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Show WOMAN'S WORLD Discarded Fabrics Potential Source of Decorative Effects ! By Ertta Haley Shades of Gray v'' . '5 , 1 i V ' '" ' i L , " r r ; - '.ii ! ill i ! ' " . ! i r FALL HOUSECLEANING and the shifting of summer clothes to closets along with the pulling out of I fail and winter clothes is a job that iusually yields a lot of materials that are a potential source of love-iy love-iy decorative effects. Don't view that pile of discarded ,heap of clothes, old sheets, bedspreads, bed-spreads, tablecloths and curtains with dismay. Any piece of fabric that has enough material to stretch across the window or cover a lamp shade is fair game for beautifying the home, and with the greatest ; economy. You'll have great pleasure with old fabrics, especially when you begin turning that old slip into a ruffled lampshade, the satin skirt from a formal into a swag for a dressing table, a cotton damask tablecloth into draperies, and an old drindl skirt into short window curtains. No matter how much storage , apace you have available, there's no sense to stowing materials away every year, just dreaming that you'll use them at some future date. The time to put them to work is now, before fabrics accumulate too many years of wear or soil that becomes difficut to remove. Make a check list of what spots iln the home need brightening, then check what materials are available. avail-able. It may be that you want to do over a whole room. Work out a new color scheme, dye the fabrics and start working. Personalize your Bedroom With Drapes, Bedspread Bedrooms are an excellent place to start with a decorative plan because be-cause they're rooms having plenty Use discarded materials . . . of opportunities for expressing personality per-sonality and originality. They also offer an excellent place where old materials can be put to use. For example, if you have one or two quilted bed pads and a couple of sheets or large tablecloths, here's how they can be used to yield a spread and draperies. The pad can be dyed a dark color to be used with sheets or, tablecloths dyed in a lighter -color to harmonize with the pad. The above plan is very effective carried out in turquoise and yellow, yel-low, lime green and yellow, or wine and light gray if you have furniture furni-ture in one of the period styles. Use the dyed pad as the cover for the bed, with the sheets or tablecloths table-cloths shirred to the sides of the bed. You may also make a valance for windows from the pad, with the Good to wear in an office, at club meetings, on campus or for dates is this three-toned gray wool jersey dress made for junior sizes by a New York designer. de-signer. The dress has a turtle neck for showing off jewelry, and a self belt in tire darkest tone of gray. might use a pleated overskirt. In this case the material may be some stiff old drapery material which pleats readily. If heavy enough so that no light shows through, you will not need an underskirt. under-skirt. The mirror of the dressing table may be framed with the sheer material ma-terial used for the ruffled over-skirt over-skirt of the dressing table. In one corner, you can tie a ribbon into a bow, such as is used around the top of the dressing table skirt. Another good idea for framing mirrors, and even the delicate floral flor-al prints that are used often in bedrooms bed-rooms is to salvage some eyelet, and glue this to picture or mirror. If the eyelet has holes for ribbon, run this through them and tie in a bow at the upper right hand corner. cor-ner. If the bedroom is wallpapered, you might get a piece of the paper used and cut a piece to fit the top of the dressing table and use this as an effective background underneath under-neath the glass top. Drawers in the dressing table can be lined with the same wallpaper if you want to carry out this theme further. Cover the paper in the drawers with clear cellophane fastened with tape to keep it clean. Solve Window Problems With Old Materials Windows attract attention both inside in-side and out. They may be formal or fluffy, they may be bright-colored or deeply, richly shaded, but they should never be dull. Old homes have window problems prob-lems that can be solved very easily by using discarded materials properly prop-erly dyed and manipulated. Do you have one of these common problems? prob-lems? Here's a solution for it, too. Tall, narrow windows in the kitchen can be made a decorative assetby trimming and framing the woodwork with material from an old sheet or two or three pillow cases. Use ruffles at the top and middle, with material running down both sides attached to the ruffles. Fabrics should be shirred taut at top and middle. House plants on the sill, or some herbs fill the pretty frame nicely. If you have material for draperies, drap-eries, but not enough to match slipcovers, slip-covers, you can stretch the material ma-terial with home dyed discarded material, especially if the material ma-terial you already have is printed. Dye the old drapery material a solid color to go with the new print. Use a deep valance and bottom bot-tom border of the print, and the sides of the solid color. For chairs and sofas, cover seat and backs of print, and make arm and skirts of the solid material. Print and solid colors are very effective together. to-gether. When you bought them, those old drapes looked pretty nice! Now they're dull, even though still serviceable. serv-iceable. Remove the neutral tan lining, lin-ing, and replace with sheeting dyed a bright light color, like lime green, old rose or turquoise. Hang the drapes so that you can see the bright flash of color, folding back from tie-back to hem. These Colorful Tips Brighten the Table Placemats can be dyed from discarded dis-carded materials to contrast or harmonize your table china effectively. effec-tively. For easy finishing, ravel enough from the sides to make a one inch fringe all around. Hard-to-get prints can be stretched effectively to give you a nice tablecloth. Cut flower units from chintz and applique these on spots on an old plain bedspread or sheeting dyed to match one main color in the print. to brighten the home. lighter material shirred to the sides. Ruffled lampshades can be made from small lengths of old sheer curtains, net or Celanese from old formal gowns or any material which is light enough for the light to shine through. Gather a piece of the material long enough to cover cov-er the bottom of the shade. Sew it onto a length of ribbon to tie around the top of the frame. A one inch ruffle at bottom and top gives just the right amount of fluff. An extra seat in the bedroom is always useful. You might make this out of an old barrel. Cover the top with quilted padding, then use gathered or pleated material tacked around the top under the lid. Refresh your Mirrors And Dressing Tables Dressing tables and mirrors in bedrooms, bath or powder room are always a source of pleasure when they're newly covered. They're al- so .an excellent way to use such materials like sheer evening dresses for the overskirt, and opaque materials ma-terials such as cotton sheeting, old tablecloths, draperies or pillow cases for the underskirt. The overskirt should be as bouffant bouf-fant as possible and the material should be a shade lighter than the underskirt. The unaerskirt does not need to be full, as it provides a "slip" for the full skirt. If the bedroom is tailored, you t |
