How could I pass up a book with this title? I found this great little book at a used book store. It was printed in England around 1910.
It contains directions on how to do many kinds of needlework, embroidery, and lace making. It also has several very practical chapters. The one called "The Mending Basket" is particularly interesting. The author, Flora Klickmann, talks about preventative mending:
"We have heard that in China it is the custom to pay the family doctor to keep his patients in good health rather than to call him in only after illness has laid the sufferer low. Many of us applaud this system, but have neither the opportunity nor, perhaps, the courage, to defy conventions in our own country.
But why not pursue the same wise course in dealing with household mending? It works admirably.
Take the proverbial stitch that "saves nine" in very good time, even before there is any apparent need for it, and you'll find it will work miracles."
Flora did not think highly of "ready-made frocks" either. She recommends that you resew all buttons and reinforce sleeves and hems "before the garment is worn for the first time, to overcome the little deficiencies that we may expect to discover in the 'ready-mades.'"
I think she was also not a fan of the "modern laundry." It is the cause of much of our mending! "Where our mothers could keep their under clothing in good condition for years, ours is torn to shreds, and some of it comes home ragged and tattered most weeks from the average laundry. Knicker frills go very quickly, and often need replacing." She then explains a simple way to renovate the knickers.
She talks about choosing quality materials and techniques for your work.
"I want to urge those of you who have any time to give to needlework to remember that this is as much an art as painting and music and architecture. You can be blunting- or elevating- your artistic sense (and that of other people) by the type of work you produce and display, just as much as by the type of picture you hang upon your wall. You will be lowering your ideals by doing shoddy work and false work, just as you will be raising them by doing work that is thorough and conscientious."
By false work she means "the sort of work that strives by cheap tricks to look like something that it isn't."
The chapter called "The Educational Value of the Doll" is also very much worth reading. "The child who has helped to put together her doll's combinations, will have no difficulty in making her own later on, neither will she be perplexed when she in turn has little people to sew for."
"This instruction as to the doll's wearing apparel is only the beginning of the educational possibilities of the doll. The next step is to encourage the little girl to see to the household linen and general furnishings of the doll's house."
Show her how to make the small feather bed, and how to stuff the pillows. She can make a little mattress from small cloth clippings; this will teach her the value of tiny waste bits of material..."
I think a lot of what Flora wrote is still applicable today. Her notes on quality are right on the mark. Along the same lines I remember my mother saying "if something is worth doing, it is worth doing right!" I agree with her thoughts on the dolls too. There are many life skills to be learned from caring for dolls. I do a lot of mending too but I have to admit I don't often mend undergarments.
