asian paper dolls

The Early Fashions of the 1930s

A 1930s vintage fashion paper doll to print and color with three dresses and two pairs of shoes. She has a coat, a day dress and an evening dress.

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A 1930s vintage fashion paper doll to print with three dresses and two pairs of shoes. She also has two hats and I love her evening dress.

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As often happens with my historical paper dolls, we need to talk about reference images. So, Diamond’s hair is based on the hair of Ann Sheridan in this 1935 promotional photo from Paramount Studios. HHer evening gown came from A Decade of French Fashion, 1929-1938: From the Depression to the Brink of War which I bought for this project. Her underwear is from Simplicity 2288, a sewing pattern from 1930. Everyday Fashions of the Thirties As Pictured in Sears Catalogs provided more source images, because it is one of my go-to 1930’s fashion books.

As I was working on writing up alt-text for my images, I realized this printable paper dolls sort of has a little mini-wardrobe. Since, she has an evening dress, a coat, and a day dress. Plus with the two hats, she’s ready for anything. And, of course, she can share clothing with Amethyst and her 1930s clothing.

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Crocus inspired Princess Gowns with Jade

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DDJ: Retro Space Paper Doll Adventures with Dawn

An Asian paper doll coloring page with four dresses and a space suit in a retro-1960s sci-fi theme.
A color printable Asian paper doll with a space wardrobe theme, She's got four dresses, boots and a space suit in 1960s inspired colors.

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There’s something really fun about retro futuristic clothing of the 1960s and I had fun drawing it for today’s printable paper doll. I was tickled when I saw it mentioned in the latest issue of Paper Doll Review. Anyway, I’m always up for drawing paper dolls with retro space clothing. I’ve been watching Star Trek: The Original Series with my partner during the pandemic and it’s a hoot. So, here we have four space mini-dresses, a totally impractical space suit and some very important space boots.

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A Valentine’s Day Paper Doll For 2021

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Valentine’s Day is a holiday I always try to make a paper doll for, because of my grandmother who often sent Valentine’s Day cards with paper dolls in them to me and my sister. This paper doll has a small colorful mix and match wardrobe with some retro dresses and slip on shoes. Don’t forget to cut between the dolls shoulders and her hair, so the tabs fit better.

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Ninja Paper Doll for the End of 2020!

It’s the end of year and I am happy to wrap up with this little cute ninja warrior. You might be wondering- why a ninja paper doll? There’s nothing winter thematic about a ninja?

And you are right! There isn’t.

However, I have a new logo which I love (see top of the site) and I want to start putting it on all of my printables and that means some reformatting. So, rather than try to make something wintery to end out 2020, I decided to use my last finished piece and then have a clean slate for 2021.

Hence the ninja paper doll, who has been sitting quietly in my “to be posted” folder for longer than I like to admit. Poor Diamond deserves better than that, but these things happen.

A ninja paper doll coloring page with six mix and match pieces to print and color. Her accessories include a sword, throwing stars and some other fantasy weapons.

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I originally planned to do this a very traditional ninja set with lots and lots of black, but in the end, I concluded that it was sort of boring. So, I guess my ninja is just really into the color blue. I don’t see why ninjas have to wear just black. The origins of which I think have to do with Noh theater, but I’m not 100% positive. If you know, feel free to correct me in the comments.

A ninja paper doll with mix and match pieces, weapons and fun style. Great indoor play for kids!

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As 2020 comes to an end (and thanks goodness for that), I am so pleased to say I will be taking a few days off to rest and recoup. Patreon will be on pause during January (no content, but no one is being charged either, a feature I love of Patreon), but feel free to join us to check out the wrap up for the 365 Day Project!

Okay, it was 366 days, because when I named it I forgot that 2020 was a leap year.

Also, it will be available as one huge download on Etsy once I get it all combined. It’s um… pretty large.

My big new project for 2021 is an email newsletter. I am so excited! Sign up here if you’d like to or read more about it, if you’d like. There will be a paper doll coloring page in every issue and links to neat stuff and ramblings from me.

Evening Gowns for Paper Dolls with Diamond

There’s something super relaxing for me in drawing evening gowns for paper dolls. I don’t know if I like it so much because it’s one piece garments or if I just like drawing clothing I am never going to need to wear.

I do not live a lifestyle that makes sense to wear evening gowns very much.

A printable paper doll coloring page with three gowns and two pairs of shoes.

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I really went back and forth about color schemes. I actually did two different color schemes. You can see the other one on my Patreon page. It’s open to everyone, so you don’t need to be a patron to download it. It’s a more light pastel color scheme.

However, maybe because my Spring Evening Gowns set, I thought some more rich colors would be fun. This set feels winter to me, though I don’t really know why. It’s not like these gowns look very warm.

A colorful paper doll page with an elegant Asian lady and her three fantastic evening gowns.

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The dress on the far left comes from Gabriela Hearst Spring/Summer 2019 Ready-To-Wear collection and the dress on the far right is from Christian Siriano Spring 2019 Ready-to-Wear Fashion Show. However the dress in the middle is my own design. You can see a lot more of my evening gown inspiration on my Pinterst Board.

Remember you can hop over to my Patreon to grab the other color scheme. And if you want, consider becoming a patron.

A Magical Girl Paper Doll

Let me start with this disclaimer: I do not watch Anime. As my partner would attest, I know nothing about magical girls, except what I vaguely remember from having friends obsessed with Sailor Moon in the 1990s. I wasn’t super into Sailor Moon, but they sure as heck were.

Magical girls, as I understand it, is a sub-genre of Japanese anime/manga/other stuff that feature girls using magic. (Yeah, you might have guessed that from the title, huh?) The primary feature of Magical Girl anime is the idea of a transformation. Most Magical Girl characters have a magic object (called a compact, I think?) which they use to transform into their magical selves.

Then- they fight evil/crime/playing cards? This genre mystifies me on occasion.

Features of Magical Girl outfits seem to be lots of ribbons, ruffles and asymmetry. Our magical girl, Dawn, has double buns (a nod to Sailor Moon), a compact version of her staff (as seen in both Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura) and several outfits.

A magical girl paper doll with curves! And three outfits to print and play with.

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So, the primary source for inspiration for her costumes was Cardcapture Sakura. There is also some Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica in there as well. One of the things I liked about Cardcapture Sakura was that it has lots of different outfits. That was a fun thing to look up. I noticed asymmetry in many of the outfits, hence the knee sock and the ankle sock with ruffles and a ribbon.

The baggy shorts were my attempt to draw something not a dress (there’s lots of dresses in the world of Magical Girls), but I openly admit this set is less mix and match then I like. Still, dresses tend not be very mix and match. I can live with that. She can always borrow jeans from this set.

Printable magical girl paper doll with buns and three dresses

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Drawing a genre I know so little about it both fun and a bit scary. I don’t know what I don’t know, but I had fun finding images and adapting them. I hope folks who do know more about this style than I do will let me know how I did in my foray into the land of Magical Girls.

Anyway, if you like what you see around here, consider popping over to Patreon and supporting it. If you’d like to let me know what you think about today’s paper doll, I always love to read comments.

Paper Dolls in Masks! (A Pandemic Paper Doll Extra)

I have been really debating what to do about the pandemic. On one hand, I am not in anyway qualified to give anyone medical advice. (I’m qualified to maybe give archives/library/paper doll advice.) On the other hand, I wanted to respond to the current crisis somehow. It felt weird to pretend it wasn’t happening out in the outside world beyond my small isolated corner of it.

So, I decided to respond in paper doll fashion, plus I figure people need kids activity ideas right now. You need to occupy children at home and while I don’t have kids, I have a lot of empathy for folks who do.

So, behold- paper dolls in face masks!

Sapphire, Ruby and Pearl With Face Masks

Three printable paper dolls in black and white.
Three paper dolls in color to print- Diverse curvy paper dolls with different skin-tones.

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When Alaska mandated facemasks a few weeks ago, I pulled out my trusty fabric stash and sewed up a few for me, my partner and some friends who didn’t sew. I’ll openly confess I’m not a great seamstress and mostly I work in doll clothing creation, but the mask pattern was easy enough. I used the New York Times pattern for the pleated mask. Now the mandate is lifted, but I still wear my mask when grocery shopping, as the CDC recommends.

Originally, I had planned to make the face masks for the paper dolls removable, but my prototypes did not work. So, instead, they are permanently attached to each doll. I thought about doing extra heads- the way Dolly Dingle sometimes does- but frankly that kind freaks me out. Paper doll decapitation feels weird for a kids activity idea.

Opal, Amethyst and Lapis With Face Masks

Three printable paper dolls in black and white. A kids activity idea for dress up. Three fun curvy paper dolls.
A kids activity idea for dress up- three paper dolls to print in different skintones- diverse curvy paper dolls.

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I’ve done all the Jewels and Gemstones paper dolls here, so each page has three dolls and there are 9 dolls in total- Sapphire, Ruby, Pearl, Diamond, Opal, Topaz, Amethyst, Lapis, and Jade. I try not to have favorites, but I really like how Opal’s bangs came out in this set.

I also wanted to do a variety of mask styles. None of these are N-95, but rather the sorts of masks you might wear to the store. There seem to be two major styles- the curved one and the pleated one. I have a pleated mask, but I have seem lots of patterns for curved masks and those seem more popular among the folks I see during my rare grocery forays.

Topaz, Diamond and Jade with Face Masks

A kids activity idea for dress up- three paper dolls to color- diverse curvy paper dolls.
A kids activity idea for dress up- three paper dolls to dress- diverse curvy paper dolls.

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These cute girls can wear any of the Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 clothing, so they can dress up as princesses, evening gowns or to go fishing. They can wear any of the Jewels and Gemstones 1.0 clothing by printing those outfits at 80%. There’s dozens of different outfit options at the moment.

I think my favorite mask might be Topaz’s one all covered in abstract roses/flowers/swirls. Do you have a favorite?

Everyone stay safe out there.

Dolls Du Jour: Days in Denim

Sharing a new paper doll series is always a little stressful. When I design paper dolls to dress, I think about body poses and I think a lot about how many different styles I think I can get from a single body pose. A few perks of this pose are the 3/4 view and the spread legs, which open up some design options.

She will be hard to make into a mermaid though…

Anyway, the first version of this paper doll showed up on Instagram back in 2018. I had to do some extensive redrawing, because the sketchbook was ruined while traveling to Alaska.

Fixing her right foot was also a priority.

A huge thanks you to my Patrons! Sheryl helped me name the series and had the amazing idea to name the dolls after temporal themes. I love this! Because I tend to like giving my paper dolls names that are not really names. I mean, you can find people named Dawn, but like there aren’t a lot of Dusk or Evening named folks running around.

A coloring page with paper dolls to dress with jeans and other contemporary clothing pieces.

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I like to test out new series with sets that show me how many clothing pieces I can fit on a page. After all, the whole point of paper dolls to dress is that you want to dress them. Otherwise, why have the clothing at all?

Denim is the base of most modern wardrobes. Knowing that I have denim done, so to speak, allows for more variety in later sets. Every person (or paper doll) needs a good pair of jeans after all.

Paper dolls to dress with jeans and other contemporary clothing pieces.

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Color scheme wise, I had no idea what to do with this set. Denim is mostly blue, after all, so I went with a green, purple and pink scheme.

I have done occasional random denim themed paper dolls over the years. A few of my favorites- Weekend Denim, Paper Doll Guys Need Jeans, Girl Paper Dolls Need Jeans, Hearts Denim and Bows, Jeans and Tank Tops, and my first ever- Stylish Denim. I’ve heard that denim maxi skirts are back and I am secretly super excited about this.

What do you think of this new series? Let me know in a comments! And head over to join us on Patreon if you want to someday help name a paper doll series.

Princess Opal: Paper Dolls and Dresses

In my head, not always a logical space, I tend to organize princess paper dolls and dresses into categories. There are the medieval looks, the renaissance looks and then these- big skirted looks. If anything, I suppose a nod to the 1860s and 1700s, but really… not much when you come down to it. I have a whole Pinterest Board I keep devoted to these big skirted dresses.

There are two dresses here today- a Spring dress and a Winter dress. Clearly, I’ve been influenced by the current weather in Alaska, which is finally spring! It’s so beautiful. Most of the snow is gone and there’s grass. It’s not green, yet, but it will be.

Also, there’s a lot of birch pollen and my allergies are going nuts. I digress. Let’s get back to paper dolls and dresses.

Black and white paper dolls and dresses to color and cut out. A princess with fantasy gowns.

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To keep all these gowns feeling consistent, I kept the same color scheme. That makes all the gowns feel like they go together and come from the same sort of universe. A universe where people don’t have to go through doorways often.

Eventually, I will resize the rest Jewels and Gemstones 1.0 Princess Trousseau and pair those with their own princess with absurd hair. After that, there can be a whole collection of paper dolls and dresses with big skirts and fancy hair. All of them will qualify as impractical self-isolation costumes, let me tell you.

Paper dolls and dresses in full color. A princess with fantasy gowns.

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A few final thoughts- the current landscape up here inspired the colors of the Spring Dress- yellows and oranges with just a few hints of early spring green. The accessories here are books, because… well, everyone likes books don’t they? And I do tend to draw a lot of books for paper dolls.

I’m a librarian. What can you expect?

I hope everyone is staying safe and sane at the moment. Let me know what you think of today’s paper doll gowns in the comments. I love hearing from you all.