Lady Hollyhock and her Friends

Rag Dolls

AT Lady Hollyhock’s all visitors were treated alike. Those who came in rags were just as welcome as any.

Here is one pair, Mr. and Mrs. Dry Goods, who came all in rags even to their faces. Indeed, they appeared so well that one hardly thought of their garb until attention was called to it.

They were just as neat and clean as could be, though every part of them, from bodies to bonnets, had come out of the rag-bag.

These rag people were made by first taking a small wad of cotton wool for the head of each and covering it with thin brown silk drawn tightly together at the back, where knots of black thread were made to look quite like hair.

The features were drawn with a sharp pencil on each brown face while a stitch of white thread between the lips did very nicely for teeth. A small stitch of white was used in each eye, also.

Tight rolls of cloth served for the bodies, arms, and legs. When these were sewed securely together, the little rag couple were ready to be dressed.

As real people in dressing put on stockings and shoes first, these rag people did the same. The stockings they wore were cut from worn-out black silk gloves and sewed neatly up the back. The shoes and mittens were made from old kid gloves and fastened on with a few stitches.

Then the rag couple were dressed quite like other dolls, very neatly, of course, for the little Wests did everything neatly.

Rag Babies

Then there were the rag babies—I almost said the little rag people—but that would not have been true, for strange to say the babies were larger than the older members of the family.

This does not seem so strange after all, when one stops to think, for in the whole rag world, everything grows smaller as it grows older.

Some of these were just ordinary white babies while others belonged to the colored race. The Topsies were made of brown cotton or silk, with faces done in water colors, and hair of French knots.

But no matter what their color, or how they were made, the rag babies probably got more real love from their owners than any other dolls in the whole collection.

Rag babies are made by folding a piece of paper lengthwise and cutting the pattern of a half body free hand. This will insure the two sides being alike.

After getting a good pattern, cut from muslin two pieces just alike for front and back, sew them together and stuff with cotton.

The features can be made with either water colors or common ink thinned a little.

Tissue-Paper Ladies

OTHER tissue-paper ladies were made by gluing an upright strip of wood to the center of a horizontal piece, like an inverted T, and wrapping it with cotton for a foundation.

A ball of cotton was fastened to the top for a head, then covered with white tissue paper on which a face was drawn with a pencil.

These ladies wore loose, flowing gowns, long capes, and large, comfortable bonnets tied under the chin.

Tissue-paper ladies of this kind could stand alone.

Humpty-Dumpty

HUMPTY-DUMPTY was made from an empty egg shell. First, holes were carefully picked in the shell and the egg blown out. Then the face and cap were drawn in ink on the shell.

Wires covered with dark tissue paper were then put through the holes and bent into shape for arms and legs.

If light-weight hair pins are used, two or three may be twisted together for legs and spread at the ends to form feet. These dolls can stand alone.

Cinderella’s Coach

“I wish a fairy godmother would come and make a Cinderella’s coach for us out of this squash,” said Baby Bunnie one day.

“We can be our own fairy godmother,” said little Florence, as she set to work to make the wish come true. Soon there stood before them a wonderful coach made of that very squash—drawn by handsome peanut horses—and in it rode a beautiful peanut Princess, while a little dark raisin footman with toothpick arms and legs rode at the back on a seat cut out for him. A hairpin was the axle which held the pasteboard wheels in place.

The Princess was to drive straight to Lady Hollyhock’s, where the footman would assist her in leaving the carriage.

You, too, can be your own fairy godmother, and if you wish to have a great ball, at which all of Lady Hollyhock’s visitors may appear, not through the touch of a wand, but through the touch of the hand—and all of them will be so real that they will not fade away when the Princess goes.

Would it not be best, after all, for every one of us to be our own fairy godmothers, so that when we want very much to have anything happen we can set things going to bring it about? Then the things wished for will not vanish away at the stroke of a clock, but will be ours always.