The Lambkin Bag.
This pretty bag is made just big enough to take a pair of little girl’s
shoes, and would be just the very thing for you to keep at school to
put your slippers in when you change them to come home; or you might
like to use it to carry your slippers in when you go out to tea.
Do you see the two frisky lambs gambolling on the grass, worked across
the bottom of the bag? Don’t you wish that you were like them, and
didn’t have to wear shoes that are always wearing out? This little bag
was made of dark red sateen, and embroidered with white “Star Sylko”
embroidery thread. The bag should be about 7½ inches wide and 10 inches
deep, when finished, and to allow for seams and a nice wide hem at the
top, you will want to cut a strip of material 8 inches wide and 24
inches long.
[Illustration: Doesn’t this make a pretty Shoe-bag!]
It will be best to do your embroidery before you make up the bag, so
that you can get at the work better. First fold your strip of material
right across the centre, put a tacking line on this fold, and work your
lambs just above this.
If you turn to page 30 you will see how to work the cross-stitch
designs, by placing canvas over your material first, and you have the
lambs all drawn out for you in this article. Also you will find a whole
alphabet of initials for working in cross-stitch on another page.
When you have finished the embroidery, fold the strip of material in
half, with the right side inside, and sew it together at each side with
a run and back stitch, leaving about 4 inches open at each side at the
top of the back. When you have joined the seams, you must oversew them
along the edges on the wrong side as well, so that they will not fray.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: From the outline designs on this page, you will be able
to count the crosses.]
Now turn down a 2-inch hem at the top, on both sides of the bag,
turning in the side edges of the hems; you can tack down the sides of
the hems, so as to keep the edges in, but don’t sew them together just
yet.
When you have hemmed the hems, you must put a row of running stitches
along each hem, about half-an-inch above your hemming line, to make a
runner, so that when you thread your ribbons through they will be held
down at the bottom of the hem and not come right up to the top of the
bag. Now you can oversew the ends of the hems together, leaving the
little space between the running line and the hemming line open, so
that you can thread your ribbon through. This part of the work must be
done with fine sewing cotton the same colour as your material, as you
do not want the stitches to show too much.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Here you see what the lambs look like worked on Penelope
Canvas. Aren’t they frisky!]
If you like you can embroider an even row of white crosses over the
stitches on the right side of the bag; this makes a pretty finish.
You can either use red cord or a narrow red ribbon for threading
through your bag, and you will want a yard and a half. Cut this into
two even lengths.
Then thread a bodkin with one piece, and starting from the left hand
side of the bag, thread it right round the bag through the runner you
made at the bottom of the hems. When you have got it right through,
sew the two ends of the ribbon together, and pull it round from the
right side so that the join does not show; this will leave you with a
long loop of ribbon hanging from the right side of the bag. Now take
the other piece of ribbon and do exactly the same from the left side of
the bag.
Now when you pull the loops at each side the bag will draw up nice and
evenly at the top.
The Invalid.
I’m ’fraid I can’t go out to-day,
My baby’s cough is worse;
And if she isn’t better soon
I’ll have to have a nurse,—
Like mother did when I had fever;—
It really isn’t safe to leave her!
This morning when I had my bath,
She tumbled head-first in,
And got herself just soaking wet
Right to her very skin.
She had her shoes and stockings on,
Also her cream serge frock;
And when we found her, nearly drowned,
She’d fainted with the shock!
I’ve made her lots of medicine,
With chocolate cream and water;
But she’s so tiresome, she won’t try
To take it as I taught her.
I’ve put her in the nice new bed
I’ve been so busy making,
With mattresses and underlay,
And feather beds for shaking.
And hem stitched sheets all trimmed with lace,
And blankets edged with blue,
And frills around the pillow case,
A pink silk bedspread too!
I’ve put her newest nightie on,
And made her shut her eyes;
(She does that when she lies down flat
And goes to sleepy byes).
But when I got her medicine
And said, “Now dear, sit up,
And take a teeny little drop
Out of your favourite cup.”
She was a really naughty child,
And simply said, she wouldn’t!
But there—poor thing, she’s just a doll,
So I suppose she couldn’t!
And now I’ll have to say good-bye,
You’ll ’scuse me writing more.
I think I hear the doctor,
Rat-tat-tatting at the door.