DOLLS' HOUSES

The most magnificent ready-made dolls' house in the world, with gables and windows, stairs, front garden, and the best furniture, cannot quite make up to its owner for all the delight she has missed by not making it herself. Of course some things, such as cups and saucers, glasses and bottles, saucepans and kitchen utensils, must be bought; but almost all the really necessary things for house-keeping can be made at home.

Dolls' Gardens

One advantage of making the dolls' house yourself is that you can arrange for it to have a garden, a provision rarely made by toy-shops. Grass plots can be made of green baize or other cloth of the right color; garden paths of sand sprinkled over glue, or of strips of sand-paper; flower-beds of brown paper, and the flowers of tissue-paper and wire. A summer-house, and a dog-kennel to hold a china dog, might also be added (see p. 241), and, if you have room, stables.

Garden Chairs and Tables

Garden seats and tables can be made of cardboard and cork. For a seat, take a card two or three inches long and not quite as broad. Mark it right across, lengthwise, in the middle with a sharp knife, and then half fold it. This will make the back and seat. Glue the seat to four slender corks for legs and paint the whole green. To make a table, glue four cork legs to a strong piece of cardboard.

The House

A dolls' house can be made of almost any kind of box. For the simplest and smallest kind cigar boxes can be used and the furniture made of cork, for which directions are given later; or a couple of low shelves in a bookcase or cupboard will do. Much better, however, is a large well-made packing-case divided by wooden and strong cardboard partitions into two, four, or six rooms, according to its size. A specially made box is, of course, best of all; this should be divided into four or six rooms, and should have a sloping roof to give attic room for boxes and odd furniture. The house can be stained outside or papered a plain dark color. One or two windows should be cut out of the walls of each room by the carpenter who made the box, and there must be doors between the rooms. A piece of thin glass cut to the right size can be fixed on the windows at home. But before this is done the house must be papered. The best kind of paper is that used by bookbinders for the insides of the covers, because the patterns used are so dainty and small; but this is not always easy to get. Any small-patterned paper will do, or what is called lining paper, which can be got in every color. The paper must be very smoothly put on with paste. Always start at the top when pressing it to the wall, and smooth it downward gently. Dadoes or friezes can be divided off with the tiny beading which frame-makers use, or with a painted line, which must be straight and evenly done.

Fireplaces

Fireplaces, which can be bought or made at home, should be put in next. To make one yourself, take a strong cardboard-box lid about four inches long and two wide (though the size must depend on the size of the room). Very neatly cut off a quarter of it. This smaller part, covered with gold or silver paper, will make the fender. Then cut off both sides of the remaining piece, leaving the strip at the top to form the mantelpiece. Glue the back of the cover to the wall, hang little curtains from the shelf, put some ornaments on it, arrange the fender in front, and the fireplace is complete. A grate can be imitated in cardboard painted black and red.

A Furnishing Game

A splendid game of shop can be played while the furnishing is going on: in fact, from the moment you have the bare house a board or sign with "To Let or For Sale" will quickly attract house-hunting dolls, and when a couple have taken it they will have their days full of shopping before it is ready for them. You will, of course, yourself be the manufacturers and shopkeepers. It is well to make out careful bills for everything sold, and the more things you can display in your show-rooms the better. All house-hunting dolls require plenty of money.

Curtains

Windows have been mentioned, but they are not by any means a necessity. Yet even if you cannot have windows, you should put up curtains, for they make the rooms prettier. Shades can be made of linen, edged at the bottom with a piece of lace, and nailed on the wall just above the window. During the day these are rolled up and tied. White curtains should be bordered with lace and run on a piece of tape, which can be nailed or pinned on both sides of the window. They will then draw. The heavy inside curtains can be hung on a pencil (which may be gilded or left its own color) supported by two picture screws. Fasten these curtains back with narrow ribbons. Some dolls' houses, of course, are fitted with real doors. But if you do not have these, it is perhaps well to hang the doorway with curtains, also on pencils.

Floors

The floors can be stained or painted either all over or round the edges. Carpets are better not made of ordinary carpet, for it is much too thick, but of colored canvas, or chintz, or thin felt, or serge. A rug made of a plain colored material with a cross-stitch or embroidered pattern around it is very pretty. Fine matting can also be used, and oil-cloth is excellent for the kitchen.

General Remarks on Furnishing

In another place in this book (pp. 228-233) will be found instructions for making furniture for very small and simple dolls' houses; but for a good dolls' house with several good-sized rooms you would probably prefer, for the most part, to use bought things. Square tables are of course easy to make (a cardboard-box lid on four legs is practically the whole thing), and there are other articles which, if you see your way to devise, are better made at home, instructions for which will be found as you read on; but chairs and round tables and so forth are perhaps most satisfactory when they come from the toy-shop. Both in buying furniture and in making it, it is necessary always to remember the size of the rooms and of the dolls, and the size of whatever furniture you may already have, so as to keep everything in proportion.

Beds

Beds can be made of cardboard-boxes of different sizes. The box turned upside down makes the bed itself, and the cover should be fixed upright behind it for curtains to hang from. These curtains and the frill round the bed should be made of any thin material, such as muslin. The mattress, bolster, and pillows are best made of cotton-wool covered with muslin or calico. Sheets may be made also out of muslin; pillow-cases should be edged with lace; for blankets you use flannel, button-hole-stitched round with colored silk or wool, and the quilt will look best if made of a dainty piece of silk, or muslin over a colored sateen to match the curtains. A tiny nightdress case should not be forgotten. Beds for doll children can be made in the same way out of match-boxes; and for cozy little cots for babies there are walnut shells.



Bead Furniture



Chairs can be made with wire, beads, a little silk or cotton material, some cardboard and cotton-wool. To make a chair in this way, cut a piece of cardboard the size that you want the seat to be. Lay a good wad of cotton-wool over it, and then cover it neatly. On a piece of strong wire thread enough beads to go round the seat of the chair. Sew this firmly to the seat. Then thread beads on four pieces of wire the right length for the legs, and leave a little piece of wire with which to fasten them to the wire round the seat. Then make the back from a longer piece of wire, bent into shape and attached to the seat in the same way, and put a short row of beads across the middle. You will need a pair of tweezers to cut the wire and to finish the fastening securely.

Pictures

Pictures for the walls can be made very easily. The picture itself will be a scrap or tiny photograph. This is pasted on a piece of cardboard larger than itself, and round the edge of that you place a strip of whatever colored paper you want for the frame. The picture cord, a piece of cotton, can be glued on the back. More elaborate frames are cut out of cardboard and bound round with colored silk and covered with gold paint. The picture is then stuck into it.

Bookshelves and Books

The simplest bookshelves are those that hang from a nail on the wall. They are made by cutting two or three strips of cardboard of the size of the shelves and boring holes at the corners of each. These are then threaded one by one on four lengths of silk or fine string, knots being tied to keep the shelves the right distance apart. Care has to be taken to get the knots exactly even, or the shelf will be crooked.

Books can be made by sewing together a number of tiny sheets of paper, with a colored cover and a real or invented title. Sometimes these books contain real stories.

Other Articles

A dolls' house ought to be as complete as possible, and though this will take a long time it is absorbingly interesting work from start to finish. It should be the ambition of the mistress of a dolls' house to have it as well furnished as the house of a grown-up person, and if she looks round the rooms in her own home carefully she will see how many things can be copied. There will be cushions to make, fancy table-cloths for different tables, toilet-covers and towels for the bedroom, splashers to go behind wash-stands, mats in front of them, and roll-towels and kitchen cloths for the kitchen.

Everything should be made of the thinnest and finest material, cut with the greatest care and sewn with the tiniest stitches. Light and dainty colors are best for a dolls' house. If you have several rooms, it is a good plan to have a pink room, a blue room, a yellow room, and in each room to have everything of different shades of that color and white. Perhaps no material is so useful to the owner of a dolls' house as art muslin. It is soft, cheap, and very pretty.

Coming to other furniture which can be made at home, we find screens (made of cardboard and scraps), music for the piano, walking-sticks, flowers (made of colored tissue-paper and wire), flower-pots (made of corks covered with red paper), cupboards to keep linen and glass in (made out of small cardboard boxes, fitted with shelves), and many other little things which, if you look round your own home carefully, will be suggested to you. Even bicycles can be imitated in cardboard and placed in the hall.

The Inhabitants

As to dolls, the more the merrier. They are so cheap and can be dressed so easily that it seems a great pity not to have a large family and a larger circle of friends who will occasionally visit them. There must be a father and a mother, a baby and some children, servants (in stiff print dresses with caps and aprons), and certainly a bride, who, if her dress can not be changed for an ordinary one, ought to be kept carefully hidden, except when there is a wedding.

Dressing Dolls

It is rather difficult to dress these tiny dolls so that their clothes will take off and on, but it is much better to do so if possible. In any case they can have capes and hats which take off. The thinnest materials make the best underclothes, but stiff material for dresses makes it possible to stand the dolls up. Glove buttons, and the narrowest ribbons, tapes, and laces, are useful things to have when you are dressing dolls'-house dolls.

Dolls' Dinner Parties

Dolls occasionally require parties. The food may be real or imitation. If real,—such as currants and raisins, sugar and candied peel,—it is more amusing at the moment; but if imitation, you have a longer time of interest in making it. Get a little flour, and mix it with salt and water into a stiff paste, like clay. Then mould it to resemble a round of beef, a chicken, a leg of mutton, potatoes, pies, or whatever you want, and stand it in front of the fire to dry. When dry, paint (in water-color) to resemble these things still more. If there is clay in the garden, you can make all these things from that, and many others too.

Dolls' Flats

Just as people live not only in houses but in flats, so may there be dolls' flats as well as dolls' houses. A dolls' flat consists of a board on which the outline of the rooms is made with single bricks. For example, a four-roomed flat might be arranged like this—



To lay the bricks on a board is not necessary. They can be laid on the floor equally well, except that when you have done playing you will have then to put them away again, whereas if placed on a board they can be left till next time. Nor is there any reason why the walls should not be higher than a single brick; that is merely a matter of taste. Once the walls are ready the furniture and dolls can be put in in the ordinary way.

Smaller Dolls' Houses

So far we have been considering larger dolls' houses. But there are also smaller ones, which naturally require much smaller furniture. These dolls' houses can be made of cardboard (as described on p. 237 and on), or they can be merely small boxes—even cigar boxes; and the dolls and furniture in them can be, if you like, all paper, or made of materials in ways that are now suggested.

Cork and Match-box Furniture

This furniture, if very neatly made, can be very successful, and it costs almost nothing. Plain pins will do quite well, although the fancy ones are much prettier. Velvet or thin cloth is best for the dining-room furniture; silk for the drawing room; and some light-colored cotton material for the bedrooms.

Materials

You will need—

Several good-sized corks, or pickle corks, for the larger things. Some pieces of fancy silk or velvet. A number of strong pins of different sizes. (The fancy pins with large white, black, and colored heads are best.) Some wool, silk, or tinsel which will go well with the silk or velvet. A strong needle and a spool of cotton.

Chairs



Cut a round or square piece of cork about quarter of an inch thick and one inch across. Cover it with a piece of silk or velvet, making all the stitches on that side of the cork which will be the under side of the seat. For the legs put a pin firmly into each corner. Wind a little wool or silk firmly round each leg, finishing it off as neatly as possible. The back of the seat is made by sticking four pins rather closely together and winding the wool or silk in and out of them. Fasten the wool with a tiny knot both when you begin winding and when you finish. Armchairs are made in the same way, except that they are rather larger, and arms—made of small pins—are added.

Chestnut Chairs



an be made of chestnuts. The flatter side of the nut is the seat, and in this are stuck pins for the back (and arms if necessary), which may be bound together with gold or silver tinsel. Other pins are stuck in underneath for legs.

Sofas

For a sofa a piece of cork about two inches long and half an inch thick is needed. This must be covered, and then quite short pins stuck in for legs. Put a row of short pins along one side and the two ends, and wind the wool neatly in and out of them.

Tables



Round tables can be made best of different-sized pieces of cork, with very strong pins for legs; and square ones of the outside of a wooden match-box, with four little medicine-bottle corks glued under it for legs. In either case it is most important to have the legs well fixed on and of exactly the same length. It is not necessary to cover a table, but a table-cloth of silk, either fringed, or hemmed with tiny stitches, and a white table-cloth for meals, should be made.

Fancy tables can be made by taking a flat round cork and sticking pins into it at regular intervals all round. Weave silk or tinsel in and out of the pins until they are covered. (See above.)

Foot-Stools

Several small pieces of cork may be covered to make foot-stools.

Standard Lamp

A serviceable standard lamp can be made by taking a small empty cotton spool, gilding or painting it, and fixing the wooden part of a thin penholder firmly into it. On the top of it glue a round piece of cork, on which a lamp-shade, made of one of the little red paper caps that chemists put on bottles, can be placed.

Bedroom Furniture—Materials

You will need—

Two large wooden match-boxes. Several corks of different sizes. Some pieces of chintz, of cotton material, flannel, linen, oil-cloth, and a little cotton-wool. An empty walnut shell. Several wooden matches with the heads taken off. Pins of different sizes. Wool, silk or tinsel, for the backs of the chairs. A tube of glue.

Beds



To make a bed, take the inside of a match-box and cut away the bottom of it. Then take two matches and glue them to the two corners at the head of the bed so that a portion sticks out below the bed for legs and above the bed for a railing. Cut two more matches to the same length as these others, less the part of them that serves for legs, and fasten these at equal distances from each other and from the two others already glued in position. Along the top of these place another match for a rail, and the head of the bed is done. For the foot of the bed repeat these operations exactly, except that all the upright matches must be a little shorter. Then cut off one end of the bottom of the box and fit it in to form the part of the bed that takes the mattress. The bedstead, when made, should be like the one in the accompanying picture. A little mattress must now be made to fit the bed exactly; it can be stuffed with cotton-wool or bran. A pillow, blankets, sheets, and a fancy coverlet may also be made, and a very thin and tiny frill should be put right round the bed to hide the box.

A very pretty baby's cradle can be made out of half a walnut shell. It should be lined, and curtains should be hung from a match fastened upright at one end of the shell.

Dressing-Tables

The outside of the same match-box that was used for the bed will make a dressing-table. Stand it up on either side of its striking sides, and glue or sew a piece of light-colored thin material all round it, and then over this put a muslin frill. Make a little white cloth to lay on the top of the table. The looking-glass is made by fixing a square of silver paper in a cardboard frame.

Washstands

Take the inside of another match-box and stand it up on one of its sides. Then take five or six matches and cut them to that length which, when they are glued in an upright row at equal distances apart to the back of the match-box, will cause them to stand up above the top of it about a third of an inch. On the tops of them then lay another match to make a little railing. Cover the box as you did the dressing-table. Put a little mat of oil-cloth on the top of the box, and make another large one to lay in front of it. Proper jugs and basins will, of course, have to be bought, but an acorn cup or small shell makes a very good toy basin.



Wardrobes

The wardrobe is made by standing the inside of a match-box on end, fixing inside several little pegs made of small pieces of match stuck in with glue, and hanging two little curtains in front of it. If, when done, it seems too low, it may be raised on four little corks.

Towel-Rack

A towel-horse can easily be made with six long pins and two small pieces of cork.



Clothes-Basket



To make a clothes-basket, take a round piece of cork about a quarter of an inch thick and stick pins closely together all round it, as in the above picture. Then weave wool in and out of them.



DOLLS' HOUSES AND DOLLS OF CARDBOARD AND PAPER

A cardboard house, furnished with paper furniture and occupied by paper dolls, is a very good substitute for an ordinary dolls' house, and the making of it is hardly less interesting. The simplest way to make a cardboard house is to cut it all (with the exception of the partition and the roof) in one piece.

The plan given here is for a two-roomed cottage, the measurements for which can be multiplied to whatever size you like (or whatever is the utmost that your sheet of cardboard will permit). The actual model from which this plan was made (the house was built from a royal sheet of Bristol board) had a total floor measurement of 8 inches by 14. The end walls were 5 inches high, the side walls 5 inches, sloping up to 7 in the middle, and the partition was 7 inches. The roof was slightly wider than the floor, in order to make wide eaves, and as much longer as was needful not only for the eaves but also to allow for the angle.

The first thing to do is to rule the outline of the cottage. All the measurements must be most accurately made, as the slightest incorrectness will keep the house from fitting together properly. Then cut it out. When this is done, draw the windows and doors. Then lay your cardboard on a board, and run your knife along each side of the windows and the three free sides of the doors until the card is cut through. A ruler held close to the penciled line will make your knife cut straight. The bars across the windows can be made of strips of paper glued on afterward. If the doors have a tiny piece shaved off each of the cut sides, they will open and shut easily.

To make the front door open well, outward, the hinge line of the door (KK) should be half cut through on the inside. The hinge can be strengthened by gluing a narrow strip of paper or linen along it. At the three points marked H make small slits through which to put the tags, marked G, of the partition wall.

All drawing and painting must be done on both sides while the house is still flat. The doors inside will need handles and keyholes. Small pieces of mica can be glued over the windows instead of glass.

Little curtains of crinkly tissue-paper can also be made, and, if you like, the walls can easily be papered with colored paper pasted on. This will cause some delay, however, for it must be well pressed. Instead, wall-paper patterns could be painted on.

Outside—that is, on the underside of the cardboard—there is a great deal to do. Both walls and roof can be painted, and tiles, bricks, and creepers imitated. The front door should have a knocker and a letterbox, and around both the door and the windows should be imitation framework. As the upright joints of the four walls will be made of linen painted to imitate brick-work or stone-work, you need not carry the painting of the walls quite to the edges, because these will be covered by the joints. It is best to paint the joints before you stick them on.

Before turning the card over again, run your knife along the four sides of the floor to assist the bending up of the walls. Do not on any account cut through; merely make a half cut.

[Illustraton: CARDBOARD DOLL'S HOUSE]

When you have drawn and painted all you can think of to make the house complete and pretty, take your strips of linen, for the fastening of the walls, crease them in half, lengthwise, and glue one half to the outside of the edge of the walls marked CB and DE in the plan. When this is quite dry, bend the back wall and the two side walls up, and glue the free sides of the strips to the wall marked AB and EF, holding the walls firmly together until well stuck. Strengthen the fold LM, which has to serve as a hinge for the front of the house, with a strip of linen glued underneath. The sides of the front wall must remain unattached, as that forms the opening. It can be kept closed by a strong pin slipped through the roof.



The Partition

Now for the partition. Put the three tags G G G through the slits H H H and glue them firmly down on the outside. (These will have to be touched up with paint.) The roof must then be put on. Cut out a slit N an inch long to fit the tag on the partition, also marked N. Run your knife along the dotted line underneath, and fold it to the necessary angle to fit the sloping walls. Where the roof touches the end walls it must be fastened on with strips of linen or paper, which have been folded in the same way as before and one half fastened securely to the walls. It is important to let it get quite dry before gluing the other half to the roof.



The Chimney

The chimney, of which the illustration is the actual size, is the last thing to be made. First paint, and then fold the two side pieces downward, cut out the three little holes and put into them three chimneys, made by folding small pieces of paper, painted red, round a penholder, and gluing their edges together. The chimney is fixed to the sloping roof with very small pieces of glued paper. Remember that all the pieces of paper used as fastening ought to be touched up with paint. The chimney in the drawing of the complete house on page 240 is put at the side of the roof, but it may even better go in the middle.

The Garden

The cottage can then be fixed to a piece of wood or paste-board, to form its garden and add to convenience in moving it about. A cardboard fence and gate can be cut out and painted green. A path to the front door is made by covering a narrow space of the cardboard with very thin glue over which, while it is wet, sand is sprinkled to imitate gravel. Moss will do for evergreens, and grass plots can be made of green cloth. A summer-house, garden chairs and tables are easily cut out of cardboard. So also are a rabbit-hutch, pump, dove-cot, and dog-kennel. A plan of a dog-kennel, actual size, is given.

Another Way

It is, of course, possible to make a house of several pieces instead of one. The walls and floors can be made separately and joined with linen strips; but this adds to the difficulty of the work and causes the houses to be less steady. Cardboard houses can also be made with two floors.

"The House That Glue Built"

A novel kind of paper house has been gotten out in book form. It is called The House That Glue Built, and consists of pictures of rooms, without furniture, which is shown on separate sheets. The object is to cut out the furniture, arrange it and paste it in its proper place. The illustration shows the library, and the furniture for it. There is also a sheet of dolls to be cut out, who represent the owners of the house. Two other books on the same order are The Fun That Glue Made and Stories That Glue Told. They are all easily put together, and are lots of fun.

Paper Furniture

Everything required for the furnishing and peopling of a cardboard dolls' house can be made of paper; and if colored at all cleverly the furniture will appear to be as solid as that of wood. After cutting out and joining together one or two of the models given in the pages that follow, and thus learning the principle on which paper furniture is made, you will be able to add all kinds of things to those mentioned here or to devise new patterns for old articles, such as chairs and desks.

Glue and Adhesive Tape

Two recent inventions of the greatest possible use to the maker of paper furniture are fish-glue which gets dry very quickly and is more than ordinarily strong, and adhesive tape. Glue can be bought for very little, and adhesive tape, which is sold principally for mending music and the torn pages of books, is put up in inexpensive spools.

Home-Made Compasses

A pair of compasses is a good thing to have; but you can make a perfectly serviceable tool by cutting out a narrow strip of cardboard about four inches long and boring holes at intervals, of a quarter of an inch, through which the point of a pencil can be placed. If one end of the strip is fastened to the paper with a pin you can draw a circle of what size you want, up to eight inches across.

Materials

These are the materials needed when making paper furniture:—

A few sheets of stiff note-paper or drawing-paper. Scissors. A penknife. A ruler (a flat one). A mapping-pen. A box of paints. A board to cut out on. Adhesive tape or stamp-paper. Glue.

Tracing

If the drawings are to be traced, tracing-paper, or transparent note-paper, and a sheet of carbon-paper, will also be needed. To trace a drawing, cover it with paper and draw it exactly. Then cover the paper or cardboard from which you wish to cut out the furniture with a piece of carbon-paper, black side down, and over that place your tracing. Draw over this again with a very sharply pointed pencil or pointed stick, and the lines will be repeated by the carbon-paper on the under sheet of paper.

The furniture, for which designs are given in this chapter, can be made of stiff note-paper, Whatman's drawing-paper, or thin Bristol board. The drawings can be copied or traced. In either case the greatest care must be taken that the measurements are minutely correct and the lines perfectly straight. A slip of paper is a very good thing to measure with.

Enough designs have been given to show how most different kinds of furniture can be made. These can, of course, be varied and increased by copying from good furniture lists; while many little things such as saucepans, dishes, clocks, and so forth, can be copied from stores lists and added to the few that are given on p. 248.



These small articles are cut out flat, but an extra piece of paper is left under each, which, when bent back, makes a stand.

General Instructions

The front legs of chairs, the legs of tables, and the backs of furniture must be neatly joined together by narrow strips of stamp-paper or adhesive tape. To do this, cut a strip of the right size, crease it down the middle, and stick one side. Allow this to dry, before you fix the other.

Wherever in the pictures there is a dotted line, it means that the paper is to be folded there. It will be easily seen whether it is to be folded up or down.

Before the furniture is folded it should be painted. Wood, iron, brass, and silk can all be imitated in color.

In cutting out small spaces of cardboard—as between the bars of a chair—lay the card on a board, and keeping your knife, which should be sharp at the point, against a flat ruler, run it again and again along the lines you want to cut, until you have cut through. If your furniture is made of paper, the spaces can be cut out with finely pointed scissors, taking care to start in the middle of the space, for the first incision is seldom a clean one.



[Ilustration: WOODEN BEDSTEAD]



Paper Dolls

Paper dolls are not as good to play with as proper dolls. One can do much less with them because they cannot be washed, have no hair to be brushed, and should not sit down. But they can be exceedingly pretty, and the keeping of their wardrobes in touch with the fashion is an absorbing occupation. Paper dolls are more interesting to those who like painting than to others. The pleasure of coloring them and their dresses is to many of us quite as interesting as cutting out and sewing the clothes of ordinary dolls.

Making Paper Dolls

The first thing to do is to draw the doll in pencil on the cardboard or paper which it is to be cut from. If you are not good at drawing, the best way is to trace a figure in a book or newspaper, and then, slipping a piece of carbon-paper (which can be bought for a penny or less at any stationer's) between your tracing-paper and the cardboard, to go over the outline again with a pencil or a pointed stick. On uncovering the cardboard you will find the doll there all ready to cut out. It should then be colored on both sides, partly flesh color and partly underclothes.

The Dresses

The dresses are made of sheets of note-paper, the fold of which forms the shoulder pieces. The doll is laid on the paper, with head and neck lapping over the fold, and the line of the dress is then drawn a little larger than the doll. A small round nick to form the collar is cut between the shoulders of the dress, and a slit is made down the back through which the doll's head can be passed. After the head is through it is turned round. (Of course, if the dress is for evening the place which you cut for the neck must be larger, and in this case no slit will be needed.) All the details of the dresses, which can be of original design, or copied from advertisements and fashion plates, must be drawn in in pencil and afterward painted. Hats, trimmed with tissue-paper feathers or ribbons, are made of round pieces of note-paper with a slit in them just big enough for the tip of the doll's head to go through. The illustrations on pp. 260 and 261 should make everything clear.

Other Paper Dolls

Simpler and absolutely symmetrical paper dolls are made by cutting them out of folded paper, so that the fold runs right down the middle of the doll. By folding many pieces of paper together, one can cut out many dolls at once.

Walking Dolls

Walking ladies are made in that way; but they must have long skirts and no feet, and when finished a cut is made in the skirt—as in the picture—and the framework thus produced is bent back. When the doll is placed on the table and gently blown it will move gracefully along.



Tissue-Paper Dresses

Dresses can also be made of crinkly tissue-paper glued to a foundation of plain note-paper. Frills, flounces, and sashes are easily imitated in this material, and if the colors are well chosen the result is very pretty.

Rows of Paper Dolls

To make a row of paper dolls, take a piece of paper the height that the dolls are to be, and fold it alternately backward and forward (first one side and then the other) leaving about an inch between each fold. Press the folds together tightly and cut out the half of a doll, being careful that the arms are continued to the edge of the fold and are not cut off. Open out and you will have a string of paper dolls.

Other articles to be made from paper and cardboard will be found on pp. 284-291.



PLAYHOUSES OF OTHER PEOPLES

It is not in the least necessary to confine yourself to making playhouses that are like the houses you live in or see about you, for with a little ingenuity you can construct bits of all sorts of strange countries right in your play-room. In one of the schools in New York City the children study geography and history of certain kinds by making with their own hands scenes from the places about which they study.

One of the most valuable materials for making these playhouses is ordinary modeling clay. You can buy fifty pounds for from fifty cents to a dollar, and with this you are equipped to make almost anything you can see in pictures. Put the clay (if bought dry) into a jar, pour over it clear water, and stir it up with a stick until perfectly smooth and about the consistency of hard butter. The first thing to do is to make a supply of bricks for building. This should be shaped like real bricks and about two inches long. Smaller ones are also possible if you wish to have your settlement on a very small scale. These should be made as regularly as possible and as nearly of the same size. After a little practice one becomes very expert in this simple art. They should then be dried in the sun and are ready to use, though they must be handled carefully. If you can obtain terra-cotta clay, and have it baked hard you will have real bricks that will outlast your play-time.

A Pueblo Settlement

Suppose now that you have been reading about the life of the Pueblo Indians in our Southwest, and you have a picture of one of their singular settlements. The accompanying picture shows what was done in the way of constructing such a settlement by a class of school children, none of whom were over eight years old. You can model little clay Indian inhabitants and paint them as you please, to represent their brown skins and bright-colored clothes. If you can have a box with a little earth in it to set before your Pueblo village you can sow wheat seed, or mustard, and model Indians working in the fields with their crude plows. Anything of which you can find a picture can be reproduced. Indian villages and camps are easy to make and interesting. And once you are started on Indian life it may be fun to make yourselves Indian costumes. The costumes in the picture shown were made by the boys who wear them. By looking closely at them you can copy them.

An Esquimau Village

Another class in the same school painted their bricks white to represent blocks of snow and made an Esquimau village. This is fascinating and easy to do. Or, the rounded huts can be modeled all in one piece directly from the clay. Any book describing the life of dwellers in the Arctic region will tell you how they make their houses and you can make tiny imitations of them that will be infinite fun to construct and the admiration of all your friends when finished. Cotton-wool can be used for snow (powdered isinglass also is pretty), and bits of broken mirror for ice-ponds. Little sleds can be made on which to put your Esquimau hunter, who may be one of the white-fur-clad dolls so cheaply bought in toy-stores. Or you can model a little doll just the right size to be entering the door of your tiny rounded white hut.



A Filipino Village

Or if you get tired of living near the Arctic circle you can sweep your table clean of Esquimau dwellings and construct a Filipino village. For these you do not need bricks (which can be given a rest and put away in a box) but little splints of wood the same size and length which you can make yourself with a knife. Make a little thin floor of damp clay (but drier than you use it to model with) and stick your upright pieces in this in the shape of the house you wish to make. When the clay has hardened they are held quite firm and you can make a wattled hut by weaving long straws or grasses in and out to form your walls. A thatched roof can also be made of long grasses, tied in little bunches and laid close together all sloping down from the ridge-pole. Almost every magazine of a few years back has in it pictures of Filipino villages which will furnish you with models to copy. According to the size of the table or board on which you make your settlements you can have more or less extensive tropical country, surrounding your village. Mountains can be made of the clay, covered with moss or grasses to represent the jungle and a river with overhanging trees arranged with bits of broken looking-glass, and twigs with tiny scraps of green tissue paper glued to them for leaves. The exercise of your own ingenuity in using all sorts of unlikely materials which you will find all about you is the best part of this game.

After you have decided to change the climate and character of your village, the clay used may be broken up and put back in your jar, wet again, stirred smooth and is all ready to begin again. Great care should be taken that it is kept clean, that bits of wood or glass be not left in it, or you may cut or prick your fingers in handling it.

A Dutch Street

You cannot only wander from one climate and from one nationality to another, but from one century to another. If you are studying early American history nothing is more fun than to make a street in an old Dutch settlement. Your bricks are painted red for this. Almost any history-book will have pictures of one or two old Dutch houses which will show you the general look of them. They are harder to construct than the ruder huts of savages and may need to be held together with a little use of damp clay. It is interesting to try and reconstruct old Dutch Manhattan, from the maps and pictures, showing the bay and the walk on the Battery.

Or if you are interested in Colonial New England, make a settlement of log-houses with the upper story overhanging the first. On any walk you can pick up enough small sticks to use as logs after trimming and measuring.

Other possibilities in this line are suggested below. You will have more fun in working them out yourself than if you are told just how to proceed. A Roman arena with gladiators fighting and a curtain which may be drawn to keep off the sun. A little fishing-village beside the sea (a large pan of water) with tiny nets spread out to dry and little walnut shell boats drawn up on the sandy beach.

A farmhouse, barn, pig-pen, dog-kennel, carriage-house and the like. A very pretty settlement can be made of this with fields of growing grain, brooks, water-wheels, etc.

All the animals of a farm can be modeled and painted. When they are skilfully made they are very pretty and add much to the picture and when they are done unskilfully it is fun to have people guess what they were meant for. However, with a little practice very presentable animals can be modeled. It is easier to make them in clay than to draw them.

A gypsy camp, with tents and open fires (bits of yellow and red tissue-paper), under a black kettle (made of clay and painted) swung on a forked stick, can easily be made.

Of course with tin or lead soldiers the number of games one can invent with these tiny settlements is innumerable. One favorite with some children is the attack and capture of the Filipino village by American troops. Sometimes it is burned, and this is always a stirring spectacle. Indeed with tin soldiers (which are just now unjustly out of favor) one's range of subjects is unlimited, and one always has plenty of inhabitants for any settlement. An army post can be made, with a fort and barracks and a wide green parade ground with the regiment drawn up in line for dress-parade. A tiny American flag flutters from the flag-pole and after the sunset gun booms (a fire-cracker exploded or only some one striking a blow on a tin pan) it can be lowered to the ground while the best whistler of the company executes "The Star-Spangled Banner."



INDOOR OCCUPATIONS AND THINGS TO MAKE

Painting

Painting is an occupation which is within almost everybody's power, and of which one tires very slowly or perhaps not at all. By painting we mean coloring old pictures rather than making new ones, since making new ones—from nature or imagination—require separate gifts. On a wet afternoon—or, if it is permitted, on Sunday afternoon—coloring the pictures in a scrapbook is a very pleasant and useful employment. After dark, painting is not a very wise occupation, because, in an artificial light, colors cannot be properly distinguished.

All shops that sell artists' materials keep painting-books. But old illustrated papers do very well.

Flags

An even more interesting thing to do with a paint-box is to make a collection of the flags of all nations. And when those are all done, you will find colored pages of them in any large dictionary, and elsewhere too,—you might get possession of an old shipping guide, and copy Lloyd's signal code from it.

Maps

Coloring maps is interesting, but is more difficult than you might perhaps think, owing to the skill required in laying an even surface of paint on an irregular space. The middle of the country does not cause much trouble, but when it comes to the jagged frontier line the brush has to be very carefully handled. To wet the whole map with a wet brush at the outset is a help. Perhaps before starting in earnest on a map it would be best to practice a little with irregular-shaped spaces on another piece of paper.

Magic-Lantern Slides

If you have a magic lantern in the house you can paint some home-made slides. The colors should be as gay as possible. The best home-made slides are those which illustrate a home-made story; and the fact that you cannot draw or paint really well should not discourage you at all. A simpler way of making slides is to hold the glass over a candle until one side is covered with lamp black and then with a sharp stick to draw outline pictures on it.

Another way is to cut out silhouettes in black paper, or colored tracing-paper, and stick them to the glass. In copying a picture on a slide put the glass over the picture and draw the outline with a fine brush dipped in Indian ink. Then paint. All painting on slides should be covered with fixing varnish, or it will rub off.

Illuminating

As a change from painting there is illuminating, for which smaller brushes and gold and silver paint are needed. Illuminating texts is a favorite Sunday afternoon employment.

Pen and Ink Work

There is also pen and ink drawing, mistakenly called "etching," for which you require a tiny pen, known as a mapping pen, and a cake of Indian ink. If the library contains a volume of old wood-cuts, particularly Bewick's Birds or Bewick's Quadrupeds, you will have no lack of pictures to copy.

Chalks

In place of paints a box of chalks will serve very well.

Tracing

Smaller children, who have not yet learned to paint properly, often like to trace pictures either on tracing paper held over the picture, or on ordinary thin paper held over the picture against the window pane.

Pricking Pictures

Pictures can also be pricked with a pin, but in this case some one must draw it first. You follow the outline with little pin pricks close together, holding the paper on a cushion while you prick it. Then the picture is held up to the window for the light to shine through the holes.

Easter Eggs

Home-made Easter eggs are made by painting pictures or messages on eggs that have been hard-boiled, or by merely boiling them in water containing cochineal or some other coloring material. In Germany it is the custom for Easter eggs to be hidden about in the house and garden, and for the family to hunt for them before breakfast—a plan that might very well be taken up by us.

Spatter-Work

Paper and cardboard articles can be prettily decorated by spatter-work. Ferns are the favorite shapes to use. You first pin them on whatever it is that is to be ornamented in this way, arranging them as prettily as possible. Then rub some Indian ink in water on a saucer until it is quite thick. Dip an old tooth-brush lightly into the ink, and, holding it over the cardboard, rub the bristles gently across a fine tooth comb. This will send a spray of ink over the cardboard. Do this again and again until the tone is deep enough, and try also to graduate it. It must be remembered that the ink when dry is much darker than when wet. Then remove the ferns, when under each there will be a white space exactly reproducing their beautiful shape. If you like you can paint in their veins and shade them; but this is not really necessary. Colored paints can be used instead of Indian ink.

Scrapbooks

Making scrapbooks is always a pleasant and useful employment, whether for yourself or for children in hospitals or districts, and there was never so good an opportunity as now of getting interesting pictures. These you select from odd numbers of magazines, Christmas numbers, illustrated papers, and advertisements. Scraps are very useful to fill up odd corners. In choosing pictures for your own scrapbook it is better to select only those that you really believe in and can find a reason for using, than to take everything that seems likely to fit. By choosing the pictures with this care you make the work more interesting and the book peculiarly your own. But in making a scrapbook as a present for some one that you know, you will, of course, in choosing pictures, try to put yourself in his place and choose as you think that he would.

Empty scrapbooks can be bought; or you can make one by taking (for a large one) an old business ledger, which some one whom you know is certain to be able to give you, or (for a small one) an ordinary old exercise-book, and then cutting out every other page about half an inch from the stitching. This is to allow room for the extra thickness which the pictures will give to the book. Or you can sew sheets of brown paper together.

For sticking on the pictures, use paste rather than gum; and when it is done, press the book under quite a light weight, with sheets of paper between the pages.

Scrapbooks for Hospitals

Children that are ill are often too weak to hold up a large book and turn over the leaves. There are two ways of saving them this exertion and yet giving them pleasure from pictures. One is to get several large sheets of cardboard and cover them with pictures and scraps on both sides, and bind them round with ribbon. These can be enclosed in a box and sent to the matron. She will distribute the cards among the children, and when they have looked at each thoroughly they can exchange it for another. Another way is to use folding books which are more easy to hold than ordinary turning-over ones, and you can make them at home very simply by covering half a dozen or more cards of the same size (post-cards make capital little books) with red linen, and then sewing them edge to edge so as to get them all in a row. In covering the cards with the linen—red is not compulsory, but it is a good color to choose—it is better to paste it on as well as to sew it round the three edges (a fold will come on one side), because then when you stick on the pictures they will not cockle up. Pictures for hospital scrapbooks should be bright and gay. Colored ones are best, but if you cannot get them already colored you can paint them. Painting a scrapbook is one of the best of employments.

Composite Scrapbooks

Sometimes it happens that you get very tired of one of the pictures in your scrapbook. A good way to make it fresh and interesting again is to introduce new people or things. You will easily find among your store of loose pictures a horse and cart, or a dog, or a man, or a giraffe, which, when cut out, will fit in amusingly somewhere in the old picture. If you like, a whole book can be altered reasonably in this way, or made ridiculous throughout.

Scrap-Covered Screens

A screen is an even more interesting thing to make than a scrapbook. The first thing to get is the framework of the screen, which will either be an old one the covering of which needs renewing, or a new one made by the carpenter. The next thing is to cover it with canvas, which you must stretch on tightly and fasten with small tacks; and over this should be pasted another covering of stout paper, of whatever color you want for a background to the pictures. Paste mixed with size should be used in sticking it. After the pictures are all arranged they should be stuck with the same material, and a coat of paper varnish given to the whole, so that it can be cleaned occasionally.

Collecting Stamps

Stamp-collecting is more interesting if money is kept out of it and you get your stamps by gift or exchange. The best way to begin is to know some one who has plenty of foreign correspondence and to ask for all his old envelopes. Nothing but time and patience can make a good collection. To buy it, is to have little of the collector's joy.

Postage-Stamp Snakes

Old American stamps can be used for making snakes. There is no need to soak the stamps off the envelope paper: they must merely be cut out cleanly and threaded together. A big snake takes about 4,000 stamps. The head is made of black velvet stuffed with cotton wool, and beads serve for eyes. A tongue of red flannel can be added.

Puzzles

If you have a fret saw, and can use it cleverly, you can make at home as good a puzzle as any that can be bought. The first thing to do is to select a good colored picture, and then to procure from a carpenter a thin mahogany board of the same size. Mahogany is not absolutely necessary, but it must be some wood that is both soft and tough. Deal, for instance, is useless because it is not tough, and oak is useless because it is not soft. On this wood you stick the picture very firmly, using weak glue in preference to paste or gum. When it is quite dry you cut it up into the most difficult fragments that you can. It is best to cut out the border so that each piece locks into the next. This will then be put together first by the player and will serve to hold the picture together. After the puzzle is cut up it is well to varnish each piece with paper varnish, which keeps it clean and preserves it.

A simple puzzle can be made by pasting the picture on cardboard and cutting it up with scissors or a sharp knife.

Soap Bubbles

For blowing bubbles the long clay pipes are best. Before using them, the end of the mouthpiece ought to be covered with sealing-wax for about an inch, or it may tear your lips. Common yellow soap is better than scented soap, and rainwater than ordinary water. A little glycerine added to the soap-suds helps to make the bubbles more lasting. On a still summer day, bubble-blowing out-of-doors is a fascinating and very pretty occupation.

Shadows on the Wall

Shadowgraphy nowadays has progressed a long way from the rabbit on the wall; but in the house, ambition in this accomplishment does not often extend further than that and one or two other animals, and this is why only the rabbit, dog, and swan are given here. The swan can be made more interesting by moving the arm which forms his neck as if he were prinking and pluming, an effect which is much heightened by ruffling up and smoothing down the hair with the fingers forming his beak. To get a clear shadow it is necessary to have only one light, and that fairly close to the hands.



Skeleton Leaves

Leaves which are to be skeletonized should be picked from the trees at the end of June. They should be perfect ones of full growth. It is best to have several of each kind, as some are sure to be failures. Put the leaves in a big earthenware dish or pan, fill it with rain-water, and stand it in a warm and sunny place—the purpose of this being to soak off the green pulpy part. There is a great difference in the time which this takes: some fine leaves will be ready in a week, while others may need several months. Look at the leaves every day, and when one seems to be ready slip a piece of cardboard under it and shake it about gently in fresh cold water. If any green stuff remains, dab it with a soft brush and then put it into another basin of clean water. A fine needle can be used to take away any small and obstinate pieces of green. It is now a skeleton and must be bleached according to the following directions:—Pour into a large earthenware jar a pint of water on half a pound of chloride of lime. Mix thoroughly, breaking up any lumps with the hand. Add two and a half quarts of water, cover over, and leave for twenty-four hours. Then pour off the solution, leaving the sediment behind. Dissolve two pounds of soda in one quart of boiling water, and pour it, while on the boil, over the chloride solution. Cover it, and leave for forty-eight hours; then decant into bottles, being careful to leave all sediment behind.

Fill an earthenware dish with this solution, lay the leaves in it, and cover tightly. The leaves will be bleached in six to twelve hours. They should be taken out directly they are white, as the lime makes them very brittle. After bleaching, rinse the leaves in cold water, float them on to cards, and dry between blotting-paper, under a heavy weight.

Ferns

It should be noted that if you intend to skeletonize ferns, they should not be picked before August, and they must be pressed and dried before they are put into the bleaching solution, in which they ought to stay for three or four days. The solution should be changed on the second day, and again on the fourth. After bleaching they can be treated just as the leaves are.

Wool Balls

Cut out two rings of cardboard, of whatever size you like, from one inch in diameter up to about four inches. A four-inch ring would make as large a ball as one usually needs, and a one-inch ring as small a one as could be conveniently made. The rim of the largest rings should not be wider than half an inch. Take a ball of wool and, placing the cardboard rings together, tie the end of it firmly round them. Then wind the wool over the rings, moving them round and round to keep it even. At first you will be able to push the ball through the rings easily, but as the wool is wound the hole will grow smaller and smaller, until you have to thread the wool through with a needle. To do this it is necessary to cut the wool into lengths, which you must be careful to join securely. Go on until the hole is completely filled and you cannot squeeze another needle through. Then slip a pair of scissors between the two rings and cut the wool all round them; and follow this up quickly by slipping a piece of string also between them and tying it tightly round the wool that is in their midst. This is to keep the loose ends, which were made directly you cut the wool with the scissors, from coming out. All that is now necessary is to pull out the cardboard rings and shape the ball a little in your hands. The tighter the wool was bound round the cards, the smaller and harder the ball will be and the more difficult will it be to cut the wool neatly and tie it. Therefore, and especially as the whole purpose of a wool ball is softness and harmlessness, it is better to wind the wool loosely and to use thick wool rather than thin.

Wool Demons

To make a "Wool Demon," take a piece of cardboard as wide as you want the demon to be tall, say three inches, and wind very evenly over it wool of the color you want the demon to be. Scarlet wool is perhaps best. Wind it about eighty times, and then remove carefully and tie a piece round about half an inch from the top to make the neck. This also secures the wool, the lower looped ends of which can now be cut. When cut, gather up about twenty pieces each side for the arms, and, holding them firmly, bind them round with other wool, and cut off neatly at the proper length. Then tie more wool round to form the body. The legs and tail are made in the same way as the arms, except that wool is wound round the legs, beginning from the feet and working upward, only to the knees, leaving a suggestion of knickerbockers. Eyes and other features can be sewn on in silk.

Bead-Work

Among other occupations which are not in need of careful description, but which ought to be mentioned, bead-work is important. It was once more popular than it now is; but beads in many beautiful colors are still made, and it is a pity that their advantages should be neglected. Bead-work lasts longer and is cleaner and brighter than any other form of embroidery. Perhaps the favorite use to which beads are now put is in the making of napkin-rings. Bead-flowers are made by threading beads on wire and bending them to the required shapes. Boxes of materials are sold in toy-shops.

Post-Office

"Post-Office" is a device for providing the family with a sure supply of letters. The first thing to do is to appoint a postmaster and fix upon the positions for the letter-boxes. You then write letters to each other and to any one in the house, and post them where you like; and at regular times the postmaster collects them and delivers them.

The Home Newspaper

In "The Home Newspaper," the first thing to do is to decide on which of you will edit it. As the editor usually has to copy all the contributions into the exercise-book, it is well that a good writer should be chosen. Then you want a good title. It is better if the contributors are given each a department, because that will make the work more simple. Each number should have a story and some poetry. Home newspapers, as a rule, come out once a month. Once a week is too often to keep up. There is a good description of one in a book by E. Nesbit, called The Treasure-Seekers.

Paper and Cardboard Toys—A Cocked Hat



To make a cocked hat, take a sheet of stiff paper and double it. Then fold over each of the doubled corners until they meet in the middle. The paper will then resemble Fig. 1. Then fold AB AB over the doubled corners; fold the corresponding strip of paper at the back to balance it, and the cocked hat is ready to be worn. If it is to be used in charades, it is well to pin it here and there to make it secure.

Paper Boats



If the cocked hat is held in the middle of each side and pulled out into a square, and the two sides are then bent back to make another cocked hat (but of course much smaller); and then, if this cocked hat is also pulled out into a square, it will look like Fig. 2. If the sides A and A are held between the finger and thumb and pulled out, a paper boat will be the result, as in Fig. 3.



Paper Darts



Take a sheet of stiffish paper about the size of this page and fold it longways, exactly double. Then fold the corners of one end back to the main fold, one each side. The paper sideways will then look as in Fig. 1. Then double these folded points, one each side, back to the main fold. The paper will then look as in Fig. 2. Repeat this process once more. The paper will then look as in Fig. 3. Compress the folds very tightly, and open out the top ones, so that in looking down on the dart it will have the appearance of Fig. 4. The dart is then ready for use.

Paper Mats



Take a square piece of thin paper (Fig. 1), white or colored. Fold it in half (Fig. 2), and then again in half (Fig. 3), and then again from the centre to the outside corner, when it will be shaped as in Fig. 4. If you want a round mat, cut it as marked by the dotted line in Fig. 4; if square, leave it as it is. Remember that when you cut folded paper the cuts are repeated in the whole piece as many times as there are folds in the paper. The purpose of folding is to make the cuts symmetrical. Bearing this in mind cut Fig. 4 as much as you like, as suggested by Fig. 5. Perhaps it would be well to practice first of all on a rough piece. The more delicate the cuts the prettier will be the completed mat.

Paper Boxes



Take an exactly square piece of paper (cream-laid note-paper is best in texture), and fold it across to each corner and press down the folds. Unfold it and then fold each corner exactly into the middle, and press down and unfold again. The lines of fold on the paper will now be seen to run from corner to corner, crossing in the middle, and also forming a square pattern. The next thing is to fold over each corner exactly to the line of this square on the opposite half of the paper. When this is done, and the paper is again straightened out, the lines of fold will be as in Fig. 1. Cut out the triangles marked X in Fig. 1, and the paper will be as in Fig. 2. Then cut along all the dotted lines in Fig. 2, and stand the opposite corners up to form the sides and lid of the box: first A and B, which are fastened by folding back the little flaps at the tip of A, slipping through the slit at the tip of B, and then unfolding them again; and then C and D, which are secured in the same way.

Cardboard Boxes

Cardboard boxes, of a more useful nature than paper boxes, are made on the same principle as the house described on p. 239, and the furniture to go in it, as described later in the same chapter. The whole box can be cut in the flat, out of one piece of cardboard, and the sides afterward bent up and the lid down. Measurements must of course be exact. The prettiest way to join the sides is to use thin silk instead of paper, and the lid may be made to fasten by a little bow of the same material.

Scraps and Transfers

Paper boxes, when finished, can be made more attractive by painting on them, gluing scraps to them, putting transfers here and there, or covering them with spatter-work (see p. 275). Scraps can be bought at most stationers' in a very great variety. Transfers, which are taken off by moistening in water, pressing on the paper with the slithery clouded surface downward, and being gently slipped along, used to be more common than they now are.

Directions how to make many other paper things will be found on pp. 243-262.

Ink Sea-Serpents

Dissolve a teaspoonful of salt in a glass of water, dip a pen in ink and touch the point to the water. The ink descends in strange serpent-like coils.

A Dancing Man



The accompanying picture will show how a dancing man is made to dance. You hold him between the finger and thumb, one on each side of his waist, and pull the string. The hinges for the arms and legs, which are made of cardboard, can be made of bent pins or little pieces of string knotted on each side.

Velvet Animals

The fashioning of people and animals from scraps of velvet glued on cardboard was a pleasant occupation which interested our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers when they were children many years ago. A favorite picture was of a boy and a St. Bernard, in which the boy's head, hands, collar, and pantaloons, and the dog, were made of white velvet painted. The boy's tunic was black velvet, and its belt a strip of red paper. The dog's eye was a black pin-head. The whole was mounted on a wooden stand with wooden supports at the back, one running up to the boy's head and the other to the tip of the dog's tail. With some scraps of white and black velvet, and a little patience and ingenuity, one could make all the animals on a farm and many in the Zoo.

Hand Dragons

All the apparatus needed for a "Hand Dragon" consists of a little cardboard thimble or finger-stall, on which the features of a dragon have been drawn in pen and ink or color. This is then slipped over the top of the middle finger, so that the hand becomes its body and the other fingers and thumb its legs. With the exercise of very little ingenuity in the movement of the fingers, the dragon can be made to seem very much alive. The accompanying picture should explain everything.



Various games can be played with the fingers. Tiny caps and hats can be made, features drawn with ink on the fingers and little tissue paper dresses made. A whole play can be acted or sung by these tiny finger marionettes.

Other Uses for Cardboard

Once you have begun to make things out of cardboard, you will find no end to its possibilities and should be in no more need of any hints. After building, furnishing, and peopling a dolls' house, a farm or a menagerie would be an interesting enterprise to start upon. E. M. R. has a stud of ninety-two horses, each named, and each provided with a horse-cloth, a groom, and harness. She has also several regiments of soldiers and a staff of nurses, all cut from cardboard and painted. She chooses her horses from Country Life, or some such paper, and copies them. Another enthusiast has a cardboard theatre in which plays and pantomimes are performed.

It might be added that cardboard figures can be made to stand up either by leaving a strip of cardboard at the bottom, in which teeth can be cut and bent alternately one way or the other, or by slipping the feet into grooves cut in little blocks of wood.

Cardboard Cut-Outs

There are a great many cut-outs issued nowadays, which may be bought for a small sum at any toy shop. Perhaps the best among these are "The Mirthful Menagerie," "The Agile Acrobats" and "The Magic Changelings." "The Mirthful Menagerie" when properly cut out and pasted together, make a lot of animals that have thickness as well as length and height; "The Agile Acrobats" can be made to assume almost any position, and in "The Magic Changelings," Little Red Riding Hood, for instance, can be changed into the wolf, and then back again!

Books of cut-outs are also made, in which the books are intact after the cut-outs have been removed. "The New Mother Goose" gives illustrations of many of the Mother Goose rhymes to be cut out and pasted together, and has a story and other pictures besides. "The Electric Fire Fighters" is on the same order, only in this case the pictures to be put together are of the Electric Fire-Engine, the Electric Water-Tower, etc. They are all easily made, and are fascinating games for stormy weather, or for indoor games at any time.

Particulars of "Snap" cards and other home-made cards will be found on pp. 77 and 78.

Kites

In China, and to some extent in Holland, kite-flying is not the pastime only of boys, but of grave men. And certainly grave men might do many more foolish things. To feel a kite pulling at your hands, to let out string and see it climb higher and higher and higher into the sky—this is a real joy. For good kite-flying you want plenty of room and a steady wind; hence a big field is the best place, unless you are at the seaside when there is a wind off the land, in which case you can fly your kite from the beach. To make an ordinary, serviceable kite, take two laths (which can be bought for a penny from any builder), one three feet long (AA in the picture) and the other two feet (BB). Screw BB with two screws exactly in the middle, at right angles to AA, at C, a foot from the top. Then take some stout twine of good quality and make the outline of the kite by tying it securely to the ends of each of the laths. Next take the thinnest unbleached calico you can find, stretch it fairly tightly, and sew it over the strings. (Or strong but light paper will do, pasted over the string.) Make a hole (D) through the upright lath and calico, midway between the cross-piece and the top, and another hole (E) about fifteen inches below the cross-piece, and tie a strong string, two and a half feet long, to these holes, with a loop (F) in it a foot from the top hole. To this loop you will tie the string of the kite. The tail (G) is made of pieces of paper about six inches long, rolled tightly and tied at distances of a foot. Its exact length will depend on the strength of the wind and can be determined only by experience, but, roughly speaking, it should be five times the height of the kite, or, with the kite which we are making, fifteen feet long. It is best to have the tail in two or three pieces, and then it can be lengthened or shortened at will. For instance, if the kite plunges in the air and will not keep steady, the tail is not long enough; but if it will go up only a little way, the tail is probably too long. Be sure to have plenty of string, carefully wound, so that there will be no hitches in paying it out. When starting a kite you need the help of some one who will stand about thirty yards away, holding the kite against the wind, and throw it straight up when you have the line tight and give the signal. If it does not rise it may be well for you to run a few yards against the wind. At first you must not pay out line very rapidly, but when the kite is flying steadily you may give it, also steadily, all the string it wants.



Kite Messengers

A messenger is a piece of cardboard or paper with a good-sized hole in it, which you slip over the string when the kite is steady, and which is carried right up to the kite by the wind.

A Simple Toy Boat

The following directions, with exact measurements, apply to one of the simplest home-made sailing-boats. Take a piece of soft straight-grained pine, which any carpenter or builder will let you have, one foot long, four inches wide, and two inches deep. On the top of the four-inch side draw an outline as in Fig. 1, in which you will be helped by first dividing the wood by the pencil line AB, exactly in the middle. Then turn the block over and divide the under four-inch side with a similar line, and placing the saw an eighth of an inch each side of this line, cut two incisions right along the wood about a quarter of an inch deep. The portion between these two incisions forms the keel. Then carry the line up the middle of the end A, and repeat the incisions as along the bottom, these making the boat's stem-post. Next turn to the top again, and make a line, similar to the dotted line CC in Fig. 1, about three-eighths of an inch inside the outline of the boat, and then carefully hollow out with a gouge everything inside this dotted line. It must be very carefully done; it is better, indeed, to err on the side of not hollowing her out enough, and then a little more can be removed afterward. Next shape the outside, first with a saw and then with a chisel, again using the utmost care. Try to give her a fine bow, or "entry," and a good clean stern, or "run." If the boat were cut in two crossways in the middle, the section ought to resemble that in Fig. 2. This flat "floor" will be graduated away to nothing at bow and stern. Next fix on the lead keel (see K in Fig. 3), which should be a quarter of an inch thick, a quarter of an inch deep at the bow, and three-quarters at the stern, fastened on with four long thin screws. Next make the deck, which should not be more than an eighth of an inch thick and should fit very closely at the edges.



The mast (C), which should be about three-eighths of an inch in diameter at the foot, and should taper slightly, must stand one foot above the deck, and pass through the deck four and a half inches from the bow. First pass it through the hole in the deck and place it in position, leaning a little back from the bows; then slip up the deck and mark the place in the bottom of the boat where the mast rests, and there fix, with four small brass screws, a block of wood with a hole in it, into which the mast can be firmly "stepped." Then on the upper side of the deck, just in front of the mast-hole, screw a small eyelet. This is to hold the line called the foresail sheet (L), but as the deck is only an eighth of an inch thick you must place a little block of wood under the deck, into which the eyelet can be screwed. Directly this is done, the deck is ready to be screwed firmly to the boat with brass screws. If you are in any doubt as to its being water-tight, you had better bore a hole in it and put a cork in, so that you can tip it up and empty it after each voyage.



The bowsprit (J), a quarter of an inch in diameter, should be three and a half inches long, two inches of which project beyond the bow. Screw it firmly to the boat. You have now to shape the boom (F) and gaff (D), which must have a fork at the end, as in Fig. 4, to embrace the mast, the ends of this fork being joined by string. The boom should be eight and a half inches long and three-eighths of an inch in diameter, and the gaff five inches long and a quarter of an inch in diameter. The gaff is kept in position, about three inches from the mast-head, by the throat halyards and peak halyards, to which we now come. The peak halyards (H), throat halyards (G), and foresail halyards (F) should be of very fine fishing-line. After being tied respectively to the gaff and foresail, they pass through small holes in the mast, down to eyelets screwed into the bulwarks on each side of the mast.

The foresail sheet (L) and main sheet (M), which are some four inches long, are hitched to eyelets screwed into the deck amidships, one just in front of the mast, as already explained, and the other about two inches from the stern. The sails must be of thin calico, neatly hemmed round. Both sails should come to about three inches of the head of the mast. The foresail is fastened only to the tip of the bowsprit, the foresail halyards, and foresail sheet; the mainsail to the gaff, all along, and to each end of the boom.

Nothing has been said about a rudder, because a boat built and rigged in the manner described would balance herself, and so keep on any course on which she was laid. With a very little wind she ought to cross and recross a pond without any hitch, all that will be necessary being to let the sails have plenty of play, by loosening the foresail sheet and main sheet, and to give her a steady push.

Walnut Shell Boats

To make a boat from a walnut shell, you scoop out the half shell and cut a piece of cardboard of a size to cover the top. Through the middle of this piece of cardboard you thrust a match, and then, dropping a little sealing-wax into the bottom of the shell, and putting some round the edge, you fix the match and the cardboard to it. A sail is made by cutting out a square of paper and fastening it to the match by means of two holes; but the boat will swim much better without it.

Walnut Fights

Here it might be remarked that capital contests can be had with the empty halves of walnut shells. A plate is turned upside down, and the two fighters place their walnuts point to point is the middle. At the given word they begin to push, one against the other, by steady pressure of finger and thumb on the stern of the shell. The battle is over when the prow of one shell crashes through the prow of the other. This always happens sooner or later, but sometimes the battles are long and severe. At the end of each contest the number of shells defeated by the victor should be marked on it, and it should be carefully kept for the next conflict. At school we used to have tremendous excitement when two champions met, a walnut with a record of 520, for instance, and another with 700. The winner in such a battle as this would, of course, be numbered 1,221, because you always add not only your defeated adversary to your score, but all his victims too.

Suckers

A sucker is a round piece of strong leather. Thread a piece of string through the middle, and knot the string at the end to prevent it being pulled through. Soak the sucker in water until it is soft, and then press it carefully over a big smooth stone, or anything else that is smooth, so that no air can get in. If you and the string are strong enough, the sucker will lift great weights.

Skipjacks

The wish-bone of a goose makes a good skipjack. It should be cleaned and left for a day or two before using. Then take a piece of strong thin string, double it, and tie it firmly to the two ends of the wish-bone, about an inch from the end on each side. Take a strip of wood a little shorter than the bone, and cut a notch round it about half an inch from one end. Then slip it half way between the double string, and twist the string round and round until the resistance becomes really strong. Then pull the stick through to the notch, into which the string will settle, and tie it at each side, so that it is not likely to slip either way. A little piece of cobblers' wax must be put on the bone on the other side to that where the stick naturally touches. Pull the stick right over to stick on the wax, and lay the skipjack, stick downward, on the ground. In a little while the wax will give way, and the wish-bone will spring high into the air.



A Water-Cutter



The cut-water is best made of tin or lead, but stout cardboard or wood will serve the purpose. First cut the material into a round, and then make teeth in it like a saw. Thus:—Then bore two holes in it, as in the drawing, and thread strings through them, tying the strings at each end. Hold the strings firmly, and twist them a little. Then, by pulling at them to untwist them, the cut-water will be put in motion, first one way, while they are being untwisted, and then the other, while they twist up again. If held just over a basin of water, the notches will send spray a great distance, but you must be careful to dip them only when the cut-water is revolving away from you, or you will be soaked.

Whistles

With a sharp knife a very good whistle can be made of hazel or willow, cut in the spring or early summer. A piece of wood about three inches long should be used. Remember what an ordinary tin whistle is like, and cut the mouthpiece at a similar angle, and also cut a little nick out of the bark, in the place of the hole immediately beyond the mouthpiece in the metal instrument. Then cut all round the bark about an inch from the other end of the stick, hold the bark firmly with one hand clasped round it, and hold the inch at the opposite end firmly with the fingers of the other, and pull. The greater portion of bark should slide off quite easily. You will then have a tube of bark about two inches long, and a white stick about three inches long, with an inch of bark remaining on it. Cut from the mouthpiece end of this stick as much as exactly fits between the end and the little nick in the bark which you have already made. Shave the top until it is flat (just as in an ordinary whistle), and place it inside the bark again. Then cut off from the white part of the stick all but a quarter of an inch: fit this into the other end of the bark tube, and you ought to get a good shrill whistle. It will be better if you keep a pea inside.

Christmas—Evergreen Decorations

Getting ready for Christmas is almost as good as Christmas itself. The decorations can be either natural or artificial or a mixture of both. In using evergreens for ropes, it is best to have a foundation of real cord of the required length, and tie the pieces of shrub and ivy to it, either with string or floral wire. This prevents any chance of its breaking. For a garland or any device of a definite shape, the foundation could be a stiffer wire, or laths of wood. Ivy chains are described on page 135.

Paper Decorations

The simplest form of paper chain is made of colored tissue paper and glue. You merely cut strips the size of the links and join them one by one.

For paper flowers, paper and tools are especially made. But for the purposes of home decoration ordinary tissue paper, wire, glue, and scissors will serve well enough.

Mottoes

Mottoes and good wishes can be lettered in cotton wool on a background of scarlet or other colored linen or lining paper. Scarlet is perhaps the most cheery. Or you can make more delicate letters by sewing holly berries on to a white background; and small green letters can be made by sewing box leaves on a white background. For larger green letters and also for bordering, holly leaves and laurel leaves are good. Cotton-wool makes the best snow.

Christmas Trees.

In hanging things on the Christmas tree you have to be careful that nothing is placed immediately over a candle, nor should a branch of the tree itself be near enough to a candle to catch fire. After all the things are taken off the tree there is no harm in its burning a little, because the smell of a burning Christmas tree is one of the best smells there is. To put presents of any value on the tree is perhaps a mistake, partly because they run a chance of being injured by fire or grease, and partly because they are heavy. The best things of all are candles, as many as possible, and silver balls which reflect. On the top there should, of course, be either a Father Christmas, or a Christ child, as the Germans, who understand Christmas trees even better than we do, always have. For lighting the candles a long taper is useful, and for putting them out, an extinguisher tied to a stick.

Bran-Tubs or Jack Horner Pies

Bran-tubs or Jack Horner Pies are not so common as they used to be, but there is no better way of giving your guests presents at random. As many presents as there are children are wrapped up in paper and hidden in a tub filled with bran. This is placed on a dust-sheet, and the visitors dip their bands in and pull out each a parcel. The objection to the bran-tub is that boys sometimes draw out things more suitable for girls. This difficulty could be got over by having two tubs, one for girls and one for boys. Sometimes the ribbon of each parcel is long and falls over the edge of the dish. The boys take one color ribbon, and the girls the other, and all pull at the same time.

Philopenas

Two games with nuts and cherries may as well go at the end of this section as anywhere else. Almonds sometimes contain double kernels. These are called Philopenas, and you must never waste them by eating both yourself, but find some one to share them with. There are several ways of playing. One is "Yes or No," in which the one who first says either "yes" or "no" must pay a forfeit to the other. Another is "Give and Take," in which the one that first takes something that the other hands him is the loser. Or whichever of you first says to the other "Good morning, Philopena," on the following day, or the next time you meet, wins a present. Or this is sometimes played that whoever first answers a question put to him by the other must pay a forfeit. Of course this makes great fun in trying to invent and evade plausible questions.