STRAW AND PAPER FURNITURE
A HANDFUL of straws, such as are used for lemonade and soda-water,
several large sheets of writing-paper, and some small-sized pins--these
are your materials. A pair of sharp scissors, a ruler marked off into
whole, half, and quarter inches, and a lead pencil--these are your
tools.
[Illustration: FIG. 17--The old-fashioned bedstead.]
We will begin with the old-fashioned four-post bedstead with its canopy
and valances (Fig. 17). It is easily put together, but you must be
careful to cut the straws for the posts all exactly the same length,
making them about seven inches long, and to have your measurements for
the other parts quite correct, in order that the bedstead may stand
perfectly upright. Select four straight straws for the posts--sound and
whole. Split straws will not do.
The mattress and canopy are exactly alike; each has its valance, and
they are just the same size; so directions for one will answer for both.
Cut an oblong of writing-paper eight and a half inches long and six and
a half inches wide. Be sure that the ends and side edges form perfect
right angles; if they do not, the bed will be crooked. The edges of your
sheet of writing-paper are at right angles to one another, and if you
use the top edge of your paper for the top edge of your oblong, and the
side edge of the paper for one side edge of your oblong, the rest will
come out all right.
[Illustration: FIG. 18--The mattress and canopy.]
Now draw perfectly straight lines across your oblong from top to bottom,
just one and a half inches from each edge (Fig. 18). Then from side to
side draw two more straight lines; the first one and a half inches below
the top edge and the other one and a half inches above the bottom edge.
This gives the mattress with a border all around. In each corner of the
mattress, a little more than a quarter of an inch from the end and side
lines, draw a small cross as shown in Fig. 18. Be sure these crosses are
placed correctly, and are exactly alike in mattress and canopy. Now cut
out the four squares at the corners of the oblong, as indicated by the
heavy lines in Fig. 18, and insert the point of your scissors in the
centre of each little cross and snip along each line of the cross. Do
not make the slashes too deep.
Cut the edges of the border, or valance, into small points, as in Fig.
17; then bend the valance down at the sides and ends of the mattress.
The dotted lines in the diagrams show where to bend the paper. Make the
canopy just as you have made the mattress, but cut deeper points on the
edge of the valance.
Through each of the four straw bedposts run a small pin two and a
quarter inches from the end of the straw (Fig. 19).
[Illustration: FIG. 19--Slide the paper down to the pin.]
Push the long ends of the straws up through the slashed crosses in the
corners of the mattress (Fig. 19) until the bottom of the mattress rests
on the pins, then run a pin through each straw just above and close to
the top of the mattress. Between the two pins the paper can slip neither
up nor down. Run another pin in each straw post half an inch from the
top, slide the canopy down upon these, and fasten with more pins, as you
did the mattress. Make the bolster by folding a piece of paper the
proper shape and cutting the end edges in points for trimming.
Now you not only know how to make the bedstead, but
=The Little Table=
as well, for if you will look at Fig. 20 you will see that it is put
together in the same manner as the bedstead.
[Illustration: FIG. 20--The little table.]
Make the legs of the table three inches long. Cut the top of the table
four inches long and three and a half inches wide, and the shelf three
and a half inches long and three inches wide. Measure one-quarter of an
inch from each edge of the table top and draw straight lines as in Fig.
21. This will give you a narrow border all around the top.
Make and cut the little crosses in the corners of top and shelf, then
cut out the squares at the corners of the top and bend down the edges.
The shelf of the table should be one inch above the bottom ends of the
straws, and the top of the table one-quarter of an inch below the top
ends of the straws.
[Illustration: FIG. 21--A narrow border all around the table top.]
By making the straw legs of the table twice as long, and the top and
shelves narrower, you can have another useful article of furniture, for
by adding two shelves of paper on the straws, and fastening them in the
same way, this can be used as a cupboard or shelves on which to place
the tiny doll dishes or clothes. The table can also be made into a
little dressing-table, by simply using for the back legs straws twice as
long as the front legs and then slipping a square piece of paper on the
straws that extend above the table, to serve as a mirror. Just as the
paper is slipped on the straws for the back of the chair (Fig. 22),
silver paper is pasted on this to make it look like glass.
With these few patterns you can make any number of useful articles to
furnish Miss Dolly's house. You can make small beds and large beds,
small tables and large tables, and many sizes of chairs.
You can make
=The Chair=
by merely looking at Fig. 22 and the diagrams, Figs. 23 and 24. No pins
were used in this, but if you want the chair to last it is best to
fasten it securely like the rest of the furniture. The straws for the
back should be six inches long and for the front legs two and a quarter
inches long. The shelf under the chair is the size of the seat.
[Illustration: FIG. 22--The high-backed chair.]
This furniture will be especially useful in playing with paper dolls,
and by using different colors, in colored papers, you can have a blue
room, a pink room, and a green room.
[Illustration: FIG. 23--Push the straw through the back of the chair.]
You can make tissue-paper sheets and spread for the bed and
pillow-slips, too, if you like. Thus dolly can be tucked away snugly for
the night.
The ingenuity exercised in the construction of these simple articles
will encourage the development of deftness and skill in the little
fingers, which are ever ready to imitate anything that teacher can make.
[Illustration: FIG. 24--Cut the back and seat like these.]