As a kid, my favorite paper dolls were historical paper dolls. I had everything from paper doll flappers to knights. I still tend towards historical paper dolls in my own collecting, especially those depicting an era that I don’t see very often.
So, for last post of 2015, I thought it would be fun to post a round-up of all the historical paper dolls on Paper Thin Personas from 2010 when I did my first historical paper doll (a teddy bear with regency fashions) until 2015.
As some of you may recall, one of my goals in 2015 was to create at least ten historical paper doll posts in 2015. I surpassed my goal.
I wanted to make paper doll sets representing periods of fashion history that I either didn’t know much about or that challenged me to draw things that I would normally shy away from, because they were intimidating- like the patterns of the Tudor era or the ruffles and pleats of the 18th century.
Mostly though, I wanted to a chance to dig back into my passion for historical dress research which I had let slip a little as I went through grad school. So, today I am going to share every historical paper doll on the blog organized by era of history.
Updated to add: If you want to see all of my historical paper dolls as of 2021, check out my Historical Paper Doll Gallery. There’s dozens more of these in there. 🙂
Historical Paper Dolls with Fashions Before 1700
Anglo-Saxon Dress of the 900s
Brooches & Smokkrs: Viking Dress 10th Century
Tibbets and Kirtles: Dress of the Mid-1300s
A Lady at Court: Dress of the Mid-1500s (in England)
Cranach Gowns: 1500s Saxon Dress
Historical Paper Dolls with Fashions from the 18th Century
Children’s Dress of the 1700s
Fashions of the 1770s Created to Celebrate the 4th of July
18th Century Pixie Series: Three Dolls & Over 50 Clothing Pieces
Historical Paper Dolls with Fashions from 1800 until 1850
Empire Elegance & Regency Romance: Early 1800s
Flora, A Fashion Doll of the Regency
Flora has 17 pages of costumes. I have only featured her first set and last set here.
Emma & Lydia: Dress from 1800-1815
A Regency Teddy Bear
Historical Paper Dolls with Fashions from 1850 until 1900
In the Mid-1860s: Civil War Era Paper Dolls
Curves in the 1860s
Peach in the Park: Children’s Dress in the Late 1860s
Peach in the Park: Children’s Dress in the Early 1870s
Florence, A Fashion Doll of the 1870s
Florence has 23 pages of costumes. I’ve featured just her first and last set here.
Victorian Ballerina: Dress of the 1880s
Victorian Fashion Doll From 1886
Viola: Debutante of the 1890s
At the Seaside: Children’s Dress from the 1890s
Historical Paper Dolls with Fashions from 1900 until 1920
In the 1910s: A Lady of 1910
Art Deco Goddess & Jazz Age Baby: 1920s Paper Dolls
Faye Visits the 1920s
Lynn: 1920s Fashions
Historical Paper Dolls with Fashions from 1930 until 1950
Lois: 1930s Fashions
Curves: 1930s Fashions
1940’s Vixen: Dress of World War 2
Curves: 1940s Fashion
In the 1940’s
Smart Winter Clothes: 1940s Children’s Clothing
Historical Paper Dolls with Fashions from 1950 until 1970
Vintage Evening Gowns of the 1950s
1950’s Dolly
Fablous Fifties Suits
Sewing the Seventies: Dress of the 1970s
Time Traveling Paper Dolls
St. Patrick’s Day Since 1737
So, that’s it. Every historical paper doll set on the blog from it’s earliest days until December of 2015.
So, this there a historical era I haven’t done that I should? (I’m still working on Ancient Greece, but it has been slow going on the research front.) Let me know in a comment. 🙂
Didn’t you already do an ancient Greece set for Marisole? But I think I remember you mentioning that wasn’t really accurate, at least, not as much as it could have been.
I did a fantasy set inspired by Ancient Greece called Ancient Chic, but it has about as much in common with actual Ancient Greek dress as Xena: Warrior Princess had in common with actual Greek dress.
Awesome round-up, thanks for it! You’ve covered a lot of ground, historically speaking.
And as for missing eras, I am still very much partial to the 1620s and the 1830-1840s, both of which I know you don’t like! 🙂
Or Italian dress of the second half of the 16th century. But those also have a lot of frill and poofs and lace.
Oops, typo, 1630s, not 20s. My bad! 🙂
I actually have been working on a set from the 1830s and I am trying to learn more about the 1600s. It’s a century where there seems to be a large diversity of dress depending on region (not unlike the 1500s) and I am still working on learning what people actually wore vs. what paintings depict people in. I rather like the simple gowns shown in some Netherlandish paintings of the 1640s, but I haven’t been able to verify that such gowns were actually worn.
I can’t help with the 1640, but for 1600-1630, there is an amazing book out, sort of like the Janet Arnold books, but better, showing pictures and patterns of extant garments from the V&A collection:
http://www.amazon.com/Seventeenth-Century-Womens-Dress-Patterns-Book/dp/1851776850/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
I don’t own it, but I have read several good reviews of it.
🙂
Yeah, I don’t own it either. I have borrowed it from the library though. It’s a great book (and on my wish list), but it’s a little more focused on construction than I usually add to my collection. The X-rays of the garments are pretty fantastic though for seeing internal construction details and there are some amazing close up photographs of garment details that are outstanding.
I like the 1950s or 1970
Just wondering, what’s the “Deco” in Deco Goddess?
Deco is part of the term Art Deco. Art Deco was an artistic movement that helped define the 1920s and 1930s and waned after the Second World War. It is defined by streamline shapes, symmetrical patterns and geometric designs. Go to any major US city and you’ll see many post-World War 1 buildings with Art Deco styling. The fashion designers associated with the style are Pioret, Vionette, Erte, and Chanel.
Cool!
Great round-up! Some of these were new to me. The 1970s one is fantastic. And I always like the Pixie sets.
To be honest, a few of these I had forgotten about until I was going through the archives looking for them. It took a long time to put together this post, because some of the older paper dolls- I didn’t remember what I had drawn.
Love this post! I noticed there were several I’d either never seen or didn’t print. Love how it’s laid out chronologically! 2 of the dolls that I tried to print, came up that I didn’t have access to the site: visit to the 18th century & 1776. Is it possible to print these, or are you not allowing us to access those links? Just wondering. I love the historical dolls!
No. They should work. They worked fine for me. Try clearing your cache and then let me know. I recently had to put in a firewall on the site and the proxy system might be having a moment.
Never mind, I found them by looking them up by date. Thanks!
Great! I’m so glad you found them.
aany chance in getting them all in a single download?
Nope. Due to the different paper dolls having different scales (the Poppets, for example, are designed to be a half page where as Marisole Monday is designed to be 8 by 10), it’s not actually an easy thing to combine them into a single PDF. However, there are PDF downloads of all of them available on their individual posts, so you can pick and choose which ones you like best for downloading. 🙂
If the underwear was more accurate they’d be perfect. I want to use them for History lessons and I KNOW the kids will remember the bikini undies and not what I say!!
I can understand. I settled on versatility over permanent historical undergarments. That way if the Tudor doll wants to visit 1950s, she can. 🙂