How To Wash Silk

Mix Together

2 cups cold water. 1 tablespoonful honey. 1 " soft soap.

1 wineglass alcohol.

Shake up well; lay the silk, a breadth at a time, on a table, and sponge both sides with this, rubbing it well in; shake it about well and up and down in a tub of cold water ; flap it as dry as you can, but do not wring it. Hang it by the edges, not the middle, until fit to iron. Iron on the wrong side while it is very damp.

Black and dark or sober-colored silks may be successfully treated in this way.

How To Smooth Wrinkled Silk

Sponge on the right side with very weak gum-arabic water, and iron on the wrong side.

How To Renew Wrinkled Crape

Stretch over a basin of boiling water, holding it smooth, but not tight, over the top, and shifting as the steam fairly penetrates it. Fold, while damp, in the original creases, and lay under a heavy book or board to dry. It will look almost as well as new.

How To Restore The Pile Of Velvet

If but slightly pressed, treat as you would crape. Steam on the right side until heated through. If very badly crushed, wet on the wrong side ; let an assistant hold a hot iron, bottom upward, and pass the wet side of the velvet slowly over the flat surface - a sort of upside-down ironing. When the steam rises thickly through to the right side, it will raise the pile with it. Dry without handling.

How To Curl Tumbled Feathers

Hold over the heated top of the range or stove, not near enough to burn; withdraw, shake them out, and hold them over it again until curled.

How To Clean Straw Matting

Wash with a cloth dipped in clean salt and water; then wipe dry at once. This prevents it from turning yellow.

How To Wash Lawn Or Thin Muslin

Boil two quarts of wheat-bran in six quarts, or more, of water, half an hour. Strain through a coarse towel and mix in the water in which the muslin is to be washed. Use no soap, if you can help it, and no starch. Rinse lightly in fair water. This preparation both cleanses and stiffens the lawn. If you can conveniently, take out all the gathers. The skirt should always be ripped from the waist.

How To Wash Woolens

Wash in clean, hot soap suds ; rinse out in clear, hot water, and shake out the wet without passing through the wringer. Worsted dress-goods should never be wrung when washed.

How To Wash White Lace Edging

Have a quart bottle covered with linen,stitched smoothly to fit the shape. Begin at the bottom and wind the lace about it, basting fast at both edges, even the minutest point, to the linen. Wash on the bottle, soaping it well, rinse by plunging in a pail of fair water, and boil as you would a white handkerchief, bottle and all. Set in the hot sun to dry. When quite dry, clip the basting-threads, and use the lace without ironing. If neatly basted on, it will look nearly as well as new - if not quite.