KinSource - Tale of the Week - A Real Sewing Room

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The Renville Star Farmer, July 26, 1907, p. 8

A REAL SEWING ROOM.

Necessity For Some and Luxury For Others.

Happy is a woman who can have a real seweing room, a place where all stitching materials may be kept together in apparent disorder, yet each where she can put her hands on it in a moment when the season's rush is on.

If the room be no larger than to give place for machine, worktable and chair she may still rejoice, for scraps may fall to the floor unheeded, and picking up every moment is unnecessary. To be quite ideal there should be a place for a chest of drawers, and a long mirror should hang so that the bottom of skirts may be seen easily during a fitting.

Sewing is work that should be made as easy as possible, and the first step in this direction is to cover the floor and simplify cleaning. Best of all is a covering of unbleached muslin. This should be stitched in breadths and have loops at the corners only if the room is small. If fairly large more loops in between will be required. Put thumbscrews into the floor at spaces to correspond with the loops. Put down the muslin and fasten it to the screws. This will hold it firmly enough in place, and yet at the end of the day, when hundreds of tiny scraps and pieces have fallen, the muslin can be lifted easily and shaken into the trash barrel, thus entirely doing away with sweeping.

The sewing machine should be well placed for light, and an open mouth muslin bag hanging at one end will serve as a receptacle for scraps that might otherwise fall.

The machine chair should be a straight one and perfectly comfortable when the seamstress is sitting properly. A low rocker to use when doing hand sewing makes a pleasant and restful change from the stiff, straight one.

HOUSEKEEPING HINTS.

Needles and pins will never rust in a cushion filled with coffee grounds. Pour the coffee from the grounds and rinse them in cold water. Let them dry thoroughly before using.

The bent point of a sewing machine needle may be sharpened on a whetstone and need not be discarded.

Put a small bag of talcum powder in a box with a cover and keep in the workbox to rub on the fingers when they perspire.

When you have occasion to use plaster of paris, wet it with vinegar instead of water, then it will be like putty and can be smoothed better, as it will not "set" for half an hour, while plaster wet with water hardens at once.

To string very fine beads, cut one strand of silk thread a little longer than the rest. Wax and twist firmly, This can be threaded through fine beads without using a needle.