NEW MATERIALS.
Although in the very height of summer, dealers in cloth are at present busy selecting their autumn and winter stock. Among the many novelties which will be forthcoming for winter wear, we may mention a cloth manufactured principally for the "Inverness," or "winged cape." The texture is very light and soft, yet thick and warm; and from the great width, being a six quarter, or double-width cloth, it is well adapted for the purpose. It is very elastic, and will be found advantageous to the tailor in making. It is manufactured in all colours, but at present the ground will in all cases be bright. The pile is subdued, so as to give a variety of shade. It can be made at a very moderate price.
Considerable improvements have been made of late in this elegant furniture. The quality of the fabric has been bettered ; it has been made more close in the weaving, and so dense on the surface by means of dressing and calendering as to exclude dust and repel the casual dirt marks so liable to all coverings of furniture and curtains. The patterns have also been chosen with more taste, and evidently with an eye to more originality. At Waterloo House, in Pall Mall, the extensive variety of chintzes range from the simplest pattern of the fern leaf in its natural colours to the luxuriant richness given by a large hydrangia and roses upon grounds of different tints, sometimes cream-coloured, sometimes very pale apple green, or even faint blue. A pattern which struck us as particularly simple, yet not at all weak or wanting in colour, was the common wild blackberry briar, with all its varied tints upon the leaves, and the fruit in different stages of ripeness, giving red and purple, and even green, arranged more closely so as to form a border.
For a long time we have looked to the Swiss muslin and the Manchester net curtains for our summer window decorations ; but the immense im- provement made now in the Glasgow manufacture of leno curtains will lead to their being universally preferred. These Scotch muslins have every advantage of being much stronger and more durable than the Swiss, and may be cleaned perfectly well. The patterns have been designed in every variety of subject—bouquets of flowers, single flowers dotted about, or star-shaped ornaments, and some in trellis-work. A very striking advance. in this manufacture is to be noticed in the shading of the flowers and other forms employed in the pattern; it gives brilliancy and picturesque effect, and at the same time the elegant transparency of the fabric, which is so essentially the special beauty of muslin curtains, is not only not interfered with, but rather increased. Messrs. Jackson and Graham possess some of the freshest patterns, many of them designed according to their own taste. One great recommendation of these cool and airy shades for our windows is their cheapness ; and the Scotch lace curtains are very little more expensive at first than the Swiss, while their greater durability renders them of superior value.
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