A Doll Filipino Woman
To make the little house seem more real, dress a doll in genuine Philippine costume and stand her near the ladder with arms extended as if in welcome. The dress must be a white waist with flowing sleeves, a light-colored skirt, a large gay handkerchief, called a pañuelo, folded around the doll's neck, and an overskirt made of a square of dark cloth drawn tightly around her body from waist to knees. No stockings are needed, but you can give her heelless slippers with only a narrow strip over the toes to keep them on.
CHAPTER X
GRASS DRESS AND GRASS HEAD-DRESS
Look at the little girl in the photograph who is wearing her new grass dress made of the wavy hair-grass and playing that she is a wood-nymph. She feels very proud and is greatly pleased with her pretty costume.
Fig.67 - Bring the long end of string across front of second bunch and form loop A.
Fig.68 - First loop, A, on front of grass and string passed around back of grass forming second loop, B.
Fig.69 - String brought forward again and slipped through first loop, A.
Almost any kind of long, slender grasses can be used for a dress of this kind, but you must gather an armful or more. It takes a good deal of material, for the fringe must be close and thick.
She is greatly pleased with her pretty grass costume.
Divide the grass into bunches, each bunch about as thick as your thumb, and have the heads of all the grasses together at one end of the bunch, and the stem ends together at the other end.
Fig.70 - Use a strong string for tying the grass fringe.
Tie a strong string around the stem ends of one bunch. Hold this tied bunch under your left arm, stem ends to the front, and take up another bunch ([Fig. 70]). Bring the long end of the string across the front of the second bunch and form a loop (A, [Fig. 67]). Hold the loop while you pass the string around the back of the bunch ([Fig. 68]), then slide the end through the loop A, [Fig. 69]. Draw this loop-fastening very tight and it will hold. Now place the second bunch under your arm with the first bunch, and make a loop-fastening around the third bunch. Keep on adding bunches of grass in this way, always drawing the last bunch close to the one before it, and holding them all together under your arm as in the photograph ([Fig. 70]). In this picture the grass bunches are purposely left far apart that you may see exactly how to make the fringe.
Fig.71 - Bristle-spiked Cyperus grass used for head-dress. See [photograph].
The grass dress will be finished when you have made a strip of fringe long enough to reach around your waist, for the skirt—it needs no waist—is really only a fringe of grasses to be worn over a light summer dress.