medium-brown skin

Cut Out This Super Cute Superhero Paper Doll with Pearl!

Superheroes seem to be in style right now and therefore make a good paper doll topic. I think I read last year that superhero costumes outsold princess costumes for Halloween. That surprised me, but it’s sort of neat to see the change in culture that’s taking place around superheroes. I have no idea the Halloween costume sales in 2020, given the whole- there’s a pandemic thing.

We did get tricker-treaters, but it was WAY fewer than we get normally. Our neighborhood is a prime tricker-treater location and usually gets swarms of kids.

I digress as none of this has to do with today’s superhero paper doll.

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When it came to colors, I wanted to make sure this set felt like the pieces came from the same world, even though jumpsuits are not a high mix and matchable thing. My partner helped me brainstorm ideas for the paper dolls superhero names, but feel free to rename them as you desire.

Today’s paper doll was created from some old old content, a new doll and some Patreon only pieces. I like the idea of themed superheroes, but I confess I don’t really know what other then natural forces to use as icon symbols. I figure people will decide for themselves what powers the superhero has.

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I confess openly I am both not a huge superhero comics fan, nor do I really enjoy shows or comics commenting on superheroes with the possible exception of Deadpool. After being introduced to Deadpool in college, I think I read everything that existed at the time. Truthfully, I haven’t kept up with my comic’s reading.

I hope everyone is having an amazing holiday season and staying safe. Hopefully the end is in sight for this pandemic based year, but I have no idea what the future holds. Stay safe everyone out there.

For 2021, I’ll be creating a newsletter of paper doll content! I’m super excited! Sign up here if you’d like to or read more about it, if you’re unsure.

Guardian of the City with Sapphire

I drew this paper doll back in… like early March? Way back a decade ago when I didn’t have to wear a mask and time had meaning. I knew from the start of it, I wanted to do something that really let me play with armor and I feel like warrior paper dolls are always fun to draw. I never had any as a kid, so I might as well make them now.

A knight paper doll coloring sheet with six mix and match pieces. Great indoor activity for kids.

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I feel like blond hair and dark skin is a combo I like, but I really struggle to get right. This one came out pretty well, I think. Still not really sure how I feel about the pink and teal color scheme, but I wanted something more interesting then just blue or brown. Blue and brown are the colors I tend to lean on heavily with my warrior sets.

A knight paper doll with six mix and match pieces. Super cute black paper doll with lots of accessories.

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Someday, I swear I am going to put together a bunch of my warrior and princess paper dolls into a collection and calling it, “Knights and Nobles.” Obviously, haven’t done it yet, but maybe next year I’ll get around to it. Adapting and expanding things from the blog to items I can sell on places like Etsy is such a smart idea, but somehow I never get around to it. I never want to stop offering lots of free paper dolls, because I like offering free paper dolls. However, it is nice to get paid for my work and time sometimes. Patreon does help, of course.

The real problem is that I don’t usually like going back to my old work, so there’s always that.

As some of you know, I am creating a newsletter in 2021. It’s a scary new project, but I am super excited about it. Head over here if you’d like to sign up or read more about it here.

A Pair of Halloween Paper Dolls! One Bee & One Fairy

I’m not super into scary Halloween stuff. I like the occasional well written ghost story and will watch horror movies if my best friend watches them first, provides me a summary, and warns me if I can handle it. Then I watch them at noon with the lights on and quickly watch something like the Great British Baking Show afterwards to keep myself from feeling to scared.

Yes, I am pathetic in this regard.

A pair of Halloween paper dolls on this fun coloring page! Super cute bumble bee costume and a fairy for these fun printable paper dolls.

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So, to do with the Ghost and Frankenstein’s monster of last week I wanted to end October with another set of Halloween inspired paper dolls. Sometimes, when I draw Halloween paper dolls they are clearly a person with costumes and other times they are meant to be the actual creatures.

This set I think falls somewhere in the middle. Ruby could be fairy or she could be a person in a wig with an ear prosthetic. Sapphire is probably not a bee (clearly), but she could be somehow. I’ll need to think more on that one. I paid the bee with the fair, because I knew I could draw one set of wings for them to share.

A pair of Halloween paper dolls! A bumble bee costume and a fairy costume for these fun printable paper dolls.

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For this set, I stuck with a pretty narrow color scheme, as I wanted the wings and other pieces to be somewhat interchangeable between the two dolls. I’ve always felt like paper dolls are best when they have more options.

I hope everyone has an amazing Halloween, but, most of all a safe one.

If you want even more paper dolls with costumes, I just finished doing a bunch of Masquerade dresses for my 5 dollar patrons. Join us over on Patreon to see those and get more paper dolls each week.

1950s Dresses with Sapphire

If I had to pick one period of fashion that I think I would look pretty good in it would be the 1950s. In the real world, I might be a strictly hoodies and jeans sort of girl, but if I do dress up, the the 1950s tight waist, full skirt, is my go-to silhouette.

Also, historical paper dolls are what I mostly collect and were my favorites as a child. So, it is a win-win all around for me. I did this series last year for the larger scale Jewels and Gemstones. It was fun to put them together as a set. I have even more 1950s stuff, so there will be another set of these.

Let’s talk some sources. Her dresses are Vogue 8596, Simplicity 3572 and Simplicity 4966. Two of the hats are from the Montgomery Ward Spring Summer 1950.. All of the other Accessory inspirations are from the Met including- this purse, these shoes, this hat, and these shoes. Her underwear is this corset from the V&A. 

A 1950s black fashion paper doll to color with retro dresses and underwear. She has three dresses, three hats and two pairs of shoes.

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For Sapphire’s hair, I based her style off the hair styles worn by Dorothy Dandridge and Leana Horne two black stars from the 1950s. These photos of Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge (Here’s the same hair again on Dorothy Dandridge in 1954) were my inspiration.

They were also super interesting people. Dorothy Dandridge was an actress who was the first African-American woman to on the cover of Life magazine. She died quite young, sadly. Lena Horne was a wildly successful singer. She got blacklisted after being accused of being a communist.

A 1950s black fashion paper doll to print with vintage dresses and underwear. She has three dresses, three hats and two pairs of shoes.

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I tend to love the color red. However, for this set, I chose to try to avoid using it, even though I tend to always want to. Her only red is the lipstick. I love the idea of wearing hats, even though I don’t. So, the hats as universal as possible, so I matched them to shoes.

The show Lovecraft Country made me want to finish this set. The character Ruby has the most amazing outfits. I love seeing a curvy, black woman dressed up in the finest 1950s fashion. The actress Wunmi Mosaku does an amazing job with the character and I love the costuming choices like this dress and this dress. Seriously, I want her all clothes.

I don’t know if I’d universally recommend Lovecraft Country, because it is a horror show and there’s some pretty graphic violence. I like it, but I know it won’t be everyone’s taste. Plus, it is uneven- hits well when it hits, but when it doesn’t… (much like Lovecraft’s writing) it’s a little painful. There’s also some transphobic stuff which I found pretty troubling. I think the show has good and bad things about it.

I digress. Enjoy today’s paper doll and if you love the blog (and want more paper dolls) join us over on Patreon.

1890s Dress Up Time with Pearl

I couldn’t be more excited to share my second Jewels and Gemstones paper doll to have some 1890s dress up fun. A few weeks ago, I share Lapis with her At Home and bicycle outfits. Today, we have Pearl with her walking suit and tea gown. These paper dolls can, of course, share outfits.

While I was researching this era, I kept seeing floral patterned corsets. So, those inspired me. This pale blue one from the Chicago History Museum and this black one from Augusta Auctions. Drawers that inspired the paper doll’s underwear include this set, this set, and this combination set. All shoes come from Harpers Bazaar, but not from an online source. I used one of my fashion plate reprint books.

An 1890s dress up paper doll coloring page with two historical dresses, period underwear, hats and shoes. Fun way to learn about clothing history!

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Promenade or Walking costume from the Delineator from 1894. The actual illustration is here. One thing you see a lot of in the 1890s are tailored suits for women and I am a sucker for a good looking cut away coat. So, that was clearly my favorite.

The tea gown is also from 1894. The dress comes, again, from this plate in the Delineator. Teagowns might look super soft and comfortable, but that’s a lie! They were heavily boned, meaning they weren’t as relaxed as they appear.

An 1890s dress up paper doll in color. She has two historical dresses, period underwear, hats and shoes. Fun way to learn about clothing history!

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The color scheme is more pastel than I used for my Lapis 1890s dress up doll. At first, I was going more sedate with the colors. Then, to my surprise, something about the pale blue corset inspired the spring colors. Now that the paper doll is all colored, I keep thinking of Easter cards. Wrong time of the year, but I’ve never let that stop me before.

I really do recommend looking through Delineator Magazine if you have any fondness for historical fashion. It is a fun read.

Huge shout out to my Patrons, because they chose this era! And because I had a lot more fun illustrating the huge sleeve madness of the mid-1890s than I thought I would. Almost makes me want to draw the 1830s, another era of big-sleeve madness (also hair madness- 1830s hair was bananas.)

The 1980s & Corset Tops: A 2020 Fashion Trend

One of the major trends of 2020 is polka-dots (and I did a paper doll celebrating that already) and then my other trend that I have been super interested in is the 1980s and the tendency as corset tops. Plus, I think when it comes to celebrating fashion, paper dolls are pretty much the perfect fashion paper craft. They allow us to not just explore trends, but kids can draw their own paper doll clothing.

Personally, I don’t really remember the 1980s, because I was both very young and living in Alaska. Alaska is not exactly trendy as a other parts of the country. We’re a little behind in fashion. Also, we all wear lots of rainboots, polar-fleece and puffer vests. Puffer vests might have trended last year, but we were wearing them long before they were trendy.

Anyway, the big trends in this paper doll are the 1980s styles, corsets, bra tops, and Bermuda shorts. The bra tops and corset tops seemed like similar ideas to collapse together. The suit jacket works with either the lose trousers or the skirt, but I colored it as though these were separates for more flexibility. You can, of course, color them any way you choose.

A fun fashion paper craft. A paper doll coloring page with her wardrobe of mix and match separates.

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Color wise, I wanted to use the Pantone 2020 palette called Snorkle. I’m not a huge fan of pantone’s color of the year– Classic Blue. It’s just kind of… boring? Can I admit that. I’m not against it, but it’s not super exciting to me. I guess given how 2020 has gone people are not super into exciting these days. Anyway, there’s also a trend for the return of some neon colors and the bright green was my nod to that trend.

A fun fashion paper craft. A paper doll printable with her wardrobe of mix and match separates.

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Among my favorite things about this version of Pearl is her hair. I’m always working to learn to draw hair better and I feel like this hair came out particularly nice. It’s a process, after all.

Are you into fashion trends? I confess I’m pretty boring in my clothing choices, but I do like drawing them for paper dolls. I try to stay at least aware of what’s happening in the world of trendy clothing.

1970s Fashion Paper Doll- Sapphire

Occasionally, I ask Patrons to vote on what they would like to see. Last time I did it, there was a three way tie between Tudor, 1970s and 1890s. Today’s creation is a 1970s fashion paper doll. When I usually think of the 1970s, I think of psychedelics prints and bellbottoms. When I actually spent some time looking at images from the era, I noticed quickly that while that was one trend of the era, it wasn’t the only trend of the era.

I fell in love a little with the more conservative business attire I kept seeing for women. Well and one jumpsuit, because the 1970s is full of amazing jumpsuits. I couldn’t exactly draw the clothing of the period and not include a jumpsuit. My sources were vintage sewing patterns (this one and this one) and several books I have on 20th century fashion.

A 1970s fashion paper doll coloring page for printing out and playing with. Fun vintage fashion activity for kids featuring a black paper doll and her work wardrobe from the mid-1970s.

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I decided to go with a swimsuit rather than traditional underwear for this paper doll and my other 1970s paper doll. I just kept seeing swimsuit vintage sewing patterns. I settled on this one as my source material. The hip hugger boy-short bottoms with the belt felt very period appropriate.

The closer you get to the current era, the more it is small things that define a period style. For the 1970s, some of those small things include the shape of the collars, skirt length and pant shape. The last is color and that’s a big one too. Speaking of color, I chose avocado green (such a classic of this era), burnt orange and some deep coral. For the dolls makeup, I tried to keep with the “natural look” of the 1970s which required like 57 products, but was supposed to look like it didn’t.

A 1970s fashion paper doll printable. Fun vintage fashion activity for kids featuring a black paper doll and her wardrobe from the mid-1970s.

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I chose Sapphire for the model here, because before the 1970s, you almost never seen black women in mainstream catalogs or magazines. During the 1970s, there’s a wave of diversity. Also, I love 1970s afros. Sapphire’s was inspired by Pam Grier and her amazing curls. I tried to make this look like a looser afro than some of the others I have drawn, but I am not 100% sure it was effective. I’m still practicing my hair drawing skills a decade into this blog.

There is another 1970s fashion paper doll forth coming, but until then you can check out my other 1970s paper dolls or join Patreon if you want to get to vote in my next “time period for Rachel to work on” poll.

A Ballerina Paper Doll- Pearl

Today’s ballerina paper doll is created from some pieces you might recognize. I have complicated feelings about ballet, as some of you may know. On one hand, I love watching ballet. On the other hand, ballet is a problematic relationship with body image. I am super into the importance of learning to accept (if not always love) your body.

I know too many people in recovery for eating disorders, so I can’t create a ballerina doll without mentioning that amateurs ballerinas have some of the highest rates of eating disorders among any type of non-professional athletes. This 2003 study from the journal Psychopathology is both fascinating and a little sad. A slightly less intense article is this one from last year in Medium- Why Ballet Hasn’t Yet Caught Up to the Body Positivity Movement. There are some amazing dance troupes and projects working to change the idea that dancers must be skinny such as the Big Moves Dance Company: Beyond Body Positive Towards Fat Liberation.

I firmly believe you can both love an art form and recognize the art form has issues.

A curvy ballerina paper doll with three costumes to print and play with. She can share clothing with any of the other Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 paper dolls.

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There are several different traditional styles of tutus. The Pancake style tutu (left) has a shorter skirt style with a wired hoop in-between the layers of tulle to help the tutu keep its shape. The romantic/classical tutu (right) is longer and not wired. Both are very traditional in ballet.

Ballet’s strict “rules” govern how shows are costumed. It’s a little wild. The pancake tutu is the traditional purple of the sugar plum fairy. The classic tutu is a “country maiden” look like Giselle in the first act. Act two is costumed entirely in white. I’m sure it looks amazing on stage, but maybe less fun to color.

Lastly, between the two tutus (try saying that five times fast), there’s a firebird unitard. The Firebird was written for the 1910 Paris season of the Ballets Russes company. It was first costumed by Léon Bakst. His designs rarely feature tutus. So, I thought it was a fun chance to draw something that was not a tutu. Nothing against tutus, but they start to all look the same after a while.

A curvy ballerina paper doll printable with three costumes to print and play with. She can share clothing with any of the other Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 paper dolls.

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One of the other interesting things I learned about when researching this ballerina paper doll was about toe shoes (of which she has three sets). There’s this concept in ballet costuming called “breaking the line”. The goal is to make the dancer’s legs look as long as possible. You don’t want the color of the shoes to break the smooth expanse of leg. Pointe shoes for nonwhite dancers have historically been super hard to find, this article about introduction of brown pointe shoes in 2018 from NY times is super interesting.

I love it when drawing paper dolls teaches me things I didn’t know about the world.

In case you’d like to grab some practice clothing to go with today’s performance clothing, check out this Amethyst dancer paper doll.

And, of course, if you want a paper doll or outfit every Friday, head over to Patreon. The Gisselle costume was a patron creation from last year.

A Fantasy Princess Paper Doll & Her Gowns

As some of you may recall, I’ve been doing a whole collection of these big skirted fantasy gowns since last year. I knew I wanted to continue the series in 2020, so I have been resizing the dresses for the Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 while also drawing some princesses with amazing hair to get to wear the dresses. I’m calling this the Princess and Their Gowns Collection and this is the second one.

Of course, any of the paper dolls can wear the dresses, as long as they aren’t in historical underwear which will likely show under some of these gowns. Re-posting some of my historical dolls in the new 2.0 format is definitely on the to-do list.

There’s two gowns here- one is a ball gown with a truly impressive skirt. The other is a music dress which could be any type of dress, but comes with a random instrument. The ballgown was originally a Patron design from last year.

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I do love drawing these sorts of gowns. I do keep a “Rococo/Big Skirted Absurdity” section on my Fantasy Pinterest Board for a reason. I mean, I think they’re pretty fun to create. The music dress began as this doodle. This dress from the 1870s and this dress from the 1870s were inspirations for the ballgown. There’s also a doodle version of that gown.

The doll, which is new for this set, is Sapphire and I wanted to give her a natural hair updo inspired by this hairstyle and this hairstyle and this hairstyle.

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The first of these princesses and their gowns was Opal and her princess gowns who I shared back in March. Now, this is the second and I’ve also got a version with Lapis finished. I’ll hopefully share that version soon.

Do you have a favorite of these two gowns? I think I like the music dress, myself. Let me know in a comment! I love to hear from you.

And remember that if you want to get more paper doll clothing, head over to Patreon where I share an extra paper doll or dress on Fridays. There’s other fun projects as well, including my 365 day project where I’m sharing some of the results of my foray into Idea Roulette.

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.