BE sure that the children have suitable clothing for school, for children are often supersensitive to ridicule, and they are often made bashful or sullen by having to wear clothes that are faded or outgrown. We should remember that to the economical mother it may be a trifle for the little girl to wear a faded or outgrown garment; but to a child it is a real affliction, and there are so many ways of economizing in children's clothing that they may be comfortably and nicely dressed, and yet not have anything really new, unless it is stout shoes.
The children should be carefully fitted in shoes, as shoes too small or too large for a growing child are liable to cause trouble with the feet that will follow it thru life. Thin kid and other leather shoes can be kept soft by rubbing frequently with a little vaseline on a soft cloth.
Their school dresses should be strong and comfortable, and these dresses should be above all else simple and graceful. A neat, tasty suit was made from an old, light-gray, woolen dress, but the pieces were first washed clean, and then colored a rich, dark red with Diamond Dye for wool. An old dress of cream-colored nun's veiling furnished the material for another pretty dress after the pieces were colored a dark shade of blue. Good patterns, careful finishing, and thorough pressing are essential to success in the work of making over garments; and when the mother has once learned the art of cutting down and making over, she can keep the children prettily and even stylishly dressed on a very small income. If they must take their last season's best dress for school wear, remove all unnecessary trimming, and make it into a neat school dress; for the practise of wearing soiled finery to school can not be too strongly deprecated, as such clothes are liable to make the children vain and arrogant and their attention is drawn to their clothes instead of their books.
M. A. T.