Home-made Toys for Girls and Boys Part 14

=Lace Curtains= made out of sc.r.a.ps of lace. They should either be tacked above the windows or hung upon poles made out of No. 12 wire, cut in lengths to fit the windows. Screw small bra.s.s hooks into the top window-casings for the poles to hang upon.

=Handsome Portieres= for the doorways can be made with beads and with the small hollow straws sold for use in kindergartens. For the

=Bead Portieres=, cut threads as long as the height of the door and string the beads upon them, alternating the colors in such a way as to produce patterns. Then tie the strings together to a piece of wire the width of the doorway, and fasten the wire in the opening. The

=Straw Portieres= are made similarly.

From magazine ill.u.s.trations you can select

=Suitable Pictures= for each room, but if you are handy with brush and pencil you may prefer to make the pictures yourself. These may be mounted upon cardboard and have their edges bound with pa.s.se-partout paper to give the effect of frames, or frames may be cut out of cardboard and pasted to them. Hang the pictures to the picture molding with thread.

=A Cosey-corner= may be fitted up in the ball-room by fastening a strip of a cigar-box in one corner an inch and one-half above the floor for the seat, and hanging draperies on each side of it. Pillows may be made for it out of sc.r.a.ps of silk stuffed with cotton.

A doll-house properly proportioned in every detail, including the selection of its furniture, is pleasing to look at, and is to be desired much more than some of the specimens to be found in the stores. These very often have parlor chairs larger than the mantel, beds that either fill two-thirds of the bedroom s.p.a.ce or are so small they are hidden from view by the chairs, and other furniture accordingly, all having been selected without any thought as to size or fitness.

Care must be taken, in buying the furniture, to have the pieces suitable to the rooms. It will no doubt require more time than to purchase the first sets you come across, but when you have completed the selections, the result will be a much better appearing doll-house.

By carefully searching the toy-shops you are almost certain of finding what you want for the various rooms, as about everything imaginable in furniture has been manufactured. Porcelain bath-tubs, wash-basins with real faucets and running water, gilt furniture, chandeliers, and such articles are tempting to buy. But it is rather expensive to fit up a house in this way, for, though each piece may not amount to very much, they count up very quickly.

The suggestions for the making of cigar-box furniture in Chapter XVII, and spool and cardboard furniture in Chapter XIX, will give you plenty of material for furniture and save you the expense of buying this part of the furnis.h.i.+ngs for your house.

CHAPTER XV

A HOME-MADE TOY STABLE

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 238.--Exterior of Stable.]

The stable ill.u.s.trated in Figs. 238 and 239 is designed in keeping with the doll-house in Chapter XIII. It is shown in the background of the photograph of this doll-house (Fig. 220). If you prefer a garage instead of this stable, you may omit the stalls, and make one or two large windows in the rear wall in place of the small high windows shown. The building's construction is very simple. The dimensions are: width, twenty-four inches; depth, twelve inches; and height, twenty-two inches.

The barn contains five stalls on the ground floor and a hay-loft above.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 239.--Interior of Stable.]

To build the stable according to the drawings, a box ten by twelve by twenty-four inches should be procured for

=The First Story.= If you have a box of different proportions it will be a simple matter to make such alterations in the details as it will require.

=The Roof= is made in two sections, each fifteen by eighteen inches, and is fastened to the top of the box so that the peak is twenty-two inches above the bottom.

=The Gable-End= is made in four pieces, as shown in Fig. 240, _A_, _B_, and _C_, to be nailed in place, and _D_ to be movable as in the case of the doll-house. Make a three-by-five-inch window in the center of _D_, and fasten the gla.s.s in place with strips cut as described in Chapter XIII. Strips should be nailed to the roof just inside of the movable section to prevent the latter from setting in too far, and a spring catch fastened to _C_ and _D_ as shown, to hold the movable section in place.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 240.--Front Gable-End.]

Figure 241 gives the patterns and measurements for

=The Stall Part.i.tions=, four of which should be cut out and fastened to the floor of the stable four inches apart, or so they will divide the inside width into five equal stalls.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 241.--Stall Part.i.tions.]

=The Feed-troughs= are made out of two strips of cigar-boxes fitted between the stalls, as shown in Figs. 239 and 241, and are fastened in place by means of brads and glue. Above the stalls cut

=Small Windows= an inch and one-half square in the rear wall. These are the ventilating windows for the stalls, and may be left open.

Figure 242 shows the construction of

=A Ladder= to the hay-loft. This is made out of two sticks twelve inches long, with strips of cigar-boxes two inches long glued to them half an inch apart, as shown in the drawing. Cut away a section of the hay-loft floor two inches square and stick the end of the ladder up through the opening, fastening the uprights to the edge of the floor (see Fig. 242).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 242.--Ladder to Hay-loft.]

A stick about three inches long, with a very small pulley attached near the end, should be fastened in the peak of the roof for a

=Feed-hoist= (see Fig. 238).

The first story has

=A Drop-Front=, as shown in Figs. 238 and 239. This is made from the box-cover. Fasten the boards together with battens placed upon the inside, and hinge it to the bottom of the stable. Nail two cleats to the under side of the floor (see Fig. 238) to lift it off the ground just enough to allow the front to drop without springing its hinges.

When the front is down it forms an incline upon which to run the horses into the stable. For this reason it is not advisable to cut an opening in it, but merely

=Represent a Stable Door= on the outside (see Fig. 238). This is done with paint and a fine brush. First paint a green panel in the center of the front, and then mark off a couple of panels within this s.p.a.ce with black paint, and stripe them diagonally to represent beaded-boards.

With strips of wood half an inch wide make

=A Simple Trim= around the door, the sides of the stable, and around the gable, as shown in the ill.u.s.tration.

When the carpenter work has been finished,

=Paint the Inside= of the stable white, and the outside the same colors as used for the doll-house (see description in Chapter XIII).

=If you Prefer a Garage=, use your ingenuity to fit up the interior of the building as you think it ought to be.

CHAPTER XVI

A HOME-MADE DOLL APARTMENT BUILDING

The doll apartment building in this chapter is a new idea in doll-houses. By the ill.u.s.trations you will see that the apartment building is three stories high, and consists of three units--each one story high--and a roof. During playtime the units are arranged side by side upon the floor so as to form a six-room apartment (Fig. 244); and afterward they are piled up one upon another as shown in Fig. 243, and the roof placed on top, in a compact form that takes up but little floor s.p.a.ce.

=Building Material.= The apartment building is built out of grocery boxes. The boxes used for the units must be of equal size, and the thing to do is to select those in which a standard brand of goods come packed.

If one grocery store doesn't have what you want, go to another. If the sides and ends of the boxes are in one piece, it will greatly simplify the matter of cutting the door and window openings.

=The Room Dimensions.= The boxes used in the model ill.u.s.trated were 28 inches long, 13 inches wide, and 8 inches deep. These provided s.p.a.ce for a vestibule 3 inches by 8 inches, a reception-hall 8-1/2 inches by 8 inches, a living-room 12 inches by 18-1/2 inches, a dining-room 12 inches by 15 inches, a kitchen 12 inches by 8 inches, a pantry 7 inches by 3 inches, two bedrooms--one 12 inches square and the other 12 inches by 8 inches, and a bathroom 7-1/2 inches by 6 inches (Fig. 245). You may have to vary the sizes of your rooms a trifle, if you get boxes of different proportions, but it is probable that you can keep to the same plan arrangement.