As some of you may already know (because I have sort of been screaming it from the roof tops), I have paper doll book out from Paper Doll Review and I couldn’t be more pleased with the results. The book is beautiful! It’s three dolls and over 60 clothing pieces from the years 1920 to 1929. There’s hats. There’s shoes. There’s dresses, coats, and knickerbockers for sports. The whole range of ladies dress.
But the project wasn’t just my hard work- Julie Allen Matthews did an incredible job coloring my linework. She has a post about it here. Julie has colored my paper dolls before (like these ones), so I had complete faith that she would do an amazing job. More than anything, I wanted to give her freedom to do whatever inspired her with the colors and the designs, so the results were a surprise to me.
A very. nice happy surprise.
To roll back time for a minute, the whole thing didn’t start as a project for Paper Doll Review. It began as a planned self-published book during the early part of the pandemic, but I got discouraged as things happened in the real world that got in the way and prices from Lulu Press went way up. I just couldn’t justify the prices from Lulu given the quality of the printing. So when Jenny expressed interest I was happy to hand over the linework and see what would happen. Paper Doll Review‘s books are always so nicely done.
In today’s post I want to more than gush about how much I love the book (I do love it very much), but rather show some of the original sources that led to the dresses that are included.
Some of the dresses from the paper doll book with their sources.
One of the exciting things in the last few years is that the date for things that are out of copyright has moved forward annually from 1923 to 1927, which allows for a lot more of 1920s magazines to be found online.
If you’re looking for your own sources, consider the Delineator, Harper’s Bazaar, McCall’s,Good Housekeeping, Vogue or Woman’s home companion. Plus, sources like the Vintage Pattern Wiki are also great places to find images of pattern covers. I wish I could find a complete Sears catalogs from this era, but they are hard to track down online. There are some of the Sears Catalogs here, plus I have a lot of books from Dover that reprint 1920s materials. There’s a few listed in the book, if you want to know more sources and information on 1920s fashion.
Needless to say, I didn’t use all these sources and now that I’ve found them, there’s probably another 1920s paper doll in my future (once I get done with the 1910s thing I am working on.)
I discovered my interest in historical costume from paper doll books. So, if I am going to do a historical paper doll, I want it to offer some learning along with paper doll fun.
So, if you haven’t picked up a copy, grab one from Paper Doll Review or wait until the Philadelphia Paper Doll Party in late May, as I will be there and have a few to sell as well along with some other paper doll prints (more about those later.)
First off: Happy Martin Luther King Jr Day to those in the USA who are celebrating.
Random Fact: I started PTP in 2008 and I was 23. So, 14 years (nearly 15) later, I think it might be time for some changes.
The internet doesn’t look like it looked back in 2008 nor does my life.
So, as an experiment, I am going to move my focus to my newsletter this year (or until I decide I’ve made a terrible mistake, whichever happens first).
Sign up here or at the end of this post, if you’re not already a subscriber.
But what does that mean, you may reasonably be wondering. Well, keep reading.
A little sneak preview of February’s series.
Here’s the plan:
There will be on January newsletter next Friday, just to make sure everyone is on the same page and aware of all these changes. I may have newsletter folks who aren’t blog readers. No idea. Just trying to spread the word far and wide.
Anyway, the plan…
The Newsletter will come out on Wednesday’s starting in February and will be weekly.
Each issue will contain a paper doll, an outfit for that paper doll, and anything else I feel like tossing in.
On the last Friday of the month, you can download the months worth of paper doll content formates for easy printing from the blog.
In the first newsletter of the month, there will be a paper doll coloring page using the Newsletter doll I started last year, because I really do like drawing for that paper doll.
Patrons will continue to get a Vivian paper doll each month, posted to the blog & some other fun stuff- more info to come for them.
You might be wondering: Which paper dolls will be featured in the newsletter?
Right now, I have been on obsessed with drawing for the 365 Day Paper Dolls as series I did way back in 2020 for Patreon and which has never graced the blog (though you can grab that whole project from Etsy here in black and white or in color or if you’re a Patron, grab them here).
So, February will be that series. It’s very cute. I can’t wait to share it. There’s a sneak peek above.
After that… I honestly have no idea. I have a Jewels and Gemstones Fairy set I sort of like that I’ve been dabbling in and I also have some Regency stuff and maybe… The point is I don’t know yet. That scares me a little (I tend to over plan), but I am trying to also let go and embrace a little more of the “not knowing” part of the process. I think my art has started to feel stagnant to me and that’s not a fun feeling. It’s time to stretch a little.
The last time I started a project like this with this little planning it was… well, I think it was this blog actually. And that worked out okay, so in the end- it’s ephemeral paper toys for children. The stakes are low, as Julie Matthews reminded me recently when I was panicked about something.
I’ve embedding a newsletter sign up form here for you, in case you aren’t already signed up!
I will never, of course, sell or share your email. And you can unsubscribe anytime!
Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Let me know!
Oh and before I forget- my patrons will get the first Vivian dress of 2023 (it’s super cute) this week! I promise I haven’t forgotten y’all and next week there will be the big 2022 Jewels and Gemstones round up, because I did reach my 100 Jewels and Gemstones sets goal and I want to show off.
Wishing you all the joy, peace, and love that this time of year can bring. Happy holidays!
I’m planning to take, as I often do, a little break going into January. How long?
Probably until the 15th or so.
And what will happen when I come back?
Probably my usual year end round up posts and then I’m not 100% sure. I have signed up for a digital art class and I am super excited to see what will happen and how that might impact the ways I make my paper dolls. So, I guess I want to leave open lots of space for experimentation and growth.
Meanwhile, have a wonderful holiday/wintertime with those you love!
I am super excited to announce that I finally fin-ished (pun intended) my big mermaid paper doll project that you might recall me mentioning way back in July and previewing as a WIP in August. You can pick it up on Etsy right now!
Sometimes, these projects take a lot longer than I think they will when they start, she said, side-eyeing the 1950s Jewels and Gemstones set that still isn’t done.
Anyway, at long last I am happy to announce that the Mermaids are up on Etsy and you can go grab them if you wish. There’s four dolls and over 60 mix and match pieces, including 11 different mermaid tails.
Anyway, it’s a big 7 page set (plus one page of stands and directions) and I couldn’t be happier with how it all came together. I’m particularly pleased with a few of the tails that were too big to easily fit on a horizontal layout page, but which look great with the vertical layout. Layout is not my strongest suit, but I feel like I’m getting better and learning a lot from examining Julie’s work for paper doll review with care.
The whole set all laid out.
In case you’re wondering- a lot of this content as not appeared on the blog before. One of the dolls is totally new! She’s actually maybe my favorite and it was really hard to resist showing her off before now.
Anyway, if you’d like to add the mermaids to your collection, go get them on Etsy.
Right now the set is only available as coloring pages, as I find that’s what sells best on Etsy. No idea why, but paper dolls in color just don’t seem to sell. If you’d like to see them in color, let me know! I’m curious.
Technically, last week I posted my 99th Jewels and Gemstones post, but it wasn’t actually my 99th set, because there are round up posts and other J&G related posts in the that category. So, I think if I am counting right, there’s more like 98 at this point. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I’ll meet this goal by the end odd 2022, one way or another and that makes me happy.
2. 10 Historical Paper Dolls
So, we started the year with this fantastic 1960s set and there have been nine so far. Other then a short dip into the Italian Renaissance, almost everything has been 20th century. While the last time I asked my patrons, 1910 won my poll, I think I’d like to do something else not 20th century, so I need to decide on a period. Regency stuff is very popular these days, or maybe something 18th century? I haven’t done that in a while… I do have a big 1950s set in progress, but I confess I’m a little stalled on it.
3. Send Things to OPDAG for Paper Doll Review
Achieved! I mailed off my plaid contribution this month and I sent out animals already. The next theme is World Adventures, but I am not 100% sure what that means, so I may give that one a pass. We’ll see how I feel when I get closer to the December deadline.
4. Finish Another Book/Print Project
So, this one is on pause. I’m very proud of the book I created on Lulu, but I have had mixed feelings about the quality of the prints that I have gotten from Lulu. I may need to come up with another option for this. I have ideas. But it may not look like I had planned it to look.
5. Continue with the Newsletter for 2022
So far so good! I do enjoy making my little newsletter. Sign up here, if you haven’t. It’s a project that while I enjoy it, I am not 100% I’ll keep going in 2023. I guess I’ll decide how I feel when I get there.
6. 10 Dolls Du Jour This Year
All right, well, there’s 7 so far. I think we’ll hit 10. I have faith. I’ve got one whose going up later this week and then I need to draw some more, but I am full of confidence that this one is going to work out just fine.
So, I think, in terms of my goals for 2022, I am feeling pretty good.
I know that blue mostly shows up in medieval manuscripts because lapis was a popular coloring agent for ink, but I still will always think of it as a medieval color. There’s something super magical about the color blue to me! It can be masculine or very feminine and thanks to indigo dye it has been around for a long long time. Woad, which is a yellow flowering plant, actually makes a bright blue die and it was used extensively before indigo came to Europe.
It also one of my favorite colors to make skin tones- I’ve done a fair number of blue skinned paper dolls over the years from fairies to aliens.
Anyway, I thought it would be fun to show off some blue paper dolls as we ease into September.
25 Paper Dolls In Blue
As I selected which blue paper dolls to feature here, I really wanted to show blue as a historical color- like this 1920s dress and this medieval one- and blue as a preppy color like this modern paper doll. In my wardrobe, mostly blue shows up in my jeans, but my paper dolls have more fun than that.
Paper dolls always get more fun with their clothing than I do.
Sometimes, when I really like a paper doll book, I don’t have a lot to say about it. “This book is beautiful” is not really the most interesting review ever written about anything. I think part of the point of a review is to think about a piece of art (in this case a paper doll book) and really analyze it in a meaningful way with an opinion.
If you don’t feel like hearing what I think about each, just go buy them from Paper Doll Review. They are all lovely books.
Cutting Edge Couture by Norma Lu Meehan
Front CoverBack Cover
So, let’s start with Cutting Edge Couture Paper Dolls by Norma Lu Meehan. Basic stats: The book is 9 by 11.75 inches tall. The dolls measure just under 10 inches. There’s 20 different outfits. David Wolfe chose the designs and maybe wrote the essay in the book. He’s not credited for it in the book, but it feels like other writings of his I have read.
Total side note, but did you notice how the C of the word “Couture” goes through the paper doll’s hat? So cool. Great attention to detail there.
Let me start with stating the obvious. Norma Lu Meehan is one heck of an artist. I’ve been a fan for a long time. The fabrics are rendered beautifully, the dolls skin seems to glow, and the drape of the garments feels right. I love that the dolls are clearly from the same “world”, but each one is distinct. Not just skin color, but facial shape and structure. These are two beautiful models, but they are not the same at all. Love that.
All of the art here is amazing. I can not say that enough.
My only criticisms are with the intentionality. The best paper doll books, I think, are works of art the feel cohesive. The essay, while interesting, felt disconnected from the illustrations. The text on the pages didn’t add anything (though I did like the splatter looking backgrounds) and I couldn’t tell why the garments had been chosen (beyond all being beautiful.) There’s tantalizing hints at the end of the essay, but little more.
Why these designers? I wondered. Why these garments? Why this arrangement? They aren’t in chronological order.
If you want a lovely book of contemporary fashion design, I think this is absolutely successful. As a fully cohesive piece of art, I felt like it was missing something.
Big Fancy Dresses by Kwei-lin Lum
Front CoverBack Cover
Next up is Big Fancy Dresses by Kwei-lin Lum. Basic stats: The book is 8.5 by 11 inches, so letter sized. The dolls are 9 inches tall and there’s ten costumes. There is also an instruction page about the floating tabs, always helpful, included.
It’s not often that a see a paper doll book and think to myself, “This is just fun” and Big Fancy Dress is one such book.
It’s playful, whimsical, and a little surreal in all the best ways. Each costume feels like it belongs in a funhouse mirror version of our reality where these garments make sense and I am 100% here for it. There’s also something genuinely funny about a lot of these gowns. I didn’t want to give too many away by showing pictures. There’s a dress made of candy. There’s a dress with Romeo and Juliet being played out on the skirt with a puppet who looks like Shakespeare. (Not shown here, but you can see it on Paper Doll Review.) There’s a fairy princess dress and a Queen of Hearts.
All in all, I was very impressed with how each background was unique for each dress, but I found the “different” backgrounds side by side in the spreads a little jarring. On the flip side, I’m not convinced that wasn’t intentional to emphasize the topsy-turvy feeling.
The dolls are very similar. 99% of the time, I want more paper doll diversity. In this case I think it works, because the dolls don’t really feel human. There’s such a surrealist undercurrent to the whole book, so the dolls feel like they are part of something that’s defining it’s own parameters. This is not the real world. So, in the case of this specific book, I think the dolls similarity 100% works. There’s cohesion there.
The cover-stock and interior paper are nice. I didn’t mind the smaller size, but imagine some people might be surprised by it. I did wish there was some sort of artists statement to go with this book, because I would super love to know more about the inspirations for these fantastic dresses. However, I didn’t feel like its absence distracted too much, because the artistic vision (to be pretentious for a moment) was so strong.
My love of bustles is well documented on this site, but a lesser known fact is that I also love kimonos. So, Japonica by Andrea Helen Smith was right up my alley. Basic Stats: The book is sized at 11 by 9 inches. It’s sort of an unusual size. The doll measure 10 inches high and there’s 8 dresses. There’s some background info and an artists statement included.
The book is a collection of bustle gowns and kimonos based on the styles of the Meiji era (1868-1912) when Japan began adopting European dress. This is not, however, a book devoted to perfectly rendering historical clothing. It is more a historically inspired work with all the garments are inspired by the Japonica butterfly. If that feels a little complicated, never fear.
The book never feels like it is trying to do too much and the captioning is informative, but brief. I learned things I didn’t know reading the information given with each dress. I also didn’t find it distracting or feel like I need to know more. It was the perfect amount of informatio
A super great instruction page.
The art is beautiful. The soft colors feel dreamy. The borders on the pages add cohesion without distracting. When I was a kid, I loved paper doll books with one doll and a bunch of dresses. So, the format of this book resonates with me. Also, it’s not common to see a historical inspired paper doll book with a non-white model. Very nice to see.
Can I be a paper person for a moment? The paper here is amazing. I have handled a lot of paper stock in my time and this paper stock feels utterly luxurious.
One last note on Japonica, there is an amazing instructions page. I mean, it might seem like an odd thing to highlight, but it is so well done. I was super impressed by it, but didn’t want people to miss out on pictures of the pretty dresses.
If you want a historically inspired paper doll book with beautiful gowns and fun information about Japan, then I think Japonica by Andrea Helen Smith is a great choice.
And that’s it.
The truth is that Big Fancy Dresses, Japonica, and Cutting Edge Couture are all books I would recommend. Each one is really a nice book and a wonderful addition to a paper doll collection. Each book feels different from each other, but I don’t plan to get rid of any of them. That’s rare. I don’t keep all the paper doll books I review, but I will be keeping all of three these.
Do you have a favorite of these three? Or a book you’d like to hear me ramble about? Let me know in a comment.
As some of you may remember from when I did my Ladies of the 1940s set, I’ve been trying to learn to work smarter, not harder. I’ve never felt comfortable releasing the exculsive patron sets for free on the blog, but I also felt like it wasn’t fair that folks couldn’t enjoy them who weren’t patrons.
So, I’ve decided to round up some of them and some of my blog content and reformat all of it and now I’m offering it for sale on Etsy in a new format (though the same sizing) for people who want to see and play with the full collection. This is the whole of the 1960s ladies wear I drew last year.
It’s about 50% unseen content and 50% recycled content with three dolls and about 32 clothing pieces. There’s everything from beach clothing to evening gowns. While mod fashions of the 1960s might be most identified with the era, there’s actually a lot of ladylike 1950s styles that shine in this period. I’ve arranged the clothing roughly chronologically, but everything is dated if you want a more precise look at the looks!
For my patrons, there’s an exclusive discount code you can use. Find that code here.
For everyone else, I hope you enjoy this little foray into the styles of the 1960s. And yes, I’m planning to adding the 1930s and 1970s to these collections, but I’ll need to do more drawing before the 1950s can join in the fun and I’m not sure if my forays into the 1980s are cohesive enough… I’ll need to think on that one.
First off, I want to start by thanking everyone whose ever supported me on Patreon, past and present. You’re all the best! Because those funds to make a big difference in this site (nothing is free to maintain) and I can’t express how much I appreciate your support.
Here’s how it will work for anyone who signs up to Patreon going forward:
Button to click to log into Patreon or sign up to unlock posts.
You get to pay whatever you feel is fair with a suggested donation of 5 dollars per month. If you want to pay more than 5 dollars, you 100% can. If you want to pay less, you can do that too. It’s totally up to you what you feel comfortable with.
You may have noticed there are now a few posts on this site that are Patreon only. There are going to be more of those. I have a secret goal per month, but I am not sharing it, because this is all about reducing pressure on me and once I say something out loud it becomes a THING.
And now to answer questions you might have:
What is Patreon?Patreon is a service that helps people support creators, like me. Basically, you pay what you’re comfortable with every month and you get some more paper dolls (and my thanks). Plus, you get to know your pledge keeps Paper Thin Personas available for everyone. (Patreon FAQ has a lot more information about the details for you.)
What if I am already a Patron and I want to keep my current support? You don’t need to do anything! I appreciate it. Thank you! This will keep your access to all the content on the Patreon site you currently have access to and get you access to everything on the blog as it gets added.
What if I am a Patron and I want to stop supporting you? I 100% understand and wish you the best. So, you will need to cancel your pledge. Instructions on how to make that happen here. Thank you for all the support up to now. If you want to just reduce your amount of support, you’ll need to cancel and resubscribe, I believe.
What about current Patreon projects? These will continue! For those who don’t know, I have two- Vivian, whose a beautiful paper doll slowly getting a steampunk/Victorian inspired trousseau. My other current project is sets of paper dolls based on antique dolls called Dolly and Her Dresses. So, those will continue and there maybe more Patreon projects.
What about past Patreon projects? Well, some of these will eventually migrate to the blog, but it might be a long time and it may not be all of them.
What other Patreon content will there be? Polls, behind the scenes posts and requests will be open to Patrons as they have in the past. I’m actually super excited about these. Additionally, there will also be posts for the Jewels and Gemstones, Talia Tuesday and DDJ that’ll be Patron only.
What if I want to support you and not become a patron?Consider my Etsy store! A lot of my Patreon projects end up on Etsy later as a single purchase.
What if you didn’t answer my question? Please ask! Comments are open!
If you want to start supporting PTP, hop over to Patreon and sign up. If you don’t want to, you can totally ignore this post and continue on your merry way.
Or, if you want to support PTP with less commitment, consider grabbing something from my Etsy store.
To me, purple feels magical, royal, and a little mysterious. I’d say this was because it was a secondary color, but I sure don’t feel this way about orange or green.
Back in the ancient world, purple dye came from a rare sea snail in the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre (Lebanon). Tyrian purple, as it was known, was so costly that basically you had to be a king to wear cloth dyed purple. Hence the long and fascinating association of purple with all thing royal. There are other ways to get purple without the use of sea snails, generally by dying fabric red or blue and then over dyeing it in purple.
As with all my other paper doll color collections my selection criteria was simple- does it seem purple to me?
20 Paper Dolls Wearing Purple
Anyway, when I do my paper dolls, I have a long affection for purple. As, I was working on these color based paper doll collections, I knew it would be fun to look at all my purple paper dolls. There’s a real variety of purple things in here from evening gowns to princess dresses. I don’t really know if I have a favorite here, but I do love that there are so many shades of purple from this blue-violet color to this mavue-ish pink.
