Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883. Excerpt: ... XIV. MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS. The busiest people in the world have some leisure moments, and it very often seems as if the more occupied a person is in home life, the more can be accomplished in the spare moments. The reason probably is that to a busy person every moment is precious, idleness is impossible, and so it comes to pass that more is done at odds and ends of time than would be accomplished in the days or weeks of an idle, unoccupied life. Up to this we have dwelt rather upon occupations for leisure hours, to be carried out with a certain amount of method, and we now propose to call to mind the many valuable and pretty things which can be made in odd moments of time, requiring no special preparation, and entailing no particular expense or laying out of plans. Take, for example, the many wonderfully pretty things that can be made in plush or in silk and satin, in patchwork, or even in odds and ends of ribbons and lace. The old-fashioned patchwork, for instance, which was often a marvel of effective combinations, and which served to fill up many a leisure hour in the lives of our energetic grandmothers, has undergone a change, it is true, but exists in our midst with surprising vigor. The fashion nowadays is to cut out squares of equal sizes in thin muslin, or indeed in any used or worn material which will serve for a foundation, and upon each of these squares scraps of silk, satin, ribbon, or plush are carefully arranged, without any regard to a set pattern, and are joined together with fancy stitch--as feather stitch, open-work stitch, or simple outline stitch--in different colored silks. This style of patchwork affords ample scope for individual taste. Of course, no two of the squares show the same arrangement, and a sort of bewildering Easter...
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