Paper Dolls

I didn't like making paper dolls when I was little. I don't think I drew very well. Plus I couldn't get the clothes to fit the bodies. When I was little, I preferred my Dawn Dolls and my Fashion Flatsy's. I'd go into Mama's cupboard and I'd get out her scrap box. She let me take whatever in there that I wanted. I'd cut squares out of the prettiest fabrics. Then I cut holes in the squares for armholes, and make dresses for my dolls, and I'd put arms for holes. I cut strips to use as waistbands, and I cut out circles, with holes in the middle for my dolls to wear as hats.

I knew this wasn't real sewing. One time Mama helped me real-sew a doll's dress. It was very hard, and took a lot of sewing, and when I was done one of the arms was out inside-out. Mama sewed another one from the same pattern, which is how I knew mine wouldn't have been any good even if I had sewn it right. It wasn't really a dress, more like kind of a bathrobe, and made out of stiff, ugly pink-flowered cloth. I liked my own pretend-dresses, that were really just squares, but were long and pretty, and showed off the dolls' boobs.

The Den

The best room in the house is the den. Every day, Mama makes me have a nap-time there. I think she thinks I'm going to get mad, because I'm almost six now, and that's too old for naps. She says I don't have to sleep, I just have to go into the den for an hour and rest. What she doesn't know, is that that's the best time of the day. I can close the door on everybody else and be all by myself. I can do whatever I want, and there's nobody watching.