What little girl does not love a doll? The more variety in their size and style the better pleased is she. Below are a number of suggestions for simple home-made dollies that may be prepared as a birthday or other surprise by older brothers or sisters.

A FEW DOLLS

1. Clay-Pipe Doll

Ink in the eyes, nose and mouth on the back of the bowl of a pipe; dress in calico gown and apron, and put on a sunbonnet to conceal the top of the pipe.

2. Clothespin Doll

Ink features upon the head of the clothespin and clothe as either boy or girl.

3. Wishbone Doll (Wishbone, sealing-wax, material for trousers)

Clothe the two limbs in trousers and ink in the features upon the flat joining bone. Feet may be made of sealing wax melted, pressed into shape and attached while still warm.

4. Peanut Doll (Peanuts, sewing-silk, glue, thread and needle, silk for dress)

Make into Chinese doll. Take one peanut and ink in the features, making the eyes slanting. Glue on a queue of braided silk. String together several peanuts to make the body. To the upper one add on each side one or two as arms and string several together to make legs. Dress in wide-sleeved jacket and wide-legged trousers of Oriental design.

5. Yarn Doll (Skein of white cotton yarn)

Cut the skein into lengths of 12 inches. Double the skein over in the middle and tie a string tight around about two inches from the top, forming a neck and so making the head. Tie another string further down for a waist line, but leave out a few threads on each side, of which to make two arms. Tie these near the ends to indicate wrists. Before tying the wrists cut the threads to right lengths for arms. The features may be put in with ink.

6. Cork Doll (16 or more corks saved from olive bottles, etc., smooth wire or hairpins—three in number)

String several corks upon the wire or hairpin for head and body. Through the second cork from the top run a hairpin sideways for arms, and fasten two corks upon each projecting end, cutting off any of the wire that may extend beyond the cork. Through the lower cork of the body run another hairpin and fasten two corks upon it for legs. Turn the end corks sideways to suggest feet. Dress the doll as desired.

7. Paper Doll (Fashion papers and catalogues, scissors, paint, paste)

Most little girls find great pleasure in making their own paper dollies and the garments therefor. Fashion papers and catalogues afford many dolls for cutting out, and tissue paper, crinkled paper, the lace paper found in candy boxes, etc., form the raw material for beautiful Parisian gowns.

Dolls may of course be cut out of white paper and beautiful countenances painted upon them, or holes may be cut in the head for eyes, nose and mouth.

8. Rag Doll (White cotton cloth, cotton batting, paints, scissors, needle, thread, water-color paints or blueing and red ink, raveled rope, etc.)

Cut a large newspaper pattern of a doll. Then double the cloth, pin the pattern upon it and cut the two sides for the doll. Run neatly around with close stitches, beginning at the neck, and when nearly finished turn inside out, stuff with the cotton batting, and sew up the head. Paint in the features or use blueing for eyes and red ink for mouth and cheeks. Ravelings of rope will make silky hair, and fingers may be indicated by stitches.

SOME DOLL-HOUSES

1. Cigar-Box House (Small cigar-box, paste, scissors, pictures, etc.)

A cigar-box, small as it is, will give great delight to a child who is aided in furnishing a little room. Stand the box up on the long side. Paper with wall paper of a small design. Then furnish with things made by the child himself; pictures cut from catalogues, and other accessories as described below.

2. Pasteboard-Box House (Four pasteboard boxes, glue, paint)

Select four strong pasteboard boxes of uniform size. Boxes such as the "Martha Washington Candles" are packed in will do. They measure 7 × 11 inches. Lay aside the covers and remove any paper which may be attached to the inside of the box. Spread a thick paste of Spaulding's glue or furniture glue over the surface of one side of a box. Fit one side of a second to this glued surface and put aside to dry. The third and fourth boxes are treated in the same manner. When securely glued in pairs place the boxes with open sides facing you. Cover upper outside surface of one pair of boxes with a thick coating of glue and set the second pair on top of these in the same position.

Now, one has a pasteboard house of four rooms—two upstairs and two downstairs. When securely fastened together cut in the partition separating the two upper rooms a door four inches high and three wide. Two windows measuring 3 × 4 inches, two inches from floor, may be cut in the back of the house. The same treatment may be given the rooms downstairs. One may arrange a kitchen and dining-room downstairs and a parlor and bedroom upstairs.

Oil paints, such as are used in painting furniture, which come already mixed in small cans, may be used for painting the exterior of the house.

In using this paint it is well to remember always to put sufficient paint on the brush to cover the entire surface of the wall of the house, from edge to edge, without lifting the brush. A strict observance of this rule insures a neatly painted surface. If desired, one may use yellow, green, or any light color for the interior.

Remnants of cartridge paper or paper decorated in small designs can often be obtained of paper-hangers for a small sum. It may be fastened to the floor to serve as a large rug.

3. Soap-Box House (Three wooden soap-boxes, nails, saw, paint)

Take three soap-boxes, wooden. Remove the covers from two and place one upon the other to make a two-story house. Put in partitions thus: Take a thin piece of board (from a smaller box), saw to needed height and depth and nail it in place by driving nails from above, below or the side, as the case may require. A stiff piece of cardboard (taken from a large box) may be made to serve as partition. If cut to the right size the pressure from top and bottom will hold in place.

By taking two small boxes for the upper floor instead of one large one the space which would be naturally left between can be made into a hallway. Stairs may then be made of stiff cardboard, folded into steps, with a strip of obliquely-cut paper pasted along the edges of the steps to keep them in place.

If windows and doorways are desired they must be cut or sawed in after being drawn where desired in pencil.

The third box is for the gable roof. It is to be placed on top of the upper floor so that its sides slant for the roof. Put in place and then mark off all that needs to be sawed away. When ready to be fixed permanently put in place and nail through.

The furnishing of the little house gives much scope for ingenuity and invention as well as for the exercise of good sense and good taste.

The exterior of the house can be painted with house paint, and this gives occasion for the broad use of the larger muscles, and physiologists tell us that the little child should exercise the larger muscles and nerves while the finer ones are still undeveloped.

Tiling (Corrugated packing cardboard, tacks, hammer)

The roof may be given a tiled effect by covering with corrugated packing cardboard saved from packages. Tack this on.

Papering

1. Paper with wall-paper. Scraps of it may be saved when the home is being papered.

2. Oil-cloth effects may be obtained by pasting on floors or walls designs made with the kindergarten parquetry papers. (See page 168.)

3. Friezes may be made in the same way by using circles and squares in rows, alternately or successively.

DOLL FURNITURE

1. Cork. (See page 37.)

2. Block (Blocks of wood or kindergarten blocks, cubes and oblongs)

Glue these blocks together, three cubes making a little chair, and cubes and oblongs making a bed or sofa. Get the carpenter to saw a number of blocks of different shapes and sizes and let the child use his invention in putting them together. The furniture may be painted or gilded.

3. Paper or Cardboard

Take a piece of paper 1 × 2 inches. Fold crosswise. Make a dot ¼ inch from the folded edge and ? inch from right hand edge. Make dot ¼ inch from fold and ? inch from left hand edge. From open edges opposite fold make two parallel cuts to these dots. These cuts make the four legs. When opened out a table is seen with two extensions for drop-leaf. Cut one of these extensions off and a chair is made. If the original paper is longer and wider it can be made into a bed, what were the leaves of the table being bent up into the head and foot of the bed. An ingenious child can vary and elaborate this furniture ad infinitum. The backs can be cut into fancy form and arms given to chairs and sofa.

Use one of these paper chairs for a model, place on cardboard and draw around the outline and so obtain a stiffer bit of furniture. Rockers can be drawn, added to the feet, and cut out, thus making a rocking chair.

SPECIAL ARTICLES OF FURNITURE

Pictures and Clocks (Trade journals, scissors)

Cut from trade journals and attach to walls.

Lamp (Twist spool, toothpick, half egg-shell, wax)

Paste a bit of paper on top and bottom of twist spool. Through this stick a toothpick, which the paper should hold firmly. Upon the top of the toothpick fasten a half egg-shell for a globe with bit of wax or glue.

Stove (Cardboard, black ink or paint)

Make oblong box of cardboard. Turn upside down and cut openings for top of stove. Make a small hole in the back of the stove and insert in it a piece of paper rolled into a stove-pipe and pasted. Cut openings in front for the grate and ovens, leaving a door for the latter. Ink or paint black.

Windows (Thin white paper, oil, glue)

Brush a piece of white paper over with ordinary machine oil, or olive oil, or dip it in the oil and when dry glue in for windows, telling the children that not very long ago that was the only way in which light was admitted to many houses before glass became so common.

Isinglass may also be put in for windows.

Doll's Bedstead (Cigar-box, glue, gilt-headed tacks)

Saw the cover of box into two pieces, one for the head and one for the foot. Fasten in place to the box with the decorative tacks. Legs may be attached if desired.

Curtains (Cheesecloth or lace, needle, thread)

Cut small squares of cheesecloth and let the child hem and put in windows for curtains. Do not insist on very fine sewing for beginners. Curtains may be edged with lace, or the entire curtain may be made of lace, tacked or glued to inside of window.

Telephone (Two spools, nail, tin mucilage top, string, small flat block)

Take a flat piece of wood about two inches square. Glue to it the flat end of small spool. That is the 'phone. Another spool is the receiver hanging, when not in use, upon a nail driven into the wood. The mucilage top has the slot into which to drop the imaginary nickel.

MISCELLANEOUS

Grocery Store (Wooden soap-box, small cardboard box, scales, toy barrels, tiny pill boxes, sand, pebbles, etc.)

A small wooden box makes the store. A smaller cardboard box turned upside down will make the counter, or small pieces of wood can be nailed together by the little amateur carpenter. Buy toy scales or make some as described below. Small barrels can be obtained at toy store or little bottles and boxes can be filled with small quantities of tea and sugar, with tiny bags of pebbles for potatoes, apples, etc. Cranberries make acceptable play apples. Corn and nuts also will find places. Tacks can be hammered in on which to hang tiny brooms, and by hammering in two long nails and laying a narrow board upon them a shelf can be made for the canned vegetables. Let the children make their own brown paper bags, looking at a real one for a model.

Scales (Two small square cardboard boxes, made or bought, twine, skewer or other slender stick of wood or metal)

In each of the four sides of a box make a small hole near the top. Take two pieces of twine each four times the width of the box. Tie one of these through two opposite holes of the box and the other piece through the two other holes, being sure that the strings when tied are of equal length. These two strings cross each other. In the middle, exactly where they cross, tie one end of a string three inches long. Raise the box by this string and it should hang exactly true. Arrange the other box in the same way.

Now take the skewer and exactly in the middle tie a string of three inches. To the ends of the stick tie the ends of the twine already tied to the boxes. Raise the skewer by this string and the boxes should hang evenly, like scales. If they do not, slide one or the other back and forth until they do balance.

Use in the toy grocery store. Playing store is always a fine opportunity for indicating lessons of honesty in business. Train the child to give fair weight and measure, even in play.

Merry-Go-Round for Dolls (Cardboard, large ribbon spool, stiff paper or kindergarten folding paper, slender pencil, tiny flag)

Cut two circles of cardboard, one five inches in diameter; the other, ten to twelve. Using the smaller one as a base, stand on it a large ribbon spool (spool around which baby ribbon comes). Glue the large circle to the other end of the spool, parallel to the other lower circle. Make a hole in each circle. Run a slender pencil through the upper cardboard, then through the spool, and then through the lower circle, making an axis round which the spool may revolve, carrying with it the upper circle.

On the upper circle paste alternately animals cut from paper or cardboard, and benches also cut from cardboard. Elegance may be added by gilding the spool and letting a tiny flag float from the point of the pencil. Cut out paper dolls for a ride.

Dolls' Park (Starch-box, earth, moss, twigs, tiny mirror, etc.)

Fill the box with earth and sand for a foundation, and then with moss, twigs, elder-berry sprigs, etc., fill in the fairy-like details. A toy swan or boat adds to the reality.

Rugs for Doll-House

1. Make the loom by taking a slate and knocking out the slate so as to leave the frame intact. Hammer a row of small nails half an inch apart along the two narrow sides. Then make the warp by stringing strong cord back and forth across the nails. Tie first around one corner nail; carry to and around the two nails opposite, then back and around the next two, and so back and forth till it is all strung. The rows of cord should be parallel.

2. Instead of a slate, looms of various sizes may be roughly made of four narrow pieces of wood measured, sawed, and nailed together at the corners. A curtain slat could be so used, or wooden boxes will furnish raw material for such. A loom 4 × 6 inches is a good size for a beginner.

For woof, use coarse worsted or ribbon to begin with, or colored cheesecloth torn into narrow strips.

Use the fingers at first, later a bodkin, weaving under one cord of the warp and over one, back and forth, till a tiny rug is made. Fasten ends by weaving in and out a short distance into body of rug. At first make rug all of one color, or a rag-carpet effect can be obtained by tying into a long string worsteds of various colors. If a plain color is used a border can be made by running in a strand or so of a different color.

Let the child employ his artistic and creative abilities in making designs for the rug with paints or crayons. Draw an oblong of one color with stripes across the ends, one, two or three in number, at different distances apart. Variety can be secured by taking up two threads at a time or running under one and over two, etc. Warn the child not to draw the threads too closely or the rug will have the shape of an hour-glass when finished.

A washcloth can be made thus by weaving it of narrow pieces of cheesecloth.

Take the rug or cloth off the loom by raising carefully over the nails.

3. Another simple kind of loom is made by taking a piece of cardboard measuring 6 × 8 inches. Draw a row of eight dots half an inch apart. Opposite these, and six inches away, draw another row. With strong cord sew through these a set of straight stitches, six inches long and half an inch apart. This makes the warp. Run the worsted woof under and over these cords as in any weaving, and tear the cardboard away when finished.