A traditional dog made of three identical folded “shirts” slid into each other: one is the head, two are the body, and the sleeves turn down into four legs.
Why this level: You open pockets and pull hidden corners out of thick, three-times-blintzed paper, make the same unit three times, slide them into each other’s pockets and finish with standing legs and ears.
You need: 3 sheets of thin origami paper of the same size (a small dog looks best)
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This dog is built from three small folded “shirts” slid into each other: one is the head and two make the body. The oldest known instructions are in an American paper-folding book of 1928. Even earlier, a Chinese book of 1917 shows a tiger made by joining three clothes-shaped pieces. Nobody knows who first thought of it.
Did you know? A French book of 1949 shows the same dog, and with a slightly different head it becomes a fox.
You need three sheets of the same size. Start with one, white side up. Fold one corner onto the opposite corner and unfold, then the other two corners, to crease both diagonals. They cross at the centre.
Fold each of the four corners to the centre point.
Turn the whole model over.
Fold the four new corners to the centre point again.
Turn the model over again.
Fold the four corners to the centre point once more. The paper becomes small and thick.
Turn over: you can see four small square pockets.
Put a finger into the slit of the top pocket, open it, pull it upward and flatten it into a rectangle: the collar of the shirt.
Open the opposite pocket at the bottom in the same way, pulling it downward and flattening it: the waist band.
Behind the right point, unfold the two hidden corners above and below it out to the side. Then swing the right flap outward: the hidden paper comes out as a big point. Do the same on the left.
Fold each big point in half along the middle line, then fold the opened corners back behind along their old creases. The point swings round behind and hangs down as a sleeve. You have a shirt with a collar, a waist band and two sleeves.
Repeat steps 1–11 with the other two sheets to fold two more shirts just like the first. Now you have three: A, B and C.
Turn A (the head) over and lay it on the left with its collar to the right. Turn B and C so their collars point right too, without turning them over, and lay them in a row to its right.
Slide the waist band of B (its left rectangle) all the way into the collar pocket of A. A becomes the head and B the front of the body.
In the same way, slide the waist band of C all the way into the collar pocket of B. C is the back of the body, and the small square at the right end (Y) is the tail.
Turn the four sleeves of the body (B and C) down at the middle line where they are attached, until they stand at right angles to the body. They are the four legs.
Turn the two sleeves of the head (A) up at their middle line until they stand straight up: the ears. Stand it on its four legs and your dog is done! Draw the eyes on the head.