Lady’s Clothing

Marisole Monday: Retro Pin-Up: Saucy

This paper is sort of a gift for a friend who very much likes retro-vintage styling. Sometimes, when I don’t know what to draw I ask my friends what they think I should draw. This has caused some totally unusable suggestions, but mostly the suggestions are good if a trifle odd. These are the people who can be blamed for my zombie paper doll and my attempt at a Gothic Lolita paper doll, both of which I rather like (the zombie more then the Lolita, to be honest).

marisole-pin-up-saucy-150 {Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

This one came out with a series of suggestions that included Ninja Vs. Pirate (I’m not even sure how I would draw that), superhero (well, actually Batgirl from the 1960’s.. ideally, Batgirl tied up from the 1960’s, but I think this says more about the guy making the suggestion then anything else), and retro-pin-up. Obviously, the pin-up was the easy one.

Unlike many of my vintage costumed paper dolls, this doll has more in common with people’s ideas of what was worn then what was actually worn. I borrowed designs from Pinup Girl Clothing and a few others who I don’t recall. I use online stores a lot when I’m looking for ideas.

EDIT: Since posting this, I have, in fact, drawn a superhero paper doll and Ninja Vs Pirate paper doll.

Marisole Monday: Inspired by Africa

Way back in June, I did a paper doll set roughly based on some Asian costumes and mostly based on what I draw when I’m bored in class. Lindsey asked if I would consider doing an African inspired set in the same style. Now, I wasn’t against the idea, but I didn’t know anything about African dress. After several months of looking at pictures, many books borrowed from the library and a fair bit of internet searching, I can now say I know a little bit about African dress.

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To give credit where it is due, the dress with the blue sash on the cream is based on a dress in the South African Fashion Week show of Amanda Laird Cherry. You can see a picture of the original garment here. The trousers are based on this design by the African designer Janice Morrison. I used a considerably more subdued color pallet for my paper doll based on the colors of mud cloth and traditional bead work.

The black dress with the gold is based on a dresses worn in Tunisia, usually over white blouses and loose trousers. I have included a white dress to wear under it. The two poncho like robes (the cream one and the blue one) are based on robes worn by men in Nigeria made up of strips of cloth. Mine are much shorter and slightly more fitted. As I said, it was a fantasy interpretation of African costume. The book I adapted these costumes from is called African Costumes and Textiles: From the Berbers to the Zulus. It’s a wonderful look at original garments. This paper doll set is an utterly inauthentic collection of fantasy garments. Enjoy. 🙂

Edit: It has come to my attention that some sites are linking this post as actual African traditional dress. It is NOT. Please don’t pro-port that it is. 

Nautical Girl: Fashion Paper Doll to Print

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There’s something very 4th of July about today’s paper doll. That wasn’t my intention for this paper doll, though I think she does have a red white and blue scheme thing going. I remember reading over the summer that nautical was in style, though I have to confess my interest in fashion extends as far looking for things to turn into paper dolls, much to the amusement of my friends who often make fun of me buying fashion magazines and then just looking at the pictures.

On a totally unrelated note, there is a new poll up- basically I’m curious to know if people like the comic press format or think I should convert back to a traditional blog format. I’m not promising to follow the results (since the level of technical difficulty to convert will be a factor in my final decision and I haven’t looked into that), but I am curious what other people think.

Update 8/11/2014: This paper doll is now available in black and white for coloring. You can find her here.

Space Babe: Sci-Fi Paper Doll to Print

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And here we are- Marisole in SPACE!. If you are going to say “in space” I think the ! is necessary. I don’t normally like ! points, but they are sometimes useful.

I had a lot of fun with the colors of this paper doll. I wanted to give Marisole dark skin and then be able to use absurdly bright colors in her costumes. These are the kinds of colors I like, but as a pale skinned person could never wear. (Seriously, me in lime green is among the most disturbing sights ever.)

Black and White Printable Paper Doll from the Marisole Monday Series

Black and white printable paper doll Marisole Monday

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I had a request from a regular commenter named Sara to do a Marisole as a black and white printable paper doll. I thought- Sure, I can do that. How hard can it be? I forgot what I learned from doing a Marisole post in two different color schemes (a gothic scheme and a pastel scheme) that it’s harder than you might think.

Still, I think the outcome is rather fun. I openly confess that I never thought of Marisole in black and white, but I think the paper doll is cute in that format. And it gives people a chance to color if they wish.

When I was working on it, I did think maybe I’d start regularly posting in both styles, but then I decided that was just too much work.

Want more paper dolls? Check out my Master Paper Doll Index. If you love the mod style of today’s paper doll, I have a few more paper doll forays into the 1960s that you might enjoy.

Modern Girl: Fashion Dress up Doll

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Today’s Marisole paper doll started as an attempt to a modern take on some fun Mod clothes and then kinda turned into just a bright citrus based series of Marisole clothing. This is the sort of clothing I would never wear, but would admire and be glad other people wore it.

After all, I can live vicariously through my paper dolls.

Undead Beauty: Vampire Paper Doll to Print

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It’s Marisole as a vampire for Halloween. That’s really all I got here. I also drew a set of costumes for her I should have posted last week, but didn’t. So… I think it’ll go up next Monday.

She does have fangs. You can’t really see them in the smaller version, but they are obvious in the larger PNG file of the paper doll.

There’s also a poll in the sidebar, if you feel like voting and haven’t already.

Medieval Maiden: Paper Doll to Print

Normally, I try to be historical accurate as much as I can be. I think it’s important to research and think about things and try to cite my sources. (I am in library school, after all…) For this post though, I just wanted to draw some vaguely Medieval looking grab for Marisole after watching one to many episodes of the BBC show Cadfeal, which I confess I certain love of. So, these are research free costumes which I think is okay.

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 Liana apparently dedicates the whole of October to research free costumes. I kinda like the idea, but I don’t think I could stick too it. I like my research,

So, speaking of research, I am doing my own little survey on what I should to for my Fashion Doll Fridays for the next year or so. More information about the poll to create a new Fashion Doll for Fridays can be found on the last Florence post I did. The poll will be open until November 1st. I’ll have the polls on the posts for the rest of the week and then it’ll live in the sidebar for anyone who hasn’t voted.

Little Bit Geeky: Blue Haired Printable Paper Doll

I’ve been having some trouble with corruption of my PDF files when I save them. It’s not something I can easily test for, but I am working on a fix. Until I get it done, I’ll be correcting the problems with the paper doll files as I notice them. So, keep eyes open for answers. In the short run, there is a new PDF of the Curves paper doll post,Curves: Cute and Sassy for people to download if they want it.

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I almost didn’t get this up tonight. It’s actually like 15 minutes past midnight and I was about ready to say forget it, but if I keep letting myself not post than I start to feel guilty about not posting and then I just get more behind. It’s a cycle. Here’s to breaking it. I often wonder how other paper doll bloggers keep themselves from totally losing it over the amount of work involved in producing paper doll stuff every day.

Also, this is my first Marisole paper doll with glasses. So that’s kinda cool.

Ancient Chic: Goddess Printable Paper Doll

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I loved Greek mythology since I was a child. Ancient Greek costume is interesting as well. I should state as a very clear disclaimer that today’s paper doll has about as much in common with Ancient Greek costume as the average Chinese take out place has with actual Chinese food. However, there are some excellent Ancient Greek costume sources available on the web. The interest in all things Ancient in the Renaissance gave rise to a whole series of pottery and sculpture studies, many of which are available online for free since they fall before the 1923 US copyright cut off date.

The Ancient Greek Costume Bibliography was my primary source. Though her start date of 1784 cuts out a lot of very early works, many of the sources are available online. I like Greek dress from 1908 and Rehberg’s Drawings faithfully copied from nature at Naples and with permission dedicated to the Right Honourable Sir William Hamilton which is a book with an insane title, but is a collection of reproductions of Roman and Greek statuary. So, those are a couple good sources to start with. I should say Rehberg’s has been reproduced a few times under different titles, so make what you will of that.

Edit 4/6/2014: This set is now available here in black and white for coloring. Yay!