Sties’ Hfloral HnXinet ojiS 3Pi.etnriui 
a me 
lomimmori. 
HOUSEHOLD ELEGANCIES AND CON¬ 
VENIENCES. 
Well, Jennie, I am really glad you have come to 
see me before you commenced housekeeping. I have 
had the cares of a house for some time, and I know 
when once you enter on them it will not be so easy to 
get away to visit. 
You think my room looks bright? I always try to 
brighten up as much as possible in the fall. It seems 
to me the winter is not so long if there is something 
indoors to attract us and keep our eyes from contin¬ 
ually wandering to the bleak lawn and leafless trees 
outside. 
You see I have nothing expensive here. I expect 
your pictures, brackets, etc. will cjuite throw mine in 
the shade. If you have a fancy for any of these things, 
I can easily tell you how I made them. 
This box I have in my west window is a yard in 
length and tits the window, is eight inches deep, and 
about as wide—just wide enough to hold a row of good- 
sized pots. Parlor Ivy is about all that will grow with 
the light we have here; but you see that does grow. 
It has gone to the top of the trellises I have in each 
end of the box, reached across, and festooned the 
entire window. This hanging-basket of Oxalis was 
started in a sunny window, but blooms nicely here. I 
keep my pots of blooming plants in an east window 
up-stairs. When they come in blossom I bring them 
down and sink them in the box. But I did not intend 
to tell you of the flowers. I know you have better suc¬ 
cess with them than I. I had my box painted brown ; 
but it looked so somber that I concluded I must have 
something brighter, and made this lambrequin of scar¬ 
let pressed flannel and black alpaca. Would have 
used black cloth instead of alpaca, if I had had it. 
The lambrequin is long enough to go around one 
side and both ends of the box. It is in seven pieces, 
three of black and four of scarlet. The center one is 
black, and every alternate one scarlet. They are 
straight at the top and each one has a point in the 
center of the lower edge; are lined with calico, slightly 
stiffened, and bound with worsted braid, such as is 
used to bind dress-skirts. The black ones are bound 
with scarlet and vice versa. They are then finished at 
each point with small tassels of black and scarlet 
zephyr. Fanciful designs of the scarlet flannel and 
some of black cloth are cut and sewed on each piece. 
I cut mine with a pinking-iron; but you can cut them 
nicely with the scissors, if the iron is not convenient. 
I would have pinked the entire edge of the lambrequin 
if the black ones had been of cloth; but alpaca does not 
pink nicely. This other window I did not want to 
close. The little ones must have some place to look 
out. But I did want the Ivy vines. So I put these 
small boxes at each side and covered them with lam¬ 
brequins to match the larger box. These hanging- 
baskets are favorites of mine. To make them, take ox- 
muzzles or wire hanging-baskets. The muzzles hold 
the most earth, which is an advantage. If you use the 
muzzles, you must press them into a conical shape. 
Get ten or a dozen yards of brass wire, something 
thicker than a good linen thread; or common annealed 
wire will answer, though it rusts quicker and then 
breaks, loosening the cones. You will need twenty- 
five or thirty cones for a basket. These are about four 
inches in length. Commence at the bottom of the bas¬ 
ket. With the wire fasten one cone on very securely. 
You can slip the wire under the leaves of the cone, so 
it will be completely concealed. But the next row will 
cover it, if it should show a little. The second row 
should be fastened up on the basket so high that about 
half of the cone at the bottom will be seen. This 
row will take about eight cones. Select cones as near 
the same size as possible for the upper row. If they 
are a little defective, you can do with them as we do 
with many another thing — put the best side out. 
When done, varnish with furniture varnish and put the 
basket, mouth down, in a moderately warm oven. 
The heat causes the leaves of the cones to expand and 
adds to their beauty. I cut the crown of an old felt 
hat to fit the inside of my baskets, filled with good 
earth, and planted my plants. They were quite a suc¬ 
cess last winter. 
This vessel under the chandelier, in which these 
Tradescantia vines are growing is merely a white 
bowl. With the sharp point of a three-cornered file I 
bored holes in its edge to pass the chain by which to 
hang it up, painted the outside with a couple coats of 
black paint, glued small autumn leaves around it in a 
wreath, and varnished it. 
What are these vines that festoon the pictures on the 
wall growing in? Oh! Jennie, don’t lift their covering, 
or you will only see some earthern jelly-molds of an 
oval shape. It was not everything that would sit on 
these small brackets. These molds do it nicely, and 
hold a good quantity of earth, too. The covers, of scar¬ 
let trimmed with black cloth, are cut large enough to 
go around the exposed part and come down to the 
bracket. They arc fastened on by making loops of 
thread at the top, running hairpins through the loops 
down into the sail in the vessel. 
I made some small corner-brackets for my rooms 
upstairs. (You know we all wanted to have things 
look nice this summer.) My brackets are small, 
but could be made larger by using wider boards. 
These were inch boards. One was six inches wide, the 
other five. From these I cut as many right-angled 
triangular pieces as I wished to make shelves or brack¬ 
ets. Of course, the pieces cut from the narrow board 
were an inch narrower than the other, so when they 
were nailed together they were the same width. I 
measured seven inches of the length of the board, then 
sawed diagonally across the .board, thus cutting trian¬ 
gular pieces. Half of the top of a quarter of a barrel, 
sawed into two equal parts, answered for the tops of 
two brackets. One pair is covered with buff pique; 
has curtains of the same, which are cut in three points 
at the bottom, trimmed with scarlet braid and finished 
off with buff fringe. These little corner-brackets add 
much to the tasteful appearance of a room, and made 
in this way, their trimmings may be varied to suit any 
room or any taste. 
Another thing I must show you, Jennie. It belongs 
to the kitchen. I presume you will have a kitchen in 
your house. It is this little article for cleaning kettles, 
pots, or anything that requires scraping. It saves the 
knives very much, does the work better than they do, 
and with less injury to the vessel operated on. It is 
cut out of sheet-iron or tin. This one is of tin (cut it 
myself out of an old blacking-box lid), has four sides, 
but is not square. One side is slightly rounded, and 
one corner quite sharp, to go into all the corners easily. 
It has a hole in it large enough to hang it on a nail. 
Mine was lost for a while, and I missed it more than I 
would some costlier article. There are so many things 
one could make, both for ornament and use, if time 
was not so precious. I hope these hints will assist you. 
Maybe by the time you come again I will have some¬ 
thing new .—Letter to a Young Housekeeper. 
HOW TO MAKE A EBOST BASKET. 
Buy a yard and a quarter of very thin bleached 
sheeting. The thinner it is, the better it will “ ravel ” or 
fringe out. Cut it all up into half-inch widths, follow¬ 
ing a thread across the web, so that the sides will be 
straight. Then fringe it equally on each side, until 
there are only three threads left in the center of each 
piece. Let it lie upon a clean paper until you have 
fringed all the strips. Then take a piece of bonnet- 
wire about eighteen inches long, cover it nicely with 
thick bleached cloth, and stitch the ends together \o 
form a circle. Take your fringed strips one by one 
and twist them slightly, as you would a twine that you 
wished to double. Then draw one end of the ribbon 
inside the wire hoop, leaving the other outside. Bring 
the selvage ends together and stitch them at the bot¬ 
tom, taking care to keep the curl or twist in the ribbons 
until they are fastened. Follow around the wire with 
pieces, placing them about an inch apart (they can be 
placed nearer, if you choose), then slightly catch them to 
the covering of the wire to hold them in place. Then tie 
a thread around the whole, about one-third of the way 
up from the bottom, thus forming a sort of oval basket, 
with a large feathery tassel below it. Take four or 
more of the fringed strips and tack them an inch apart 
on one side of the top or wire of the basket, twist or 
curl like the other pieces, and carry the other ends 
down on the opposite side, securing them as you did 
the first ends. This is for the bail. You can 
take a thread around this near the top, mak¬ 
ing the loop by which the basket is to be hung. 
With the remaining ribbons make tassels to or¬ 
nament the top of the basket, fastening them to the 
wire. Add little bunches of the twisted, feathery fringe 
to the bottom tassel, on the inside of the basket, to the 
bail, and on the sides, as fancy may dictate. The effect 
is delicate and lovely, as no one would imagine unless 
she has seen them. Their ethereal lightness and white¬ 
ness is an exact counterpart of loose frost on the shrubs 
in winter. If one chooses, a few rich frosted arti¬ 
ficial flowers and leaves can be laid on the fringed 
stringers, which may cross the basket; but it would 
hardly add to the snowy, ethereal beauty of this cheap, 
beautiful ornament. 
After making one, an endless variety of changes and 
improvements will suggest themselves to the maker. 
And, in conclusion, let me say that, if my reader friends 
do not readily understand these directions, I will for¬ 
ward one of these baskets to Mr. Williams, and let 
him have his artist picture it for The Cabinet. 
M. J. Cummings. 
