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A Goddess Paper Doll for Valentine’s Day
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It’s presidents day and I don’t have a president’s day paper doll, but I do have this slightly belated Valentine’s Day paper doll, so that’s what I am sharing today. She’s a goddess of love, but has more in common with 1950s pin ups than with ancient mythology.
Inspired by Larry Bassin’s paper doll book- Fun Frocks for Flo, Fanny and Fiona, today’s paper doll valentine was my own attempt at a pin-up-esque 1950s comic sort of paper doll creation. I had originally drafted her last year and I thought I would make her into a tri-fold Valentine’s Day card. That project never was finished in 2024.
So, last year, I had a preview of this paper doll, because I wanted to talk about how sometimes I start things and I don’t wrap them up.
This year, a few days late, I am now sharing her.
Is she exactly how I originally planned?
Nope. Not at all. She’s not a card, for one thing, and I had big aspirations for the background that never really came together.
Am I very happy with how she came out?
Yes, yes I am.
So, sure, it’s a few days late for her to be a paper doll valentine, but what’s a few days in the cosmic scheme of things?
Enjoy!
A Rapunzel Paper Doll by Ralph Hodgdon
If you want to win me over on a paper doll, basically all it takes is history or fairy tales, so imagine my excitement when I saw that Ralph Hodgdon had illustrated a Rapunzel paper doll.
Many of Ralph Hodgdon’s paper dolls illustrate various movie stars. He’s an incredible artist and I enjoy looking at his movie star paper dolls, but as I am not a movie star paper doll collector. But fairy tales? I am always up for fairy tales. Plus, this isn’t just a Rapunzel paper doll, but a glam 1980s Princess Bride meets Barbie experience I never knew how much I needed.
Seriously, check out that fantastic blue eyeshadow.
All right, so let’s talk the book- it’s the usual 8/16 page format. (16 pages, but one sided so 8 pages of content.) There’s seven dresses and the whole text of Rapunzel from a 1882 version of the tale from the Brother’s Grimm. So, this version includes all the brutal bits. Personally, I like fairy tales in all the gruesome glory, but I know not everyone feels like I do. The text does contrast a bit with the gowns, which are very very fun and colorful.
I’m just going to take a moment now and gush over this art. Look at the line quality here. How the folds of the gown and way the knuckles on the hand are indicated. The nails being illustrated through paint color rather than black line work. The highlights on the gems. The reflectiveness of the gold. I feel like I could examine this art for hours and learn things.
That’s before I even get into the hair… like seriously that hair..
I’m done gushing. I swear. Except the borders on the pages match the dresses! That’s fantastic. The care that went into putting this together is so evident and that’s just wonderful. There’s so many paper doll books feel tossed together and this does not. Such care and consideration went into this book.
So, if you want this one, you can grab it from Paper Doll Review. I’m very excited about adding the book to my little collection.
Wrapping up the 1830s in Paper Doll Fashions
To finish up my 1830s project, I thought I would offer this round up and write up about the whole decade with a gallery of all the paper doll fashions I drew, so you can make sure you didn’t miss any of them.
The 1830s is a transition period in women’s fashion. The early part of the decade is characterized by full skirts, gigot sleeves, ankle length skirts and lavish decorations. A softened, gauzy version of the 17th century ruff is often combined with high collars, a nod to historical fashions. Pelerine collars, large wide collars with lapels that extended down the front of the gown (see this dress) were very popular. Throughout the decade, the shoulders of gowns are dropped, creating a sloped shoulder line.
This is not an era of strong broad shoulders.
An 1830s Paper Doll
Fashion is not static of course and evolves. During second part of the decade, largely after Queen Victoria ascends the throne in 1837, the styles become more restrained. Sleeves reduce in size, skirts get longer, and details become more delicate. The sleeve, which had defined the style for many years, entered a transitional phase in the late 1830s. Once a large ballooning gigot sleeve, it began to evolve with the fullness in sleeves began to shift to the lower arm. One common way to adapt the wider sleeve into something more restrained was to gather or pleat the fullness into a tightly fitted upper arm and then allow the fabric to expand into wider sleeve as it came to the wrist. This style (see this dress and this dress) continued unto the early 1840s.
I could not be happier with how these paper dolls turned out. There’s 12 different designs here making up 24 pages. You can decide if you want this 1830s paper doll in color or in black and white for coloring. Enjoy!
A 1839 Dress for the Races for the Ensemble Eclectica Paper Dolls
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If you’ve ever watched Bridgerton, than you might know that in England in the 19th century there as a “social season”. The social season corresponded with the sitting of English Parliament and then went into the summer, usually ending around June. Basically, all the Lords had to leave their estates and come to London to do political work. There’s some debate when it “started” and I suspect these things, as with most things, didn’t have specific dates.
Unlike London, the Paris social season didn’t align with the sitting of parliament. Everything I’ve read suggests it was less formal. However, the races at Longchamp often marked the end of the social season in Paris. Longchamp was the place to see and be seen and show off the latest summer fashions. Remember that scene in My Fair Lady at the Ascot Races? That’s what Longchamp was for the Paris season- both a horse race and a big deal socially.
Published in Le Bon Ton, a French fashion magazine, these 1839 dresses are meant for Longchamp. These April gowns were trying to show the height of fashion for the races that ended the Paris social season.
I didn’t chose these gowns for their connection to horse racing. I picked them, because I thought they really show the transition into the 1840s. The dropped shoulders, the pleating at the top of the sleeve, the fullness right around the forearm coming into the wrist are all distinctive of the early 1840s and late 1830s. Plus, the details at the top of the sleeves and the longer skirts.
I wanted to end the series with something that really felt more 1840s than 1830s and this 1839 dress qualified.
When I started this whole project, I had intentions to continue through the 1840s and 1850s. Now that I am wrapping up the 1830s, I am not sure if I have the steam to keep going. I also don’t want to stop. So, I might see how I feel in a few weeks, because there is going to be a pause. After all, I don’t have the dresses from the 1840s finished yet.
In the meantime, I have some other content I’ll be sharing, including a wrap up post later this week to show off the entire 1830s decade worth of paper doll dresses.
Did you have a favorite? Let me know in a comment.
A Dress from 1838 for the Ensemble Eclectica
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I know I shouldn’t have favorites, but I do and this dress from 1838 is one of them. It was first printed in Le Follet, a french fashion magazine, in 1838.
I think this dress is so beautiful. The sleeves are a delight with ribbons and ruching. There’s a slight princess waistline with deep pleating. I’m 90% sure this is a dinner dress, because its paired with a bonnet, but rather a cap of ribbon.
To me, this gown is late 1830s in it’s most elegant. The early 1830s are whimsical and fun, but the later part of the decade gets elegant. And this is elegant.
All right, let’s talk about other details, as the decade came to a close, the sleeves got narrower with accent details falling right above the elbow. You see a lot of upper sleeve decoration. There might be a fashion term for this other than “upper sleeve decoration”, but I’ll be darned if I know what it is.
I didn’t do a lot of patterned dresses during this project, because the other details are so complicated so often in these historical dresses, that I felt like the extra lines from pattern would just be visual clutter.
I didn’t do many patterned dresses for this project because the other details are often so intricate, adding patterns just seemed like visual clutter. However, I loved the floral sprig pattern on this gown—it added so much to the simple silhouette, so I decided to go for it. If I’m drawing a dress from 1838, I figured I might as well include a pattern once in a while.
In fact, I had so much fun coloring the pattern that I made a second version for my Patrons. If you’re a Patron—free or paid—you can check out the periwinkle version over on Patreon.
In the end, this dress from 1838 is a favorite of mine for being elegant and having delicate details. I’m glad I took the chance to add a pattern to the design, as it really enhances the gown’s beauty. I hope you enjoy seeing it as much as I enjoyed bringing it to life—be sure to check out the periwinkle version over on Patreon!
An 1837 Dress with Ruffles for the Ensemble Eclectica Paper Dolls
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This 1837 dress is from France. So, I’ve hopped across the channel to Paris for this one. One thing to notice about French fashions is that they are a little more edgy than English fashion and necklines were much lower.
I mean, we’re not talking like thongs here. It’s still the 1830s, but the French fashions just aren’t as stiff as the English ones. Of course, English fashion magazines were constantly ripping off French plates and copying them, so I don’t know! It’s all a whirl.
Anyway, Le Follet, the magazine from which this dress is based, does not offer handy labels. You can see the plate from the Los Angeles Public Library. So, I don’t know for sure what the purpose of this dress was. Based on the sleeves, the design of the plate, and fabric colors, I am 85% sure it was daywear.
A few things you might be noticing about the second half of the 1930s- necklines get a little lower, sleeves are much full and skirts get longer. There’s also a reduction, I think, in general whimsy and fashion becomes more somber.
Personally, I find it less fun, but then I’ve always been a more is more sort of person when it comes to historical fashion.
One thing is I wish I’d done a slightly better job of planning my paper dolls hair. In hindsight, being 20/20 as it is, I could have done wigs and that would have made the curls less of a challenge work around with the bonnets.
However, I didn’t think of that until I was literally writing up this post.
I do plan to do something with these when they’re all done. A book perhaps or an Etsy download or something, because I have more dresses I haven’t posted. So, maybe when I get to that point I’ll figure out the hair.
The nice thing about working digitally is that figuring out the hair will not require whiteout. I do not miss using white out.
Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this little 1837 dress.
Next up, we’ll have 1838 and 1839 and then it’ll be a wrap on the 1830s paper doll project. If everything goes as planned, we should be done by the end of the month.
I’m so happy with how it all came together and I’ve learned so much in the process. I hope you’re learned something following along.
Soiree Styles for the Cut & Color Collection for my Patrons
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An 1836 Morning Dress for Ensemble Eclectica
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Today’s dress from 1836 is a morning dress. Morning dresses were very casual and usually worn in the morning. As I’ve mentioned before, clothing got progressively more formal as you moved through the day. So, morning clothing was the most casual. Ballgowns for evening events were the most formal. There were also court gowns worn at court, but that’s a whole subsection of 19th century clothing that I am not going to dive into in this 1830s paper doll collection.
So, back to morning dresses. Morning dresses still had come in all sorts of levels of formality of course- the actual bathrobe to the sort of “lounging clothes” that you might wear to run to the store. I can’t say I’ve never gotten groceries in pajama pants (though I confess I tend to avoid it unless I am really desperate.)
The fashion plate comes from Ladies’ Pocket Magazine from May 1836. Ladies’ Pocket Magazine was a English publication printed out of London and it came out monthly. I find the plates in it are very mixed. Some are lovely and some much less so. I think they are pretty poor in the early 1800s and get better in the 1830s.
A key accessory paired with morning dresses was a cap, typically used to cover the hair. These caps were elaborately styled despite the casual nature of the ensemble. The one depicted alongside this dress is ruffled, adorned with charming bows, adding a touch of whimsy and individuality. One detail I particularly loved in the accompanying fashion plate is how the ribbon on the cap intentionally does not match the dress, creating an interesting contrast.
When I rendered this dress, I think I did an okay job, but I don’t think I really effectively captured the shape of the sleeves. Still, given that this isn’t an era I’m super familiar with, I’m pretty happy with the outcome over all.
An 1830s paper doll evening dress for the Ensemble Eclectica
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As you know, if you’ve been following long since December, I’ve been drawing a series of 1830s dresses, trying to draw one dress from each year of the decade. So, today’s gown is an 1830s paper doll evening dress, specifically from 1835. You can see all the gowns I’ve done up to this point and chose your favorite. Don’t worry if you’re not as into 1830s fashion as I am these days, I do have some other non-1830s paper doll things in the works.
In general, the basic rules of dressing in the 1830s: High-necklines for day, lower necklines for evening. Long sleeves are usually less formal than short sleeves. Given these guidelines, what we’re looking at here is an evening dress intended for dinner wear. Not a ballgown, but something worn to a nice dinner party. As the 1830s continued, you begin to see slightly longer skirts as you can tell from today’s 1835 evening dress.
Fun fact: This was actually the first dress I drew for this whole project.
In choosing colors, I did my best to color match the original plate, because I found the deep maroonish-purple a really interesting color. Not one I would normally be attracted too. Wig got slightly edited to accommodate the paper dolls ringlet curls.
So, this design comes from a fashion plate in Ladies Pocket Magazine. The magazine was in print from 1824 until 1839. It published inferior copies of plates from other magazines, so the quality is sometimes lesser than what you see in higher end publications.
What’s interesting about Ladies’ Pocket Magazine is that it shows how fashion information spread, because magazines would simply copy each other. The cheaper the magazine, the more likely it contained copies from more expensive magazines. This information transmission pattern illustrates one way fashion spread from those creating trends to those following them.
It’s important to never forget that fashion magazines were aspirational. They didn’t always illustrate what people were wearing in a time period, as much as they illustrated what people aspired towards wearing. By the way, social media plays a similar role today. It’s going to be really interesting to see in the future how the fashion information landscape evolves.
I digress. Get me talking about fashion history and information ecosystems and you know, I will happily go on and on.
I hope you’re enjoying the 1830s as much as I am. Next up after this 1830s paper doll evening dress is a morning dress from 1836.
Exploring 1830s Women’s Underwear in Paper Dolls with Ensemble Eclectica
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The biggest fashion event of the 1830s was when Queen Victoria took the throne in 1837. Suddenly, curls were out and straight hair was in. Furthermore, Queen Victoria had a pretty conservative style, so necklines got higher and skirts got longer. Things began to get much less flamboyant as we move into the 1840s (which does make me a little sad.) Because of all the changes in hair, I thought it was important to make a second 1830s paper doll as well, so here she is. Her hair is parted dead center with curls over her ears. This impacted her bonnets in ways I hadn’t planned when I started.
Her walking shoes are based on this pair from Shoe Icons. I wanted to give her different shoes than my other 1830s paper doll.
Because I am creating paper dolls, there are technical limitations in illustrating underwear. It has to be able to be layered over properly for the gowns. So, I generally keep it simpler than it might have actually been in the time period. Really, early Victorian period women’s underwear was pretty darn complicated.
Late 1830s women’s underwear typically consisted of a pantalettes, chemise, petticoats, and a corset. The chemise was a loose slip-like garment made from lightweight cotton or linen, worn directly against the skin to protect outer clothing from perspiration. Chemises typically had wide necklines. Pantalettes (or “drawers”) covered the legs for modesty.
Her corset is based on this one from the Met. I made it blue, because I like blue. Speaking of corsets, the term “stays” was mostly out of use by this time. Corsets provided support through seams and cording, but more boning was starting to be used. (Boning, as usual, doesn’t mean actual bones. It’s whale baleen. Whale baleen was a by-product of the whaling industry, but that’s a whole different post on a whole different website.) By the end of the decade, corsets are starting to look like this with a lot more boning and a much more complicated design.
Are you still enjoying the 1830s with me? Ready to finish out the decade? Did you miss any of the paper dolls? You can grab them all under the early victorian fashion project tag.
Reflecting on 2024: The Year with Paper Thin Personas
So, it’s now 2025 and I am feeling a little like “Oh, where did 2024 go?” but I always feel that way at the end of the year, so what else is new? I had a very quiet end of the year mostly at home with my cat and my husband. Since I saw all my family for Thanksgiving, we didn’t gather again in December, which was quite all right with me. Sometimes a little quiet is very good for me and I traveled nearly every month of 2024, so I was very okay with not traveling in December.
Let’s talk about how the year 2024 went for Paper Thin Personas and my paper doll creations.
Four big things happened in 2024, two are sort of behind the scenes and two are fun paper doll projects that I got to work with other folks on. I rarely get to do that, so that was really nice.
Behind the Scenes Things:
- I got a new logo and color scheme, which I really like. (More about that here.)
- I got the site properly registered with Google Search Console (This is super backend, but was pretty easy once I realized what I needed to do and looking at my stats, I do think it made a difference.)
Fun Paper Doll Projects:
- I got to design the menus for the 2024 Paper Doll Convention in Indianapolis. It was so much fun. Really. The designs were cute and they came out beautifully, though I remember struggling for ideas for a while.
- My art was licensed by Colouring Heaven for their Paper Dolls issue 74 of their magazine. The magazine is available to order in a print version or a digital printable version. You can get it from newsstands in the UK, but since I don’t live there, I don’t know the details on that. I did get some copies for myself and I’ve been coloring them and they’re very fun.
Paper Thin Personas By the Numbers
So, according to Google Analytics, I got about a 50% increase year over year in visitors to Paper Thin Personas. Given that the site is held together with digital chewing gum, duct tape and string, this has strained all the things. I’m in contact with someone who I hope can fix up some things. So, that’s a 2025 problem to solve, but it is a good problem to have.
Over the course of 2024, I posted 56 times (mostly paper dolls), but there were some WIP posts and other things. I did 39 new paper doll posts and 12 exclusive posts for my Patrons.
I had 13 historical paper doll posts, 12 fantasy/sci-fi paper doll posts and 6 contemporary fashion posts.
I think my 1930s project and my current 1830s project skew the numbers a bit. All in all, I am super happy with these. I am very proud of the work I put together this year. Because 2024 was a very busy year for me professionally, I didn’t have nearly as much time to work on Paper Thin Personas as I had hoped. Most of the year, I felt “way behind”. Seeing these numbers makes me feel a little better about things.
So, what was popular this year? Let’s find out…
Top 5 Most Viewed Paper Dolls Created in 2024
- Valentine’s Day 2024 was my most popular paper doll this year. I’m very proud of her, so I am super happy you all like her too. Her wardrobe is mostly so impractical for where I live in Alaska.
- Fall Fashionista My niece helped me pick out colors for this paper doll, so I am super excited to see it on this list.
- Cut & Color Couture Series: A Steampunk Lady I wonder if this is on the list because it was popular, or because it was up for a long time without anything new being posted. Hard to say.
- Ensemble Eclectica: Specs & Posies Another one I think is very cute, so happy she was popular.
- Snowflake Sophistication: Winter Princess Paper Doll Also, one I love. I loved it so much, I sent it into Paper Doll Studio for their winter issue. Over the top princess gowns fill me with a strange sort of joy.
Top 5 of Posts in 2024 Over All
- Marisole Monday Modern Girl in Black and White remains the most popular post on the site by a huge margin with 13K views this year. It’s always the most popular post on the site, not idea why, but I strongly suspect it’s positioning on Google Image Search has everything to do with it’s popularity.
- Citrus Summer has impressively managed to push aside other contenders to slip right behind Modern Girl in popularity.
- Black and White Printable Paper Dolls…. Marisole Monday & Friends is a collection of three different black and white sets. Again, I have no idea why it remains so popular.
- Female Proportions for Drawing was a post I made for my own reference, but I am glad other people seem to find it helpful. It’s not very detailed, but it is popular.
- Calculating clothing combinations… is another one of my posts which always shows up in my top lists as I compile them. I have no idea why it shows up so often, but hey- a little algebra never hurt anyone. I think people use it for calculating packing for trips. I don’t think most people are using it to calculate paper doll statistics.
I really don’t think of the above list as being at all trust worthy. It rarely changes, honestly, these have beern the most popular posts on Paper Thin Personas for literally years. I debated even putting it out there, but who knows? Maybe someone finds it interesting.
Ever wondered something about Paper Thin Personas? Let me know in a comment. I’m always happy to answer questions and who knows? It might become another post.