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, b.u.t.ton-hole-st.i.tched 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 sh.e.l.ls.
[Ill.u.s.tration: CARDBOARD BOX BEDS]
Bead Furniture
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 sc.r.a.p 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 t.i.tle. 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 st.i.tches. 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 sc.r.a.ps), 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 gla.s.s 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 ap.r.o.ns), 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 b.u.t.tons, 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--
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 st.i.tches 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
[Ill.u.s.tration: CHESTNUT CHAIR]