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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DDJ: Color Blocking with Twilight

A black and white paper doll with a mix and match wardrobe of 8 clothing pieces.

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A black paper doll with a mix and match wardrobe of 8 clothing pieces.

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Color blocking is one of my favorite fashion themes. I just love how it lets me play with different colors and experiment with how different lines look on a set of garments. I first drew this paper doll set last year, but didn’t manage to actually get it done until a few weeks ago. Sometimes, I am a little slow on finishing up my own artwork.

Let’s not talk about the large number of 80% finished projects lurking on my hard-drive.

By the way, this is only my 6th Dolls Du Jour paper doll. I created this series in May of 2020 as part of my move towards drawing more diverse figures. Figure drawing is my least favorite part of paper doll making and it is the part I think I am worse at. There’s dozens of abandoned attempts at figure drawing in my notebooks. I still don’t think my figures are as diverse as they could be, but I also can only bang my head against the things I don’t like doing so long.

Just let me draw silly shoes and ignore when my people look off, which they often do.

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1930s Suits and Dresses with Amethyst

A printable 1930s vintage fashion paper doll coloring page with four dresses, two shoes and hats.

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A printable 1930s vintage fashion paper doll with four dresses, shoes and hats.

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No secret that I adore doing my historical costume paper dolls and the 1930s is a time period I feel like really has two sort of looks happening. The first is a very soft, floral, feminine, lots of little details kind of country look from the feed sack prints of the era. This is not the look of today’s paper doll.

Contrasting with that aesthetic is a sophisticated, shoulder details heavy, suits and jackets of the 1930s. There are still plenty of bows, but the lines are sharper. The dresses don’t feel soft, but almost prickly to me. This is the look I wanted to explore with today’s 1930s vintage fashion paper doll.

A few references- her hair is based on the hair of Gertrude Micheal in this 1935 promotional photo from Paramount Studios, her swimsuit is from the V&A, and one of her dresses is from McCalls 8461. Over on Pinterest, I have more of my inspiration images for this 1930s vintage fashion paper doll, but I also used several books, including A Decade of French Fashion, 1929-1938: From the Depression to the Brink of War which I just picked up and Everyday Fashions of the Thirties As Pictured in Sears Catalogs which I’ve owned for years.

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Beautiful Fantasy Gowns for Paper Dolls with Pearl

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Download Black and White PDF | Download Color PDF | More Jewels & Gemstones 2.0

I always struggle to name these fantasy paper doll sets, but I do like naming each set. It’s useful to have names, because then I can refer to them later. I threaten to just number things occasionally, but I think that would annoy me in the long term. I used to number sets way back in the day. That was when I thought of this project as more of a web comic model than I do now.

I did create today’s printable paper doll with two different color schemes for my patrons over on Patreon. If you’re a patron, check those out here.

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Paper Doll Fashions of the Cyberpunk Future

A black and white cyberpunk paper doll coloring page featuring a black doll and her mix and match wardrobe of scifi fashions.

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A cyberpunk paper doll coloring page featuring a black doll and her mix and match wardrobe of scifi fashions.

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Today’s cyberpunk paper doll is a combination of some Jewels and Gemstones 1.0 content and some new content that I created to fill out the set. When I design a mix and match paper doll set I think a lot about layers. With four bottoms, three tops and two pairs of shoes, you’re getting 24 outfit combos out of nine pieces. However, I’m not 100% sure how well the black boots will layer under the skinnier pants, so I might feel more comfortable calling it 21 combinations. (I have a whole post here about how I do outfit combo math.)

Funny fact, that post is actually one of my most popular, because apparently people need help calculating clothing combinations? I don’t 100% get it, but whatever. A little algebra never hurt anyone and my middle school algebra teacher is no doubt very proud.

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Summer Crop Tops with Jade

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I am fascinated by the return of crop tops in fashion these days. Unlike in my teenage years, they are now paired with high rise pants which I think is a much more flattering look than the low hip-huggers of the early 2000s. 

All the colors in this set are based on the Pantone 2021 Spring color scheme

You will need to cut along the dolls shoulders to fit these items on. I have put a dotted line there, but with the long dark hair it can be hard to see.  

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 Steampunk Paper Doll with Sapphire

A black and white printable paper doll coloring sheet featuring steampunk fashions. One doll and eleven mix and match pieces.

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A black printable paper doll with steampunk fashions. One doll and eleven mix and match pieces.

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This steampunk paper doll was put together from a few older sets that I resized and new pieces. I loved these striped trousers and the hair and shoes from my first Sapphire Steampunk Doll. I love everything Victorian inspired. I have no idea if steampunk is still in, but I do very much enjoy drawing it. So, I hope it is.

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DDJ: A Renaissance Fantasy Princess Printable & Her Gowns

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Maybe because I saw Ever After at a young age, but I have a deep affection for Italian Renaissance inspired gowns and these are a few of them. Fantasy paper dolls rival historical paper dolls as some of my favorites to draw. This set of printable fantasy paper dolls is from my Dolls Du Jour series, lovingly known as DDJ. Named by a Patron (thank you!) these paper dolls are part of my goal to make some more curvy paper doll ladies. Each doll is named after a time or day, so this is Twilight.

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