lht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
1923 
The Home Dressmaker 
Current Styles. —Some of the critics 
remark that as the days become shorter 
the skirts follow their example, and cer¬ 
tainly many of them have reached the 
limit of brevity. A woman of rather 
conservative taste often finds readymade 
dresses unsatisfactory on this account, as 
the skirt is likely to be much shorter than 
she is accustomed to, with very little hem 
to let down. This should be considered 
and made clear when ordering by mail. 
Though the skirts are short, the waist 
is long, what is known as the Spanish 
silhoutete consisting of a tight, long- 
waisted bodice with a short skirt quite 
wide over the hips. Mauy of the long 
waists, however, are not tight, but 
bloused, with a sash draped low and tied 
at one side. 
Black Velvet. —The dress shown at 
the left in the first picture gives this long- 
waisted outline with bloused bodice and 
draped sash. The material was black 
chiffon velvet, trimmed with raspberry 
chiffon veiled with black chiffon, thus 
softening the violent contrast of the rasp¬ 
berry color with the black velvet. The 
plain waist was bloused so low that it 
almost gave a jacket effect, and was open 
in front to show a plain vestee of rasp¬ 
berry veiled with black. There was a 
long shawl collar of the double chiffon, 
its ends brought down at the sides of the 
vestee. The plain bell sleeves had a trian¬ 
gular cuff on each side of the veiled chif¬ 
fon. edged by a handsome braid of black, 
raspberry and silver. This braid was 
about an inch wide, and was also used to 
border collar and vestee. The sash was 
of the veiled chiffon, draped low on the 
hips, and looped loosely at the right side. 
The chiffon sash was picot edged. This 
dress was simple in style, but gives quite 
an idea in the veiled chiffon. Black vel¬ 
vet is now very popular, not only for 
adults, but also for children and young 
girls. The hat shows a flowing plume 
of cock’s feathers, a trimming that is now 
very often seen, the graceful sweep of 
the feathers modeled after the hats worn 
by the Italian Bersaglieri. 
Blue Duvetyx. — The model at the 
right is dark blue duvetyn, with a vestee 
of ecru linen embroidered in black, blue 
and brick red. The vestee comes down 
below the waist line in a point with very 
attractive effect, and has a high choker 
collar with a turnover at top. The em¬ 
broidery is carried right up to the top of 
collar. The loose sleeves have a turn¬ 
over cuff of the linen without embroidery. 
It will be noticed that the waist of this 
gow.u looks almost like an Eton jacket, 
being so fully bloused, while the sleeves 
are set in raglan fashion. The skirt is 
in loose kilt pleats. The hat is a full- 
crowned mushroom shape of blue duvetyn. 
with a folded scarf of black silk finished 
with fringe. 
A Gay Little Linen Frock. —In the 
second group, the figure at the left shows 
a quaint little frock of natural linen, 
made so plainly that it looks like a her¬ 
ald’s tabard of the middle ages. It is 
a perfectly plain, straight little kimono 
dress, cut all in one piece. The material 
is natural linen, the trimming a half-inch 
band of dark blue linen. This trimming 
edged the round neck, the short sleeves, 
the top of the pockets and the bottom of 
the skirt, being carried up the side seams 
a little more than half way. The dress 
was finished with wool embroidery, clus¬ 
ters of red cherries and green leaves, three 
clusters at the hem. both back and front, 
and one cluster at the left, near the col¬ 
lar. The dress was fastened invisibly at 
the back. The dress would be charming 
in yellow linen, with bands of old blue, 
and embroidery of blue, or old rose with 
blue or green banding. The natural linen 
would also be attractive with bauds of 
deep old rose and green embroidery. 
A Little Girl’s Gingham. —The little 
gingham dress is figured merely to give 
an idea in the Summer sewing which many 
provident housekeepers begin in January. 
The square pockets are On the bias, and 
edged at the top with an upstanding frill, 
the round collar being edged with a frill 
also The mod* 1 seen wa> rose, black and 
white gingham, with collar, frills, cuffs 
and sash of plain rose. A great many of 
the little girls’ wash frocks are made 
with a sash of the same material. 
Accordion Pleating. —The little dress 
at the right was old blue accordion-pleat¬ 
ed taffeta. It was very simple, nothing 
more than a yoke and sleeves with a skirt 
of accordion pleating confined at the waist 
by a girdle of black ribbon velvet. Straps 
of taffeta edged with black silk buttonhole 
stitch kept the girdle in place, both back 
and front. The short sleeves were edged 
with black buttonhole stitch, with an ac¬ 
cordion-pleated frill below, and the but¬ 
tonholing also finished the round neck and 
edge of yoke. Children’s and young 
girls’ dresses are usually plain in outline, 
and. speaking generally, they are more 
comfortable than ever before. Anyone 
who thinks fashion foolish and uncom¬ 
fortable today need only look hack 40 
years, to the pleatings, ruches, bustles, tie- 
backs and laced-in waists of the early 
eighties to see how much we have pro¬ 
gressed. The little girl of that day, with 
stiff white petticoats and over-trimmed 
frocks, would surely envy her small sister 
in plain frock and bloomers today. 
Notes and Novelties. —The new “bun¬ 
galow aprons,” which women living in 
apartments or doing “light housekeeping” 
often wear as house dresses, include many 
attractive styles, and there is no reason 
why any woman’s work apron should be 
ugly. Many ore made with a plain, rather 
long waist, the gathered skirt being 
seamed on with a piping; the waist is 
kimono style with sleeves, and the skirt 
has pockets, all being fastened down the 
back. The neck is round or square and 
there is often a sash tied in the back. 
One very pretty style seen was sleeveless, 
the armhole cut out almost to the waist 
line, the neck cut round; the waist was 
tight and long, the gathered skirt having 
Spanish fullness. Really, there is no rea¬ 
son why aprons should be old-fashioned 
in cut. so long as they fulfill their duty 
of being comfortable and protective. 
Wool plaid separate skirts, knife pleat¬ 
ed. are still in high favor. We also see 
very nice tailored skirts of twill-back vel¬ 
veteen, which 'are very desirable for wear 
with a tailored blouse of white wash satin 
or crepe de chine. A good many of the 
tailored satin blouses have convertible 
collars, which may be worn high or low. 
Some attractive tam-o’-shanter hats for 
young girls are made of broadcloth, em¬ 
broidered in colored wools. Some of the 
stores have these stamped for the embroid¬ 
ery ready to be made up. 
A great many ribbon novelties in the 
way of trimmings are to be seen, these 
naturally appearing in profusion before 
Christmas. Sets qf three satin roses at¬ 
tached to safet y pins are sold for use on 
underwear, "or for fastening a child s 
dress. Little wreaths of tiny ribbon roses 
and foliage are used in the same way. 
A child’s fine white dress is often fastened 
with these trimmings very prettily, and 
they ar<^ of course, removed for launder¬ 
ing- 
Sailor hats of hatter’s plush were quite 
smart and exclusive early in the season. 
Fifth avenue hatters selling them for 
to *20. but they were so quickly imitated 
in cheap material that they soon became 
common, and we recently saw a popular 
shop selling them out for $1! They are 
rarely becoming, except to a fresh young 
face. Satin hate are seen in great variety. 
They are prettiest in dress shapes; a 
plain tailored satin hat is rather trying 
in cold weather, if the wearer is at all 
pinched and chilly, velvet being much 
more becoming. A middle-aged or elderly 
woman always looks best in a velvet hat 
in "Winter. 
In planning for Summer dresses that 
are not washable it is always wise to put 
in the waist lining so that it can be re¬ 
moved for washing, for it is quickly soiled 
in any ease, and nothing is more offensive 
to the fastidious than a lurking odor of 
perspiration from unwashed lining and 
dress shields. White collars, cuffs and 
vests should always be easily laundered. 
Some of the readymade dresses have these 
accessories set in by machine, and it is 
troublesome to renew them. 
Delicate French gray is a popular color 
in dress materials, much the same tint as 
the more expensive gray squirrel, which is 
a pale gray without any brown tinge. 
Australian opossum is another popular 
gray fur; the color and texture suggest 
chinchilla at first glance, and it is very 
distinct from our uative opossum. There 
is a delicate gray, tightly curled lamb fur 
sold by some of the stores under the name 
of “slynx” this Winter. While raw furs 
have dropped in price, the manufactured 
articles are still very expensive. 
The newest mid-season bats are very 
gay with flowers, the hat itself being satin, 
metallic silk or Georgette. Flowery hats 
with furs give a fashionable contrast. 
Those with the metallic or tinsel effects, 
gold or silver, are quite showy. 
Rendering Lard 
Will you give a recipe for making lard 
and keeping the same pure white, like 
the commercial lard? K. P. 
Port Chester, N. Y. 
Stirring while cooling tends to whiten 
the lard, but best color and flavor can 
only be secured by the use of clean leaf 
lard, carefully rendered. The following 
instructions are given in Farmers’ Bulle¬ 
tin 013, “Killing Hogs and Curing Pork,” 
which may be obtained free from the Di¬ 
vision of Publications, L’nited States De¬ 
partment of Agrculture, Washington, 
D. C, 
The leaf lard is of best quality. The 
back strip of the side also makes good 
lard, as do the trimmings of the ham. 
shoulder and neck. Intestinal or gut fat 
is an inferior grade, and is best rendered 
by iteelf. It should be thoroughly washed 
and left in cold water for several hours 
before rendering, which will partially 
eliminate the offensive odor. Leaf lard, 
back strips and lard trimmings can be 
rendered together. If the gut fat is in¬ 
cluded, the lard takes on a very offensive 
odor. 
First, remove all skin and lean mea^ 
from the lard trimmings. To do this cut 
the lard into strips about 1^ in- wide, 
then place the strip on the table, skin 
down, and cut the fat from the skin. 
When a piece of skin large enough to 
grasp is freed from the fat. take it in the 
left hand, knife held in the right haul 
inserted between the fat and skin, pull 
the skin and with the knife slanted down¬ 
ward slightly this will cleanly remove 
the fat from the skin. The strips of fa* - 
should then be cut into pieces of 1 to IBj 
in. square, making them about equal in 
size so they try out evenly. 
Pour into the kettle about a quart of 
water, then fill nearly full with the lard 
cuttings. The fat will then heat and 
bring out the grease without burning. 
Cook the lard over a moderate fire, stir 
frequently to prevent burning. When the 
cracklings are light brown in color and 
light enough to float, the lard should be 
removed from the fire. Press the fat 
from the cracklings and use them to make 
crackling bread, or feed to the chickens. 
When flic lard is removed from the fire, 
allow it to cool a little. To aid cooling 
stir the lard ; thus also teuds to whiten 
the lard and make it smooth. Then strain 
it through a muslin cloth into the con¬ 
tainers. When removing lard from a con¬ 
tainer. take it off evenly from the sur¬ 
face exposed. Digging down into it 
leaves a thin coating on the sides of the 
container, which quickly becomes rancid. 
Fried Apples 
The Hope Farm man has for many 
years been preaching upon the delicious¬ 
ness and great benefits to be derived by 
eating in somewhat large quantities of 
baked apples. Well. now. I agree with 
him. so there is left no chance for dis¬ 
agreement or argument on that point. I 
agree with him that no more healthful 
assimilator of human food in the fruit 
line exists; that they make a delicious 
dessert “fit for a king.” there is no doubt; 
that they are good at all seasons of the 
year is also true. But why doesn't the 
Hope Farm man go a little farther and 
tell us about his experience in eating 
fried apples? Maybe be has never had 
the pleasure of eating fried apples. If 
that is true, I would advise him to try 
some at once. Perhaps he does not know 
how to prepare them. Just wash clean 
half a dozen McIntosh, slice them, with 
the skins- on, good thick slices, and fry 
them with a slice or more of good fat 
bacon, and there you have a delicious 
fruit-vegetable that is “fit for a king” or 
the Hope Farm man or anybody else. On 
the other hand, if lie will take the washed 
skins of apples prepared for pies, sauces, 
etc., boil them, adding sugar, until the 
juice becomes a little thick, then pour 
into tumblers and let stand and cool, he 
will have some jelly that will make him 
sit up and take notice. But I like baked 
apples with sugar and cream, too. 
Princeton Junction, N. J. F. E. M. 
Hens That Co-operate 
The October 30 cover, with the picture 
of two hens co-operating in the care of 
a flock of chickens, reminded me of my 
own experience last Spring. I set four 
hens in a row in the henhouse, two on 
hens’ eggs and two on ducks’ eggs, all on 
same date. The two hens with chickens 
came off together during the day. At 
night I had put papers in a discarded 
zinc washtub, put the two hens hi and 
the 23 chickens, and they would cuddle 
the chicks, and one hen would tuck her 
head under the other hen’s wing. 
When the duck eggs hatched the other 
two hens were treated the same in an¬ 
other tub. and wore as loving as could 
be. But the feathers flew if a hen from 
tub No. L met a h**n from tub No. 2. A 
Barred Rock and a R. I. Red nested in 
each tub. The neighbors thought it quite 
a sight. MRS- H. L. M. 
Connecticut. 
All are good things to eat. 
Ten packages for one dollar! 
Of course, we couldn’t call it 
anything but 
WONDER BOX! 
Sent Parcel Post, Free Delivery 
within 300 miles. Add extra 
postage for longer distances. 
Van Dyk’s Wonder Box 
contains : 
4-2oz.pkgs Tea {all different) 
3-4 oz. “ Coffee “ 
1-5 oz.jar Peanut Butter 
1-3 oz. pkg Best Cocoa 
1-8 oz. can Baking Powder 
All are VAN DYK goods. Can you 
beat it! When you know the quality 
you will order larger quantities. 
Only ONE Wonder Box to 
each address: So mail your 
dollar to-day to 
JAMES VAN DYK CO 
50 BARCLAY ST., NEW YORK CITY 
100 Van Dyk Stores in 30 cities. 
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