Designs for outline work may be found in great numbers in the periodicals of the day. "St. Nicholas is," as an enthusiastic young friend once said, "a perfect mine!"
Powdered designs have been very popular. In this style of work a plant form is taken as the foundation of the design, and varieties of this form are scattered apparently carelessly over the entire material. Take the rose as an instance. Here will be a leaf, there again a small spray; a rose-single, for double flowers are out of place in outline work—or perhaps a bud, will be worked at seemingly irregular distances; but these must all be arranged carefully so as to balance one another, and present a harmonious effect. It is just the difference between disorder and "pleasing confusion."
Lately a modification of this design, called "crackle work," has become popular. In this work the powdered flowers, leaves, or fruit, are connected by straight lines meeting each other at various angles. I saw at the rooms of the Society of Decorative Art, the other day, a set of charming doileys, worked in shades of silk in this way: They were worked on exquisitely fine linen, and bordered with drawn work. Bureau and buffet scarfs may be decorated in this way, either by working the crackle work over the entire surface, or with a border of work at either end. Care should be taken not to draw the lines too closely together, as boldness is an essential in these designs. The idea, like so much of our decoration, comes from Japan, and is said to have been suggested by the effect produced by plum blossoms, nipped by a late frost, falling on thin and cracked ice. It is an illustration of how Nature, closely studied, will reward her votaries with many an unexpected gift.
A useful present for a gentleman is a pipe rack. It is made of a piece of linen lined with some brightly colored silk, and suspended from the wall by three ribbon loops.
