What Shall We Do Now?, Dorothy Canfield Fisher [ebook offline reader .txt] 📗
- Author: Dorothy Canfield Fisher
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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-StoolsSeveral small pieces of cork may be covered to make foot-stools.
Standard LampA 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—MaterialsYou 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.
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-TablesThe 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.
WashstandsTake 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.
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-RackA towel-horse can easily be made with six long pins and two small pieces of cork.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 GardenThe 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
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