Mia Goes Minimalist… A Fashion Coloring Page

logo-asian-minimalist-paper-dollI love March. I love March for the fashion magazines that come out in March. March, like September, is a big month in the Fashion magazine world. It’s right after Spring Fashion Week and the fashion magazines are stuffed with the new seasonal looks.

I always like to buy several when I go to the grocery store. I love Vogue for it’s amazing photo shoots, but for paper dolling purposes I want simple clear photos of clothing. (Models jumping around or standing in wierd poses are beautiful and all, but a pain to draw off of.) Generally, I pick from People StyleWatch, Elle, Instyle, Vogue or Bazaar. This time I wasn’t impressed with any of them except Instyle, and there wasn’t a new People Stylewatch to be had, so I just got my Instyle and spent Saturday drawing this paper doll set. (Also watching Escape from New York and Wall-e, but I digress.)

All of Mia’s clothing is based off items I saw in InStyle with a focus on things that were part of the minimalist collections that have been on the runway as of late, especially from Micheal Kors, Carolina Herrar and Ralph Lauren. I didn’t want to do pattern and I didn’t want to do anything elaborate, I wanted to focus on shape.


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{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Marisole Monday & Friends Printable Paper Dolls}

I’m really pleased with all the clothes, but a little less pleased with the doll. I decided to make her a Mia after I finished drawing the whole set, because I haven’t done a Mia yet this year, but once I finished her I realized that I have done a very similar hairstyle before for Mia before.

Anyway, I’m still pleased with this paper doll set and very excited to color it. It’s going to be a lot different I think than any other set I’ve done which is, to me, exciting.

Delaney… A Little Bit Sweet and a Little Bit Punk

delaney-logoI have to confess that it is getting harder to name these paper dolls. I nearly called this doll Zoe, before I remembered I’ve already done a Zoe (and we won’t talk about the three different Flora paper dolls problem), so I have been trying to come up unique names that I’m certain I haven’t repeated. Hence the Delaney choice.

Delaney’s style is a little punk and a little sweet. I have been noticing more of this look around lately and I thought it was worth exploring. I didn’t draw her really any accessories and I’m kinda regretting that now. I think she needs some… oh well, sometimes that’s how it goes. I’m also thinking I really should have made her lips pink rather than that bright red… anyway, not every paper doll is perfect.

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{Download a PDF to Print and Color} {Download a PNG to Print and Color}

Since I was feeling a little rockabilly with these pieces, I decided to go with a sort of sweet color scheme of pale blue, pink, light green and white. I wanted to contrast the content of the skull prints against the colors of the outfits. My favorite piece might be her punk combat boots. Everyone needs bright pink combat boots.

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Weather in Alabama has been crazy. It took me eight hours to get home from work on Tuesday afternoon. My work has been closed for two days. There’s snow on the ground and ice and things are insane. Stay warm, dry and safe everyone.

Playing with Pattern on Ms. Mannequin Paper Doll Clothes

logo-ms-mannequin-6Today is Friday the 13th which is apparently bad luck, though I have no idea where that came from. Does anyone know? Anyway, I figured a good way to get rid of bad luck was to post some paper doll fashions. 🙂

As a lot of my longtime readers know, I am often playing around with patterns for my printable paper doll clothes. I think pattern, while a pain in the behind, is important for the diversity of paper doll outfits. Solid colors are all well and good, but most of us have some patterned things in our closets and there’s not real good reasons why paper dolls shouldn’t be the same.

When thinking about pattern, I tend to fall into the same styles repeatedly. I suppose I can only be so creative on any given paper doll set. Still, I am always looking for new pattern inspirations- even if they don’t make their way onto the blog. I really admire the pattern work of Julie of Paper Doll School. Her patterns rock.

(She can also use Illustrator. I’m so jealous. I have the program, but I think that like a wild dog it can smell my fear.)

Anyway… Miss. Mannequin and friends are getting pretty girly today with their full patterned skirts and rose printed strapless dress.

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Before I forget, I wanted to mention that I recently stumbled across a Peal Chang paper doll. Soft Film is a blog devoted to Chinese film, as far as I can tell, and the author commissioned a fantastic paper doll of Pearl Chang, who was an actress. I confess to not being at all familair with Pearl Chang, but I knew the name Kwei-Lin Lum from her incredible paper doll work. Check it out, it’s a pretty neat paper doll.

Of course, now I have to go on Netflix and see if I can find any of these movies. Does anyone know anything about her?

Some more paper doll clothes for the Mannequins…

logo-ms-mannequin-5So… personally, I would love to own that orange dress.

I would wear it around here and people would say, “Are you an Auburn football fan?”

And I would say, “Nope, but I have on a sassy orange dress.”

See? Everything is better when you’re wearing a sassy orange dress. (By the way, I’m neither an Auburn or an Alabama fan, but I’ve learned it’s best not to mention football at all around here unless you really want to be dragged into a conversation about it. Since I can’t stand football, I keep my mouth shut.)

I have no idea how the Ms. Mannequin paper dolls feel about football… I somehow seem them as being more polo types, but that’s perhaps an unfair sterotype of the rich. Not being rich, I really have no idea what absurdly wealthy people do for fun. (I always assume my paper dolls are absurdly wealthy, since they have such large wonderful designer clothes.)

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{Download a PDF in Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG in Color}{Download a PDF of to Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG to Color} {Get some Paper Dolls to Wear these Clothes} {Get More Clothes for These Paper Dolls}

And yet more clothing for the Ms Mannequin Printable Paper Dolls

logo-ms-mannequin-2Paper doll blogs are odd creatures. I think all craft blogs are odd creatures, but I don’t do a general craft blog, I do a paper doll blog, so I don’t think I’m qualified to talk about all craft blogs.

The thing about paper doll blogs (and all craft blogs, I suppose) is that you, the author, is creating all the content. It’s not a matter of reviewing something which exists or responding to the latest news story, it’s a matter of producing work. Work production takes time, energy and inspiration, but mostly work. Hard work.

And I tend to work in spurts. So, I would be lying if I said that I drew these dresses this month. I didn’t. I drew them… I don’t even remember when. At least one sketchbook ago. They’ve been sitting, finished, on my computer waiting to go up until I had something coherent to say about them.

Well… I don’t have anything coherent to say about today’s printable paper doll clothes, but I knew if I didn’t get them up than I would regret it. I don’t have anything else to post today and I wanted to get a post up this week.

I’m not ashamed of that and I’m not ashamed of the paper doll clothes. I think they’re pretty darn cute.

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Meet Fiona: Printable Paper Dolls

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{Click Here for a PDF of Black and White} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG in Black and White}{Click Here for More Pixie & Puck Paper Dolls}

Brights are on display today.

I haven’t really anything remarkable to say about Fiona except that I am rather in love with her floral dress. I’ll be traveling a bit in the middle of this month, I don’t think anything should fall apart here, but things might slow a little.

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Should be a lot of fun, I think.

So, as I said, not much to say. Enjoy the paper doll.

Meet Hazel: Printable Paper Doll Coloring Page

So, I finally named my 4th of July paper doll with Mary’s suggestion, Hazel. I thought Hazel was a vintage sounding name to go with a vintage inspired set of costumes. I rather like how she turned out and I think her dresses are all very pretty. In my mind, Hazel is of African descent and is perhaps from London (though that would make her celebrating the 4th of July a little wierd).

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{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the Rest of the Series}

Random Rachel Story Time: When I was traveling around the UK in college, I spent several days in Newcastle hanging out with two wonderful girls from London who were both British-Nigerian. They rescued me from a rather awkward encounter with an older Irish man (fairly common problem in hostel traveling) and we spent the next two days traveling to art museums in the area together. I meant to look them up later when I was back in London, but I never got around to it.

Despite the inspiration, I openly confess it was really tough to get the features to look at all ethnically accurate while also being so stylized.

I wanted to thank everyone, though I will comment as well, who was so kind as to post Marisole ideas. I definitely think more than a few of them have potential. Every time I get frustrated with this blog, I am reminded of the quality of readers that I am so lucky to have.

This is Greta: A New Black & White Printable Paper Doll

Okay, so news: After some deliberation I settled on Natalie’s suggestion for a name “Mini Maidens”, though I have to mention that DotRot’s suggestion of “Faye and the Holidaze” was probably the one that made me laugh the hardest. I have a soft spot in my heart for alliteration. I want to thank everyone for entering, since I hate naming things.

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{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the Rest of the Series}

Greta is the new Mini Maiden and she shares a face with the Valentine’s day doll. I’ve made a new category for the Mini-Maidens with separate subcategories for Faye and Greta, since those are the two members at the moment. Passover in on the horizon, but I don’t think I’ll be doing a Passover paper doll. Though a mini-bowl of matzo ball soup might be worth it…

Anyway, I hope everyone likes the Mini Maidens and their new place among the serial dolls on the site. They aren’t on the Index page yet. With one thing and another last night, I forgot to make them an icon, but they’ll be added soon.

New Full Color Printable Paper Doll Named Madison

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{A Full Set Printable PDF of the Three Page Madison Paper Doll}

I don’t have very many Asian paper dolls, partly because it took a long time before I was comfortable drawing epicanthic folds, which are a characteristic of many East and Central Asian people, though are by no means exclusive to those groups. There is a huge variety the shape of the epicanthic fold and I never felt like it looked right until I got to grad school and ended up sitting across from a Chinese student for an entire semester. I don’t know what she did to stay awake, but what I did was use her as a model for my first Asian Pixie paper doll, named Zoe. Of course, she didn’t have blue hair or such a huge head, but I digress.

So, the Poll is over, since January is done and a child paper doll won to my own astonishment. So, I’ll get on that. In the mean time, enjoy Madison.

Flock Modern Girl: Magnetic Paper Dolls

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So, I know I said these would be up last week (or maybe the week before that), but some things came up and I didn’t get around to it. The irony is that I drew this set last year and it’s been sitting on my desktop waiting to be finished for a while.

I tried to make sure each page of this set was a consistent color scheme, so that each page can be printed and played with alone, along with combining with the other pieces in the set. I walso wanted to play a little with the options of a magnetic set of paper dolls which are different than the options for a non-magnetic set of paper doll. I think magnetic paper dolls have interesting options, but are not the same as paper paper dolls for various reasons.

The Modern Girl Set PDF Downloads
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Dove PDF Download Oriole PDF DownloadPhoebe PDF Download
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Robin PDF DownloadStarling PDF DownloadWren PDF Download
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Clothing Set 1
PDF Download
Clothing Set 2 PDF DownloadClothing Set 3 PDF Download
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Clothing Set 4
PDF Download
Clothing Set 5 PDF DownloadClothing Set 6 PDF Download
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Clothing Set 7
PDF Download
Clothing Set 8 PDF Download