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Brass & Brocade: A Steampunk Paper Doll Design
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This paper dolls color scheme comes from a card in the Color Cubes by Sarah Renee Clarke. I ended up picking color scheme 229 for this set. It was beautiful soft pink, black, sand and a dark coffee color. I loved the idea of the black, brown, and sand with the pink. Keeping some pink in the color scheme was important to me, because a 2011 steampunk paper doll called Neapolitan Ice Cream inspired this paper doll’s wardrobe and that paper doll’s scheme is cream, brown, and pink. I had planned to stick to that color scheme, but darn it, I couldn’t make it work.
Actually, if you look closely, you’ll see a that my paper doll Neapolitan Ice Cream inspired pieces on both Victorian Whims and Straps and Lace. So, all three of these Victorian steampunk paper doll printables took some inspiration from that earlier paper doll. As my art has improved over the years, I sometimes find going back to things I really like and trying to draw them again is a chance to revisit favorite ideas and see what they might look like now.
I teach a class on research and I while I know “self-plagiarism” is sort of a thing, I also sort of feel like it is silly. I mean, I don’t think you can steal your own ideas, but you can not give proper credit to your own earlier work.
This is the last of these steampunk ladies for the moment, but who knows, I might draw a few more. They were a lot of fun.
Straps and Lace: Steampunk Paper Doll For Ensemble Eclectica
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Today’s steampunk costume paper doll has a mix and match wardrobe of ten pieces. There are about 12 different outfit combinations here. I really wanted to experiment with drawing lace and lace like patterns using some lace brushes I have in Procreate. I use the brushes during the penciling stage and then I ink over them. I don’t like how they look “raw”, but they really help when I’m trying to draw a repeat pattern that runs along something- as lace often does.
I feel like I am getting much more confident in rendering lace in my digital ink style, which I am really happy about.
I will save you all from my “steampunk” vs “Victorian fashion inspired” language musings from last week. Instead, I will simply say that that steampunk is a combination of modern styles and Victorian looks. It is both fun and whimsical and usually brown. I find brown boring, so I tend to lean into color with my steampunk costumes.
(This is why I never could have been a Goth. I just find all black so uninteresting.)
For the holidays, I treated myself to a set of Color Cubes by Sarah Renee Clarke to help choose color schemes for paper dolls. I randomly selected a beautiful teal, cream, and blue palette (Color Card 101) and added yellow for extra contrast. The new pieces can mix with last week’s Victorian Whims paper doll, though the colors don’t coordinate perfectly, so some creativity is needed, but the black and white versions work well together. If you combine these two steampunk costume paper doll creations together, you’ll end up with 72 outfit combinations, before you even add in hats and purses.
As some folks know, I have a coloring book out from Colouring Heaven and I’ve heard that it’s popping up in the occasional Walmart. I am still going to recommend you order it directly, if you want a copy, because as far as I can tell distribution in the USA is not consistent at all. However, if you happen to see it in a Walmart, I’ve love a photo. I am psyched to see it “in the wild” out there in the world.
Purim is this Friday. I confess that I have been do wrapped up with other things that I completely forgot about my favorite Jewish holiday, but if you need some Purim paper dolls in your life, I have several. If I remember I’ll see about drawing a new one for 2025, but life has been a roller coaster these last few weeks.
Victorian Whims: A Paper Doll with a Mix & Match Steampunk Wardrobe
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I was really struggling to write this blog post tonight about today’s paper doll with her mix and match steampunk wardrobe. I was particularly struggling to summarize steampunk, because I think I’ve summarized steampunk at least a hundred times on this site. Technically, there are 64 “Steampunk” tagged paper doll creations and 107 “Victorian Inspired” paper doll creations, so who knows how many times I’ve done it?
Way too many.
Still, I have to remind myself that very post I write is someone’s first time visiting the site. Those first time vistors haven’t read my steampunk summary seventeen million times. So, here we go.
Steampunk is a genre that blends Victorian-era aesthetics with steam-powered technology and futuristic, often fantastical elements. Steampunk was very popular about ten to fifteen years ago. I think it may have lost some of that popularity a bit. Someone who knows more about alternative fashion then me can probably speak to that.
Personally, I don’t really care if steampunk is “in style” or not. I am going to be drawing Victorian inspired fantasy clothing, because I’ve been drawing since before I ever knew what steampunk is. I draw it, because I like victorian clothing, and corsets, and boots. Creating a mix and match steampunk wardrobe is just really fun. Calling it steampunk and not “Victorian inspired fantasy clothing”, is because I don’t think anyone else on the planet calls it “Victorian inspired fantasy clothing. Also, “steampunk” is faster to type.
I’m enough of a historian to look at steampunk fashion and be able to draw a straight line through it to the New Romantics of the 1980s. Fashion is a cycle, even alternative fashions. Does it matter what it is called?
I digress.
So, I have three steampunk printable paper dolls finished, each with a distinctly different color scheme. All their of the paper dolls have different mix and match steampunk wardrobe. I’ll be sharing those paper dolls throughout March. I think of this one was the “green” one, for obvious reasons. She has over 50 different outfit combinations, mostly because of the top hat which lets your double these things.
Glamour in Gowns for my Patrons
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A Goddess Paper Doll for Valentine’s Day
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It’s presidents day and I don’t have a president’s day paper doll, but I do have this slightly belated Valentine’s Day paper doll, so that’s what I am sharing today. She’s a goddess of love, but has more in common with 1950s pin ups than with ancient mythology.
Inspired by Larry Bassin’s paper doll book- Fun Frocks for Flo, Fanny and Fiona, today’s paper doll valentine was my own attempt at a pin-up-esque 1950s comic sort of paper doll creation. I had originally drafted her last year and I thought I would make her into a tri-fold Valentine’s Day card. That project never was finished in 2024.
So, last year, I had a preview of this paper doll, because I wanted to talk about how sometimes I start things and I don’t wrap them up.
This year, a few days late, I am now sharing her.
Is she exactly how I originally planned?
Nope. Not at all. She’s not a card, for one thing, and I had big aspirations for the background that never really came together.
Am I very happy with how she came out?
Yes, yes I am.
So, sure, it’s a few days late for her to be a paper doll valentine, but what’s a few days in the cosmic scheme of things?
Enjoy!
A Rapunzel Paper Doll by Ralph Hodgdon
If you want to win me over on a paper doll, basically all it takes is history or fairy tales, so imagine my excitement when I saw that Ralph Hodgdon had illustrated a Rapunzel paper doll.
Many of Ralph Hodgdon’s paper dolls illustrate various movie stars. He’s an incredible artist and I enjoy looking at his movie star paper dolls, but as I am not a movie star paper doll collector. But fairy tales? I am always up for fairy tales. Plus, this isn’t just a Rapunzel paper doll, but a glam 1980s Princess Bride meets Barbie experience I never knew how much I needed.
Seriously, check out that fantastic blue eyeshadow.
All right, so let’s talk the book- it’s the usual 8/16 page format. (16 pages, but one sided so 8 pages of content.) There’s seven dresses and the whole text of Rapunzel from a 1882 version of the tale from the Brother’s Grimm. So, this version includes all the brutal bits. Personally, I like fairy tales in all the gruesome glory, but I know not everyone feels like I do. The text does contrast a bit with the gowns, which are very very fun and colorful.
I’m just going to take a moment now and gush over this art. Look at the line quality here. How the folds of the gown and way the knuckles on the hand are indicated. The nails being illustrated through paint color rather than black line work. The highlights on the gems. The reflectiveness of the gold. I feel like I could examine this art for hours and learn things.
That’s before I even get into the hair… like seriously that hair..
I’m done gushing. I swear. Except the borders on the pages match the dresses! That’s fantastic. The care that went into putting this together is so evident and that’s just wonderful. There’s so many paper doll books feel tossed together and this does not. Such care and consideration went into this book.
So, if you want this one, you can grab it from Paper Doll Review. I’m very excited about adding the book to my little collection.
Wrapping up the 1830s in Paper Doll Fashions
To finish up my 1830s project, I thought I would offer this round up and write up about the whole decade with a gallery of all the paper doll fashions I drew, so you can make sure you didn’t miss any of them.
The 1830s is a transition period in women’s fashion. The early part of the decade is characterized by full skirts, gigot sleeves, ankle length skirts and lavish decorations. A softened, gauzy version of the 17th century ruff is often combined with high collars, a nod to historical fashions. Pelerine collars, large wide collars with lapels that extended down the front of the gown (see this dress) were very popular. Throughout the decade, the shoulders of gowns are dropped, creating a sloped shoulder line.
This is not an era of strong broad shoulders.
An 1830s Paper Doll
Fashion is not static of course and evolves. During second part of the decade, largely after Queen Victoria ascends the throne in 1837, the styles become more restrained. Sleeves reduce in size, skirts get longer, and details become more delicate. The sleeve, which had defined the style for many years, entered a transitional phase in the late 1830s. Once a large ballooning gigot sleeve, it began to evolve with the fullness in sleeves began to shift to the lower arm. One common way to adapt the wider sleeve into something more restrained was to gather or pleat the fullness into a tightly fitted upper arm and then allow the fabric to expand into wider sleeve as it came to the wrist. This style (see this dress and this dress) continued unto the early 1840s.
I could not be happier with how these paper dolls turned out. There’s 12 different designs here making up 24 pages. You can decide if you want this 1830s paper doll in color or in black and white for coloring. Enjoy!
A 1839 Dress for the Races for the Ensemble Eclectica Paper Dolls
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If you’ve ever watched Bridgerton, than you might know that in England in the 19th century there as a “social season”. The social season corresponded with the sitting of English Parliament and then went into the summer, usually ending around June. Basically, all the Lords had to leave their estates and come to London to do political work. There’s some debate when it “started” and I suspect these things, as with most things, didn’t have specific dates.
Unlike London, the Paris social season didn’t align with the sitting of parliament. Everything I’ve read suggests it was less formal. However, the races at Longchamp often marked the end of the social season in Paris. Longchamp was the place to see and be seen and show off the latest summer fashions. Remember that scene in My Fair Lady at the Ascot Races? That’s what Longchamp was for the Paris season- both a horse race and a big deal socially.
Published in Le Bon Ton, a French fashion magazine, these 1839 dresses are meant for Longchamp. These April gowns were trying to show the height of fashion for the races that ended the Paris social season.
I didn’t chose these gowns for their connection to horse racing. I picked them, because I thought they really show the transition into the 1840s. The dropped shoulders, the pleating at the top of the sleeve, the fullness right around the forearm coming into the wrist are all distinctive of the early 1840s and late 1830s. Plus, the details at the top of the sleeves and the longer skirts.
I wanted to end the series with something that really felt more 1840s than 1830s and this 1839 dress qualified.
When I started this whole project, I had intentions to continue through the 1840s and 1850s. Now that I am wrapping up the 1830s, I am not sure if I have the steam to keep going. I also don’t want to stop. So, I might see how I feel in a few weeks, because there is going to be a pause. After all, I don’t have the dresses from the 1840s finished yet.
In the meantime, I have some other content I’ll be sharing, including a wrap up post later this week to show off the entire 1830s decade worth of paper doll dresses.
Did you have a favorite? Let me know in a comment.
A Dress from 1838 for the Ensemble Eclectica
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I know I shouldn’t have favorites, but I do and this dress from 1838 is one of them. It was first printed in Le Follet, a french fashion magazine, in 1838.
I think this dress is so beautiful. The sleeves are a delight with ribbons and ruching. There’s a slight princess waistline with deep pleating. I’m 90% sure this is a dinner dress, because its paired with a bonnet, but rather a cap of ribbon.
To me, this gown is late 1830s in it’s most elegant. The early 1830s are whimsical and fun, but the later part of the decade gets elegant. And this is elegant.
All right, let’s talk about other details, as the decade came to a close, the sleeves got narrower with accent details falling right above the elbow. You see a lot of upper sleeve decoration. There might be a fashion term for this other than “upper sleeve decoration”, but I’ll be darned if I know what it is.
I didn’t do a lot of patterned dresses during this project, because the other details are so complicated so often in these historical dresses, that I felt like the extra lines from pattern would just be visual clutter.
I didn’t do many patterned dresses for this project because the other details are often so intricate, adding patterns just seemed like visual clutter. However, I loved the floral sprig pattern on this gown—it added so much to the simple silhouette, so I decided to go for it. If I’m drawing a dress from 1838, I figured I might as well include a pattern once in a while.
In fact, I had so much fun coloring the pattern that I made a second version for my Patrons. If you’re a Patron—free or paid—you can check out the periwinkle version over on Patreon.
In the end, this dress from 1838 is a favorite of mine for being elegant and having delicate details. I’m glad I took the chance to add a pattern to the design, as it really enhances the gown’s beauty. I hope you enjoy seeing it as much as I enjoyed bringing it to life—be sure to check out the periwinkle version over on Patreon!
An 1837 Dress with Ruffles for the Ensemble Eclectica Paper Dolls
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This 1837 dress is from France. So, I’ve hopped across the channel to Paris for this one. One thing to notice about French fashions is that they are a little more edgy than English fashion and necklines were much lower.
I mean, we’re not talking like thongs here. It’s still the 1830s, but the French fashions just aren’t as stiff as the English ones. Of course, English fashion magazines were constantly ripping off French plates and copying them, so I don’t know! It’s all a whirl.
Anyway, Le Follet, the magazine from which this dress is based, does not offer handy labels. You can see the plate from the Los Angeles Public Library. So, I don’t know for sure what the purpose of this dress was. Based on the sleeves, the design of the plate, and fabric colors, I am 85% sure it was daywear.
A few things you might be noticing about the second half of the 1930s- necklines get a little lower, sleeves are much full and skirts get longer. There’s also a reduction, I think, in general whimsy and fashion becomes more somber.
Personally, I find it less fun, but then I’ve always been a more is more sort of person when it comes to historical fashion.
One thing is I wish I’d done a slightly better job of planning my paper dolls hair. In hindsight, being 20/20 as it is, I could have done wigs and that would have made the curls less of a challenge work around with the bonnets.
However, I didn’t think of that until I was literally writing up this post.
I do plan to do something with these when they’re all done. A book perhaps or an Etsy download or something, because I have more dresses I haven’t posted. So, maybe when I get to that point I’ll figure out the hair.
The nice thing about working digitally is that figuring out the hair will not require whiteout. I do not miss using white out.
Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this little 1837 dress.
Next up, we’ll have 1838 and 1839 and then it’ll be a wrap on the 1830s paper doll project. If everything goes as planned, we should be done by the end of the month.
I’m so happy with how it all came together and I’ve learned so much in the process. I hope you’re learned something following along.
Soiree Styles for the Cut & Color Collection for my Patrons
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