THE FLANNEL PET
“DON’T you want to go with Grandma to-day?” asked her grandmother of
Mary Frances.
“Where, Nanny?” inquired the little girl.
[Illustration: “I dearly love monkeys”]
“Well,” said Grandma, “I’m going to take a trolley ride through the
park.”
“Where the monkeys are?” inquired Mary Frances.
“Yes,” said Grandma. “I thought you’d like to share my ‛afternoon
out.’”
“I dearly love monkeys,” said Mary Frances. “They crinkle up their
faces so!”
“Come, then,” said Grandma, “get your hat!”
Mary Frances ran up-stairs. This is what she heard:
“I do hope the little lady will have it finished!”
“What does she make to-day?”
“The flannel pet―”
“Oh, good!”
[Illustration: “Where the monkeys are?”]
“That’s Silver Thimble,” thought Mary Frances.
“Why do you say ‘Oh, good’?” asked Scissors Shears.
[Illustration: “Oh, good!”]
“Because,” answered Silver Thimble, “I know what fun she’ll have. I
feel closer to my little Miss than any of you others can.”
“Ha!” laughed Tommy Pin Cushion, “but not love her better.”
“The dear things!” thought Mary Frances, “and I was going to run
away! What can a flannel pet be? Is it a flannel cat, or rabbit, or
dog?”
“Mary Frances!” called Grandma.
“Listen, Nanny,” said the little girl leaning over the banister,
“will you feel much disappointed, dear Nanny, if I don’t go? I―I―”
“Why, no, my child!” said Grandma. Mrs. Bennett is going with me,
so I’ll have company, but I thought you’d be lonely. Good-bye,
dear,―take a nap if you feel like it.”
“Good-bye, Nanny dear,” smiled Mary Frances, throwing the old lady a
kiss. “She really does spoil me, I fear,” she thought. “I never had
my own way so exactly before.”
[Illustration: “Good-bye, Nannie dear”]
[Illustration: She dressed Mary Marie]
She dressed Mary Marie in the new morning dress.
“I certainly wish she had some petticoats,” thought the little girl,
taking her into the sewing room.
“Oh, what fun!
I see it’s done!
Quite in distress,
Without this dress,
Would be, you see,
Our Sweet Marie,”
sang Sewing Bird, admiring the morning dress.
“But the button-holes,” said Mary Frances, “are pretty poor, I must
say!”
“That’s because the Old Grunt taught you―” began Scissors Shears.
“Oh, my!” exclaimed Mary Frances.
“I forgot! I forgot!” said Scissors Shears. “I did, really and truly!
your Seamstress-ship. Will you please forgive me?”
“Scissors and Shears
Now, change your ears,”
laughed Mary Frances, and the funny little long-eared fellow was on
the table.
[Illustration: “I wish she had some petticoats”]
[Illustration: “I like my ears”]
“I’m sure I’ll not be able to use you to-day,” said Mary Frances,
“with those ears.”
“You tell me what to do,” said Scissors Shears, wagging his ears back
and forward. “I like my ears. They do not help me work―but I can
hear almost anything with them. I can hear what Tommy Pin Cushion is
thinking.”
“Goodness!” exclaimed Tommy Pin Cushion. “You must be most unhappy!”
Mary Frances laughed.
“What is to-day’s lesson?” she asked.
Sewing Bird began to sing:
“I see you haven’t guessed it yet―
It’s just a little flannel pet.
A period after pet. you’ll note;
It’s short for flannel petticoat.
Oh, de de dum dum!
De-dee-dee!
No one could guess it―
That I see.”
[Illustration: “Goodness! You must be most unhappy”]
[Illustration: “Oh, thank you!”]
“Oh, Magic and Mystery,” laughed Mary Frances, “Mary Marie will be
delighted! She seems so chilly these days. I think she will soon be
able to say a few words. I tried to think she said ‘Ma-ma’ to me
to-day.”
“It is lovely to help make things for so sweet a child,” smiled Fairy
Lady.
“That is a great compliment,” said Mary Frances, “to her mother.”
“It isn’t only her lovely face,” said Fairy Lady; “it’s her charming
manners.”
“Oh, thank you!” said Mary Frances, “to a mother who tries to teach
the best to her child, that is most pleasing to hear.”
“There is even more in seeing her mother’s manner than in teaching
her, I think,” said Fairy Lady.
Mary Frances blushed with pleasure.
“And now,” said Fairy Lady, “ready for
PATTERN 10.―DOLL’S FLANNEL PETTICOAT
Suggestions for material,―white woolen flannel.
1. Make a pattern of ordinary wrapping paper.
Use a ruler, making the pattern nine and one-half inches long,
and five inches wide.
[Illustration: Use a ruler]
[Illustration: Felling on Flannel]
2. Mark with two rings (oo) and an arrow (➸) as in picture.
To cut out―
1. Place end of pattern having two rings, on a lengthwise fold of
material. Pin in place. Cut out.
To make―
(A) Leave one and one-half inches of the seam unsewed, for making
of placket.
Below this, join seam by
35.―FELLING ON FLANNEL
A fell is a seam hemmed down to prevent edges from raveling.
NOTE.―To learn to make a fell, use two pieces of flannel, each
six inches long, and three inches wide. Practise with these,
before attempting the fell on the petticoat.
1. Place the pieces of flannel together, one edge extending
one-eighth of an inch beyond the other.
2. Baste a narrow seam. Stitch.
3. Remove the bastings.
4. Turn to other side of goods. With a warm iron, press the seam
with wider side covering the narrower. Do not open it.
In felling flannel, do not turn the wider part of the seam in,
but leave it open, and baste down flat after pressing.
Catch-stitch it down instead of hemming.
(B) Make a Hemmed Placket.
Do not turn flannel twice; but, after pressing, catch-stitch down
over the raw edges.
[Illustration: To cut flannel petticoat pattern]
(C) To Hem Petticoat.
1. Turn up one-quarter inch on wrong side, at bottom of skirt.
Baste, and press.
Remove bastings.
2. Turn up again on wrong side, three-quarters of an inch,
measuring and basting carefully. Press.
3. Feather-stitch in place along top of hem.
Remove bastings.
[Illustration: Feather stitch hem]
(D) Gather the top of petticoat.
1. Cut a notch in the middle of the front of petticoat.
2. Thread needle with No. 40 cotton. Use cotton double.
Gather petticoat at top, commencing at notch, gather first in one
direction, then in the other.
3. Leave knots in each end of the threads.
Make thread a little shorter than the length of the flannel.
NOTE.―This petticoat is not to be sewed to a band; but is
attached later, to Doll’s Underwaist.
Mary Frances had the Needle-of-Don’t-Have-to-Try in her hand, and
soon finished the petticoat.
“Good!” exclaimed Fairy Lady. “Now comes
PATTERN 11.―DOLL’S UNDERWAIST
See Insert III
To cut out―
1. Pin pattern with arrow edge on a lengthwise fold of lawn.
[Illustration: Pin on lengthwise fold of lawn]
2. Cut two underwaists just alike.
3. Clip a small notch (V) in the exact center of the bottom of
each waist.
To make―
1. Baste the shoulder seams of one waist together. (_a_ to _a_;
and _b_ to _b_.)
Try on doll.
Alter if necessary.
[Illustration: Try on doll]
2. Stitch one-quarter inch from the edge.
Open and flatten the seams.
3. Turn in edges along the back one-quarter inch. Baste.
Turn up bottom of waist one-quarter inch. Baste.
4. Clip several small gashes along the neck.
Turn in the edge of neck one-eighth of an inch. Baste.
Do the same to the armholes.
5. Do the same to the other waist.
6. Pin and baste the two waists together, wrong sides facing
each other. Overhand (or stitch) all edges together, _except the
bottom_, which is left open for the flannel petticoat.
7. To join flannel petticoat to underwaist―Insert gathers of
petticoat between the two waists. Pin notches together, and baste
in place. Hem down.
8. Sew three buttons on left side of back of waist: one at the
neck, one in the center, one at the bottom. Make the button-holes
on the other side of back of waist.
9. Sew one button at center front of waist, to fasten the lawn
petticoat.
[Illustration: Overhand all edges together]
“Scissors Shears, do your best,” whispered Mary Frances, cutting into
the muslin for the dolly’s underwaist.
She felt Scissors Shears spring in her fingers.
“And now, not a word until it is finished!”
“What darlings!” she exclaimed, finally, holding up the little
underwaist and flannel petticoat.
“Are they finished?” asked Fairy Lady, leaning forward in her rocking
chair.
“Yes, all finished! If it hadn’t been for the
Needle-of-Don’t-Have-to-Try, I’d have been a week doing them, I’m
sure,” said Mary Frances.
“I’ll put them right on Mary Marie,” she added, “she seems so cold.”
“How must it be,
How must it be,
To be beloved
As well as she?”
sang Sewing Bird.
“You are, dear Sewing Bird,” said Mary Frances. “Oh, dear little
Sewing Bird, indeed, you are!”
[Illustration: “Good!” exclaimed Fairy Lady]
[Illustration: CHAPTER XXIV]