Preserving The Color Of Dresses

The colors of merinos, mousseline-de-laines, ginghams, chintzes, printed lawns, etc, may be preserved by using water that is only milk-warm; making a lather with white soap, before you put in the dress, instead of rubbing it on the material; and stirring into a first and second tub of water a large tablespoonful of ox-gall, No colored articles should be allowed to remain long in the water. They must be washed fast, and then rinsed through cold waters. Into each rinsing water stir a teaspoonful of vinegar, which will help to brighten the colors; and after rinsing, hang them out immediately. If they cannot be conveniently ironed at once, let them hang till they are quite dry; and then damp and fold them on the following day, a quarter of an hour before ironing. We need scarcely say that no colored articles should ever be boiled or scalded.

How To Wash Ribbons, Silk Handkerchiefs, Etc

A good satin ribbon may be made to look very well by washing it first in cold water, to which add a few drops of spirits of wine; then in a lather of white soap, and lukewarm water; afterwards rinse it in cold water, pull it even, and dry it gradually. When dry, stretch out the ribbon, and sponge it with a weak solution of isinglass or rice-water, to restore the stiffness and gloss. To iron the ribbon, lay it within a sheet of clean smooth letter paper (the paper being both under and over it), and press it with a heated iron moved quickly. If the color is lilac, add a little dissolved pearlash to the rinsing water. If green, a little vinegar. If pink, or blue, a few drops of oil of vitriol. If yellow, a little tincture of saffron. Other colors may be set by stirring a teaspoonful of ox-gall into the first water. If white, a saltspoonful of cream of tartar mixed with the soapsuds. Unfigured silk handkerchiefs and scarfs may be washed and ironed in the above manner. The proportion of spirits of wine is about a tablespoonful to a gallon of water.

To clean White or Colored Kid Cloves.

- Put the glove on your hand, then take a small piece of flannel, dip it in cam-phene, and well but gently rub it over the glove, taking care not to make it too wet. When the dirt is removed, dip the flannel (or another piece if that is become dirty) into pipe-clay and rub it over the glove; take it off, and hang it up in a room to dry, and in a day or two very little smell will remain; and if done carefully they will be almost as good as new. In colored ones, if yellow, use gamboge after the pipeclay, and for other colors match it in dry paint.

Sympathetic Inks

These are preparations used for writing on paper, the marks of which are invisible until acted upon by some agent. They are frequently employed in secret or playful correspondence. By heating the paper until it is nearly scorched, they may be rendered visible.

Sulphate of copper and sal ammoniac equal parts, dissolved in water or onion juice, writes colorless, but turns yellow when heated.

A weak infusion of galls turns black when moistened with weak copperas water.

The diluted solutions of nitrate of silver and terchloride of gold darken when exposed to the sunlight.

Aquafortis, spirits of salts, oil of vitriol, common salt, or salpetre, dissolved in a large quantity of water, turn yellow or brown when heated.

Solution of nitromuriate of cobalt turns green when heated, and disappears again on cooling.

Solution of acetate of cobalt, to which a little nitre has been added, becomes lose-colored when heated, and disappears when cooling.

How To Make A Common Knife-Board

Cover with thick buff leather, on which are put emery one part, crocus martis three parts, in very fine powder, mixed into a thick paste, with a little lard or sweet oil) and spread on the leather to the thickness of a shilling. It gives a far superior edge and polish to knives, and will not wear the knife near so much as the common method of using brick-dust on a board.

Harness-Makers' Jet

Take one drachm of indigo, a quarter of an ounce of isinglass, half an ounce of soap, four ounces of glue, one pennyworth of logwood raspings, and one quart of vinegar; boil the whole together over a slow fire till reduced to one pint. A small quantity is then to be taken up on a clean sponge, and thinly applied to harness, boots, etc. - taking care that they are previously well cleaned.

How To Restore The Color Of Mahogany

Wash well with soap and water, and then polish daily with the following oil:-Take half an ounce of alkanet root, cut small, and add to a pint of linseed oil; when this has stood for a week, add half an ounce of powdered gum arabic, and an ounce of shellac varnish; let these stand in a bottle by the fire for a week, then strain. Rub well in.

Cement For The Mouths Of Corked Bottles

Melt together a quarter of a pound of sealing wax, the same quantity of rosin, a couple of ounces of beeswax. When it froths, stir it with a tallow candle. As soon as it melts, dip the mouths of the corked bottles into it. This is an excellent thing to exclude the air from such things as are injured by being exposed to it.

How To Take Impressions Of Leaves

A very beautiful and cheap way of taking impressions of leaves is to take a small quantity of bichromate of potash, (say a teaspoonful,) which may be had at any druggist's; dissolve it in a saucer full of water, then pass the pieces of paper on which the impressions are to be taken through the solution, and while wet, press the leaves, etc, lightly upon it. and expose it to the sun, which should be shining powerfully. "When perfectly dry, remove the leaves, and a perfect fac-simile will remain in a light lemon shade, while the rest of the paper will be of a dark brown tint. Bichrome, as it is generally term, is in dark yellow crystals, which should be powdered previous to using it.

How To Wash A White Lace Veil