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Printable Paper Dolls
Cut & Color Couture: 1630s and 1640s
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Today’s printable 17th century paper doll coloring page is showing off styles from the 1630s and 1640s, a celebration of Baroque fashion. She’s the first of two I drew. I confess that this is not my favorite period of historical fashion, but that’s part of why I drew it. I’d drawn a few other historical paper dolls for the Cut & Color Series: 1940s and 1920s. I thought I would continue the trend.
I both wanted to stretch myself and work on something that I wasn’t super comfortable with. Also I needed to practice drawing lace. There’s so much lace in Baroque fashion.
Women typically began dressing with a shift or chemise as the base layer, over which they wore stays to shape the torso. These stays created a pronounced, rounded cleavage, accentuated by the often very low necklines popular at the time. The effect was dramatic. As they say in Monty Python, “huge… tracts of land.”
The overall silhouette for this 1640s paper doll includes broad shoulders and a higher waist, though this would begin to descend in the following decades. Bodices were typically fastened with stomachers, crafted from the same fabric as the gown, making them less visually distinct. While the long, pointed bodice would become more common in the 1650s, the historical gowns featured on this doll are a bit less extreme in their styling. Maybe one day, I’ll take on the 1650s as another paper doll project. For now, I’m sticking with my printable 17th century paper doll coloring page and calling it good.
Full, voluminous sleeves, sometimes cinched at the elbow with ribbons or decorative rosettes, are also a big part of the look. I made sure to include them on this historical costume coloring page for one of the paper doll’s gowns. This style of sleeve can be also seen in this 1630s portrait, which was one of my reference images.
Lace collars and cuffs were also super popular. There was often lace trim around the low, square necklines too. Since lace was extremely expensive, wearing it was definitely a way to say, “Look how rich I am!” One reason I chose to create this Baroque fashion paper doll printable was to practice drawing lace. There’s so much of it in this era, like in this portrait.
Hairstyles in the 1630s and 1640s were very distinctive. Hair was usually pulled back with structured curls framing the face. It’s a super distinctive look. Occasionally, women wore soft, wispy bangs at the front. One of the challenges of drawing this Stuart-era dress-up paper doll was getting those hair details. Curls and I have a complicated relationship.
This is the first of two of these I drew. I’ll get into why that happened when I post my next one.
Explore More About 1630s–1640s Fashion
- 1630s Fashion from the FIT Institute’s Fashion Timeline
- 1640s Fashion from the FIT Institute’s Fashion Timeline
- My 17th Century Pinterest Board (where I collect all my images for my personal reference.)
- Ornatus muliebris Anglicanus, or, The severall habits of English women : from the nobilitie to the contry [sic] woman, as they are in these times, 1640 by Wenceslaus Hollar, Bohemus, fecit Londini, ano. 1640
I haven’t done any other 17th century paper dolls, so I can’t add any to this list. It’s not a super popular period for paper doll creations. Brenda Mattox did a Cinderella paper doll in this era and Tom Tierney has a coloring book from the period as well.
If you know of any others, please let me know and I’ll add them.
Wardrobes of Whimsy: Fjord Fantasy
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So, back in June of last year, my husband and I went to Norway for a few weeks. Partly a work trip for me and partly a lovely vacation for the two of us. It was very fun. We went to several different cities and lots of museums. Norway is beautiful and reminds me so much of Alaska where I am from. The fjords, the mountains, the weirdly large number of stuffed polar bears in Tromsø, and the presence of lots of plants that looked familiar.
It was a really really fantastic trip.
While I was there, I did a lot of doodling of Viking inspired clothing (especially because I got to see actual dwarf broaches and they were just as beautiful as I suspect they would be) and so here’s a bit of that coming out in paper doll format.
So, these garments are inspired by “apron dresses” over under dresses. As I discussed at great length a decade ago when I wrote about Viking dress, no one really knows for sure what Viking women wore, but man there are a lot of people on the internet who get a lot of joy out of arguing about it. I’m not entering into that debate, but I did have fun creating these fantasy dresses inspired by my limited understanding of Viking clothing.
These aren’t very traditional mix and match dolls, which is kind of the point. As I mentioned last week, the whole concept of these was how layering comes together for a paper doll outfit. I really like the idea, but I’m not sure. There’s more than two outfits here- you actually have 8 different combinations, between the shoes and the various apron dresses that go over the dresses.
I don’t know if I’ll do more of these or not… I’m having many thoughts.
Wardrobes of Whimsy: A Romantic Evening
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Sometimes, I talk myself out of ideas—and this project was one of those cases. I’ve always really loved mix-and-match paper dolls, but designing sets like these comes with certain compromises. One challenge is layering, especially when it comes to tops being tucked into pants or skirts or long gloves, like on this set. That limitation got me thinking: what if I could have both the full layered outfit and the individual pieces as separate, layer-able parts in one paper doll set?
One of the great things about digital art is the flexibility it offers. It’s so much easier to draw, erase, and redraw without relying on tons of tracing paper.
I originally designed these in summer of 2024 and was really excited about them at the time.
But then life got busy, and I started second-guessing the whole idea.
I showed them off at the Paper Doll Convention in Indianapolis, and the reaction was a bit lukewarm. People didn’t seem to quite “get it.” That made me wonder if the layout just isn’t doing a good job of explaining the idea, if maybe it was a poor idea in the first place, or if ballgowns are maybe not the best example of the concept… I feel like maybe it needs a revision or two.
So, with the caveat that this might get heavily revised in the future and I am not even going to give these their own category yet, as the two I’ve currently made may end up being the only two that are ever made, here’s some ballgowns I made for a paper doll.
The other set that goes with this experiment, I’ll share next week.
Fashionable Florals: A Patreon Exclusive
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A Ruffled Evening for my Patrons
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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!
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!