A Big Skirted Princess Dress, Anyone?

This Princess dress design for the paper dolls features buttons, autumn motifs and colors. There's a steampunk princess element as well with the top hat and boots. You can also print it in black and white for coloring if you wish.

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There are genre’s I come back to over and over again. Some of them are themes like post-apocalyptic or fairies. Others are more like fashion styles. On of them is what I call “Big Skirted Princess Dresses.”

One thing you must know about me is that I was a child of 1980s and 1990s. That means, I grew up with Disney movies like Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid (which terrified me so much as a child I refused to watch it again until I was in my 30s.) I also grew up with paper dolls of these movies and the paper dolls of Peck-Grande who made the most amazing fairy tale paper dolls. Seriously. Check out their Beauty and the Beast paper doll or Sleeping Beauty paper doll. Also big skirted over the top dresses were sort of a thing in the 1980s and early 1990s.

So, in my head, fairy tale dresses with huge skirts and crazy decorations are just what princesses wear. Plus the big skirts give lots of room for added decoration.

Today’s foray into the big-skirted-princess-gown genre has a bit of a steampunk vibe. I really wanted this dress to feel autumnal, just like I think the other big-skirted dresses I have done feel like they are from other seasons. This one was my winter dress and this one was my summer/spring dress.

Do let me know what you think of today’s post in a comment. I love to hear from you. If you want to support the blog, think about donating through Patreon.

Need  a doll for today’s clothing? All the B Pose Dolls & Clothing

Carlos and His Fantasy Outfit

A paper doll man with a medieval inspired fantasy outfit to print in color or black and white for coloring. A great rainy day activity for kids.

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Doing Friday’s round up made me feel a little guilty. The poor C Pose guys just haven’t gotten as much love as the others. A big thank you to Nicole who kindly gave me a suggestion for some ancient Greek inspired attire for them. This is clearly not that, but I do like the idea and I think I will begin exploring it.

This is, instead, Carlos getting some generic medieval fantasy attire that fits right in with this outfit and this outfit.

I was never 100% keen on my first version of Carlos. Something about his chin kinda bothered me… so for my second version, I solved the problem by giving him a beard. Confession- I love beards. (Within reason, there’s a critical line between a well groomed beard and a mess that is gross.)

Color scheme wise, I really wanted to avoid colors I’ve used before, so I went with this sort of sharp olive green and dusty blue thing. I actually really like these colors in general and I think they look especially nice with Carlos’ skin tone.

Of course, there’s always the black and white version you can color anyway you like.

Meanwhile, if you love the blog and want to support PTP, I do have a Patreon page for donations.

Need a clothing for today’s paper doll? All the C Pose Dolls & Clothing

All the A Pose Paper Dolls So Far

So, I was going to do a normal week of paper doll content and then I realized this was going to the 100th Dames and Dandies paper doll post and I wanted to do something different to celebrate.

This week is going to be a week of round-ups. So, here’s every A Pose Dame for the Dames & Dandies from January until today.

Tomorrow, there will be very B Pose paper doll and then all the C Pose paper dolls.

I organized them by theme, rather than by date.

A Pose: Printable Paper Dolls 1/1/2018 – 10/3/2018

The Paper Dolls

The Historical Paper Doll Clothing

The Fantasy, Sci-fi, Steampunk Paper Doll Clothing

The Contemporary Paper Doll Clothing

And that’s them all! Woot!

And if you’d like to help support the blog consider becoming a Patron, there’s a bunch of extra color schemes there for A Pose posts.

Is there a theme you’d love to see for the A Pose Dame paper dolls? A fairy? A mermaid? More science fiction? A specific time period? Let me know in a comment!

A 1920s Paper Doll Dress With Hats Based on Designs from Catalog Pages

1920s paper doll dress and hats based on the catalogs of B. Altman and Company and Sears from paperthinpersonas.com. Available to print in color or in black and white.

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And once more into the 1920s my friends. Once more.

Today’s dress, hat and purse are both based on a design from B. Altman and Company. B. Altman and Company was a luxury department store, so the clothing tends to be very fashionable and on the more expensive side. 1920s Fashions from B. Altman & Company is a collection of reprints from their catalogs from Dover Publishers that I used.

The other hat was adapted from a design from Sears, another major department store of the era. Also from a Dover book, but that time I used Everyday Fashions of the Twenties: As Pictured in Sears and Other Catalogs also from Dover. Both of these books are pretty easy to find on the secondary market for reasonable prices.

In case you’ve missed any of my 1920s paper doll series, here’s what I’ve created so far.

The 1920’s Doll & Her Dresses

In the works is some 1960s clothing for the paper dolls (as voted on by my Patrons), but I have no idea when those dolls will be done. I also really want to do some more older historical styles like the 13th century, but I haven’t really tried to tackle that yet. Soon, I hope.

Meanwhile, enjoy my foray into the 1920s.

And if you’d like to help support the blog (I very much run PTP through the NPR model- no ads and maybe people will be nice enough to help me offset costs) consider becoming a Patron.

Need a doll to wear today’s paper doll clothing? All the A Pose Dolls & Clothing

Cameron: The Elven Prince Paper Doll Version

A black elven fantasy prince paper doll with dreadlocks to print and play with from paperthinpersonas.com.

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Today’s paper doll is the first C Pose Dandies to get a what I think of as a “Themed” set. It’s Cameron and he’s an elven prince with his crown and everything.

I knew from the beginning of the Dames and Dandies series that having a consistent guy paper doll series was important. First off, I get a lot of requests for guy paper dolls from parents and I also know that I’m not the best artist, so I don’t like trying to draw poses to scale of each other if I haven’t started with that goal.

Figure drawing and I… Well, I won’t say we’re enemies, but we are not friends.

But guy paper dolls were never my favorites as a kid. I struggle even today to sort out what to draw for them, because my ideas tend default to ladies. This is nothing against guy paper dolls, but I’ve been drawing lady paper dolls since I was… like ten?

And I’ve been drawing guy paper dolls for… four years? Maybe?

Moral of the story, I just like drawing girls more.

Anyway, I wanted to do an elven prince and I thought it wold be fun to feature Cameron. There was going to be a Viking version of Cyrus and… I had plans.

But the Viking hair/wig I created for Cyrus totally didn’t fit (oops) and so there’s no Viking to go with our elf. So, this won’t be the “week of C Pose” that I had originally planned it to be.

But this is the first day of October and that means Inktober has begun! For those of you who are Patrons, this is old news. For those of you who aren’t, Inktober is a project where people (mostly on Instagram) draw pen and ink drawings for the month of October and post them. Some folks do one a day. Some folks do one a week. My goal is ten over the course of October. Follow me on Instagram if you want to see the drawings.

And, of course, I always love to hear from you, so leave me a comment and let me know what you think of Cameron, elven prince.

Need a clothing for today’s paper doll? All the C Pose Dolls & Clothing

A Fantasy Viking Paper Doll Costume

A printable paper doll dress with boots, a comb and knife inspired by Viking apron dresses and Norse mythology. It's free to print in black and white or in color, but it's not very historical.

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So, I first got into viking clothing back when I did a ton of research and created my Viking paper doll and wrote a little article about 10th century Viking dress. It was fun, don’t get me wrong, but a lot of work.

The truth is that while I enjoy drawing historical paper doll clothing, there’s always some pressure there. I want things to be accurate (to the best of my ability) and well cited.

So, sometimes I just want to draw something that is inspired by a period of time without feeling like I need to do track down a source to justify my decision. This was one of those times. I just wanted to drawn an apron-dress.

I didn’t want to mess around with trying to decide of dwarf brooches were worn by unmarried women and how long the dress was based on fragments of braid found in graves.

I mean, that’s all fascinating stuff, but… sometimes I just want to draw a worm ouroboros and be done with it. That’s the symbol on her apron. It’s a serpent biting its own tail and it shows up all over the world.

In Norse mythology (for those of you who weren’t obsessed with the ouroboros in high school), the serpent Jörmungandr encircles the earth, biting its own tail forming an ouroboros. Ragnarok (the end of the world) will begin when Jörmungandr lets go of its tail. Thor, the God of Thunder, will fight Jörmungandr, slay it and then die from the poison of the serpent.

Anyway, along with her apron-dress, she has a pair of fur wrapped boots, a knife, cup and comb.

This dress went through several different color schemes. This color scheme was my second one. My first attempt was yellow, reds and greens and I just didn’t like it as much as this blue and yellow version. I did toss up on my Patreon page. Head over there to download and print it, if you want a second color scheme for today’s dress or to build more of a fantasy viking wardrobe. While you’re there, think about joining to help keep the blog on the internets. It really does help offset my costs. 

Need a Doll to wear today’s outfit? All the B Pose Dolls & Clothing

A Tiered Evening Gown For the B Pose Ladies

An evening gown for the B Pose paper dolls based on a design from the Marchesa Pre-Fall 2016 collection. The gown has a deep v neckline and a tiered skirt. There is a matching clutch.

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I thought it would be fun to end the week with a fancy paper doll gown since I posted my paper doll tuxedo last week. So, here’s an evening gown for the B pose ladies based on this evening gown from Marchesa’s Pre-Fall 2016 collection. I loved the shape of the original gown.

In case you are wondering, the low cut neckline of the gown is possible because of the skimpy underwear of the B pose ladies. Without those handy leaves, the neckline on this dress wouldn’t be possible. That’s why I tend to draw such skimpy undergarments for my paper dolls. I don’t want to be limited in my neckline options.

Today’s gown isn’t a perfect reproduction of the Marchesa Pre-Fall 2016 evening gown. To start with, my gown isn’t made from lace and the skirts are a lot fuller. I wanted this to feel like a confection. The sort of light weight floating thing that would move beautifully when you walked if, you know, paper dolls could walk.

Marchesa is one of my favorite designers. I adore the elegant evening wear the line produces even though I don’t think I’m skilled enough to draw most of it. The highly detailed textiles they use are hard to render in ink. I think perhaps I just need more practice.

Secretly, I also like drawing evening gowns, because they tend to be complete unto themselves. I don’t have to think about tops and bottoms. I can just draw the gown and maybe a matching bag. They feel like less work than separates and, unlike cocktail dresses, I don’t feel a strange need to always draw two. One evening gown will do.

So, I guess you could say I also look at evening gowns as a lazy option.

I did draw a version of this dress during my #100dressesproject on Instagram. It was dress 41. I also shared the sketchbook page on Instagram back in July. Follow me there if you want more sketchbook pages or join Patreon if you want to help keep the blog on the internet and see behind the scenes stuff and get a totally different color scheme for today’s down. 

Need a clothing for today’s paper doll? All the B Pose Dolls & Clothing.

A Foray Into Goth Paper Doll Fashions

A set of goth paper doll fashions for the A pose paper dolls from paperthinpersonas.com. The set includes a black picture hat, scull covered leggings, a t-shirt with a coffin on it and a black tunic with a corset belt. You can print them in color or black and white for coloring.

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All fashion styles (main-steam and not) go through evolution. The goth fashion of my teenage years is not the goth fashion of today. Sure, there is some similarities- lots of black, references to death, and corsets. However, like all fashion, it has trends like anything else. When I was younger, goth fashion was a lot of long flared skirts, corsets, crop tops to show off belly-button rings and boot-cut vinyl pants.

Today’s goth fashion (as far as I have observed) is a lot more leggings, tunic tops and large picture hats.

So, I wanted to capture that when I was designing today’s set of goth paper doll clothing. The first challenge was the leggings. A lot of Gothic style leggings are heavily patterned. I chose skulls (something I’m not great at drawing) and roses to go on mine with a background of polka-dots. Conceptually, I wanted the shoes to feel a bit Victorian boot like, but I’m not sure I succeeded in that. I think I should have made them more chunky.

The blouse is based on several I saw online, primarily this one. The hat comes from images like this and this. I wanted it to be clear that the corset belt it part of the blouse, not a separate piece, but I’m not sure I succeeded. Frankly, this whole set is one that I feel like I could have done better on.

The red shirt with the coffin was really my attempt at a gothic t-shirt that wasn’t a band reference, a pentagram (I have several pagan friends and I try not to depict religious symbols in my art that aren’t my own) or a sarcastic saying. Lettering is challenging at the scale I tend to work at.

I made the shirt red, so I could make the coffin black. Otherwise, you can’t really tell it is a coffin.

And on the coffin is a wee little skull.

So, that’s how I ended up with today’s goth paper doll fashions.

All right, so how did I do with my goth fashion attempt? Are there any goth fashion affection-adios out there who can tell me if I am totally off the mark? Let me know in a comment.

And if you love the blog and want to support it, I’m always happy to get more Patrons. You can sign up here.

Need a doll to wear today’s paper doll clothing? All the A Pose Dolls & Clothing

A Post- Apocalyptic Mini-Wardrobe For A Pose Dames

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So, I knew I weanted to do a mini-wardrobe for the A Pose dolls since my two other mini-wardrobes were for the B Pose paper dolls. It was actually kind of difficult to come up with a theme for one. I wasn’t really interested in doing contemporary fashion, but we are getting close to September and that’s my favorite month for fashion magazines.

Settling on post-apocalyptic, I then thought about mix and match options. Mini-Wardrobes are mini-wardrobes in my head, because they have a variety of outfit options. That usually translates to at least two bottoms and more than two tops. I started with the cropped jacket thing actually and then worked my way through potential layering pieces.

Most of these post-apocalyptic paper doll clothing designs were inspired by things from my Post-Apocalyptic Fashion Pinterest board. The skirt and the cropped jacket thing were both based on these designs. The pants were based on this pair.

The rest of the designs were largely meant to fit in with those piece, rounding things out to increase mix and match options. Mathematically speaking, there are 18 clothing combinations, not including the fact that there are gloves or the fact the that the paper dolls could be barefoot. So, I do think this is a pretty successful paper doll collection, all things considered.

What do you think? Good set of mix and match options? Let me know in a comment. 

Need a doll to wear today’s paper doll clothing? All the A Pose Dolls & Clothing

Aisha in Two Different Styles

A pair of paper dolls to print from paperthinpersonas.com. Free to print in black and white or in color.

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I think of these paper dolls as the- No-Nonsense Hair Aisha (left) and the Cotton Candy Retro Aisha (right). I went back and forth and back and forth about the color of Cotton Candy Retro Aisha (right) eyebrows. I mean, most people don’t dye their eyebrows to match their hair, but the black eyebrows just didn’t look right with the pink hair and brown eyebrows didn’t have enough contrast and… so, I went with pink eyebrows. Maybe she’s from some sci-fi universe and genetically engineered to have pink eyebrows.

I have some retro-space suits I have been working on, so maybe that’s the cause of her pink eyebrows.

Meanwhile, I designed two different pairs of shoes to go with these paper dolls. The blue shoes are scalloped which is a really popular design feature right now and the black and white sandals are dressed up flip-flops. I love slip on sandals in the summer time. I’d like to say because I go to the beach or something else “fun,” but really because it’s easier to slip into them when checking my mail or taking out the trash.

My life is not that exciting.

Meanwhile, enjoy the paper dolls! We’ll be back to outfits next week (with a Collaboration 2018 Paper Doll on Friday) and then it’ll be September. Don’t worry about other Dames. They have double sets too! I’m just feeling like I want to go back to some clothing for a few posts. All the new dolls need things to wear after all, but the rest of the girls will get up here soon.

Time has flown this year!  Meanwhile, if you’re feeling clothing design neglected, hop over to Instagram where I’m on dress 93 of the #100dressesproject. I’m so close to the end! I have no idea what I’ll post to Instagram when it’s all over. I need to come up with something… Thoughts? Let me know in a comment or let me know what you think of today’s paper doll!

Need a clothing for today’s paper dolls? All the A Pose Dolls & Clothing