Craft a Unique Doll's Table Using Only Four Tiles!

       I am crafting some furnishings for Barbie and Ken's doll house. The dining room will tastefully decorated in neutral greys with just a pop of bright color. Below is the tile table craft which was so easy to make. However, it is important to collect just the right supplies in order to make a table like this one. You will need the help of an adult when cutting into styrofoam core with a sharp blade and when mixing grout. Read all of the directions carefully when working with the supplies. Make sure mom or dad are helping you while putting this table together!

Above you can see that this unique mosaic table is the perfect size for our 12 inch dolls by Mattel.

Supply List:

• four printed tiles 
• hot glue and hot glue gun
• Styrofoam core for table base
• self adhesive grey grout
• candle holder (metal with intricate cut pattern)
• acrylic sealer
• black acrylic paint
• Exacto knife (Sharp objects such as these need to be used by an adult.)
• paper mache pulp

Step-by-Step Directions:

1. You will need to purchase four square tiles of equal size for this project. I purchased the tiles you see here from a family dollar store.
2. Measure the sizes of the tiles and add a 1/4 inch space between these tiles to configure the size of table's base you will need to cut for the project. I chose to make a table suitable for a 12 inch doll.
3. Mix the grout and spread it in an even thin coat onto the table's base.
4. Position your four tiles on top of this layer of grout and let everything dry thoroughly.
5. Clean the tiles surfaces gently with a damp, clean sponge.
6. Remove the handle and candle from the metal stand.
7. Turn the tile 'table' top over and draw around the metal frame's circumference on the backside of the foam core with a pencil.
8. Cut a groove where the circle has been traced and fit the metal candle stand inside this groove.
9. Flood the circular cut where the stand fits with hot glue.
10. Now fit the candle stand back into the groove firmly and let it dry completely.
11. Mix a small amount of paper mache pulp. Carefully spread some of this between any cracks left in the foam core around the candle stand on the underside of the table. Let this dry for a few days.
12. Paint the underside of the table and it's edges with black acrylic paint.
13. Spray an acrylic sealer onto both the top and bottom of the table. It is unnecessary to spray the metal stand.

Left, here are the items that I have purchased from both a Dollar store and Resale. These metal
 candle holders are relatively common place in the U. S. Remove the candle and handle from
 the stand so that the container may be used to act as a base or 'legs' of a doll's table. Center,
you can see that I have attached the candle stand to the base of my table by cutting a groove
and filling it with hot glue and then paper mache. Right, I finished this table with black
acrylic paint.

DIY a Gas Stove Top and Oven for Barbie's Family

       My kitchen stove top and oven at home is gas, so I chose to craft a similar model for Barbie's family and friends. The example below is just the right size for 12 inch fashion dolls; I have listed the exact measurements just in case you can not find a box with similar dimensions.

• You may like to visit Lena Wiese at YouTube to see a similar DIY of a modern stove for Barbie. Her stove is made from a plastic box.

Imani and Rachel love this gas range and oven. What fun they will have baking and cooking for all the other doll
family members! Imani thinks this oven has plenty of space to bake a large turkey for Thanksgiving.

Supply List:

• aluminum tape
• black acrylic paint
• a variety of buttons for oven temperature dials
• black rectangle bead for digital temp. display
• wooden tooth picks
• Velcro tabs (black if possible, or dots)
• recycled plastic sheet for oven window 
• hot glue gun
• small cardboard box the shape and size of an oven with cook top for Barbie and Ken dolls
• black construction paper
• wooden dowel and ball point pen cap for drawer pulls
• silver paint (spray or acrylic)
• masking tape

Step-by-Step Directions:

1. Collect a box or cut one that measures approximately 5"long, 7"tall, 3 1/2" wide.
2. Cut a door separately, 5"long, 4"tall.
3. Cut a window opening, 2 1/2'' long, 1 1/2'' tall.
4. Cut a piece of clear plastic slightly large and tape to the backside of the door with silver aluminum tape.
5. Cover the rest of the door with the same silver tape both inside and out.
6. Cover over all of the surfaces of the outside of the oven with silver aluminum tape.
7. Mask the interior of the oven with plain masking tape completely.
8. Paint the interior with black acrylic paint and let it dry.
9. Using the aluminum silver tape, tape the lower end of the oven door at the bottom only to cover the opening to the oven. The tape should extend to the inside of the oven from the door.
10. The Velcro tabs (or dots) should be positioned at both the top left and right corners of the oven door and also to a cardboard piece running across the interior top of the oven opening. The tabs should meet at both ends so that the door will remain shut when it is shut. (see placement below)
11. Now you are ready to add any details that you would like.
12. I cut my square gas burners from black paper and hot glued four tiny black buttons to the center of each burner where the gas flame would be on a real stove top.
13. Then I hot glued black painted toothpicks down the center of the stove top to mimic a grill.
14. You can hot glue buttons across the front of the oven, just above the oven door to act as burner dials and glue a black square bead to act as a digital clock and temperature gauge for the oven.
15. I also cut a cardboard shelf for the inside of my oven. It measures slightly under 3"x5"to fit the interior. 
16. I used white school glue to add toothpicks. Let these dry and then spray painted my shelf with silver paint. 
17. I had to glue in extra cardboard pieces to hold the shelf up. Don't forget to paint these extra cardboard attachments with black acrylic paint.
18. Wrap a wooden dowel the approximate length of the oven door with silver tape and hot glue it where you think the oven handle should be located.
19. Remove the silver clasp from an old dried out, ball point pen and hot glue this to the drawer panel below just beneath the oven door. I chose to ad this detail for looks only. The drawer doesn't actually open.

Left, Collect a box or cut one that measures approximately 5"long, 7"tall, 3 1/2" wide.
Center, Velcro placement, Button placement, Door attachment.
Right,  I used white school glue to add toothpicks. Let these dry and then spray painted my shelf with silver paint.

Left, I cut my square gas burners from black paper and hot glued four tiny black buttons to the center of each burner
where the gas flame would be on a real stove top. Center, You can hot glue buttons across the front of the oven,
just above the oven door to act as burner dials and glue a black square bead to act as a digital clock and temperature
 gauge for the oven. Right, I also cut a cardboard shelf for the inside of my oven. It measures slightly under 3"x5"to fit
 the interior.

DIY a Washer and Dryer for Barbie

Imani can't wait to get this bright yellow, front loading
washer and dryer set home! Each have digital panel
features and tiny dials made from buttons!

       Barbie's laundry room at our blog home is growing daily, so as you may well guess, the doll's are eager to use this newly crafted, washer and dryer set. 

       You can make a set just like ours but you will need to wait for mom and dad to bake quite a few pancakes, cakes and pies in order to recycle  containers like ours! Perhaps you can convince them to save the cornstarch in a different plastic container?

Supply List:

• two identical Argo Corn Starch containers
• cardboard
• masking tape
• aluminum tape (or grey duck tape)
• two identical tin lids from frozen juice cans
• an assortment of buttons
• hot glue gun and hot glue
• pictures of water and tumbling cloths from a magazine
• Mod Podge 
• white school glue

Step-by-Step Directions: 

1. Wash out the contents of each plastic recycled corn starch container.
2. Soak the outside of the containers in warm water and dish detergent to remove the labels.
3. Dry these off thoroughly.
4. Screw the lids back on or save these for another project like I did, and cut a round piece of cardboard the same size as the opening to tape across and seal.
5. Now use the masking tape to cover the entire area where the lids screw on the containers. 
6. You can cover this area with aluminum tape if you'd like. 
7. Turn the containers upside down so that these tops become the foot parts of the washer and dryer.
8. Hot glue the tin lids from the frozen juice containers onto the front of both yellow boxes to mimic the doors of your front loaders.
9. You can cut out water and clothing pictures from a magazine to fit inside the window parts of your round doors.
10. Glue these to the interior of the round tins and Mod Podge over them.
11. Now shape the cardboard panels with glue and tape to fit onto the top edges of each yellow machine. Then hot glue them in place.
12. Search through your buttons to configure dials/controls to hot glue in place on top of the silver panels. 

Far left, I saved these two corn starch boxes because of their shape and bright color for this project.
Middle, you can see that I was thinking here whether or not to make them top loading or front loading.
Right, I shaped two top panels for the controls, dials and buttons from cardboard and masking tape.
Then, I hot glued these to the top edges of each appliance.

Make Your Own Washer and Dryer for Your Dolls:

• How to make a washer and dryer for dolls using a tissue box
• A doll's laundry room including stacked washer and dryer
• Detailed photos of spinning washer and dryer for Barbie

Toothpaste Not Just for Whitening Teeth!

These dolls not only look clean, but they smell clean too, just like fresh mint!

        Try cleaning your dolls the way you clean your teeth! After purchasing these cabbage patch kids at a local resale shop in my area, I decided to give them a good brushing. These little figurines were so dirty and dingy, I thought that using a toothbrush would be just right for getting into those hard to reach areas. Then I used a dish washing soap for their yarn hair. I think that this experimental cleaning was quite successful don't you? Now my dolls look almost as clean as they were when first purchased!

What a dirty little doll; I hope that she can be restored!

Craft Lawn Care Tools for A Doll's House/Garage

Above left, You can see how I have shaped ordinary plastic forks and spoons into shovels
and a leaf rake using tape and paper mache pulp. Above right, a Barbie or Ken doll would
 be the appropriate size for the use of tools like these.

       The lawn care tools that I have made here are for a twelve inch doll. Later, I will include a craft about the making of a storage shed or tool shed to keep your doll's tools stored away. Until then, you can put them in a doll garage.

Supply List:

• plastic forks and spoons
• masking tape
• white school glue
• aluminum foil tape
• paper mache pulp
• sturdy scissors
• acrylic paints: green and black
• scrap corrugated cardboard
• clear acrylic sealer or Mod Podge

Step-by-Step Directions:

1. For the snow shovel, cut the handle from a plastic spoon, but leave enough of the spoon's lip to sandwich it between a corrugated cardboard cut out of a shovel shape along with a few drops of glue. 
2. Then tape this attachment firmly in place and let it dry.
3. Mask the lower snow shovel with aluminum tape and the upper handle with masking tape.
4. Now paint and seal the handle with green acrylic paint and clear acrylic sealer. 
5. The garden shovel is made from a plastic spoon and a bit of paper mache pulp. 
6. Cover the entire plastic spoon with masking tape.
7. Mix and shape the paper pulp around the spoon head to mimic a real garden shovel. You may find that looking at a real garden shovel improves this process.
8. Let the shovel dry until it is hard before finishing the project. This may take a day or two of leaving the spoon in the sunshine.
9. Cover this handle with aluminum tape and paint the hardened spoon head shovel black.
10. Seal the garden shovel with clear acrylic or Mod Podge.
11. For the leaf rake, you will need to cut the handles from the tines of two plastic forks.
12. Tape firmly together the remaining eight tines to only one of the fork handles.
13. Mask the entire surface of your leaf rake down to the fork tines only.
14. Cover the tines of the rake with aluminum tape only.
15. Layer and smooth enough paper pulp over the root extension of the fork pieces to create a rake like looking tool.
16. Let the pulp harden in the sun for a few days and paint it green before spraying the entire surface with clear acrylic.

More Garden Sheds:

• More Garden Sheds Among These Photos

How to Make Trash Cans for A Doll's Garage

Trash cans in the United States have decorative lids similar to the ones pictured
above. I also found an additional grey, plastic container that also looks very
much like a trash can to go inside my doll's garage. You can find all kinds
of containers to clean and recycle that will look like miniature versions of
things you find around the house in real life. 

       I crafted these realistic looking trash cans for a twelve inch doll's garage. (Barbie and Ken dolls) However, you can use larger or smaller recycled tin cans for larger or smaller dolls if you prefer. A tiny tomato paste can will suit a six inch doll's home and a larger 20 oz. recycled can will fit an American Girl's Doll house.

Supply List:

• 15 oz. tin cans
• foil tape or silver packing tape (Get this in a hardware store.)
• can opener (kitchen appliance)
• plastic juice bottles
• sturdy scissors
• masking tape
• cardboard
• plastic trash bags: white and black
• cotton batting
• box cutter or razor blade (Only adults may use this!)

Step-by-Step Directions:

1. Gather your supplies and remember that you must ask an adult to help you cut the garage can lid from the juice bottle's bottom with the box cutter before beginning.
2. Also ask an adult or older sibling to cut and clean the can of food before beginning as this may have a sharp edge. He or she may need to flatten that inside edge with the backside of a spoon before smoothing a large sticky piece of silver packing tape over it. Some can openers do not leave sharp edges and you will not need to worry about including this step if you own one like this.
3. Cut a narrow strip of cardboard to wrap and tape the edge of your trash can lip. While you are shaping this, continue to fit the lid over the tin can to make sure that it will fit once it is wrapped with aluminum tape.
4. Cover the entire trash can lid with aluminum tape to form the decorative lid.
5. Now line the interior of the trash can with a clean, trash bag cut down to fit the doll sized trash can.
6. Stuff your doll's trash bag with clean cotton and twist tie the ends shut.
7. Keep the trash cans inside your doll's garage and set them out curbside on the days that the imaginary trash collectors come by your doll's home.

      Above on the left you can see the empty, clean bottle of lemonade that I used to cut away a trash can lid for my project. The heavy, plastic molded pattern is on the bottom of this empty bottle and you will need to ask an older person to help you cut this out. On the right, is the bottom cut out and the cleaned tin can. I pressed a spoon around the inside lip of the can to smooth down any rough, sharp edges. Then I applied a very sticky aluminum tape to that cut area so that no child would be cut by the sharp edge.

      Above, you can see how the decorative stamped lid will fit onto the can. I also taped and glued a lip made from cardboard to the outside edge of the plastic lid before covering the entire lid's surface with very sticky aluminum tape.

     Left, I taped a cut piece of clean, black trash bag to the inside of my tin can. Then I filled the trash bag with clean cotton and twist tied the opening shut. Right, you can also turn the trash bag's edge over the top of the can like so if you want to create the illusion of the "can in use" for a doll display.

More Ideas for A Doll's Garage:

• For the doll that loves to work with wood...
• Miniature vintage toolboxes
• Garage & Gasstation miniatures

The Transforming Wand

       The play of young fancy meets us in the very domain of the senses: it is active, often bewilderingly active, when the small person seems busily engaged in looking at things and moving among them.

       We see this fanciful "reading" of things when a child calls the star an "eye," I suppose because of its brightness and its twinkling movement, or says that a dripping plant is "crying ".

        This transforming touch of the magic wand of young fancy has something of crude nature-poetry in it, This is abundantly illustrated in what may be called childish metaphors, by which they try to describe what is new and strange. For example, a little boy of nineteen months looking at his mother's spectacles said: "Little windows". Another boy two years and five months, on looking at the hammers of a piano which his mother was playing, called out: "There is owlegie" (diminutive of owl). His eye had instantly caught the similarity between the round felt disc of the hammer divided by a piece of wood, and the owl's face divided by its beak. In like manner another little boy called a small oscillating compass-needle a "bird" probably on the ground of its fluttering movement. Pretty conceits are often resorted to in this effort to get at home with strange objects, as when stars were described by one child as "cinders from God's stove," and butterflies as " pansies flying".

       This play of imagination upon the world of sense has a strong vitalizing or personifying element. A child is apt to attribute life and sensation to what we serious people regard as lifeless. Thus he gives not only a body but a soul to the wind when it whistles or howls at night The most unpromising things come in for this warning, life-giving touch of a child's fancy. Thus one little fellow, aged one year eight months, conceived a special fondness for the letter W, addressing it thus: "Dear old boy W ". Miss Ingelow tells us that when a child she used to feel sorry for the pebbles in the causeway for having to lie always in one place, and would carry them to another place for a change.

       It is hard for us elders to get back to this childish way of looking at things. One may however hazard the guess that there is in it a measure of dreamy illusion. This means that only a part of what is present is seen, the part which makes the new object like the old and familiar one. And so it gets transformed into a semblance of the old one; just as a rock gets transformed for our older eyes into the semblance of a human face.

       There is another way in which children's fancy may transmute the objects of sense. Mr. Ruskin tells us that when young he got to connect or "associate" the name "crocodile " so closely with the creature that when he saw it printed it would take on something of the look of the beast's lanky body.

       How far, one wonders, does this process of transformation of external objects go in the case of imaginative children? It is not improbable that before the qualities of things and their connections one with another are sufficiently known for them to be interesting in themselves they often acquire interest through the interpretative touch of childish fancy.

       There is one new field of investigation which is illustrating in a curious way the wizard influence wielded by childish imagination over the things of sense. It is well known that a certain number of people habitually "color" the sounds they hear, imagining, for example, the sound of a particular vowel or musical tone to have its characteristic tint, which they are able to describe accurately. This "colored hearing," as it is called, is always traced back to the dimly recalled age of childhood. Children are now beginning to be tested as to their possession of this trick of fancy. It was found in the case of a number of school-children that nearly 40 percent, described the tones of certain instruments as colored. There was, however, no agreement among these children as to the particular tint belonging to a given sound: thus whereas one child mentally "saw" the tone of a fife as pale or bright, another saw it as dark.

       I have confined myself here to what I have called the play of imagination, the magical transmuting of things through the sheer liveliness of childish fancy. The degree of transmutation will of course vary with the intensity of the imagination. Sometimes when a child dwells on the fancy it may grow into a momentary illusion. A little girl of four, sitting by the side of her mother in the garden, picked up a small pink worm and said: "Ah I you do look nice; how a thrush would like you!" and thereupon, realizing the part of the fortunate thrush, proceeded, to her mother's horror, to eat up the worm quite composedly. The momentary illusion of something nice to eat, here produced by a lively realization of a part, may arise in other cases from strong feeling, more especially fear, which, as we shall see, has so large a dominion over the young mind.

       This witchcraft of the young fancy in veiling and transforming the actual surroundings is a good deal restrained by the practical needs of everyday life and by discussion with older and graver folk. There are, however, regions of child-life where it knows no check. One of these is child's play, to be spoken of presently: another is the filling up of the blank spaces in the visible world with the products of fancy. We will call these regions on which the young wing of fancy is wont to alight and rest, fancy's resting places.

Building  fancy's resting place by the kids next door.

Sister Nell Goes to a Party Paper Doll

The Fashion-Doll Cut-Outs 

By Nandor Honti 

Above is a fashionable paper doll from 1925, two party dresses and a robin's egg blue cape.

       Cut out each piece, carefully following the outlines. Fold on dotted lines. Paste the matching numbers together beginning by pasting 1 to 1 and son on till all the numbers are used. Hold the pasted places together until the paste hardens enough to hold, so they will not slip apart.

Raggedy Ann And The Painter

Raggedy Ann And The Painter

       When housecleaning time came around, Mistress' mamma decided that she would have the nursery repainted and new paper put upon the walls. That was why all the dolls happened to be laid helter-skelter upon one of the high shelves.

       Mistress had been in to look at them and wished to put them to bed, but as the painters were coming again in the early morning, Mamma thought it best that their beds be piled in the closet.

       So the dolls' beds were piled into the closet, one on top of another and the dolls were placed upon the high shelf.

       When all was quiet that night, Raggedy Ann who was on the bottom of the pile of dolls spoke softly and asked the others if they would mind moving along the shelf.

       "The cotton in my body is getting mashed as flat as a pancake!" said Raggedy Ann. And although the tin soldier was piled so that his foot was pressed into Raggedy's face, she still wore her customary smile.

       So the dolls began moving off to one side until Raggedy Ann was free to sit up.

       "Ah, that's a great deal better!" she said, stretching her arms and legs to get the kinks out of them, and patting her dress into shape.

       "Well, I'll be glad when morning comes!" she said finally, "for I know Mistress will take us out in the yard and play with us under the trees."

Tossed in the air

       So the dolls sat and talked until daylight, when the painters came to work.

       One of the painters, a young fellow, seeing the dolls, reached up and took Raggedy Ann down from the shelf.

       "Look at this rag doll, Jim," he said to one of the other painters, "She's a daisy," and he took Raggedy Ann by the hands and danced with her while he whistled a lively tune. Raggedy Ann's heels hit the floor thumpity-thump and she enjoyed it immensely.

       The other dolls sat upon the shelf and looked straight before them, for it would never do to let grown-up men know that dolls were really alive.

Color dear old Raggedy covered in paint.

       "Better put her back upon the shelf," said one of the other men. "You'll have the little girl after you! The chances are that she likes that old rag doll better than any of the others!"

       But the young painter twisted Raggedy Ann into funny attitudes and laughed and laughed as she looped about. Finally he got to tossing her up in the air and catching her. This was great fun for Raggedy and as she sailed up by the shelf the dolls all smiled at her, for it pleased them whenever Raggedy Ann was happy.

       But the young fellow threw Raggedy Ann up into the air once too often and when she came down he failed to catch her and she came down splash, head first into a bucket of oily paint.

       "I told you!" said the older painter, "and now you are in for it!"

       "My goodness! I didn't mean to do it!" said the young fellow, "What had I better do with her?"

       "Better put her back on the shelf!" replied the other.

       So Raggedy was placed back upon the shelf and the paint ran from her head and trickled down upon her dress.

       After breakfast, Mistress came into the nursery and saw Raggedy all covered with paint and she began crying.

       The young painter felt sorry and told her how it had happened.

       "If you will let me," he said, "I will take her home with me and will clean her up tonight and will bring her back day after tomorrow."

       So Raggedy was wrapped in a newspaper that evening and carried away.

       All the dolls felt sad that night without Raggedy Ann near them.

       "Poor Raggedy! I could have cried when I saw her all covered with paint!" said the French doll.

       "She didn't look like our dear old Raggedy Ann at all!" said the tin soldier, who wiped the tears from his eyes so that they would not run down on his arms and rust them.

       "The paint covered her lovely smile and nose and you could not see the laughter in her shoe-button eyes!" said the Indian doll.

       And so the dolls talked that night and the next. But in the daytime when the painters were there, they kept very quiet.

       The second day Raggedy was brought home and the dolls were all anxious for night to come so that they could see and talk with Raggedy Ann.

       At last the painters left and the house was quiet, for Mistress had been in and placed Raggedy on the shelf with the other dolls.

       "Tell us all about it, Raggedy dear!" the dolls cried.

Color Raggedy as she gets new yarn hair.

       "Oh I am so glad I fell in the paint!" cried Raggedy, after she had hugged all the dolls, "For I have had the happiest time. The painter took me home and told his Mamma how I happened to be covered with paint and she was very sorry. She took a rag and wiped off my shoe-button eyes and then I saw that she was a very pretty, sweet-faced lady and she got some cleaner and wiped off most of the paint on my face.

Telling the story

       "But you know," Raggedy continued, "the paint had soaked through my rag head and had made the cotton inside all sticky and soggy and I could not think clearly. And my yarn hair was all matted with paint.

       "So the kind lady took off my yarn hair and cut the stitches out of my head, and took out all the painty cotton.

       "It was a great relief, although it felt queer at first and my thoughts seemed scattered.

On the line again

       "She left me in her work-basket that night and hung me out upon the clothes-line the next morning when she had washed the last of the paint off.

       "And while I hung out on the clothes-line, what do you think?"

       "We could never guess!" all the dolls cried.

       "Why a dear little Jenny Wren came and picked enough cotton out of me to make a cute little cuddly nest in the grape arbor!"

       "Wasn't that sweet!" cried all the dolls.

       "Yes indeed it was!" replied Raggedy Ann, "It made me very happy. Then when the lady took me in the house again she stuffed me with lovely nice new cotton, all the way from my knees up and sewed me up and put new yarn on my head for hair and - and - and it's a secret!" said Raggedy Ann.

       "Oh tell us the secret!" cried all the dolls, as they pressed closer to Raggedy. "Well, I know you will not tell anyone who would not be glad to know about it, so I will tell you the secret and why I am wearing my smile a trifle broader!" said Raggedy Ann.

       The dolls all said that Raggedy Ann's smile was indeed a quarter of an inch wider on each side.

       "When the dear lady put the new white cotton in my body," said Raggedy Ann "she went to the cupboard and came back with a paper bag. And she took from the bag ten or fifteen little candy hearts with mottos on them and she hunted through the candy hearts until she found a beautiful red one which she sewed up in me with the cotton! So that is the secret, and that is why I am so happy! Feel here," said Raggedy Ann. All the dolls could feel Raggedy Ann's beautiful new candy heart and they were very happy for her.

       After all had hugged each other good night and had cuddled up for the night, the tin soldier asked, "Did you have a chance to see what the motto on your new candy heart was, Raggedy Ann?"

       "Oh yes," replied Raggedy Ann, "I was so happy I forgot to tell you. It had printed upon it in nice blue letters, 'I LOVE YOU.'"

Color Raggedy as she reassures her friends that she is alright.

Back to the original stories index by Johnny Gruelle

Raggedy Ann And The Strange Dolls

Raggedy Ann And The Strange Dolls

       Raggedy Ann lay just as Marcella had dropped her - all sprawled out with her rag arms and legs twisted in ungraceful attitudes.

       Her yarn hair was twisted and lay partly over her face, hiding one of her shoe-button eyes.

       Raggedy gave no sign that she had heard, but lay there smiling at the ceiling.

       Perhaps Raggedy Ann knew that what the new dolls said was true.

       But sometimes the truth may hurt and this may have been the reason Raggedy Ann lay there so still.

Color the strangers who, at first, made fun of dear old Raggedy's looks.

       "Did you ever see such an ungainly creature!"

       "I do believe it has shoe buttons for eyes!"

       "And yarn hair!"

       "Mercy, did you ever see such feet!"

       The Dutch doll rolled off the doll sofa and said "Mamma" in his quavery voice, he was so surprised at hearing anyone speak so of beloved Raggedy Ann - dear Raggedy Ann, she of the candy heart, whom all the dolls loved.

       Uncle Clem was also very much surprised and offended. He walked up in front of the two new dolls and looked them sternly in the eyes, but he could think of nothing to say so he pulled at his yarn mustache.

       Marcella had only received the two new dolls that morning. They had come in the morning mail and were presents from an aunt.

       Marcella had named the two new dolls Annabel-Lee and Thomas, after her aunt and uncle.

       Annabel-Lee and Thomas were beautiful dolls and must have cost heaps and heaps of shiny pennies, for both were handsomely dressed and had real hair!

       Annabel's hair was of a lovely shade of auburn and Thomas' was golden yellow.

       Annabel was dressed in soft, lace-covered silk and upon her head she wore a beautiful hat with long silk ribbons tied in a neat bow-knot beneath her dimpled chin.

       Thomas was dressed in an Oliver Twist suit of dark velvet with a lace collar. Both he and Annabel wore lovely black slippers and short stockings.

       They were sitting upon two of the little red doll chairs where Marcella had placed them and where they could see the other dolls.

       When Uncle Clem walked in front of them and pulled his mustache they laughed outright. "Tee-Hee-Hee!" they snickered, "He has holes in his knees!"

       Quite true. Uncle Clem was made of worsted and the moths had eaten his knees and part of his kiltie. He had a kiltie, you see, for Uncle Clem was a Scotch doll.

       Uncle Clem shook, but he felt so hurt he could think of nothing to say.

       He walked over and sat down beside Raggedy Ann and brushed her yarn hair away from her shoe-button eye.

       The tin soldier went over and sat beside them.

       "Don't you mind what they say, Raggedy!" he said, "They do not know you as we do!"

       "We don't care to know her!" said Annabel-Lee as she primped her dress, "She looks like a scarecrow!"

       "And the Soldier must have been made with a can opener!" laughed Thomas.

       "You should be ashamed of yourselves!" said the French dolly, as she stood before Annabel and Thomas, "You will make all of us sorry that you have joined our family if you continue to poke fun at us and look down upon us. We are all happy here together and share in each others' adventures and happiness."

       Now, that night Marcella did not undress the two new dolls, for she had no nighties for them, so she let them sit up in the two little red doll chairs so they would not muss their clothes. "I will make nighties for you tomorrow!" she said as she kissed them good night. Then she went over and gave Raggedy Ann a good night hug. "Take good care of all my children, Raggedy!" she said as she went out.

       Annabel and Thomas whispered together, "Perhaps we have been too hasty in our judgment!" said Annabel-Lee. "This Raggedy Ann seems to be a favorite with the mistress and with all the dolls!"

       "There must be a reason!" replied Thomas, "I am beginning to feel sorry that we spoke of her looks. One really cannot help one's looks after all."

       Now, Annabel-Lee and Thomas were very tired after their long journey and soon they fell asleep and forgot all about the other dolls.

       When they were sound asleep, Raggedy Ann slipped quietly from her bed and awakened the tin soldier and Uncle Clem and the three tiptoed to the two beautiful new dolls.

       They lifted them gently so as not to awaken them and carried them to Raggedy Ann's bed.

       Raggedy Ann tucked them in snugly and lay down upon the hard floor.

       The tin soldier and Uncle Clem both tried to coax Raggedy Ann into accepting their bed (they slept together), but Raggedy Ann would not hear of it.

       "I am stuffed with nice soft cotton and the hard floor does not bother me at all!" said Raggedy.

Uncle Clem offers to share

       At daybreak the next morning Annabel and Thomas awakened to find themselves in Raggedy Ann's bed and as they raised up and looked at each other each knew how ashamed the other felt, for they knew Raggedy Ann had generously given them her bed.

       There Raggedy Ann lay; all sprawled out upon the hard floor, her rag arms and legs twisted in ungraceful attitudes.

       "How good and honest she looks!" said Annabel. "It must be her shoe-button eyes!"

The new dollies share

       "How nicely her yarn hair falls in loops over her face!" exclaimed Thomas, "I did not notice how pleasant her face looked last night!"

       "The others seem to love her ever and ever so much!" mused Annabel. "It must be because she is so kind."

       Both new dolls were silent for a while, thinking deeply.

       "How do you feel?" Thomas finally asked.

       "Very much ashamed of myself!" answered Annabel, "And you, Thomas?"

       "As soon as Raggedy Ann awakens, I shall tell her just how much ashamed I am of myself and if she can, I want her to forgive me!" Thomas said.

       "The more I look at her, the better I like her!" said Annabel.

       "I am going to kiss her!" said Thomas.

       "You'll awaken her if you do!" said Annabel.

       But Thomas climbed out of bed and kissed Raggedy Ann on her painted cheek and smoothed her yarn hair from her rag forehead.

       And Annabel-Lee climbed out of bed, too, and kissed Raggedy Ann.

       Then Thomas and Annabel-Lee gently carried Raggedy Ann and put her in her own bed and tenderly tucked her in, and then took their seats in the two little red chairs.

       After a while Annabel said softly to Thomas, "I feel ever and ever so much better and happier!"

       "So do I!" Thomas replied. "It's like a whole lot of sunshine coming into a dark room, and I shall always try to keep it there!"

       Fido had one fuzzy white ear sticking up over the edge of his basket and he gave his tail a few thumps against his pillow.

       Raggedy Ann lay quietly in bed where Thomas and Annabel had tucked her. And as she smiled at the ceiling, her candy heart (with "I LOVE YOU" written on it) thrilled with contentment, for, as you have probably guessed, Raggedy Ann had not been asleep at all!

Color Uncle Clem, guardian and true friend to Raggedy Ann.

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The Child's Way

James Sully, an English psychologist, minister and
professor of philosophy and logic.

       James Sully was an English psychologist. He was born at Bridgwater, Somerset the son of J.W. Sully, a liberal Baptist merchant and ship-owner. He was educated at the Independent College, Taunton, Regent's Park College, University of Göttingen, where he studied under Lotze, and at Humboldt University, Berlin where he studied under DuBois-Reymond and Helmholtz.

       Sully was originally destined for the nonconformist ministry and in 1869 became classical tutor at the Baptist College, Pontypool. In 1871, however, he adopted a literary and philosophic career. Between 1892 and 1903, he was Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic at University College London, where he was succeeded by Carveth Read.

       An adherent of the associationist his school of psychology, his views had great affinity with those of Alexander Bain. He wrote monographs on subjects such as pessimism, and psychology textbooks, some of the first in English, including The Human Mind (1892). His 1881 Illusions was commended by both Freud and Wundt.

       Sully opened an experimental psychology laboratory at University College London in January 1898. In 1901 he was one of the founder members of the British Psychological Society and in fact personally called the meeting at which the Society was formed.

       Sully died in Richmond, Surrey on 1 November 1923.

Articles by Sully: Edited by Grimm:

• The Transforming Wand
• Fancy's Resting Places
• In Storyland
• The Young Pretender
• The Mysteries of Dolldom
• The Serious Side of Play 

Raggedy Ann's New Sisters

Raggedy Ann's New Sisters

       Marcella was having a tea party up in the nursery when Daddy called to her, so she left the dollies sitting around the tiny table and ran down stairs carrying Raggedy Ann with her.

       Mama, Daddy and a strange man were talking in the living room and Daddy introduced Marcella to the stranger.

       The stranger was a large man with kindly eyes and a cheery smile, as pleasant as Raggedy Ann's.

The Ocean Fairies and Freddy

       He took Marcella upon his knee and ran his fingers through her curls as he talked to Daddy and Mamma, so, of course, Raggedy Ann liked him from the beginning. "I have two little girls," he told Marcella. "Their names are Virginia and Doris, and one time when we were at the sea-shore they were playing in the sand and they covered up Freddy, Doris' boy-doll in the sand. They were playing that Freddy was in bathing and that he wanted to be covered with the clean white sand, just as the other bathers did. And when they had covered Freddy they took their little pails and shovels and went farther down the beach to play and forgot all about Freddy.

       "Now when it came time for us to go home, Virginia and Doris remembered Freddy and ran down to get him, but the tide had come in and Freddy was 'way out under the water and they could not find him. Virginia and Doris were very sad and they talked of Freddy all the way home."

       "It was too bad they forgot Freddy," said Marcella.

       "Yes, indeed it was!" the new friend replied as he took Raggedy Ann up and made her dance on Marcella's knee. "But it turned out all right after all, for do you know what happened to Freddy?"

       "No, what did happen to him?" Marcella asked.

       "Well, first of all, when Freddy was covered with the sand, he enjoyed it immensely. And he did not mind it so much when the tide came up over him, for he felt Virginia and Doris would return and get him.

       "But presently Freddy felt the sand above him move as if someone was digging him out. Soon his head was uncovered and he could look right up through the pretty green water, and what do you think was happening? The Tide Fairies were uncovering Freddy!

       "When he was completely uncovered, the Tide Fairies swam with Freddy 'way out to the Undertow Fairies. The Undertow Fairies took Freddy and swam with him 'way out to the Roller Fairies. The Roller Fairies carried Freddy up to the surface and tossed him up to the Spray Fairies who carried him to the Wind Fairies."

       "And the Wind Fairies?" Marcella asked breathlessly.

       "The Wind Fairies carried Freddy right to our garden and there Virginia and Doris found him, none the worse for his wonderful adventure!"

       "Freddy must have enjoyed it and your little girls must have been very glad to get Freddy back again!" said Marcella. "Raggedy Ann went up in the air on the tail of a kite one day and fell and was lost, so now I am very careful with her!"

       "Would you let me take Raggedy Ann for a few days?" asked the new friend.

       Marcella was silent. She liked the stranger friend, but she did not wish to lose Raggedy Ann.

       "I will promise to take very good care of her and return her to you in a week. Will you let her go with me, Marcella?"

       Marcella finally agreed and when the stranger friend left, he placed Raggedy Ann in his grip.

       "It is lonely without Raggedy Ann!" said the dollies each night.

       "We miss her happy painted smile and her cheery ways!" they said.

       And so the week dragged by....

       But, my! What a chatter there was in the nursery the first night after Raggedy Ann returned. All the dolls were so anxious to hug Raggedy Ann they could scarcely wait until Marcella had left them alone.

       When they had squeezed Raggedy Ann almost out of shape and she had smoothed out her yarn hair, patted her apron out and felt her shoe-button eyes to see if they were still there, she said, "Well, what have you been doing? Tell me all the news!"

       "Oh we have just had the usual tea parties and games!" said the tin soldier. "Tell us about yourself, Raggedy dear, we have missed you so much!"

       "Yes! Tell us where you have been and what you have done, Raggedy!" all the dolls cried.

       But Raggedy Ann just then noticed that one of the penny dolls had a hand missing.

       "How did this happen?" she asked as she picked up the doll.

       "I fell off the table and lit upon the tin soldier last night when we were playing. But don't mind a little thing like that, Raggedy Ann," replied the penny doll. "Tell us of yourself! Have you had a nice time?"

       "I shall not tell a thing until your hand is mended!" Raggedy Ann said.

So the Indian ran and brought a bottle of glue. "Where's the hand?" Raggedy asked.

       "In my pocket," the penny doll answered.

       When Raggedy Ann had glued the penny doll's hand in place and wrapped a rag around it to hold it until the glue dried, she said, "When I tell you of this wonderful adventure, I know you will all feel very happy. It has made me almost burst my stitches with joy."

       The dolls all sat upon the floor around Raggedy Ann, the tin soldier with his arm over her shoulder.

       "Well, first when I left," said Raggedy Ann, "I was placed in the Stranger Friend's grip. It was rather stuffy in there, but I did not mind it; in fact I believe I must have fallen asleep, for when I awakened I saw the Stranger Friend's hand reaching into the grip. Then he lifted me from the grip and danced me upon his knee. 'What do you think of her?' he asked to three other men sitting nearby.

       "I was so interested in looking out of the window I did not pay any attention to what they said, for we were on a train and the scenery was just flying by! Then I was put back in the grip.

       "When next I was taken from the grip I was in a large, clean, light room and there were many, many girls all dressed in white aprons.

       "The stranger friend showed me to another man and to the girls who took off my clothes, cut my seams and took out my cotton. And what do you think! They found my lovely candy heart had not melted at all as I thought. Then they laid me on a table and marked all around my outside edges with a pencil on clean white cloth, and then the girls re-stuffed me and dressed me.

       "I stayed in the clean big light room for two or three days and nights and watched my Sisters grow from pieces of cloth into rag dolls just like myself!"

       "Your SISTERS!" the dolls all exclaimed in astonishment, "What do you mean, Raggedy?"

       "I mean," said Raggedy Ann, "that the Stranger Friend had borrowed me from Marcella so that he could have patterns made from me. And before I left the big clean white room there where hundreds of rag dolls so like me you would not have been able to tell us apart."

       "We could have told you by your happy smile!" cried the French dolly.

       "But all of my sister dolls have smiles just like mine!" replied Raggedy Ann.

       "And shoe-button eyes?" the dolls all asked.

       "Yes, shoe-button eyes!" Raggedy Ann replied.

       "I would tell you from the others by your dress, Raggedy Ann," said the French doll, "Your dress is fifty years old! I could tell you by that!"

       "But my new sister rag dolls have dresses just like mine, for the Stranger Friend had cloth made especially for them exactly like mine."

       "I know how we could tell you from the other rag dolls, even if you all look exactly alike!" said the Indian doll, who had been thinking for a long time.

       "How?" asked Raggedy Ann with a laugh.

       "By feeling your candy heart! If the doll has a candy heart then it is you, Raggedy Ann!"

       Raggedy Ann laughed, "I am so glad you all love me as you do, but I am sure you would not be able to tell me from my new sisters, except that I am more worn, for each new rag doll has a candy heart, and on it is written, 'I love you' just as is written on my own candy heart."

       "And there are hundreds and hundreds of the new rag dolls?" asked the little penny dolls.

       "Hundreds and hundreds of them, all named Raggedy Ann," replied Raggedy.

       "Then," said the penny dolls, "we are indeed happy and proud for you! For wherever one of the new Raggedy Ann dolls goes there will go with it the love and happiness that you give to others."

Color Raggedy Ann and her sisters.

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Raggedy Ann And The Kite

Raggedy Ann And The Kite

       Raggedy Ann watched with interest the preparations.

       A number of sticks were being fastened together with strings and covered with light cloth.

       Raggedy Ann heard some of the boys talk of "The Kite," so Raggedy Ann knew this must be a kite.

       When a tail had been fastened to the kite and a large ball of heavy twine tied to the front, one of the boys held the kite up in the air and another boy walked off, unwinding the ball of twine.

       There was a nice breeze blowing, so the boy with the twine called, "Let 'er go" and started running.

       Marcella held Raggedy up so that she could watch the kite sail through the air.

       How nicely it climbed! But suddenly the kite acted strangely, and as all the children shouted advice to the boy with the ball of twine, the kite began darting this way and that, and finally making four or five loop-the-loops, it crashed to the ground.

       "It needs more tail on it!" one boy shouted.

       Then the children asked each other where they might get more rags to fasten to the tail of the kite.

       "Let's tie Raggedy Ann to the tail!" suggested Marcella. "I know she would enjoy a trip 'way up in the sky!"

Color Raggedy Ann flying with the kite.

       The boys all shouted with delight at this new suggestion. So Raggedy Ann was tied to the tail of the kite.

       This time the kite rose straight in the air and remained steady. The boy with the ball of twine unwound it until the kite and Raggedy Ann were 'way, 'way up and far away. How Raggedy Ann enjoyed being up there! She could see for miles and miles! And how tiny the children looked!

       Suddenly a great puff of wind came and carried Raggedy Ann streaming 'way out behind the kite! She could hear the wind singing on the twine as the strain increased.

       Suddenly Raggedy Ann felt something rip. It was the rag to which she was tied. As each puff of wind caught her the rip widened.

       When Marcella watched Raggedy Ann rise high above the field, she wondered how much Raggedy Ann enjoyed it, and wished that she, too, might have gone along. But after the kite had been up in the air for five or ten minutes, Marcella grew restless. Kites were rather tiresome. There was more fun in tea parties out under the apple tree.

       "Will you please pull down the kite now?" she asked the boy with the twine. "I want Raggedy Ann."

       "Let her ride up there!" the boy replied. "We'll bring her home when we pull down the kite! We're going to get another ball of twine and let her go higher!"

       Marcella did not like to leave Raggedy Ann with the boys, so she sat down upon the ground to wait until they pulled down the kite.

       But while Marcella watched Raggedy Ann, a dot in the sky, she could not see the wind ripping the rag to which Raggedy was tied.

       Suddenly the rag parted and Raggedy Ann went sailing away as the wind caught in her skirts.

       Marcella jumped from the ground, too surprised to say anything. The kite, released from the weight of Raggedy Ann began darting and swooping to the ground.

       Where is Raggedy Ann?

       "We'll get her for you!" some of the boys said when they saw Marcella's troubled face, and they started running in the direction Raggedy Ann had fallen. Marcella and the other girls ran with them. They ran, and they ran, and they ran, and at last they found the kite upon the ground with one of the sticks broken, but they could not find Raggedy Ann anywhere.

Color Raggedy's friends who are afraid of where she has gone!

       "She must have fallen almost in your yard!" a boy said to Marcella, "for the kite was directly over here when the doll fell!"

       Marcella was heartbroken. She went in the house and lay on the bed. Mamma went out with the children and tried to find Raggedy Ann, but Raggedy Ann was nowhere to be seen.

       When Daddy came home in the evening he tried to find Raggedy, but met with no success. Marcella had eaten hardly any dinner, nor could she be comforted by Mamma or Daddy. The other dolls in the nursery lay forgotten and were not put to bed that night, for Marcella lay and sobbed and tossed about her bed.

       Finally she said a little prayer for Raggedy Ann, and went to sleep. And as she slept Marcella dreamed that the fairies came and took Raggedy Ann with them to fairyland for a visit, and then sent Raggedy Ann home to her. She awakened with a cry. Of course Mamma came to her bed right away and said that Daddy would offer a reward in the morning for the return of Raggedy.

       "It was all my fault, Mamma!" Marcella said. "I should not have offered the boys dear old Raggedy Ann to tie on the tail of the kite! But I just know the fairies will send her back."

       Mamma took her in her arms and soothed her with cheering words, although she felt indeed that Raggedy Ann was truly lost and would never be found again.

       Now, where do you suppose Raggedy Ann was all this time?

Color the robins who want Raggedy's yarn hair for their nests.

       When Raggedy Ann dropped from the kite, the wind caught in her skirts and carried her along until she fell in the fork of the large elm tree directly over Marcella's house. When Raggedy Ann fell with a thud, face up in the fork of the tree, two robins who had a nest near by flew chattering away.

Raggedy Ann in the tree

       Presently the robins returned and quarreled at Raggedy Ann for laying so close to their nest, but Raggedy Ann only smiled at them and did not move.

       When the robins quieted down and quit their quarreling, one of them hopped up closer to Raggedy Ann in order to investigate.

       It was Mamma Robin. She called to Daddy Robin and told him to come. "See the nice yarn! We could use it to line the nest with," she said.

       So the robins hopped closer to Raggedy Ann and asked if they might have some of her yarn hair to line their nest. Raggedy Ann smiled at them. So the two robins pulled and tugged at Raggedy Ann's yarn hair until they had enough to line their nest nice and soft.

       Evening came and the robins sang their good night songs, and Raggedy Ann watched the stars come out, twinkle all night and disappear in the morning light. In the morning the robins again pulled yarn from Raggedy Ann's head, and loosened her so she could peep over the side of the limb, and when the sun came up Raggedy Ann saw she was in the trees in her own yard.

       Now before she could eat any breakfast, Marcella started out to find Raggedy Ann. And, it was Marcella herself who found her. And this is how she did it.

       Mamma Robin had seen Marcella with Raggedy Ann out in the yard many times, so she began calling "Cheery! Cheery!" and Daddy Robin started calling "Cheery! Cheery! Cheer up! Cheer up! Cheerily Cheerily! Cheery! Cheery!" And Marcella looking up into the tree above the house to see the robins, discovered Raggedy Ann peeping over the limb at her.

       Oh, how her heart beat with happiness. "Here is Raggedy Ann," she shouted.

       And Mamma and Daddy came out and saw Raggedy smiling at them, and Daddy got the clothes prop and climbed out of the attic window and poked Raggedy Ann out of the tree and she fell right into Marcella's arms where she was hugged in a tight embrace.

       "You'll never go up on a kite again, Raggedy Ann!" said Marcella, "for I felt so lost without you. I will never let you leave me again."

       So Raggedy Ann went into the house and had breakfast with her little mistress and Mamma and Daddy smiled at each other when they peeped through the door into the breakfast room, for Raggedy Ann's smile was wide and very yellow. Marcella, her heart full of happiness, was feeding Raggedy Ann part of her egg.

Color Marcella in love with her doll, Raggedy Ann.

Back to the original stories index by Johnny Gruelle