Such a dilemma. This was back when bread was less than 30 cents a loaf (yes, I’m that old), so $100 went a long way. That purchase had to be special something I’d never do normally, and first choice one was fabric to sew a beautiful burnt-orange wool coat with a hood. I’d sewn couture patterns in the past, and the coat turned out great.
There was money left over, totally outside my normal choices, so I bought a scroll saw, and, wow, was it noisy and fun. From measured drawings of real furniture, downsized to dollhouse-proportioned, that saw helped me create early American dollhouse furniture and doll-sized tables, benches and cupboards and then I sold them.
I’ll never know what possessed me to think of it, yet that saw inspired so much handcrafting.