Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 296, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1915 — Christinas Gift Ideas for Boys and Girls [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Christinas Gift Ideas for Boys and Girls

By A. NEELY HALL

(Copyright by A. Ne«ly H»ll)

THE gifts illustrated below bare been designed along very simple lines wita the idee of providing articles that can be constructed easily with the tools almost every boy owns. The spool rack shown In Fig. 1 may be made out of a boxboard threeeighths Inch thick. The base piece should be cut about 4H inches wide and 6 Inches long, with the top edge

beveled off all around as sbpwn. Lacking a plane, the beveling can be done by rubbing the edge with sandpaper Thb two upright pieces should measure about 3 inches wide and 3 Inches high. Cut the sides and top of these on a slant as shown, being careful to get opposite edges equal. If you find it too hard to cut the edges slanted in this way you may leave them straight and possibly round off the top corners Instead. After preparing the upright pieces bore a hole through each threefourths inch below the top and large enough for a nail 4% inches long to slip through. If you haven’t a gimlet with which to bore, make the holes by driving a nail through the pieces. The nail forms a spindle for the thread spool to turn upon. Fasten the uprights at the edges of the base block with nails driven through the base into their ends. The size to make the little calendar board shown in Fig. 2 depends upon

the size of the calendar pad you can get Various sizes of calendar pads are sold in the stationery stores, and cost two or three cents apiece. When you get the calendar place it upon a piece of wood and mark out around it a design similar to that shown in Fig. 2. A piece of cigar box wood makes a very pretty board, and this wood is easily cut with a sharp knife. Fasten the calendar to the board with small tacks and screw a screw eye into the top edge of the board to hang up the calendar by. The whisk-broom holder shown in Fig. 4 is made of six easily cut strips (Fig. 3). Cigar-box wood will do nicely. Make strips A and B I*4 inches wide by 4 inches long. C three-fourths inch wide by 4% inches long, D 1% inches wide by the length of C. and E and F of the same size as C. Nail strips C, D, E and F to the edges of strips A and B, with C, E and F even with the ends of A and B, and the lower edge of D even with the lower edge of C. Allow the ends of the strips to project as shown. Screw a small screweye into the center of the top edge of strip D, by which to hang up the rack. Stain each gift with one of the modern stain finishes sold in paint stores, or, where you have used cigarbox wood, simply rub up the surfaces with boiled linseed oil (Copyright, by A. Neely Hall.)

THE shops are full of preUy cre-tonne-covered articles for a girl s room, and so simple are most of these to make that any girl who works carefully can easily duplicate them for acceptable Christmas gifts for her young friends. First of all, there is a sowing box. The proportions may be whatever you wish. If you don't find a box of the right size at home you can probably get it at the grocery store. The sewing box in Fig. 1 has legs made of strips 2 inches wide. 1 inch thick, and from 14 to 20 laches long, according to the height that you want to have the box. Fourteen or 15 inches is right if you wish to use the box as a bench to sit on. The cover of the sewing box should be wide enough and long enough to project % of an inch over the sides

all around. Therefore you must use the cover boards from a larger box. Nail a pair of wooden strips across them to hold them together (Fig. 3). These strips can be placed upon the under side of the boards in such a position that they will keep the cover from slipping from side to side, and from end to end. when it is placed upon the sewing box. By making the cover to lift off, you will save yourself the trouble of putting on hinges. Perhaps you can buy a large enough remnant in cretonne for your sewing box. The care with which you put on this covering material will determine whether or not the box will be a success. As a grocery box is more or less rough, and its boards are uneven, it is best to cover the wood with some other cloth, first, for a foundation for the cretonne. Stretch the cretonne over each surface neatly, and use gimp

tacks for fastening it Line the inside of the box with plain-colored cambric. Fig. 4 suggests how the inside may be divided off with cloth partitions. In the sewing box illustrated In Fig. 5 we have something of more elaborate form, though it is no more difficult to make. Fig. 6 shows how the frame is built of two upright strips nailed to one side of the box, and two crosspieces nailed to the uprights. The frame need not be higher than a chair back. Fig. 7 shows the box cover boards fastened together with crosspieces. Put on the cretonne covering in the same way as directed for the other

box. Fig. 6 shows how the frame ia covered, with a solid piece tacked over the back, and its edges brought around over the front of the framework strips. Make pockets out of extra pieces of. cretonne, to hold unfinished work, patterns, and notions; and form a heading in the pocket edges through which to run elastic. .Copyright, by A. Nwly HalU