The Pioneer School children did not have access to kitchen workplaces or a refrigerator, so their meals were simple and had to be carried inside a simple bucket. This lunch pail can be made of wood or tin which seems to be preferred – as it is lightweight. Some children may simply carry their items wrapped in a large handkerchief or also inside a small basket.
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| Ready-to-go lunch pails for the leading dolls. |
Supply list: tin-look lunch pail
- Toilet paper, cardboard tube
- Chenille trunk or scrap wire
- white school glue
- extra carton (maybe)
- Recycled tin lid from dinner roll packaging (optional)
- Scrap fabric or tinsel to line the pail
- masking tape
- Acrylic paints: gray or metallic look
- threads or threads
Step-by-step instructions for tin lunch pails:
- Cut a paper tube to the size you’d like your doll’s lunch pail to be. Mine is about 2 inches long.
- You may need to layer this cardboard tube if you feel it is not strong enough to play with. Use white school glue between the layers of cardboard.
- Use masking tape to cover a tin lid from a dinner roll tube and stick it to the bottom of a lunch pail. If you have another cover, it can be used for the cover. However, this is optional. (Cardboard covered with duct tape works well enough for this step if you’re short on a recycled tin lid.)
- Cover the rest of the tube with duct tape to make it more durable for play.
- Glue on the twin around the center of the outer sides to give the pail a little texture and curl.
- Paint the doll’s tin pail with colored pewter acrylic paints.
- Punch holes directly across from each other on both sides of the pail.
- Twist and bend a wire handle for doll to carry her lunch pail.
- Paint the wire to match the pail.
- A layer of white school glue and patterned check paper inside the lunch pail. Let dry, then cut up some calico to use to wrap your lunch items to stick inside the pail.
Foods pioneer children may carry in their lunch pail to eat at school include: apples and other seasonal fruits, corncakes or sometimes called Johnnycakes, baked potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, homemade slices of bread, pickles, dried fruit, simple sandwiches, and cured meats. These items will be wrapped in a cloth napkin to prevent insects from landing on the food while it sits in the lunch pail until it’s time to eat. I made some of these food items with clay and painted them.
To make the wooden pail you will need: small clothespins, a tube of tissue paper, hot glue, white school glue, brown acrylic paint, wire, and scrap paper or fabric for the interior finishing of the wooden lunch pail.
Step-by-step instructions for wooden lunch pails:
- Cut the paper tube to size, approx. 2 inches
- Break out clothespins, these little buckets are made with these halved sides.
- Hot glue the nails around the paper tube. Try to evenly space these out if you can.
- Hot glue a wire handle to a shaped inside pale.
- Glue the bottom of a cardboard bucket.
- Paint the wooden lunch pail brown.
- You can stick wire around the outside of the bucket to hold the wooden clothespins together.
- Cover the inside of the faded wood with layers of glue and the cloth/paper to finish off the surfaces.
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| On the left, the bottoms of each pail, wooden with a paper bottom painted in silver acrylic and The sides are made using loose clothespins, stained brown. The tin pail has a real tin bottom (Lid). Its sides are coated with toilet paper tubes. At right, see blue and white checker paper liner Inside each such bucket is unscrewed pages. When lunch pails are packed the food is also packed In gauze or calico napkins. |