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A Whimsical Winter Paper Doll to Print

A winter themed paper doll with nine mix and match clothing pieces including coats, jeans, sweaters, and hats.
A winter themed paper doll clothing page with nine mix and match clothing pieces.

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In my world, it is still way below zero and the snow is still deep. People tell me spring will come, but I am beginning to have my doubts. I’m antsy and super tired of winter. Up here, some people call this feeling the “heebie-jeebies” – that antsy icky anxiety that comes from wanting winter to end. This time of the year time seems to blur together. There’s not enough day light yet and there’s not enough changes in the weather. You start wonder- will Winter ever end?

Different people deal in different ways. I deal by being deeply and intensely attracted to all things cheerful and whimsical. I want hats that look like pandas and pink shoes. So, I designed this paper doll set to capture the whimsy of winter- the things I seem to crave as the dark and cold feels like it will never end.

Other coping strategies this time of the year for me include covering my planner in flower stickers and sticking unicorn washi tape all over my journal . What do you do to deal with long winters? Or do you live in a place where spring is already on the way? I’m only a little jealous.

By the way, I have restarted my newsletter for 2022 quietly. If you haven’t signed up, you can do that here- Newsletter Sign Up. It usually goes out about every two weeks and there’s a paper doll coloring page in every issue.

If you’d like to support PTP in a more direct way (plus get extra paper dolls very month and access to a backlog of wonderful things as well) you can sign up to be a patron on Patreon. It was a slow start to 2022, so you haven’t missed anything new there.

Happy Valentine’s Day with a Rockabilly Vintage Paper Doll

A Valentine's Day printable paper doll coloring page with a mix and match wardrobe. Great idea for kids crafting over the holiday!
A Valentine's Day printable paper doll with a mix and match wardrobe in teals and pinks. Great idea for kids crafting over the holiday!

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I have a deep fondness for Valentine’s Day paper dolls despite having a long history of having truly awful Valentine’s Days. However, my grandmother used to send me and my sister cards for Valentine’s Day and they often included paper dolls, so I like to continue that tradition here in her honor.

So, first off, Happy Valentine’s Day. I hope it is, if not great, at least uneventful and, tomorrow, there’s a lot of cheap chocolate available which always seems like a nice perk. It’s also a good time to get some roses on sale if you like roses. I confess to being more of a peonies person myself, but each to their own.

For today’s Valentine’s Day paper doll I wanted try out something I hadn’t done before, so I slipped into the world of vintage inspired rockabilly fashion. If that wasn’t a stretch enough, I then gave myself the challenge of coloring the whole thing without using any red, because I do think the color schemes for Valentine’s Day can get a little boring. How. much pink and red does one person need?

If you’re looking for even more Valentine’s Day fun, I did a Valentine’s Paper Doll Coloring Page in my first newsletter of 2022. (Sign up here if you’d like to get it.)

Meanwhile, you can get any number of additional Valentine’s Day paper dolls from previous years here and let me know if you’ve got plans for the holiday in a comment.

Diamond with her 1960s Mod Dresses

An Asian 1960s fashion paper doll coloring page with her 10 piece mix and match wardrobe of mod inspired fashions. Print her to color and play!
An Asian 1960s fashion paper doll with her 10 piece mix and match wardrobe of mod inspired fashions. Print her to color and play!

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When I think of the 1960s, these playful swing dresses come to mind. They really don’t show up until the second half of the decade, but they are so iconic. I knew when I decided to so some 1960s sets that I wanted one to be mod styles like these. My other two themes are sophisticated (see Sapphire from last week) and a beach summer set which was a Patreon piece.

There are, as always, a lot of different sources for today’s dresses. Working left to right, the orange dress was inspired by this Bill Blass dress designed for Maurice Rentnerfrom the Met. The blue dress is from Simplicity 7852 in 1968. The red and white dress is from Simplicity 6405 dated 1965. I did not draw the matching coat which I sort of regret. Coats that matched slip dresses were certainly a trend I noticed. The mustard dress is based on an illustration by Creators Studios, a New York design company. The pink dress is from Butterick 3398 from about 1966.

Her flower shoes are here from Charles Jordan in 1965. Her other shoes, hats, and purses are from John Peacocks’s 20th Century Fashion Source Book.

I have one more paper doll from 2021 that I have finished to share, than there will be a round up post for all the 2021 (though I know it is 2022) paper dolls for the Jewels and Gemstones. After that I plan to take a few weeks off as a treat and we’ll see how I feel. I love doing my Valentine’s paper dolls, so I don’t want to miss that this year.

Topaz- A Fairy Paper Doll in Layers & Flowers

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One of the nice things about working with the Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 collection is when I feel a little stumped or frustrated, I have a back log of older Jewels and Gemstones stuff to refer to and build on. This set, for example, came from a Topaz as a Woodland Fairy set combined with a Fairy Wings and Gown set. I added a few things, removed a few things and then recolored everything to feel cohesive. This is actually the first of two fairy sets I have been working on.

While I recommend gluing the fairy wings to the doll for sturdiness, you could also use adhesive Velcro (or hook and loop tape if we’re being more general) dots and apply on to the back of the doll (or maybe two, depending on size) and then one or two to the wings and that would give you a way to have removable wings. I would add that not all adhesive velcro is paper friendly (some is specifically designed for fabric), so I would double check that.

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Diamond Exploring the Nautical Cuteness of Sailor Lolita Fashions

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Lolita fashion is a Japanese alternative fashion style that is based on Victorian children’s clothing and all things cute. Let me be clear- if you know anything about actual Victorian clothing, this is not Victorian clothing. It’s Victorian clothing taken to the absolute extreme of ruffles and matching and theme. Like anything in this world, there’s a lot of sub-genre’s of Lolita fashion.

Sailor Lolita, one of the many genres of this style, emphasizes pleats, sailor collars, and all things nautical. If you want to see more of this style, I have a Pinterest section for Military and Sailor Lolita Fashion. While I love a lot of different Lolita styles, the thing them I find most interesting is that (despite the name) it is a hyper-feminine style without being sexualized- necklines tend to be high, skirts are at least knee length, shoes are often without heels.

One thing I find interesting is that elements of Lolita fashion has become more mainstream as the cottagecore trend seems to be flourishing at the moment. I’ll be curious to see how these hyper-feminine styles evolve over time and if they stick around after the trauma of the pandemic. Cultural upheaval often seems to bring about a flourishing of feminine clothing styles- the Great Depression, the Aftermath of World War 2… etc.

Anyhow, this isn’t the first time I’ve done Lolita fashion for Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 paper dolls, I did a Gothic Lolita foray back in 2020. To fill out my themes, there are several other Lolita sub-genres I should explore like sweet, wa, qi, and classic. However, for the moment, here’s nautical. (And yes, some of these pieces came from a Jewels and Gemstones 1.0 set.)

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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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Topaz in her Early 1940s Fashions

A black and white printable 1940s paper doll coloring page with vintage fashions to color. Four mix and match dresses, plus hats and shoes.

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A printable 1940s paper doll coloring page with vintage fashions. Four mix and match dresses, plus hats and shoes. The dolls wears a 1940s style swimsuit.

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When I am drawing a historical fashion set, like today’s 1940s fashion paper doll, I always struggle a little to find sources. Since most things after 1924 are perceived as being still in copyright, there’s just not as much out there on the internet. I won’t get into my personal opinions about that one, but I did discover an amazing resource when I was working on this 1940s fashion paper doll was this site called Christmas Catalogs & Holiday Wishbooks. It doesn’t just contain Christmas catalogs, but also have general Sears, Montgomery Ward, and a few JCPenney catalogs from the mid-20th century. Super fun to look through- one thing I noticed was the gradual decline of space given to the topic of hats for women in the catalogs from the 1940s to the end of the 1960s.

You can see more of my sources on my 1940s Fashion Pinterest Board. I also used my books, as I usually do. There’s going to one more from this collection. The first one was last month’s Patreon paper doll. I’m also doing a Patreon poll on the next decade I should do (I already have a 1960s and 1930s sets in the works). Currently, the 1980s is in the lead. If you are a patron, go vote!

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A Little Mermaid in the 1830s

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

To end the month of Mer-May, I wanted to share this Little Mermaid paper doll. As you probably know, the Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen is the classic tale of a mermaid who becomes obsessed with a prince, gives up everything for him, ends up in agonizing pain until he marries someone else, nearly kills him, kills herself, and gets to spend 300 years doing good deeds for humans, so that she might someday win a soul to go to heaven.

Most illustrated versions of the tale I’ve seen place the story in a orientalist fantasy setting, but I wanted to draw on fashions from around 1837 when the story was written. So, the paper doll’s dress is based on this dress from 1837, this dress from 1833-1837, plus this dress from 1837-1839. Her hair is from the early 1830s and I love those silly hair styles. I used this fashion plate. Despite appearances, it’s actually simplified.

The men’s outfit references a line in the story where the Prince has a page outfit made for the Little Mermaid, so she could ride with him. My paper dolls’ riding costume is based on this coat from 1830 to 1840 and this suit from the 1830s. Though the cut is a bit more regency than it is 1830s and the boots are very regency, I confess.

The knife with the paper doll is the one that the Little Mermaid’s sisters trade their hair for to try to save the Little Mermaid’s life by having her stab the Prince to death. By the way, if you’ve never read the original, I think you should. It is not the Disney tale most people think of.

If you’d like, I do have a lot more mermaid paper dolls. Check out my Mermaid tag and another Jewels and Gemstones Mermaid, if you’d like more mix and match mermaid options.

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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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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.