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ECONOMY IN VARIOUS THINGS. 
I presume we would all be more or less interested in 
anything treating on economy, and although much 
has been already written, and many excellent ideas 
have been presented by the writers in the Cabinet 
on that subject, perhaps I may be able to add a little 
yet. 
I will begin in writing where I begin in practice, 
that is, in Dress. I think I admire elegant dresses, 
stylishly made, as much, perhaps, as any one does; 
but they are unattainable by many of us, and we must 
forego them. But those who are economically inclined, 
and who have some ingenuity and taste, will find that 
dresses and other garments that are fit and appropriate 
for a lady’s wearing, are not beyond the reach of a 
very meagre purse. 
There is no need that dress should be expensive if 
we wish it to be otherwise. I think I have proved 
this to my own satisfaction. I know that there are 
dozens of girls who can, and do, come out in an entire 
new suit of a fashionable color, made by a stylish 
dressmaker, at a stylish price, and with hat, ribbons, 
and gloves to match, every season, or it may be, every 
month, and who have no need to think of the cost. I 
have no fault to find with those who can afford to dress 
in this way; but I know well that I cannot, and I do 
not think I envy those who are more fortunate. 
I have admired these dresses, but I know well that 
I can buy every article of clothing that I need for a 
year for what one or two of these beautiful suits cost. 
I always make my own dresses, and those for the rest 
of the family. 
Almost every family now has a sewing machine, and 
every family of girls ought to have one dressmaker 
among them. It is very easy to learn to fit nicely 
with the aid of a good chart or dress-fitter, and good 
patterns for every garment that is worn can be had for 
a trifle. It is not only the saving of money that would 
be paid to a regular dressmaker, and this is consider¬ 
able, as it frequently costs as much for the making as 
for the material of a dress or suit, but you can have 
your dresses made just as you want them ; you can 
calculate with certain knowledge just how much ma¬ 
terial will be required ; you will be able to get them 
out of much smaller patterns than a dressmaker would 
be at all likely to do, and they will be almost certain 
to be better made. 
After one has learned to fit themselves nicely, they, 
would be very unwilling to carry their material to a 
dressmaker again. Not that I have anything against 
the trade at all, or am afraid of ruining the business, if 
all that read this should follow my suggestions. The 
dressmakers that I know are generally overerowded 
with work. I know that there are enough women and 
girls who will always have their dresses made by other 
hands than their own. Some will do so from choice, 
and some from necessity, but my aim is only to sug¬ 
gest a remedy to those who, like myself, cannot af¬ 
ford it. 
I do not own many dresses at a time. There can 
be so many changes made now with polonaises, loose 
waists, and sacques, that they assist very much in 
making a scanty supply into a plentiful one. A large 
stock of dresses of cheap material, poorly made and 
abundantly trimmed, is a very poor stock to have on 
hand. I do not buy cheap goods at all, except calico. 
In getting material for a dress I always put the cost 
into quality and not quantity. 
I do not buy as much goods for trimming as is re¬ 
quired for the dress. I have never worn but one suit 
that had more than twelve yards of material in it. I 
seldom alter a dress, though I have sometimes taken 
them all apart, and turned them inside out, or upside 
down, as they seemed to need, hut I do not know that. 
I ever altered a dress merely because the fashion had 
changed, for I try never to make up a dress in a way 
that will appear ridiculous as soon as it is a little out 
of date. 
My calico dresses wear out about equally all over, 
except the hack breadths of the skirt, and these are 
torn out, when the dress is ripped to pieces, and left 
nearly full length, hemmed around, a binding put on, 
and they make excellent kitchen aprons. 
I do not say, in all this, that I have taken a way 
of my own choosing. Doing my own dressmaking— 
and I do my own milliner work, too, for the most part 
• —has been the source of considerable labor and some 
vexation to me, but I am the oldest of half a dozen 
children, and am forced to consider the wants of others 
of equal importance with my own. 
Of course we keep a rag-bag, and it is soon filled, 
but nothing but the smallest hits that cannot possibly 
he of use in any other way goes into it. Some writers, 
I notice of late, have taken to decrying patchwork 
quilts. 
I am sure I do not know why, and I have -won¬ 
dered what such housekeepers did with the nice 
bits of new calico that every housekeeper always ac¬ 
cumulates more or less of. I have nothing to say 
about those monstrosities called strawberry quilts, 
basket quilts, etc., in which red, green, or pink calico 
is cut into shape and hemmed on white muslin. I do 
not imagine I shall ever be tempted to undertake any¬ 
thing of that kind, or that I shall ever buy calico to 
cut out and piece together, only as a little may be 
needed to join together prettily what we already have 
on hand. In a large family there are many bedquilts 
needed, and we have a quantity of calico pieces left 
over from dresses, aprons, sutibonnets, shirts, etc., and 
why should wo not have the pleasure of making them 
up into some pretty design and quilting them. We 
have one now in process of piecing that is made al¬ 
most altogether from pieces left of light calico shirts, 
and I bought enough of one kind of bright red calico 
to make up with it. 
There are so many pretty designs for piecing blocks 
that every quilt may be made different, and every bed 
in common use in the house may have a pretty pieced 
spread for the top quilt, no matter how faded and worn 
the under quilts may be. For some of the quilts it 
will not be necessary to buy any calico only for the 
lining, as every piece-drawer will contain both light 
and dark calico which may be nicely arranged and put 
together. Piecing blocks is very attractive work for 
children, and it is very convenient to put in your pocket 
when you spend an afternoon visiting. It is very nice 
light work for evenings, and, for girls, will make a 
pleasant variation from crochet work or tatting. And 
not the least value of such quilts is that they will de¬ 
scend to one’s children as the work of their mother’s 
hands in her girlhood, and pieces like dresses that she 
wore when a girl will be sought out and remem¬ 
bered. 
Sewing carpet-rags is also pleasant work for even¬ 
ing. Every old garment that has fully served its pur¬ 
pose, and every bit of new stuff too small for other use, 
but large enough to cut a carpet-rag from, is used in 
this way. Then they are sewed together, at intervals, 
as such work can come in with the necessary making 
and mending, the long evenings serving well for such 
work. They are assorted, the various colors mixed 
well as they are sewed, and by the time a new carpet 
is needed the rags are generally ready for it. The 
rag-bag only takes its turn after everything is turned 
into carpet-rags that can he used in that way. 
Worn-out bedquilts, folded to the proper size, or cut 
if too large, make the nicest kind of cushions for 
chairs, lounges, stools, or anything else that you hap¬ 
pen to want a cushion for. We have cushioned sev¬ 
eral stools in this way lately. We cut six thicknesses 
of the quilt, each just the size of the top of the stool. 
Then they are carefully laid in place, the sides just 
even, and two or three long tacks are driven through 
them all into the stool to keep them in place. Then 
the cover is laid on and tacked around the sides with 
common tacks, being stretched tightly over the top, 
and tacked alternately on one side and then on the 
other to keep it straight. Then the fringe is tacked 
lightly around with small round-headed tacks. We 
have made and covered, in this way, a pair of walnut 
stools that are covered with green rep, and trimmed 
with fringe to match ; a pair of round ones, stained 
very dark and covered with black cloth with an em¬ 
broidered spray in the centre, and black fringe, and a 
pair that were covered with the two sides of an old- 
fashioned carpet-bag, and trimmed with worn dress- 
fringe. 
All were home-made, and all, we think, look very 
neat and workmanlike. For a chair cushion, six 
thicknesses of the quilt would he hardly enough un¬ 
less the quilt was very thick. For this the pieces are 
cut to fit the chair-seat, all the same size, and tacked 
together in several places with a darning needle and 
cord. 
This cushion is comfortable, and much more satis¬ 
factory every way than feathers, which is too soft, 
and any other material is too hard. The next best 
thing that we have found and used for this purpose, is 
our old woolen rags. They are of no other use, only 
to throw on the manure pile, so we cut them into 
pieces about three inches square and make our cushion 
the proper size and shape of ticking or other strong- 
stuff, and fill rather tightly with the rags. They may¬ 
be tacked in places, but for a small cushion, I prefer 
to leave them loose and shake them up frequently, as 
the cushion will be much softer than when tacked, as 
the rags would soon become packed from use. This, 
too, makes a much nicer cushion than feathers. Of 
course, you can have the outside as pretty as you 
choose, and every housekeeper has bits of bright wor¬ 
steds and silks to piece up into such both useful and 
ornamental articles. 
I have one in mind that I intend to make this com¬ 
ing winter. We have had a roll of soft, silky stuff 
that was originally a baby’s hood, but has been ripped 
up and laid away for several years, that is now a pale 
pink, but is to be dyed crimson, that 1 want to piece 
w-ith black velveteen, of which I have quite a large 
roll that lias been leftover from trimmings. I think I 
will cut the pieces hexagon shape, putting a black one 
in the middle and six crimson ones around it; then 
another circle, of black ones. 
For our sitting-room rocking-chair, I ain going to 
piece one of scarlet flannel and the pieces that were 
left of my water-proof cloak. This, I think, I will cut 
diamond shaped, beginning the cover with a star of 
the scarlet. 
When there are three colors to be used, there is 
no pattern prettier than the teabox, which is only dia¬ 
monds cut so that three will fit together, the two darker 
pieces making the sides, and the lightest piece laid in 
sideways, making the top of the box. 
Amaranth. 
