Handicraft for Girls Part 18

Spread the glue on the cloth and place the two pieces of pulp board on the oblong with a quarter-inch s.p.a.ce between them, and proceed as before. Both covers can be made with the joint if desired. Punch with the eyelet tool two holes in each cover three inches apart and one-half inch from the edge, and put in the eyelets. _Take care that these holes are directly opposite._ Cut the paper for the book into sheets four and one-half by seven and three-fourths inches (or four and one-half by fifteen and one-half inches), and fold. Punch the eyelets _exactly even_ with those in the cover. Place a postal-card three and one-half by five and one-half inches on the sheets with a half-inch margin at top, bottom and end, and make two points on each of the four sides, one one-half inch from the corner, and the other one inch. Connect corresponding points by slant lines and cut with a knife on these lines. The outside cover can be decorated in any way desired. This style of cover can be used for a book of any size or shape.

PICTURE FRAMING.

Select a mount of the proper color for the picture to be used, and pa.s.separtout paper to harmonize. Cut to the desired size and shape. Cut a piece of cardboard to the same size. Have a gla.s.s cut to the size of the mount, also a mat for the picture, if desired. Place the picture in position on the mount, and draw guide lines to aid in pasting the picture in place. Put the two rings used for the purpose of hanging the picture, into the cardboard back before putting the parts together. The rings should be placed exactly even, measuring down from the top about one-third of the width of the picture, and in at the sides one inch.

Clean the gla.s.s carefully, and place it over the picture. Between the cardboard back and the picture place two or three layers of newspaper.

Be sure that the back is placed with the rings toward the top. Tie all together very tightly with a strong cord, pa.s.sing the cord only around one way of the picture. Cut the pa.s.separtout paper the length of the picture and crease it over the edges. Moisten the paper and stick it first to the gla.s.s and then draw it firmly over the edge and down on the cardboard back. It is necessary _to work rapidly after the paper is moistened_. Finish the other edge in the same manner. Before removing the cord, tie another around the other way. Finish the two ends in the same manner as the sides, with the exception of the corners. Cut the pa.s.se-partout paper an inch longer than the side to be covered, and do not fasten down quite to the corner. Trim for a mitered corner on the gla.s.s side and cut a narrow strip the thickness of the gla.s.s, and stick it down along the other edge. Tie a cord into the rings for hanging.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

A FOUR SIDED, COLLAPSIBLE CANDLE OR LAMP SHADE.

_Materials:_ Cardboard; book-cloth or j.a.panese tissue paper; pa.s.se-partout paper.

Cut a pattern of one section of the shade in the form of a trapezoid having the longer parallel five and seven-eighth inches, the shorter parallel one and three-eighth inches and the alt.i.tude four and one-half inches. Candle shadeholders are uniform in size being six and one-half inches in circ.u.mference. To fit this circular holder, the shade may be rounded out at the top, although it can be used with the straight edge.

Cut a strip of cardboard five inches wide, and from this cut the four sides of the shade.

The decoration of the shade may be varied greatly. The design may be drawn upon the back of the cardboard and cut out the same as a stencil, care being taken that the proper bridges are in place. The book-cloth is then pasted on the back. If the cardboard is intended as a framework only, construct a second trapezoid one-half inch inside the other, and cut on the lines. The possibilities for decoration are limitless. A design may be stenciled, embroidered, or worked with any of the fancy st.i.tches upon any thin material through which the light will shine, and then pasted over the back of the frame-work. Fancy silks are also very effective.

When the sections are finished, fasten them together with the pa.s.se-partout paper. Lay them all face downward with the sides to be joined placed as closely together as possible, and stick the moistened paper over adjoining edges. Book-cloth or any firm material can be used instead of the pa.s.se-partout paper.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER XI.

HOME FURNISHING, DECORATION AND CARE.

Bright, clean, tasteful and well regulated homes will add more to the sum of human happiness than anything else in life. A happy home does not always mean a costly one. The simple, tidy home of the day laborer may have the home-atmosphere that the mansion may lack. A home can be tastefully, even if cheaply, furnished.

A thoughtful teacher can impart to her cla.s.s a love of home and a respect and honor for the labor that keeps that home clean, attractive and wholesome, and instill womanly traits that may add greatly to the happiness of the individuals and the betterment of all with whom they come in contact. A familiarity with the conditions of an ideal home and the aroused interest of the girls who will be the home-makers in a few years will have an influence and value that is limitless. The parents, also, may receive suggestions through their children that will react on the present home conditions.

Every teacher will invent her own method of reaching her particular cla.s.s, depending upon their needs and environment, using all necessary tact. An outline is given below which will suggest a few topics and one method of conducting the lessons. There are many kindred subjects, such as good ventilation, plenty of sunlight, good house-keeping, etc., that can be brought into the discussions, but the enthusiasm which is aroused is really the vital point of the lesson.

AN IMAGINARY HOME.

When furnishing a home take into consideration sanitary conditions, use, convenience, economy and artistic effects.

1. Ask pupils to make clippings of house plans from papers, magazines, etc. Study and compare them.

2. Decide upon a plan for a simple house, and have some member of the cla.s.s draw the floor plans upon the blackboard where it can remain for a time.

3. Several points must be considered in conjunction, that there may may be harmony throughout the house as the rooms open into each other.

a. The color scheme and design for each room. Some samples of cloth or paper to show the exact colors and combinations of colors decided upon.

b. Decoration of the walls.

c. The floor finish or covering.

d. Color of shades and curtains that the outside may present a favorable appearance.

4. Divide the cla.s.s into sections and a.s.sign a room to each section to suggest detail in style of furnishing and decorating.

a. Living Room.

b. Dining Room.

c. Kitchen.

d. Pantry.

e. Hall.

f. Sleeping Rooms.

g. Bath.

h. Laundry.

5. Avoid over-crowding the rooms with furniture and cluttering with too many pictures and useless and inartistic bric-a-brac, and dust-collectors.

6. The Care of the Home: This topic will enable the teacher to give many helpful suggestions. a.s.sign sub-divisions of the subject to different members of the cla.s.s:

a. Sweeping.

b. Dusting.

c. Care of bare floors.

d. Window washing.

e. Dish washing.

f. Care of cupboards.

g. Care of book-shelves, daily papers, magazines, etc.

h. Care of sleeping rooms, beds, etc.

i. Care of bath rooms.

CHAPTER XII.

BASKETRY.

Basketry is one of the oldest handicrafts known to man, but it reached its greatest excellence with the tribes of American Indians who wove baskets from the gra.s.ses, reeds and rushes which they gathered as they wandered from place to place in their nomadic life. These materials were colored with dyes made by cooking the bark of certain trees and the roots and bulbs of plants, a knowledge of which was handed down from mother to daughter.

The designs were not meaningless, but represented by symbols their prayers to the Deity for rain, success to a war party, or a pet.i.tion for favorable crops. Or it might be they chronicled the victory over a hostile tribe, a maiden's love for a stalwart brave, or a thousand other events of their lives in conventionalized symbolic form. The shape, size and use varied as much as the design.

The material used by the Indians is not available for us but imported raffia, rattan and rushes form excellent subst.i.tutes. Raffia, a product of the Island of Madagascar, is a soft, pliable, yellowish fiber growing next to the bark of a species of palm tree. Rattan is the product of a kind of palm which grows in India. It is stripped of leaves and split into round or flat strips of different sizes.

A more instructive occupation cannot be found for children than basketry and its allied subjects. It not only is fascinating in itself, but develops patience, judgment, dexterity and skill, and embodies the satisfaction of making a beautiful and useful article. It is not only an educative occupation for school, but for the home as well.

Baskets are known as the woven baskets made of the round or flat rattan and the sewed baskets made from the raffia and reeds.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING THE COIL BASKET.