earned. Moreover, the deluded seeker after bed beauty who wastes her
precious hours in hemstitching sheets and pillowcases--cotton ones at
that--is a reckless spendthrift, and needs a course in the economics of
common sense. Nothing is more desirable than the simple elegance of the
plain, broad hem, nor more disheartening than hemstitching which has
broken from its moorings while the rest of the sheet is still perfectly
good--a way it has. Hem-stitching may answer on linen sheets which are
not in constant use, but ordinarily let us have the more profitable
plainness. Good sheets are always torn--not cut--and finished with a 2
1/2- or 3-inch hem at the top and an inch hem at the bottom, the finished
sheet measuring not less than 2 3/4 yards. There must be ample length to
turn back well over the blankets and to tuck in at the foot, for it is a
most irritating sensation to waken in the night with the wool tickling
one's toes and scratching one's chin. Sheets are to be had in varying
widths to suit different sized beds.



PRICE AND QUALITY

The 2 3/4-yard length in an average sheet of good quality costs 90 cents
for a double bed, 75 cents for a three-quarter bed, and 45 cents for a
single bed, with hemstitched sheets of corresponding quality at the same
price. It is hardly worth while to pay more than this, while very good
sheets are to be had for 75 cents, with a decrease in price as the width
decreases. Half-bleach double-bed sheets of good quality cost 85 and 70
cents, and so on, and are more especially for servants' beds. They are
popularly supposed to outwear the bleached, but are somewhat trying
bedfellows until whitened.