A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at SchoolBeecher, Catharine Esther
General
A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School
Beecher, Catharine Esther
Home economics
_To prepare Starch._ Take four tablespoonfuls of starch; put in as much
water; and rub it, till all lumps are removed. Then, add half a cup of
cold water. Pour this into a quart of boiling water, and boil it for
half an hour, adding a piece of spermaceti, or a lump of salt, or sugar,
as large as a hazelnut. Strain it, and put in a very little blueing.
Thin it with hot water.
_Glue and Gum-Starch._ Put a piece of glue, four inches square, into
three quarts of water, boil it, and keep it in a bottle, corked up.
Dissolve four ounces of gum Arabic, in a quart of hot water, and set it
away, in a bottle, corked. Use the glue for calicoes, and the gum for
silks and muslins, both to be mixed with water, at discretion.
_Beef's-Gall._ Send a junk-bottle to the butcher, and have several
gall-bladders emptied into it. Keep it salted, and in a cool place. Some
persons perfume it; but fresh air removes the unpleasant smell which it
gives, when used for clothes.
_Directions for Starching Muslins and Laces._
Many ladies clap muslins, then dry them, and afterwards sprinkle them.
This saves time. Others clap them, till nearly dry, then fold and cover,
and then iron them. Iron wrought muslins on soft flannel, and on the
wrong side.
_To do up Laces, nicely_, sew a clean piece of muslin around a long
bottle, and roll the lace on it; pulling out the edge, and rolling it
so that the edge will turn in, and be covered, as you roll. Fill the
bottle with water, and then boil it, for an hour, in a suds made with
white soap. Rinse it in fair water, a little blued; dry it in the sun;
and, if any stiffening is wished, use thin starch, or gum Arabic. When
dry, fold and press it, between white papers, in a large book. It
improves the lace, to wet it with sweet-oil, after it is rolled on the
bottle, and before boiling in the suds. _Blond laces_ can be whitened,
by rolling them on a bottle, in this way, and then setting the bottle in
the sun, in a dish of cold suds made with white soap, wetting it
thoroughly, and changing the suds, every day. Do this, for a week or
more; then rinse, in fair water; dry it on the bottle, in the sun; and
stiffen it with white gum Arabic. Lay it away in loose folds. _Lace
veils_ can be whitened, by laying them in flat dishes, in suds made with
white soap; then rinsing, and stiffening them with gum Arabic,
stretching them, and pinning them on a sheet, to dry.
ON IRONING.
_Articles to be provided for Ironing._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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