Timely Suggestions and 
Answers to Correspondents 
■ - . . ■ -d 
The Editor will gladly answer queries pertaining to individual problems of interior decoration and furnishing. When an immediate reply is de¬ 
sired, please enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope 
Blue and White Bedroom 
Curtains and Spreads 
J APANESE toweling, which comes in 
strips (ten towels to the strip), cost¬ 
ing from eighty cents to a dollar and a 
•half per strip, makes an attractive mate- 
:rial for curtains and spreads in a blue- 
and-white bedroom. This toweling may 
5 be had in white ground with blue patterns, 
or blue ground with white patterns. Some 
of the prettiest material is that with grass¬ 
like pattern in deep blue against a white 
ground, or the sort with blue butterflies 
on white ground edged with a light blue 
border in a key-pattern. This toweling 
may be mounted on dark blue denim, linen 
or cheese-cloth to give it proper hanging 
thickness for curtains. 1 made a lovely 
spread for my bed by fastening a number 
of strips of denim together (in the fash¬ 
ion of Bagdads), with strips of these tow¬ 
els down each side and across the bottom. 
-An attractive boudoir paper printed in soft 
pinks and greens on a rough basket-weave 
background 
For my closet I made a towel laundry-bag 
of the same material, and also used these 
towels for making a dressing-table cover. 
E. Cameron 
Enameled Silver Toast-Racks 
O NE of the latest things in table ware 
is the silver toast-rack enameled in 
ivory color. These are being shown in 
one of the Fifth Avenue shops. 
Table-Glass for the Country 
f I 'll IS season’s glassware offers many 
alluring patterns to the housewife 
seeking distinctive table-glass for her 
country home. There are shown Colonial 
shapes, reproducing the glass of Colonial 
times in every quality from pressed to 
cut. A very lovely set of sixty pieces is 
being shown by a New York dealer for 
$5.60, and is just the thing for the table 
of the Colonial cottage. The newest things 
in iridescent table-glass are quite proper 
for country cottage use, and many new pat¬ 
terns are now on the market at very low 
prices. Lemonade pitchers and tumblers 
in iridescent glass are especially attractive, 
and also the individual carafe-and-glass 
sets for chamber use. 
Chinese Embroideries for 
Decorations 
N OW that Chinese embroideries have 
been imported almost everywhere, 
and are beginning to rival Japanese work 
in popularity, many uses for them in 
household decoration are presenting them¬ 
selves. The lovely embroidered skirts 
worn by Chinese women are so designed 
and cut as to allow their being used as 
lambrequins above Chinese silk curtains 
selected to match the dominant body color 
of the material. A very lovely pair of 
windows in a small parlor were decorated 
in this way. Two yellow silk Chinese 
skirts, embroidered in black and in blue, 
were selected of the same shades, and un¬ 
der the window, lambrequins were formed 
by taking the sides of each skirt and con¬ 
necting them with a deep valance of yellow 
Chinese silk bordered with a three-fourths 
inch strip of blue above a three-fourths 
inch strip of black. The yellow Chinese 
silk curtains hung below these lambre¬ 
quins were likewise finished with a strip 
of black and a strip of blue along the 
edges of the curtains and along the bot¬ 
tom, which came just below the sill of the 
windows. 
Round and square pieces of Chinese 
embroideries are sold in the shops for 
mats. The square and oblong shapes in 
the large sizes make very attractive cov¬ 
erings when put applique on sofa pillows. 
They are also very appropriate when 
made up into small cushions for the backs 
of chairs. It is interesting and useful to 
know that the strips of Chinese embroid¬ 
ery offered for sale may be bleached by 
your cleaner and dyed any other color. 
Thus bv bleaching and re-dying the blue 
embroidery of the mats mentioned can be 
transformed into yellow pieces or those of 
any other color. 
A modern reproduction of the old Colonial 
block papers in grays, white and cream, 
for hall use 
( 40 ) 
