DOLLS' HOUSES

Country Books
In the "Reading" chapter will be found the titles of several books which describe life in the country, and tell you all about the habits of animals, birds, and insects. ...

Dolls' Gardens
One advantage of making the dolls' house yourself is that you can arrange for it to have a garden, a provision rarely made by toy-shops. Grass plots can be made of green baize or other cloth of the right color; gar...

Garden Chairs And Tables
Garden seats and tables can be made of cardboard and cork. For a seat, take a card two or three inches long and not quite as broad. Mark it right across, lengthwise, in the middle with a sharp knife, and then half ...

The House
A dolls' house can be made of almost any kind of box. For the simplest and smallest kind cigar boxes can be used and the furniture made of cork, for which directions are given later; or a couple of low shelves in a...

Fireplaces
Fireplaces, which can be bought or made at home, should be put in next. To make one yourself, take a strong cardboard-box lid about four inches long and two wide (though the size must depend on the size of the room...

A Furnishing Game
A splendid game of shop can be played while the furnishing is going on: in fact, from the moment you have the bare house a board or sign with "To Let or For Sale" will quickly attract house-hunting dolls, and when ...

Curtains
Windows have been mentioned, but they are not by any means a necessity. Yet even if you cannot have windows, you should put up curtains, for they make the rooms prettier. Shades can be made of linen, edged at the b...

Floors
The floors can be stained or painted either all over or round the 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 mad...

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 pref...

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...

Bead Furniture
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 ...

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 what...

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 thr...

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...

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...

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 materia...

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 ...

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 exampl...

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), o...

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 f...

Chairs
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 t...

Chestnut Chairs
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 ...

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 win...

Tables
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 le...

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 w...

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. ...

Beds
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 ...

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 the...

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 ...

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, ...

Towel-rack
A towel-horse can easily be made with six long pins and two small pieces of cork. ...