evening gowns

Hazel’s Runway Ball Gown for Glamorous Printable Paper Doll Events

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Evening Gowns and Boots’ Paper Doll Series Catwalk Couture
A black paper doll with a natural hair updo and a beautiful evening gown and shoes. A printable paper doll coloring page from paperthinpersonas.com.
I think one of the great benefits of the internet is that it has created a world where people are willing to share their work. I try to visit all the active paper doll blogs I am aware of and comment on them as much as I can.

I love seeing what other artists are working on like Julie’s amazing bunny project from last week and Miss. Missy’s super cute Easter paper doll.

Boots has been working on a Catwalk Couture paper doll fashion series where she has been drawing the designs of some of the great contemporary designers. I was inspired by her work to create an evening gown that could have come off the runway.

I was heavily influenced by the designs of Marchesa one of my favorite evening gown designers.

Hazel’s hair is based on this beautiful natural hair up-dos like this one and this one. I’m worried it looks less like a natural up-do and more like a turban, but maybe I’m just being hyper critical.

Since I am not black, I always feel a little self-conscious when I draw things like natural hair styles.

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Need a more outfits for today’s Mini-Maiden Paper Doll? Find More Clothing Here. 

An Oscar’s Worthy Dress for The 2017 Collaborative Paper Doll Project

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: An Oscar’s Dress by Oscar De La Renta

An Oscar worthy evening gown based on an Oscar De La Renta design from Pre-Fall 2014.

The February theme was inspired by the Oscars and we all decided to draw an Oscars dress. Well, I went with an Oscar De La Renta inspiration last month and I might have gone for the same thing again. What can I say? I love his designs.

So, here is my 2017 Collab Paper Doll’s Oscar Dress. It’s Outfit 36 from Oscar De La Renta’s Pre-Fall 2014 collection. Here is another favorite from that collection.

I admit the put this dress together in a rush. Somehow February has completely gotten away from me, so here’s no wig to go with today’s dress, but you an use one of the wigs from the paper doll’s page, I think in a pinch.

And I am super pleased to announce the Miss Missy’s Paper Dolls has joined in the paper doll creation fun. So, here is her interpretation of the base doll.

Pop over to Paper Doll School, Pop Culture and Paper Dolls, Paper Doll School and Miss Missy’s Paper Dolls to pick up their versions of today’s gown. They should all be posted in the next few days.

Stay tuned for next month’s theme- Fashions from Space!

So, what do you think of my choice of Oscar gown? Too much? Just enough?

And, as always, if you love the blog, then think about donating to support it on Patreon.

Need a doll to wear this stylish outfit? Grab the Doll here.

A Fancy Valentine’s Day Affair with the Sprites Paper Dolls

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:  Valentine’s Day & James Bond

I seriously thought I had done a set of suits for the Sprites before this, but I think I was thinking of the Sprite’s predecessor the Pixie and Puck series. So, here is the first suit for the Sprites gents and, I think, the first ballgown for the Sprites ladies. A bunch of first today.

Also, it’s Valentine’s Day! So, Happy Valentine’s Day! Here’s a paper doll!

On the left, there’s a tuxedo with a white jacket, very James Bond, for the Sprites Guys. On the right, there’s an evening gown for the Sprite’s Ladies.

The pink heart was supposed to be one of those padded boxes of chocolate, but I’m not sure that’s very obvious.

Looking for other Valentine’s Day paper dolls? There’s a few more options here.

Also, there’s an different color scheme for these Sprites outfits over on my Patreon page. It’s open to the public as a Valentine’s Day treat. Of course, if while you are there, you want to become a patron, well, I wouldn’t mind at all. 🙂

Looking for some Sprite paper dolls to wear these outfits? Pick out Sprite paper dolls here.

Min-Seo And Her Red Carpet Evening Gown- A Printable Paper Doll

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: This gown from Pinterest
A black and white red carpet evening gown and Asian paper doll with an updo and matching shoes. Printable paper doll in color or black and white.

Punk paper doll

Every paper doll needs a look to wear on the red carpet, you know? Sure, jeans are useful, but they are not as much fun as evening gowns. So, here’s some paper doll red carpet evening gown love for Min-Seo.

As I often feel with paper dolls with black hair, the linework on her hair (which I am quite proud of) got quite obscured. Check out the black and white version to see it better. I think if you wanted, this updo would also make her a pretty good steampunk base doll. It feels sorta Victorian to me.

Anyway, I think I did this dress in a dozen color schemes, before settling on this one. I decided that I liked the graphic quality of the black and white. The original is in white and blue, but that felt too casual for a red carpet evening gown.

Also, I love her shoes. No shocker to anyone, I’m sure.

Tomorrow, there will be another Min-Seo paper doll (shocking, I know). She’s got a pearl and fur trimmed winter fantasy gown.

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Need a more outfits for today’s Marisole Monday & Friends Paper Doll? Find More Clothing Here. 

Ms. Mannequin’s New Years Couture Gown in Lavendar

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Ralph & Russo Fall/Winter Collection 2015 A printable paper doll couture gown for the Ms. Mannequin paper doll series from paperthinpersonas.com. This gown in lavender and has a heavily boned bodice. Free to print in color or black and white.

Today’s Ms. Mannequin couture gown was based on Look 11 from the Ralph & Russo Fall/Winter Collection in 2015. The original is in a lovely soft gold. I chose to make my lavender, because I love dusty lavender as an evening gown color. It’s also a Victorian color of mourning, but I don’t think that has anything to do with today’s evening gown, I just thought I would mention it.

Meanwhile, I think this couture gown could go New Years, as I have designed it, but it could also be a great red carpet look or something for a black tie wedding.

Just like for the Poppets, there were more Ms. Mannequin paper doll posts this year (13 rather than 8), but I don’t know how to really “count” things. I mean, the posts are much smaller these days, but then again, there is a lot more variety.

Posting just one dress/outfit a day opens up some more strange things like this evil sorceress gown. By the way, that was so fun to draw that I am totally doing more evil gowns in the future.

However, today’s couture gown is not an evil sorceress gown. It is far to sweet for that, I think. Rather, it is a sexy red carpet or evening look for those times when the printable paper dolls have an important paper doll affair or they just want to look really good.

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Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick out a Ms. Mannequin Paper Doll Here

Mini-Maidens Paper Dolls With a New Year’s Evening Gown

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: This Zac Posen Gown
A New Years evening dress based on a design by Zac Posen. It could also be a wedding dress. Free to print and color from paperthinpersonas.com

As I said yesterday, this week will be all about New Years gala sorts of gowns. Today, the Mini-Maiden paper dolls are getting their evening gown. This is based on a this gown designed by Zac Posen for David’s Bridal. The dress is several years old and I couldn’t find it on the current website, so I linked to my Pinterest page.

If you want to see more evening gowns and cocktail dresses that might someday turn into paper dolls, check out my Evening Gowns board. It is the home of gowns I like and may someday draw.

Heavily boned corsets like the one on this gown are very much a trademark of Zac Posen‘s designs and I love a good looking corset.

Plus, I think a New Years evening gown should be something sexy. By the way, I would never have the guts (nor the occasion) to wear something this fitted, but then what are paper dolls for?

I think I’ve mentioned before my guilty pleasure, Say Yes to the Dress. Thanks to that show, I can say mermaid dresses are very in style for weddings and this could easily be a wedding dress if you wanted that instead of a New Years dress.

I think Faye, Greta, Hazel or Isadora would love to get this gown, but since there are four of them, you might need more gowns. Therefore, I might I recommend this series of Prom dresses or this 1930s inspired evening gown.

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Need a Mini-Maiden paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Mini-Maiden Paper Doll Here.

Marisole Monday & Friends: On the Red Carpet

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Say Yes to the Dress and Gowns Like This One or This One or This One
A purple ruched evening gown for the Marisole Monday and Friends paper doll series. Free to print in color or black and white.

One of my guilty pleasures is the show, Say Yes to the Dress. I thought I would have to give it up when I gave up cable, but fortunately, you can watch it on Hulu and who doesn’t want to watch insane bridal gowns on TV?

This only important because the show was on when I came up with the idea of doing a ruched paper doll evening gown like today’s for Marisole Monday & Friends lady paper dolls.

I will openly confess that I didn’t want to do a paper doll wedding dress, so I chose a lavender color for today’s paper doll evening gown. I’m just not a big wedding dress person, even though I like the show. Even as a kid, I was never one of those people who imagined my own wedding day. Don’t get me wrong, I cry at every wedding, but it was never part of my imaginary world as a kid.

Now, I did totally imagine being at a ball as a kid. So, red carpet paper doll gowns was much more up my alley.

So, are you a wedding dress or evening dress kinda person? Let me know in a comment.

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Need a Marisole Monday & Friends Paper Doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick One Out Here. 

An Evening Paper Doll Dress with Shoes

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: 1930s Evening Gowns, Brooches and Strappy Shoes
A 1930s inspired printable paper doll evening gown with strappy formal shoes in black and white for coloring. Free to print from paperthinpersonas.com
Not every paper doll outfit I draw has some great origin story. Some are just the result of needing to draw something. Today’s printable paper doll evening dress I fear falls much more into that category than any other.

I will confess that after I drew the dress, I did end up thinking that it reminded me a little of 1930s evening gowns like this one and this one. There’s something so slinky about 1930’s bias cut evening wear. But I’ll admit that inspiration source is a bit of a stretch for today’s printable evening dress.

So, I created this gown at the same time to created several other Mini-Maiden paper doll sets. I was trying to create a diverse set of outfits, so I just felt like I “needed” a gown.

It feels a little strange trying to write about a gown that I don’t have much to say about. I suppose I could talk about the weather instead.

Alabama is in a drought. It has been hot and dry here, but it is finally getting cold. Actually, I broke out one of my fall cardigans today. Very exciting.

See, no much their either?

Well, not very paper doll dress post can be perfect and thrilling.

In the meantime, happy Thursday!

And, as always, if you like the blog, consider supporting it through Patreon.

Need a Mini-Maiden paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Mini-Maiden Paper Doll Here.

Edwardian Mia: A Paper Doll Evening Gown

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A pale blue and yellow Edwardian paper doll dress. Also available in black and white for coloring. Free to print from paperthinpersonas.com.

Somehow, it just seems fitting to wrap the week with a ballgown. I mean, everyone needs at least one ballgown. I struggled with finding an Edwardian era ballgown that I liked. Most of the ones I saw were just too lacy for my taste. Eventually, I came across one from the book Victorian and Edwardian Fashions from “La Mode Illustrée” published by Dover. As much as I love the internet, I do really like having a few good costume plate books around for reference, because they often give contextual information which is helpful. This particular ballgown was recommended for young matrons, which I assume means ladies who were just married.

I’ll confess right now that I don’t always get Victorian categorizations of age and/or class.

What I do know is that ballgowns were, short of court dress, the most formal gowns a woman would ever own. In fact, many women would wear their wedding gown after their wedding as a ballgown for the coming year. Can I just say that it makes WAY more sense to me to buy a gown you’re then going to wear to balls than to pay like 5,000 dollars for a dress you wear once?

That just seems insane.

And yes, these comments might come out of my odd fascination with “Say Yes to the Dress.”

Anyhow, back to paper dolls… Here’s the whole of this week’s set if you missed any of the pieces.

An Edwardian Paper Doll Wardrobe For Mia

So, in this new format, we have so far had five weeks of paper dolls ranging from Monica’s Neo-Victorian week to last week’s mermaids. I’ve been wondering what people might most like to see next. I have several sets “in progress” and I’m out of backlog (eep!), so this weekend I’ll be working on one of these sets. No promises I’ll get it done in time for Monday, but I am super curious what people might like to see next. 🙂

[poll id=”18″]

Note: I was a little surprised that “Mini-Maiden Little Red Riding Hood option” won by such a landslide, so I checked the voting logs. Seventeen votes came from the same IP address within the same time frame for that choice. Clearly, someone too the “vote early, vote often” mandate to heart, but since I noticed it, I have removed those votes from the system.

Isadora Goes to Prom: Part 3

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Two short prom dresses for the Mini-Maidens paper dolls. Print and color from paperthinpersonas.com

Two paper doll dresses today for the prom going paper dolls. (Here’s Isadora whose got the hair-do for these dresses)

So, in my prom dress research, I learned that short prom dresses are in right now. I’ll confess, I don’t like short dresses. I am a maxi lenght girl, but I’m also pretty tall. I have been told by my height challenged friends that short dresses are nice when you’re not tall.

(I have no clue what it feels like to not be tall, but I trust my non-tall friends to know things about being short that I will never know.)

Anyhow, the prom trend for short dresses seems like a nice option for people who don’t like long dresses. The paper doll dress on the right is a more sophisticated cocktail sort of option. Very modern with that obi-sash detail. The paper doll dress on the left is actually a take on a dress I drew years ago for this Marisole Monday Prom Paper Doll set back in 2010.

So, my question is, who was into short dresses for their prom? I wasn’t, but I suspect I have readers who went the short dress route.

So, tell me in a comment. I’m quite curious.

Also, if you want support the blog, I have a Patreon page.

Need a Mini-Maiden paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Mini-Maiden Paper Doll Here.