Chapter 10. Doll Accessories

Nothing heightens the effectiveness of a doll's costume as much as one or two perfectly proportioned, beautifully designed and made accessories. They add a touch of authenticity, of realness, that immediately intensifies the beauty and appeal of the doll. Making doll accessories is really an adventure. So many odd kinds of materials can be put to use. So many ingenious tricks can be employed to create charming and lovely miniature items. Hats, bonnets, bags, jewelry, belts, fans, crowns and tiaras, even books and pieces of knitting, scaled to the size of the doll, make of it a collector's piece rather than a mere toy. As your fingers get used to working on these tiny items, dozens of ideas for interesting new ones will occur to you.

JEWELRY

Let's make jewelry first.

The smallest size beads may be bought in variety stores. They come in glass vials, either in assorted colors or packed one color to a vial, including gold and silver. When you buy them (they cost about fifteen cents a vial), also buy a "bead needle". This has an extremely narrow shaft which makes it easier to work with than an ordinary sewing needle. Also buy a coil or spool of the finest wire. Buy copper wire for gold jewelry and aluminum wire for silver jewelry.

Necklaces

A simple string of beads, in a color contrasting to the costume, is often very effective. Solid colors or gold or silver are best to use. For a gypsy costume, many strings of mixed colors look well. Silver and turquoise beads make fine necklaces for American Indian costumes. All silver bead necklaces with matching bracelets and anklets are appropriate for East Indian costumes.

The necklaces are strung on thread. Bracelets and anklets are strung on either the aluminum or copper wire. The ends of the wire are twisted around each other twice and then cut off with a scissors close to the twist.

Crowns

Dramatic crowns, coronets, and fancy headdresses can be created by stringing colored, or pearl, or gold, or silver beads on the thin wire which is then bent into the desired shape. Designs for these are shown in last design on chapter 9. Their size depends upon the doll. Fit as you work. Set a crown right on top of the head. A coronet fits down on the head. Other headdresses are worn in the manner most becoming to the doll.

Hairpins

Charming little decorative hairpins can be made by putting three beads on a short piece of wire which is then twisted together to hold the beads on. Cut the wire ends so that they are not more than 1/4 in. long and thrust them into the hair just like an ordinary hairpin.

Earrings

These may be made of a single bead sewn directly to the side of the head, or of two or three beads strung to form a drop. Thread one bead and draw it to the middle of the thread. Unthread the needle, then rethread it with both ends of the thread. Put two or three more beads on. The first bead will hold the others in place. Sew directly to doll's head.

Gypsy hoop earrings are made with wire. Bend the wire around a knitting needle. Cut off the excess and push the ends together to make a circle. Sew it to the head. This plain circle can be dressed up by slipping three or four beads on the wire before bending it around.

ACCESSORIES

The copper and aluminum wire can be turned into a number of good-looking accessories and trimmings.

Headdresses

An interesting peasant headdress is made by winding a piece of wire around a knitting needle, spacing the wire about 1/8 in. between strands. The wire coil should be just long enough to go halfway around the doll's head. Run a bright ribbon through the coil, put it around the head, and tie with a tiny bow and long streamers at the nape of the neck. The same kind of wire coil can be flattened and used as a necklace, or sewn on grosgrain ribbon to make a wonderful-looking belt.

	Colored heads and small pearls, aluminum and copper wire can all he turned into charming jewelry, crowns, and headdresses. The wire can even make a tiny pair of eyeglasses!

Eyeglasses

The same wire makes the most adorable little eyeglasses. The manner of twisting the wire into shape is shown last design on Chapter 9. There's nothing like a pair of spectacles to give a quaint look to a doll.

Experiment with this wire and see how many other uses you can put it to. Try making buckles for shoes and belts, or tiny initials for handbags. Playing with it is the surest way of discovering the great possibilities it has.

Handbags, Slippers, and Belts

These may be made from thin wool felt or kid from old gloves. Some patterns for them are seen above. In every instance, the parts are sewn together on the right side with overcast stitches in matching thread. Bead trim is very effective on these items, and the doll's initials on the handbag are most attractive. Use letters from alphabet noodles, paint them silver or gold, and paste them to the bag with vegetable glue.

Fan

The tiniest fan imaginable can be made if you are patient and work carefully. When hung from a doll's wrist or tacked to the palm of her hand, it will never fail to call forth exclamations of delight and surprise.

To make a fan, lay a quarter on a piece of heavy tracing paper and draw its outline. Before cutting it out, paint a delicate tracery of lines with gold or silver paint, as shown in the drawing. Cut it out and fold it in half, having the design on the outside. Cut a tiny semicircle out of the center, as shown. Make extremely tiny accordion pleats from one folded edge to the other folded edge. Be careful not to rub off the design during the folding process. Three toothpicks make the fan sticks. With a hot needle, pierce a hole through the flat end of each toothpick. Lay one on top of the other and run a piece of copper wire through them. Twist the wire to hold the sticks in place and cut off the ends close to the twist. Slip the sticks, as shown below, between the front and back of the fan. A few tiny dots of cement will hold the tissue to the sticks. The cement, of course, is placed between the two pieces of paper. Cut off the sticks at the top to make them even with the fan.

Muff and Shoulder Cape

Somehow or other the idea of the fan brings up the idea of a muff and shoulder cape, both of which would be quite elegant if made of real fur, such as broadtail or some equally fine-skinned pelt. The cape is nothing but a small circle with a tiny circle cut from the center of it to make the neckline. Cut it first from tissue to determine length. A ribbon is sewn around the neckline and tied into a bow with long ends. The muff is an oblong piece seamed together and shirred at the ends so as to leave holes just large enough for the doll's hands to slip into. Velvet, duvetyn, or thin felt would make up into an attractive muff and cape set. Bead trimming gives them a Victorian look.

Flowers

The rule of keeping everything small and in proportion to the size of the doll and its costume applies strongly to the use of flowers. Artificial forget-me-nots are about the smallest flower you can buy. They are also about the largest flower you can use successfully on the doll. They sometimes come in white and pink, as well as the customary blue.

It is not hard to make your own artificial flowers for trimming hats and gowns, and to make posies for the doll to carry or wear in her hair. One petal from an artificial rose or pansy will, when cut into tiny rounded snippets, supply the doll with quite a generous supply of flowers. The snippets are cut to the size and shape of a plump grain of rice. They are joined together at the base with a needle and thread, one stitch to each snippet and four or five snippets to a flower. A small yellow bead threaded into the center makes a nice finishing touch. A piece of the thin copper wire will act as a stem. Push the end up into the flower and bend it over to keep the flower from slipping off. End of wire can be wound around doll's hand.

The same technique can be used for making flowers from thin felt or crepe paper. It is not advisable to use woven fabrics because the snippets are so small that the weaving of the material would fall to pieces. There is, however, one exception: glazed chintz, which can be had in a variety of lovely colors, can be used very successfully. Dark green glazed chintz can also be used for minute leaves.

There are a number of very pretty ways of using flowers on the doll. They can be wound into wreaths for the hair, posies for the shoulder, waist or hand or used to decorate the skirts of gowns of the 1860 period.

Hats

Pretty hats and bonnets are always desirable, but they are difficult to make successfully. A good rule to follow is to make a hat or bonnet only when the costume absolutely demands it. Most costumes don't, which simplifies things a great deal.

Three easy-to-make hats that can be enlarged to fit. l, "Bonnet. Sew zigzag edges together. 2, Hiat. Cut in toward center on solid lines, lap over to meet dotted lines. 3, Beret. Two circles. Cut out A for head.

Three basic patterns are shown above. The colors and trimmings of them will do a great deal toward changing their style for various costume needs. Thin felt is much easier to turn into professional looking hats, because it does not need to be hemmed or made double to conceal raw edges.

Once again, the pattern must be first cut and tested in tissue to make sure that it fits your doll. After the corrections are made, or the entire hat is recut either smaller or larger, make the master pattern, and then cut the fabric.

You don't have to follow the patterns or the trimming suggestions exactly. While working in the tissue, you may develop a different brim line that is better suited to your purpose. The trimmings, too, are subject to your own interpretation. Just keep in mind that all trimmings must be kept in scale with the size of the hat or bonnet.

Flowers, ribbons, and feathers are the usual trimming items. Now where, you ask, can you get feathers small enough for these hats? Are there pigeons in your neighborhood? Or wild birds of any kind? If you keep your eyes open you'll be surprised at how many small feathers you can pick up. They can be made even smaller by cutting them down. The light-colored ones may be dyed or painted with water colors.

There is little chance of your ever running out of ideas for creating either dress designs or accessories as long as you can study the illustrations in children's books and fairy tales. Their pictures are simply teeming with suggestions that you can translate into dolls' apparel. Because they are drawn for small children, they usually are quite simple in detail. That makes it so much easier for you. And that, in the long run, is the secret of most beautiful things, including dolls. Simplicity is ever more desirable than complicated and overtrimmed designs.

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