Silk stockings should always be darned on net, matching colors of net and darning-floss. Tack lace insets or embroidery smooth upon white stiff paper and fill in breaks with lace stitches or new embroidery. Mend a running break—colloquially, a ladder—by catching the errant stitch, sewing it fast, then filling the raveled space with very fine herringbone. Fill holes in the instep, or heel, above slipper height, with loose buttonhole stitches in matching silk, going across and back, catching each stitch after the first row in the top of the one below it. Make neither tight nor slack. Infinite patience and a very fine crochet hook enable one to fill such breaks with real stocking-weaving. Ravel the break to a line, take up the stitches on a very fine thread, then fasten on silk and draw up in loops, keeping them on the needle. Fasten to the side and work back, drawing a new stitch through each one already on the needle. Repeat till the hole is full, then draw stitches through those in the upper edge, which has been likewise raveled straight. Only very costly stockings are worth such pains. =Coarse Mending=: Boys and men wear holes at knees, elbows, and on seats. Rip seams, cut the holes square, match new squares, and stitch, press, and sew up. Seat holes need not be cut clear across-only as far as the break. Cut corners diagonally the depth of a seam, but not too deep. Lacking cloth for such repairs, take note when clothes show threadbare in such spots, lay other cloth under, and machine-darn thickly with matching thread, fine rather than coarse. Such prevention often outlasts the patch cure besides being more presentable. =Mending Bed Clothes=: Fine threadbare blankets are worth darning. Wash well and darn with soft wool, using a large-eyed needle. Avoid puckering. Darn warp way first, then go across. Cut ragged edges smooth, and overcast loosely with colored wool rather than bind. Darn tears on net, using silk or flax, rather fine. Beware making mends hard and lumpy. Comforts should be untacked, the stuffing, whether cotton, wool, or down, aired and washed at need, the outsides made into rags, and new covers provided for the padding. Cheesecloth unbleached lasts and launders well. Make pocket covers of it, half a yard deep, for the tops of comforts breaking there and nowhere else.