Show RENOVATING OLD CRAPE To those who are in deep mourning it may be useful to know how to renovate ren-ovate crape I learned how from a fashionable New York dressmaker who in turn got her information on the subject from an equally successful dyer and cleaner Go into the kitchen have the clothes boiler twothirds full of boiling water throw in five or ten cents worth of gum arable place a new sheet of heavy brown wrapping paper doubled over the top arrange your crape on this and await results The fire in the range must be brisk so that the water will boil steadily while you are at work Feel the crape and In a few j minutes you will find it moist and sticky Now with your two hands press out the creases smoothing here and arranging there so that all parts get an equal steaming and all turned in and rumpled places are renewed If i your paper be too thick try it single and take another piece when It becomes j be-comes wet I have succeeded best with it doubled tripled and sometimes quadrupled quad-rupled But it depends If it be trimming you are doing over be particular about those creased and wrinkled places the careful manipulation manipula-tion of your hands over the board smooth surface of the paper and the constant steam will make the material stiff crisp and like new If it be a large piece of crape as for instance a vail be careful to fold it so that the folds will not come immediately immedi-ately in the back or in any part of the head gear where they will look badly I always do over my own crape and as dampness takes all the stffness out of it I find it as a home made process i pro-cess a great economy If one can not conveniently get to a kitchen and a large boiler a small oil stove or alcohol lamp with a wide open sauce pan will accomplish wonders with small pieces of crape and the result will repay you for your trouble To do over small pieces of velvet place a wet handkerchief over a hot flatiron standing on its end and daw the wrong side of the velvet over the handkerchief Have several irons on the range and wet the handkerchief each time you change your iron until the pieces are steamed to your satisfaction satis-faction Take an old handkerchief and do not burn your fingers A large piece of velvet could be successfully steamed over a kitchen clothes boiler without the sheet of wrapping paper and without with-out the gum arable ANNIE MILFORD BARTON |