Color has a language all its own—It expresses, it soothes, it stimulates, it creates; it can give you a lift. And color as a home decorator can be made to work like magic. With color, the dullest rooms can be made to sparkle with warmth and good cheer. Any color scheme is good as long as it is balanced and it pleases you. A number of colors, tints and shades may be used in one room, but one color should be dominant and it should be used in different areas of the room. The second color should be subordinate, not of the same value. Then a third color may be used for accent or contrast. The neutral colors: gray, white and black, are good background or accent colors.

Do not overlook the possibilities of accessories, such as pillows, vases, china, lamps and books to supply an accent color to complete your color scheme.

Your color scheme may be taken from a favorite picture, a family heirloom or may express the interests and personalities of the family. Consider also the location of the room—East, West, North or South—and how the light enters the room.

There are three primary colors—red, yellow and blue. These colors are mixed to obtain secondary colors. For example, red and yellow produce the color orange; red and blue, the color violet and blue and yellow, the color green. By blending these six colors we complete the color wheel which is made up of red, red orange, orange, yellow, yellow green, green, blue green, blue, blue violet and violet.

We refer to certain colors as warm, others as cool and still others as neither warm nor cool. The warm colors are red, yellow and orange. The cool colors are the blues. Green is neither warm nor cool but if mixed with yellow, it becomes warm; when mixed with blue, it becomes a cool color.

Color and line apparently change the size of the room. Cool, light colors and vertical lines make walls appear higher and the room larger, while warm colors and horizontal lines seem to lower the ceiling and draw the walls nearer.

For North and East rooms, use warm colors. If little light enters in, use light shades of the warm colors. Use the cool colors in rooms with South or West exposures.

When purchasing your fabrics for curtains, draperies and slip covers, keep in mind the overall effect. Consider the room exposure, light, size of room, furniture arrangement and what color and design will do to create a room you will always enjoy. Since windows are a very important part of the room as a unit, the fabric chosen for curtains or draperies should also be used to slip cover a sofa or chair, a dressing table cover, or a dust ruffle for the bed.

Selection of Needles and Thread

Sewing thread should blend as nearly as possible with the fabric in color, fiber and size. Silk and wool fabrics are stitched with silk thread. Cottons, linens and some blended fabrics are stitched with cotton thread or mercerized thread. The synthetic fabrics and blends of the pure and man-made fibers may be stitched with silk, mercerized cotton, nylon or Dacron (DuPont) thread. The needle is selected with consideration to both the thread and the fabric.

With fabrics used for glass curtains and for sheer curtains, such as organdy, voile, “Dacron,” dotted Swiss, marquisettes, batiste and sheer linen, use a fine cotton thread, size 80 or 90, or a mercerized thread. Use a size 14 needle for mercerized thread and a size 11 for finer threads, including “Dacron” for “Dacron” fabrics, organdy, “Dacron,” marquisette, dotted Swiss, lawn, batiste and rayon lend themselves beautifully to the use of sewing machine attachments for ruffling, tucking, hemming, etc. Fiberglas stitches well and is best suited to straight panel type curtains with pleated headings. Use a mercerized thread and size 14 machine needle for Fortisan, synthetics and the many blends.

The average machine stitch length for these fabrics should be about 12 stitches to the inch and the tensions easy enough to prevent puckering the fabrics, particularly sheer fabrics, such as batiste, nylons, ninons and soft rayon blends.

For Damask, brocades, taffetas, satins, etc., use silk or mercerized thread, size 14 or 11 needles of 12 to 14 stitches per inch.

Heavy weight fabrics, namely, linens, cotton Damasks, sailcloth, ticking, denims, etc., require a heavy-duty thread, a size 16 needle and a 12 stitch length.

For light or medium weight fabrics comparable to polished cottons, Chintz, linens, Glosheen, percale, antique satin and faille, use a mercerized thread, a size 14 needle and a 12 or 14 stitch length.