A Bed for a Little Doll
| Materials Required: | An oblong pasteboard box an inch or more |
| longer than the doll it is to hold, | |
| ½ yard of flowered or striped muslin, | |
| ¼ yard of blue and white seersucker or other cotton, | |
| Some cotton or wool wadding, | |
| ½ yard of thin white cotton cloth, | |
| ¼ yard of outing flannel, | |
| ¼ yard of white piqué. |
Almost any little girl who chooses to do so can make this dainty bed for one of her small dolls. She will only need an oblong pasteboard box with a cover, and large enough to hold the doll comfortably. If mamma will let her have some pieces of cotton, flowered, striped and plain and a little cotton or wool wadding, she will have all the materials she needs.
First cut from blue and white striped cotton a bag the length and width of the box. Stitch it neatly together around three sides, turn it right side out and fill it with cotton or wool wadding. Turn in the edges on the fourth side and sew them together over and over. With a darning needle threaded with blue cotton or silk the mattress can be tufted here and there. The needle is first run through to the under side, then one little stitch is taken, bringing the thread back again to the right side, where the two ends are tied tightly together and cut close to the knot. If these tufts are made at equal distances, say one inch apart, all over the mattress it will make it look very "real."
Fig. 11
The pillow is made in the same way as the mattress, except that it is not tufted. Cut the sheets and pillowcase from thin white cotton, allowing enough for hems. Make the pillowcase a quarter of an inch wider and about an inch and a quarter longer than the pillow. Stitch it around both sides and on one end and hem the other end. Tiny blankets may be cut from outing flannel, and a spread made from a piece of white piqué or other thick white wash material. The bed can now be made up, but it will look very plain. A fluffy canopy and valance (or flounce) of flowered or striped white muslin will improve it wonderfully. The cover is set on end and the head of the bedstead is pressed into it (see Fig. 11), making a frame for the canopy. Measure from the front corner of this frame to the middle of the front and cut a piece of muslin half again as wide as this measurement and long enough to reach from the top of the frame to the bottom of the bed. Another piece the same size is cut, and then both are turned in and gathered at the top, hemmed on the other edges and sewed into place on the top edge of the canopy frame, so that the two will meet in the middle. They are both looped back against the front edge of the frame, see Fig. 11, and sewed there securely. The valance or flounce around the lower part of the bed is cut wide enough to allow for hemming at the bottom and to turn in at the top. It should be long enough to reach once and a half around the bed. Turn in the upper edge of the valance, gather it to fit the bed and pin it in position. Then sew it with a strong needle and coarse thread on to the box through and through. This makes as comfortable and pretty a bed as dolly could wish.