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.
[Illustration: CARDBOARD BOX BEDS]
Bead Furniture
[Illustration: BEAD CHAIR]
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--
[Illustration: A DOLL'S APARTMENTS]
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
[Illustration: CORK ARM-CHAIR]
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
[Illustration: CHESTNUT CHAIR]
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
[Illustration: FANCY TABLE]
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
[Illustration: MATCH-BOX BEDSTEAD]
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.
[Illustration: MATCH-BOX WASHSTAND]
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.
[Illustration: TOWEL RACK]
Clothes-Basket
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: APPEARANCE OF HOUSE WHEN COMPLETE]
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.
[Illustration: DOG KENNEL (Fig. 1) AND ROOF (Fig. 2)]
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.
[Illustration: THE LIBRARY AND FURNITURE FROM
"THE HOUSE THAT GLUE BUILT"
(_Facing page 244_)]