YOUR MARIONETTES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22431, 18 June 1938, Page 5 (Supplement)

YOUR MARIONETTES

Making and Stuffing the Body

How are you progressing with your marionette figures? Last week, you remember, Lady Gay.told you just how to make the paper pattern tor these little dancing dolls. This week we shall learn how to cut out and stuff the bodies.

You will be able to have good times with these marionettes when you have finished making them. There is no end to the plays you can give, and the performances you will be able to stage. Marionettes are fascinating, but there are few girls and boys who' are fortunate enough to possess marionettes of their own.

THE STUFFING

1. Use inexpensive cotton-wool for stuffing: the body. Pack it in HARD.

2., When you stuff the legs stuff them as far as the knee, then sew ACROSS the leg to hold it. Leave a half-inch above this Without stuffing, and sew across again. This makes a knee joint. Stuff the lea

almost to the top, and pin it to tha stuffed body to see if it works be* fore sewing It, to the body. 3. Make the elbow in the same way as you made the knee. 4. Make the upper arm as yon dld i the upper part of the leg. 5. Gather the tops of the arms and sew them to the body. 6. Be sure that they will swing freely up and out. 7. A piece of lead wrapped in cloth and sewed to the lower part of the back helps the marionette to hold a sitting position.

BABY QUAIL

During the summer holidays my lister Cathleen and I were going over to the old stack when suddenly two quail flew up from the ground, making quaint sounds. Cathleen said, “Oh, look at that little bird. It is a baby quail.” It was very much like a baby bantam. j

We saw five baby quail, and after we went away the two old quail came back. We saw them several times at the old stack.

. I think quail are very pretty, don’t you?

—MARGARET MACDONALD (aged 13), Yaldhurst

THEY ARE WARM

I think the trees look very bare and leafless now; they look cold

and lonely, too. But I don’t suppose they are, because sap must be pulsing through them and so warming up the gaunt branches. —JOYCE McLOUGHLIN,, Dunsandet

Why did the oven slide? Because it saw the kitchen sink* —TEIELMA HURST. ■