A lamp mat will be a welcome gift to mamma or even to your big brother for his room at college. The simplest one to make is of braided raffia. Take six pieces of raffia and tie them together at one end. Fasten this end to a nail or chair back, at a convenient height. If the raffia is dampened a little it will work more smoothly. Now braid it into a three-stranded plait, using two pieces for each strand. When a new piece is needed lay it above the end of the old one and continue. The ends are cut close after the braid is finished. You will need a great deal of this braided raffia--about ten yards of the natural colour and two or three of the coloured--but do a little at a time and you will find it pleasant work. When you have enough prepared, thread a No. 19 tapestry needle with a split strand of raffia and bind the end of it tightly around the end of the natural-coloured braid, taking a stitch or two through it to secure the binding. Now cut off the knot (which tied all six pieces together in starting) close to the binding and coil the braid into a tiny round centre. Run the needle through this centre back and forth, then start coiling the second row, bringing the long end of the braid around with its edge under the outer edge of the centre. The needle is run in slanting from right to left (see Fig. 77), then out from right to left, so that the stitches form a V within the coil. The whole mat is coiled and sewed in this way, except that when the last row of natural-coloured braid is stitched on, the end is bound as it was at the beginning and brought gradually in under the mat, where it is sewed securely. Be sure that you have finished a row before you end it off. This you can tell by counting the rows, from the centre out, on all sides of the mat. An end of the coloured braid (which is to form the border of the mat) is also bound with a split strand of coloured raffia and sewed against the under side of the mat. It is then sewed around like the rest of the mat, except that in the first row you will have to take great care to run the stitches through the natural-coloured braid so that they will not show. Be sure to finish the border at the part of the mat where it was started. _Sewed Raffia Lamp Mat_ =Materials Required:= 12 or 14 yards of cotton clothesline or window cord, A bunch of raffia, A bunch of coloured raffia, A No. 19 tapestry needle. A soft, thick lamp mat that is beautiful to look at and very useful is quite simply made as follows: [Illustration: FIG. 78]