A WORK BASKET IN VANILLA GRASS.

If any of you live where the sweet-scented vanilla grass grows plentifully, you can make a delicious little basket by drying the long wiry blades, braiding them in strands of three, tying the ends firmly together to make a long braid, and coiling and sewing as in straw plaiting.  Two circles the size of a dessert plate should be prepared, one for the bottom of the basket, and the other for the top of the lid (the latter a trifle the larger).  Then draw the braid tighter, and form a rim to each about two inches deep.  The lid, which is separate, fits over the bottom, and the scent of the grass will impart itself to everything kept in the basket.

So much for the dear little people.  Our next dip into Mother Santa Claus’s basket brings out a big handful for girls (and boys) who are a trifle older,—­say from twelve to fifteen.

HAIR-PIN HOLDERS.

On the next page is a picture of the hair-pin holder when finished; and above it you will find a diagram of it when cut out and not yet put in shape.  It is cut, as you will observe, in one piece.  The material is perforated card-board, either white or “silver.”  The dotted lines show where to fold it.

A, A and B, B are lapped outside the end pieces, D, D, and held in place by stitches of worsted, long below and very short above, where the sides join.  A little border is worked in worsted at top and bottom before the sides are joined.  The inside is stuffed with curled hair, and topped with a little cover crocheted or knit in worsted—­plain ribbing or the tufted crochet, just as you prefer.  A cord and a small worsted tassel at either end complete it, and it is a convenient little thing to hang or stand on mamma’s or sister’s toilet-table.  It will be an easy matter to enlarge the pattern, if this hair-pin holder would be too small.

[Illustration:  PATTERN OF HAIR-PIN HOLDER.]

[Illustration:  A HAIR-PIN HOLDER.]

[Illustration:  END OF HAIR-PIN HOLDER WHEN FOLDED.]

A CRIB-BLANKET FOR BABY.

The prettiest and simplest crib-blanket which we have seen of late, was made of thick white flannel, a yard wide, and a yard and a quarter long.  Across each end were basted two rows of scarlet worsted braid, four inches apart, and between the two a row of bright yellow braid.  These were cat-stitched down on both edges with black worsted, and between them were rows of feather-stitching in blue.  Above, in each corner, was a small wheel made of rows of feather-stitch—­black, red, yellow and blue.  Nothing could be easier to make, but the effect was extremely gay and bright, and we advise some of you who are lucky enough to “belong to a baby” to try it.

ANOTHER BABY’S BLANKET.