QGQN STATE LIBRARY n.
Rc.prnr. 194
C. 3
POCUME!
OREGON
COLLECTION
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o oJ' I
4-H Club Homemaking Project
By
HELEN COWGILL
The work of the Homemaking Project is normally spread over three years. The first year's work is planned particularly for younger girls and is called My Room. The second year, planned for girls just a little older, takes up the care of the whole house and is called Our
Home. The third year is called Room Improvement, and is for still older girls.
Older girls may begin with the second year, Our Home, or with the third year, Room Improvement, as they desire.
Oregon State System of Higher Ed
Federal Cooperative Extension Service
Oregon State College
Corvallis
Club Series K-li 4-H Club Homemaking Project

2 CLUE SERIES
Do you like to invite your chums to your room for a special visit sometimes after school or on a long summer afternoon? Then of course you like to have your room spic and span and as pretty as you can make it.
This project is planned to help you achieve just such a room.
Have you ever asked yourself what you mean when you talk about having an attractive room? You might discuss this subject at your next club meeting and see whether your list would be like the following.
My room should be:
Neat.
Clothes hung up on hangers; dresser top and drawers neatly and conveniently arranged; shoes put away; books and papers neatly arranged; scraps, lint, paper, and combings in waste basket, waste basket emptied frequently; no withered flowers; large pieces of furniture parallel with the wall, smaller pieces conveniently placed.
Clean,. No dust on the floor or furniture; dresser scarf and curtains fresh; windows and mirror shining.
Comfortable. The bed neatly and comfortably made, comfortable chair for reading and sewing near the window and near a good light in the evening.
Harmonious. Colors harmonious; dresser, table, bedside stand, or desk neatly arranged and articles on them both useful and pleasing in color and design. Room not cluttered with souvenirs, pennants, or other articles neither useful nor decorative.
Perhaps you and your club mates will think of other things you want to do or have to make your rooms just as you would like to have them.
Do you have a room of your own, or do you share it with a sister?
If you have a room of your own, you can follow the suggestions in this bulletin without any difficulty. If you share it with a sister, you and she can take turns doing the weekly cleaning, Of course, each of you will keep your own dresser drawers and your half of the dresser top and closet in order, and will keep your own clothes hung up. You will probably prefer to make the bed together and take turn about with the daily sweeping and dusting.
You can keep your own check sheet and record what you do.

M ROOM
1. Every member of the "My Room" Club is to keep her room clean, neat, and comfortable for not less than four weeks and make d J1de
any two of the following articles to add to its attractiveness.
Cleon'n9
O
J
(a) Tuck-in pillow
(b) Patchwork pillow
(c) Chair pad
(f) Wall hanging
7
/\ the various things done on the tally sheet provided.
/ \ 3.
Fill in a record book and write a short
/
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\ story of the work done.
Exhibit shall consist of (1) articles made, and (2) the tally sheet.
3
Basis of Awards
........................................................
75
Articles made
-------------------------60
Tally sheet
-----------------------------15
(b) Record book and story ---------------------------25
Possible score
------------------------------------ 100
NEATNESS
Possibly the first thing one notices on entering any room is that it either is neat and orderly or that many things are out of place, lending the whole room an untidy appearance.
The habit of neatness should not be difficult to form and will always be useful.
Shall we list the various things to look for under this heading?
1. Clothes should be hung updresses and coats on hangers, underclothes spread over the back of a chair at night to air,

4 CLUB SERIES K-li
Not My Room!
unless clean ones are to be worn the next day.
Stockings should always be washed out and fresh ones put on each morning.
Shoes will look well for a longer time if they are put on shoe trees after wearing. Never stuff stockings or anklets in them!
2. The top of the dresser should have only the necessary articles on it.
This goes for the desk and tables too!
3. The closet should be well arranged and neat.
4.
Soiled clothes should be put in a clothes hamper or laundry bag, either in your own room or with the family's soiled clothes.
5. Any drawers or boxes in which you keep clothing should be well arranged and kept in order.
Boxes for handkerchiefs, stockings, belts, jewelry, and other odds and ends will keep these various articles separate and make finding them easy.
folded and those of a kind piled together.
6. Scraps of thread, paper, cloth, combings, and all litter should be put in a waste basket. If you have no waste basket, a

Mv ROOM large tin can or a paper carton or a wicker basket can be used, either as they are, or covered with paper or cloth, or painted.
CLEANLINESS
Every morning after picking up and putting away everything that is out of place, it is a good plan to use a dust mop or brush broom under the bed and any place else in the room where dust is seen.
Chairs, the dresser, and other pieces of furniture should be dusted if necessary.
Once a week, probably on Saturday during the school year, your room will require a more thorough cleaning. Rugs should be taken out and swept, not shaken, or if you have a vacuum cleaner, they may be cleaned on the floor in the room.
After they are cleaned, rugs should be taken up and put where they can be kept clean until the cleaning task is completed.
If the dresser scarf is soiled, remove it, and if you have only one, perhaps you can wash and iron it; but if you have another, the soiled one can go in with the family wash.
Usually the ceiling and walls need to be cleaned. A soft clean cloth can be tied over a broom or soft brush and the walls brushed down.
It is necessary to brush behind pictures at least once a month and oftener if you live where much dust blows into the house.
After the rugs, ceiling, and walls have been cleaned, it is a good time to change the bed, because there may be considerable dust and lint fall on the floor.
Directions for making and changing the bed will be found under the heading
"Comfort."
Before sweeping the floor, if your room is
chairs and any small pieces of furniture out into the hall or another room.
If there is much dust or other material on the dresser or desk that may fall onto the floor when dusting, it is best to dust these
surfaces before sweeping the floor, then after sweeping it may
o' No be necessary to dust them again.
piece of cheesecloth treated with a few drops of oil. Such a cloth should be kept in a covered tin can, such as a pound coffee can.

CLUB SERIES
Try not to scatter dust when sweeping. A bare floor is much more easily swept with a brush broom than a corn broom but good results can be obtained with an ordinary broom if the broom is kept close to the floor and the strokes are not made too rapidly.
If the
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/ \ 1
I floor is painted, it varnished or
over it with a soft, damp cloth.
Don't forget to sweep your closet! Better wipe the floor with a dust cloth after sweeping.
If the windows need
is
this is the best time, and a good way is to use warm water in which you have put a tablespoon of vinegar or kerosene. You may use soap or other cleaning preparations if you prefer them.
Wash; then dry with a soft cloth that is free from lint. Wipe off the window sill and casing too.
Your mirror will probably reflect your face better after the same treatment.
When your room is clean, put the furniture back in place; put the dresser scarf or vanity set on the dresser and replace whatever you keep on the top of the dresser. Bring back and place any furniture or furnishings you took out.
COMFORT
Bed making. Probably one's bed is the piece of furniture in the bedroom that does most to make one comfortable or uncomfortable.
The bedstead should be solid so that it will not shake or move when one turns over.
The springs and mattress should be of the best quality one can afford.
In order to make the bed well, the sheets and covers should be long enough to tuck in well.
Sheets that are 108 inches long before they are hemmed are long enough to give excellent service.
Sheets may have a wider hem at one end than at the other to indicate the top. When the hem is the same width at both ends, however, time is saved in making the bed and the sheets wear more evenly.
Sheets should be wide enough to tuck in well at the sides.

My ROOM
Blankets and comfortables are more easily kept clean when a piece of thin cloth such as cheesecloth or dimity is basted on over the ends, so that if the top sheet should fail to stay folded over the covers, the face cannot come in contact with the covers. This protector, as it is called, should extend on either side of the cover for from six to eight inches below the edge.
A spread of either white or light-colored cotton or rayon material not only dresses up the bed but protects the covers. Bed spreads at the present time are usually long enough to cover the pillows, which are laid flat on the bed at the head end.
How to make a bed. The complete procedure in making a bed is as follows:
1. Dust the springs.
2. Turn the mattress.
blanket, or an old, thin quilt.
Be sure to have this protector on smooth.
4. Put on the lower sheet with the right sid,e up, tucking it in well at the top and bottom and drawing it smooth.
5. Miter the corners (see illustration).
Tucking in the under iheet
6. Tuck this sheet in at the sides.
7. Put on the top sheet with the right side down, tucking it in well at the foot only.
weather requires.
within 8 inches of the head of the bed and tuck them in smoothly at the foot.
9. Fold the top of the sheet smoothly over the top of the covers.
M,tred coruer .6alf-fin,shed
The mitred corner corn tiete
gether at the foot and tuck in the sides smoothly.
11. Shake the pillows and smooth them out so they will lie flat; put them in place.

10 CLUB SERIES
12. Put on the spread.
smooth up to the pillows, fold it under the edges of the pillows, bring it up smoothly over the top of the pillows, and tuck it in at the head of the bed. The sides may either be left to hang down or be tucked in.
If the foregoing method of making a bed has been carefully followed when the sheets were changed, it will not be necessary to remove all of the covers daily.
The following things should be done:
1. Turn back the covers neatly; avoid pulling the covers out at the foot.
2. Smooth out the lower sheet and tuck it in carefully.
3. Draw up the top sheet smoothly.
4. Next draw up the covers smoothly.
5. Put on the pillows and adjust the spread.
A little attention to detail while you are making this method a habit will help you to do a good piece of work quickly.
If you and your mother or sister or brother can make the beds together, you will find that you can save at least one-third of the time that it would take you alonç as it will not be necessary to go back and forth from side to side.
HARMONY
Neatness, cleanliness, and comfortable arrangement, all together, make the room harmonious as a whole.
The way the furniture and rugs are placed, the height at which the pictures are hung, the way the curtains are hung and fastened
window shades, and the kind of furnishings used will all contribute to the effect
will
friends.
ture. The bed should be placed parallel to a wall, preferably not in a corner nor facing the window.
the bed, it will be much

MY ROOM 11 easier to make thaii if one side is close to a wall.
Tf the dresser or dressing table is placed so the light falls on your face rather than on the mirror, you will find it easier to arrange your hair and powder your nose.
This piece of furniture looks best parallel to a wall also.
Chairs and small pieces of furniture may be placed on diagonal lines if desired. Rugs should be placed parallel to the large pieces of furniture and the walls;
Pictures look best when the center of the picture is at eye level when one is standing.
Care must be taken though not to have all pictures at exactly the same distance from the floor! Avoid having a great many pictures on the wall.
Choose such pictures as you particularly enjoy living with and that add something to the color effect desired in your room. Hang the pictures so the wire is not seen, or if long wires are used, have two, parallel to each other, not one forming a triangle. Window shades look best when drawn either a little more or less than halfway down.
Curtains should be one of three lengths: (1) come just to the window sill, (2) come to the bottom of the window apron, or (3) come to within 2 inches of the floor.
It will depend on the length and width of your window, the height of your ceiling and the effect you desire, which length yours should be. It would be well to discuss this matter with Mother.
If you use tie-backs, they should be placed either one-third of the distance from the bottom of the window or one-third of the distance from the top of the window to give the most pleasing effect.
All girls like new accessories or furnishings or decorations for their rooms occasionally, so from the following list select any two

12 CLUB SERIES
you wish to make for your room, because you think they will add to its usefulness and attractiveness.
Tuck-in pillow. This may be a tailored pillow such as a boxed pillow, a decorated pillow, or a patchwork pillow.
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...
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Boxed pillow.
MATERIAL.
Any attractive cotton print with small figures and in colors that will harmonize with the color scheme of the room, and plain material to match the background color in the print or the most prominent color in it, if the background is white.
CUTTING.
Cut two squares 12 by 12 inches of the figured material and one strip of the plain 3 inches wide by 42 inches long.
MAKING.
Baste and stitch the long strip along all four sides of one square piece.
Make good square corners so there will be no

Mv ROOM 13 fullness.
the strip.
direction.
Baste and stitch the second square to the opposite edge of
Have warp thread in both squares running in the same
Leave one side partly open so that the cushion may be filled with wool, cotton, kapok, or feathers.
It is a good plan to make an inside cushion of plain muslin just the right size for the cover and put the filling in it so the cover may be removed for washing.
This cushion should be very neat as its attractiveness depends upon accurate workmanship as well as good color and design in the material.
MATERIAL. Twothread monk's cloth and No. 5 mercerized embroidery or crochet cotton in two colors that harmonize with your room.
CUTTING. Cut two squares 14 inches by 14 inches.
Machine stitch around the edge of each square immediately to prevent raveling.
MAKING.
You may use any one of the patterns given in this bulletin or some pattern of your own selection that is no more difficult or larger. The cushion illustrated has the design in the center of the cushion with a border 2 inches in from the edge of the cloth. There are several border patterns shown, too.
Count the squares across the pattern you select, also those up and down. The pattern in the illustrated pillow is 15 squares across and
19 stitches up and down, so the eighth stitch across and the tenth stitch up and down will be the exact center of your pattern and should be placed on the center square of your cloth.
Since in this pattern that space has no stitch, it will be necessary to make the stitch to the left of this space or the one directly above the space as your starting point.
Cross over two squares at a time.
Be sure to slant all the top stitches in the same direction and to have the stitches that join go into the same hole.
After the design is worked, put a border around the cushion.
Sew the back and front together, with warp threads running in the same direction, put in a cushion, close the opening, and it will be complete.
Nine-square patchwork pillow.
MATERIALS.
Small figured cotton print and plain cotton material to match one of the colors in the print.
Plain material.
Cut one square 12 by 12 inches for the back of the cushion.
Cut two squares 6 inches by 6 inches and eight squares 2 by 2 inches.

14 CLUB SERIES K-li
Figured material.
Cut 10 squares 2 inches by 2 inches.
NOTE:
Be very accurate in measuring and cutting these squares, following a thread for cutting along all sides.
MAKING.
direction.
Have warp threads in all the pieces run in the same
Make two blocks using the small squares.
Put them together so that there is a figured block in each corner and in the center.
See illustration.
Make the seams inch wide.
Put the two checkerblocks together with the two
squares to form a 121-
checkerblock in the upper left hand and lower right hand corners. Sew the patchwork piece and the plain back together to form a cushion. Stuff with wool, cotton, kapok, or feathers, preferably contained in a muslin case so the outside cover may be removed for washing.
Chair pad. Cut a paper pattern to fit the seat of the chair on which the pad will be used.
Percale, gingham, osnaburg, chintz, cretonne, or some other material of similar weight may be used.
The materials should be chosen in a color or combination of colors that will add a cheerful and pleasing accent to your room. For
brown, a pleasing selection would be to use a printed material with some brown, dull orange, and perhaps a little bright blue.
Cut two pieces of the material inch larger on all sides than the pattern, sew together along three sides, put a layer of cotton between the covers, finish the open side, fasten the finished pad to the chair by tapes tied around the corner posts of the chair back.
These tapes may be half-inch strips of the material stitched and turned or cotton tape.

15
Dresser scarf. A dresser scarf may be made of Indian head, ramona cloth, linen, or any similar material.
The scarf may be an
dresser and hang over the ends from 4 to 6 inches.
If the material is just the right width, the selvedge may be left on and only the ends hemmed. The hems should be about 1 inch wide and may be hemmed by hand, turned to the right side and fastened down with a long and short basting stitch in color, or they may be finished with plain hemstitching.
For Italian hemstitching, a &-inch to i-inch hem is correct.
Swedish weaving should be done only on the ends or in the corners.
Directions may be found in the bulletin Stitches, Seams, and Sewing
Processes.
Use a simple design as a decoration on scarfs finished with a plain or hemstitched hem.
The design should be carried out in outline, chain stitch, blanket stitch, or a combination of these stitches.
Reproduced by Courtesy of The Spool Cotton Co., 350 Fifth Avenue, New York City, from their publication,
Sew What for Your Home.
Use colors that belong in your roon. For example, if your walls are cream with soft blue and rose designs, it would be appropriate to make your dresser scarf of white Indian head and embroider the design in old rose and blue with perhaps a very little yellow as complementary color.

16 CLUB
SERIES K-li
In doing any kind of embroidery work, always remember to keep the wrong side neat.
This means no long ends of the thread, no knots, no carrying of threads across from one part of the design to another.
Wash and iron your work before exhibiting it.
Use any of the patterns suggested for the dresser scarf or any similar pattern.
EDGE FINIsH. Narrow hem, rolled hem, or narrow lace.
Usually there are three pieces in a vanity set, the center one a little larger than the two side pieces.
MATERIALS.
Sheer lawns, batiste, dimity, light weight linen.
A wall hanging.
If you can add to the attractiveness of your room by making a wall hanging that will add just the right color, it will be quite worth the effort.
This wall hanging may be put on a rod and hung unframed, or it may be framed.
than 8 inches by 12 inches but not smaller than 4 inches by
6 inches.
Any one of the cross-stitch patterns in this bulletin would be attractive to frame. It could be made on linen, osnaburg, or ramona cloth in place of monk's cloth.
Then it would be necessary to use crossstitch canvas over the cloth in order to get your stitches even.
After all the design is in, the threads of the canvas are pulled out, and the
S design i on the cloth!
There are a good many attractive patterns for such hangings and pictures put out by pattern companies or you may design your own.
DEMONSTRATIONS
A demonstration gives you a chance to show others how to do something you have learned to do and found both interesting and useful.
Usually two members in a club work together in a demonstration so that while one is explaining how to do the work, the other one is showing how to do it.
Any of the things you have learned could be demonstrated. Here are a few subjects. You may think of several others you would like to try.
1. Dusting and a suitable dust cloth.
2. A good way to wash windows.
3. Can you sweep a floor
4. We like a well-made bed!
5. My room has light-yellow walls so that is why I made my dresser scarf like this.
cooperative Extension Work in Agriculture and Home Economics tATm. A. Schoenfeld. Director
Oregon State College, United States Department of Agriculture, and State Department of
Education, Cooperatng
Printed and distributed in furtherance of the Acts of Congress of May 8 and June 30, 1914
Reprinted January 1948