastened for a thimble case, over which hangs an 
emery, fig. 10, made from 
two round pieces of strong 
linen, stuffed with emery H 
and wool, and covered with 
scarlet silk. The toma- 
to shape is produced by drawing a double thread 
of green silk six times through the center of the 
emery — each time passing over the surface at an 
angle of sixty degrees from the last thread. A tuft 
of green is fastened with the string to the center of 
one side of the emery to increase its resemblance 
to a tomato. Jennie made several such boxes for 
her little friends a few months ago, some of which 
were very delicate in color — light blue aud salmon- 
sea green and gray — aud were prettier than her's, 
though scarcely as well adapted as her's for daily use. 
Fig. 16. 
Leaves from My Journal.— No. IV. 
PRIZE ESSAY BY MRS. B. M'CLELLAN, OF OHIO. 
May. — Lizzie and I have some pleasant chats to- 
gether. I made her laugh to-day while telling her 
about putting up aud taking dowu stoves in these 
premises. That is a job I absolutely dread. I be- 
lieve I am very apt to lose my temper. Such fit- 
ting of pipes, lugging up stairs and down, iuto 
bedroom and parlor, scattering the grimy contents, 
and bedaubing every door and passage-way, ono 
calling here and another in exactly the opposite di- 
rection, all doors open and all faces awry, to say 
nothing of seeing every one lift enough to break 
his back in two, I long ago placed it in my cal- 
endar as a day of all the year the worst. " Well, 
well, Mrs. Frisby," said a poor woman who was 
helpiug me at such a time, aud to whom I was ex- 
pressing my mind pretty freely, " I tell you it is 
harder where there are no stoves, and nothing to 
put in them either!" Was not this a reproof for 
my impatient spirit! Formerly the pipes of both 
sitting-room and parlor stoves wcro carried to the 
chambers above, and after making sundry circum- 
locutions, and turning various sharp corners, found 
(heir way into the roaring chimney. What times 
