603 
Making a Feather Mattress 
Cut a piece of ticking 10 inches longer 
than you want mattress to be (it shrinks 
a little in sewing), and 3 in. wider on 
either side than the finished mattress. 
Cut a 3-in. square out of each corner. 
Fig. 1. Seam each corner. This makes 
it like Fig. 2. Slash each side to the 
depth of 3 in. every 10 or 12 in. apart, 
making equal divisions on each side. 
Fig. 3, not ends. This is the bottom 
piece. 
Cut a piece of ticking the width of 
the mattress wanted, allowing for seams. 
Cutting and Making the Ticking 
To get the length, measure from corner 
of bottom piece along top edge of first 
division down to the first cut or slash 
up the other side along edge of second 
section down the slash, and so on. allow¬ 
ing three or four inches for shrinking in 
sewing, or get the length of mattress and 
allow 6*4 in. for each slash. This is top 
of the mattress. 
Sew one end of top piece to one end of 
bottom piece and along one side; that is, 
from the corner along top edge of first 
section down one side of the slash up the 
The Finished Mattress. Fig. o. 
other, a long top of second section, down 
and up second slash, and so on to end of 
side; then sew ends together and leave 
other side open. Divide open side of top 
into same equal sections as the side that 
is sewed, and pin each division into the 
bottom of each cut of the bottom piece; 
then baste a straight line across the tick¬ 
ing: from bottom of one cut the bottom 
of the opposite cut, leave the open side 
open. Then stitch these bastings, stitch¬ 
ing top and bottom pieces together 
Emptying Feathers from Old Tick into 
New. Fig. 6 
(Fig. 4). After the feather bed is thor¬ 
oughly shaken so as to get out all lumps, 
spread it on the floor squarely, pat and 
coax the feathers until the bed is per¬ 
fectly even and of the same thickness 
throughout. Have a paper of pins handy. 
Mark each side of the bed into equal 
divisions, the same number you wish your 
inattress to be; that is, if your mattress 
has 10 sections, you must have 10 sec¬ 
tions in your feather bed, though they 
do not need to be the same size as the 
maWrese sections. Without disturbing 
feathers, pin from side to side, through 
both thicknesses of ticking, connecting 
these marks. If you put the pins two or 
three inches apart you will not need to 
baste if you handle bed carefully. Open 
each division on one side, one at a time, 
and pin to corresponding open section of 
mattress until all sections are pinned to¬ 
gether. It. would now be better to ad¬ 
journ to the lawn, as some feathers will 
be lost in the transference from one bed 
to the other. Two persons can do this 
better than one, as one can hold the 
feather bed above the mattress cover by 
standing upon a box. It will be harder 
to transfer than a pillow, as the sections 
are smaller, so take out a pin or two in 
the mouth, of a section, enough to insert 
the hand into the feather bed, when the 
feathers can be pulled and pushed 
through into the mattress very quickly. 
When all feathers are transferred, unpin 
feather bed from mattress, pinning up 
openings in mattress, and sew by hand, 
the same as the other side of the mattress 
completed, the mattress will look like 
Fig. 5. It does not mat. is easy to handle 
and easy to keep in order. 
When one person only has to transfer 
the feathers, the feather bed could be 
pinned to a clothesline by the free side, 
which would hold it above the mattress 
covering, as shown in Fig. 0. b. ,j. e. 
Abbreviations in Crochet 
Would you inform me what is meant 
by abbreviations in crochet patterns, such 
as p., bk„ sp., q.t.t., tr. and d.c.? 
D. M. F. 
Dc. is stitch on hook, thread over, hook- 
crochet ; sp. is space or mesh : bk. is block 
<>r solid; p. is picot; q.t.t. is quintuple, 
treble or double, triple treble. 
I)c. is stitch on hook, thread over, hook 
through work, thread over, draw through, 
making three stitches on hook, thread 
Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
over, draw through I wo stitches, thread 
over, draw through two remaining 
stitches. This is probably the most com¬ 
mon stitch in crocheting, next to chain- 
stitch. 
A tr. is same as d.c., only in starting 
put thread over hook twice and pull 
through two stitches, thread over, pull 
through two, thread over and pull through 
two last ones. 
A q.t.t. is made same as d.c., only in 
starting put thread over four times and 
pull through two. then two. then two, 
then two, then two. This is seldom used 
except for beading, when a rather wide 
ribbon is wished. 
A sp. is ch. two stitches, skip two 
stitches and d.c. in next stitch. 
A bk. is four d.c. The sp. and bk. are 
the foundation of filet crochet. 
A p. is ch. four, catch into first ch. 
This is used for finishing an edge. When 
used on a handkerchief, thus: Hook into 
cloth and pull thread through. 
Ch. 5 si. st. into hdkf., ch. 4 si. st. in 
same hole in hdkf., ch. 5; si. st. into 
hdkf. ch. 4 si. st. into same place and 
proceed. The ch. 5 should be even on 
the edge of hdkf., neither too tight nor 
too loose. This is the most familiar use 
of picot. 
I hope this explains it all right to 
Miss D. M. F. MRS. H. E. c. 
Renovating Old Furniture 
To the correspondent who asks how to 
renovate the old-fashioned haircloth sofa 
I would say I have just been doing the 
same sort of work on one which chance 
threw in my way. and I think they are 
Embroidery Designs 
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and tig 
Pcsign for otnbroid 
ures in cross-stitch. 
oring alphabet 
20 cents. 
all similarly constructed. It was neces¬ 
sary to take mine apart, as the springs 
had become unfastened from the bottom. 
As I found when the old covering and 
stuffing bad been removed, nothing but 
bands of webbing supported the springs. 
I took some pieces of thin strong boards 
and fitted them on the bottom, nailing 
them fast to the frame to act. as a sup¬ 
port. for the springs, instead of usin'' 
webbing. After the bottom was fitted 
and nailed Securely, I used double-pointed 
tacks or small fence staples, such as arc- 
used for chicken wire, and fastened each 
spring in two places onto the board bot¬ 
tom. I next tied them together and 
down as tightly as I could press and hold 
them while tying, using strong cord, such 
as mail order houses tie their shipping 
packages with ; then took a piece of old. 
but good, burlap bag. fitted it to the frame 
and nailed it over the fairings fast to the 
frame, so the stuffing would not get into 
the springs and interfere with their work¬ 
ing. Then I used clean, very fine, new 
excelsior as stuffing, covering this also 
with a fitted piece of burlap, over which 
I placed a piece of bedticking, tacking 
both fast to the frame. 
The cover I cut from the pattern of the 
old one. allowing for the worn-out parts. 
For the oval center back and the curved 
sides I only had to remove the braid or 
gimp from the edge, cut off the buttons 
and the covering fell off. I used the old 
covers for a pattern, cut the new, tacked 
it. in place, covered all the raw edges with 
gimp, replaced the buttons, using strong 
hardware twine, and have a much-ad¬ 
mired piece of furniture at little cost. 
After the upholstering was all com¬ 
pleted the bottom and back was covered 
with black cambric to hide the wrong 
side of the work. It is not a difficult 
task when once decided upon, if one ob¬ 
serves when taking it apart just how the 
work was done before. Flean. new*, very 
soft, and fine excelsior furnishes the stuf¬ 
fing for all of my upholstering, as it can 
be replaced or added to when packed down 
or worn out. 
I also renovated a small rocking-chair 
which came with the settee. This has a 
removable bottom, and 1 could not board 
it up very well, but used several thick¬ 
nesses of very extra double-weave burlap 
as a foundation, to which I sewed the 
springs with strong upholsterer’s twine; 
then proceeded to cover them with burlap 
on top, stuffing and covering as in case 
of sofa. The back of this chair I found 
had an inner frame fitted to the mahog¬ 
any frame, to which the upholstery of the 
back was attached, being strongly sewn 
onto it with upholsterer’s twine. The 
frame was screwed just inside the upright 
side posts of rocker back to this. I sim¬ 
ply unscrewed the inner frame and pro¬ 
ceeded to renew the upholstery as in the 
case of its seat, and the sofa. When re¬ 
upholstering or renovating old furn ? *n ,, e 
I invariably discard the old stuffing, 
which is usually the coarsest variety of 
excelsior, covered by coarse fibre of any 
vegetable refuse, such as coarse flax, cot¬ 
ton grass, etc., worn out and dirtv. In 
renewing the stuffing. I am sure that I 
am not harboring old disease germs or 
insect eggs and vermin. JESSIE. 
GOMBAULT’S 
CAUSTIC BALSAM 
'THE STANDARD REMEDY 
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