Cut and Color Couture

Foxglove & Butterflies: Cut & Color Couture

A printable black and white foxglove princess paper doll coloring page with a doll, a dress and an overdress decorated with foxglove.

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Last week, I posted Ruffles and Dragons, a paper doll gown that Chinese motifs inspired. After I finished drawing that paper doll, I became fascinated with the idea of doing a totally different feeling dress with the same silhouette of the overdress and a different under dress. So, I ended up with this foxglove princess paper doll.

Stained glass inspired this princess paper doll’s gown. My mother makes beautiful stained glass and I was thinking of stained glass lamps, especially the way the leading on stained glass highlights and breaks things into shapes.

I drew the foxglove, because I really love foxglove flowers. It’s one of the few plants that grows super well in Southeast Alaska where I grew up. Also, as a kid, I thought it was cool how poisonous it is while being so pretty looking. I was trying to stretch a little. I also thought the shape would fit will into the panels of the overdress. So, while it wasn’t really a well planned project, that’s how I ended up with a foxglove princess paper doll.

The underdress I had originally planned to pair with the dragon overdress, but I didn’t think the ribbons really fit in with the dragons. That was when I came up with the idea of the spirals that I used on that dress. So, for this dress, I was thinking about white victorian gowns. Ruching details decorate the sides of the bodice.

I’m really excited about how this gown turned out. It’s been fun to explore new themes and experiment with different influences—stained glass, nature, and princess dresses. While the process wasn’t entirely planned, that’s okay! I think sometimes things are fun as little experiments. As always, feel free to share your thoughts or suggestions for future designs — I’d love to hear what inspires you.

Ruffles & Dragons: Cut & Color Couture

A storybook princess paper doll coloring page with a gown decorating with dragon motifs and a fancy hair-do. She has accessories. The doll is Asian and Chinese clothing inspired the motifs on the dresses.

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Happy Friday!

I confess that I’ve been struggling to focus on anything paper doll related this last few days. Had I been on the ball, I would have pre-scheduled things, but I didn’t. Eh. The world keeps turning, so here we are.

Moving on from that, today’s paper doll coloring page is my first Asian paper doll for the Cut and Color Couture series. Chinese clothing inspired the motifs on the dress and the over dress. I don’t like attaching ethnicity to my paper dolls, but describing her as a paper doll with an epicanthic fold on her eyes is probably not going to play nice with the search engines. (And like it or not, a certain amount of playing nice with Search Engines is how I have to roll.)

I originally designed this paper doll’s dress as an experiment in layering two pieces over each other. Back when I was a kid, I really love layered bid skirted dresses. I used to buy this one sticker paper doll over and over again called the Storybook Princess paper doll. It was only 1.50 in those days. It is a sticker paper doll book (which I was delighted to find out you can still buy it.) The doll had tops and skirts you could put together to make princess gowns. It’s a great paper doll.

In honor of that love of princess gowns, I designed my own storybook princess paper doll version. The spiral motifs on both the dress and the overdress are somewhat based on the motifs you see on 19th century Chinese clothing. This Han women’s jacket, this sleeveless jacket, or this Manchu woman’s outer gown all have spiral designs on them. It’s a very loose connection, but that’s what was inspiring me.

The dragons were originally going to be butterflies, but I draw a lot of butterflies. So, I thought dragons would be a bit more of a change of pace. I don’t love the design I ended up with, because it feels a little too aggressive. This doesn’t really reflect that you see with dragons as decorative motifs on actual Chinese pieces.

Dragons show up on a lot as Chinese decorative motifs, you can see some here from the Jin Dynasty or this one from a roof tile or these on a dragon robe. My limited understanding is that Dragon robes, also known as gunlongpao, were worn by Chinese emperors. To count as a dragon, it has to have five claws. My dragons only have four claws, which I think means they are not imperial dragons. (I think? I ended up down a whole four-clawed vs five-clawed dragon rabbit hole and I still don’t totally know that difference in how they were used. I do know one had four and one had five claws. That’s all I got.)

Anyway, I digress.

This is the first of two of these designs, because I was having a lot of fun with that overdress. The second version is more floral. That might be up next week.

Cut & Color Couture: 1942 War Era Wardrobe

A 1940s style paper doll with her mix and match wardrobe of three dresses three purses and one hand. She's a coloring page, so you can color her anyway you want.

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Today’s 1940s style paper doll happened because I had access to full digitized sears catalogs from 1942. I don’t know who put together the website simply called Catalogs & Wishbooks, but I am grateful to them on a regular basis. It is a collection of dully digitized catalogs from major department stores- Sears, JCPenney, Montgomery Ward. You can search the catalogs or to just look through. It’s simple and very very internet old school. I love it so much. It’s why this paper doll exists, because it gave me access to fully digitized catalogs of the era.

To summarize the era very briefly, World War II really influenced women’s fashion in the 1940s (not surprising, I know). As resources became scarce due to wartime rationing, practicality and functionality took precedence over extravagance. This led to the emergence of simpler silhouettes, with tailored suits and dresses becoming popular. Women’s outfits often featured shoulder pads, defined waists and just longer than knee length skirts. Plus, military inspired details like patch pockets and shoulder details were popular. Fabric rationing created “efficient” dresses, particularly in England where rationing was most intense. There’s also a lot of whimsy in hats at this period.

Our 1940s style paper doll has dresses, hats, purses, swimsuit, and shoes which all come from the Sears 1942 catalogs. From the Spring Summer Catalog, on page 195, there is the swimsuit (The white one) and the shoes on page 146. I mean, I can’t exactly grab a swimsuit from the Winter catalog. Her hat comes from the Winter catalog on page 119 (I avoided trying to draw the net on the hat.) The dresses all come from the Winter Catalog on page 61, on page 71 and on page 47.

It’s getting chilly up here as winter sets in. I sort of love this time of year- the leaves turn and everything sort of moves toward preparing for winter. The seasons dictate life in Alaska, which is one to the things I really like about it. You can not ignore the seasonal change up here. Winter is around the corner.

Cut & Color Couture: 1926 Flapper Fashion

A 1926 paper doll coloring page

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As a librarian, I usually make it a point to cite my sources, especially when I talk about historical stuff. But I have to admit, I didn’t jot down all my references this time around, so… you’re just going to have to trust me.

I know all of these lovely dresses are from Good Housekeeping from the year 1926, but the exact months and page numbers remain unknown. You can read all the issues from that year, over on the HathiTrust website. It’s a cool online library run by a bunch of big research universities in the U.S., so there’s a ton of great info to explore. Seriously, I end up spending hours poking around there, if I’m left unsupervised.

Anyway, this is one of a collection of Cut and Color Couture series paper dolls that I have been working on that are historical. It’s been fun. I can’t wait to share it- even if I don’t have perfect citations for most of it.

Cut & Color Couture Series: A Steampunk Lady

A steampunk dress-up doll to print with a six piece mix and match wardrobe.

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This steampunk dress-up doll can share clothing with all my other cut and color couture paper dolls, but she especially matches the other steampunk paper doll I made. I have one more 1930s paper doll to share, but I thought we’d take a little breather from the 1930s for the week.

My big goal was try out drawing gears. Any self respecting steampunk dress-up doll needs some gears on her clothing, doesn’t she? But gears are not easy to draw and drawing them digitally is a little easier than drawing them by hand for me. Mechanical things tend to be precise in their angles and I tend not to be precise in my drawing, so… Yes, there’s a conflict there. 

Professional draftsman, I am not. 

Today’s steampunk dress-up doll’s hair was inspired by the 1840s and styles that would sort of talk over and around women’s ears. There’s something very ballerinaish about the pose, the hair, and the skirts. She also sort of reminds me of a an old fashioned doll.

Today, a Hiking Paper Doll for Cut & Color Cotoure

A hiking paper doll printable coloring page with three shirts, a pair of hiking pants, a map and a water bottle. She can share clothing with the other paper dolls in the Cut and Color Couture collection.

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Creating a hiking paper doll isn’t typically my go-to theme. I’ve got some other hiking themed paper doll things though like this steampunk one for my Patrons, this kids set with a super cute stuffed owl, and a marisole version called Walk in the Woods, but it’s not a theme I do back to that often.

Lately, I’ve been immersed in the world of hiking gear, particularly on the quest for the perfect pair of hiking pants. That search has led me through countless hiking clothing websites and caused no small amount of annoyance. While I’m much more of a- go for a walk for an hour or two- than a -hike up a mountain with switch backs all the way up for five hours- sort of person. I do like being outdoors and I like walking.

One thing I have learned about being out doors is how important is to wear the right clothing. Comfortable hiking clothes make a huge difference in the experience. No one wants to be cold or sweaty while also trundling through the woods.

So, in honor of the importance of hiking clothing and despite my somewhat frustrating shopping experience (I haven’t found those ideal hiking pants yet!), I’ve decided to channel my inspiration into creating a collection of paper doll outfits suitable for hiking.

Plus, our hiking paper doll is practicing good outdoor safety with her map and water-bottle. When I was in high school, Nalgene water bottles were super popular and very “cool” even though if you try to drink from them, you run a real risk of spilling water all over yourself. (When people complain about the current trend for whatever expensive water bottle, I think of the Nalgene I begged my parents for in high school.)

By the way, I am going to be at the 2024 Paper Doll Convention from August 15-18, 2024 in Indianapolis. I did some designs for the menus and I can’t wait to see how they turned out. If you’re planning to attend, please come way Hi! I love meeting PTP readers.

Cut & Color Couture: A Touch of Steampunk

A steampunk printable paper doll with outfits to color. There are five different clothing pieces.

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Today’s paper doll with outfits to color is the first of two steampunk designs I did for the Cut and Color Couture Series, which are totally interchangeable, should you wake up one morning and want to do that. That other paper doll isn’t quite ready for primetime yet though, so it maybe a few weeks before the steampunk wardrobe gets to expand. I drew these outfits from my Pinterest Board devoted to Steampunk Fashion. As happens often, I did not keep good notes on my sources here.

I have been trying to be more careful when I am designing paper doll with outfits to color. I spent some time coloring with my niece and it was harder than I’d thought to get into some of those tiny spaces. I still had fun, of course, but I was never a big “coloring” kid. I don’t have as much experience with coloring paper dolls as I do drawing them.

For today’s paper doll, I attempted to draw bandu knots (a protective style for natural hair, as I understand it). I think I needed to place the knots more forward on the head to get the right angle… Next time! That’s one of the fun things about paper dolls- I can always try again. Drawing hair is challenging for me (not as hard as hands, but it’s up there) and so I just think you have to keep practicing.

When people ask me how to learn to draw paper dolls, the only advice I have to just draw and then draw more. It’s not very helpful advice, so I usually just keep my mouth shut.

Cut & Color Couture: Fantasy Huntress

A printable paper doll coloring page of a paper doll with long wavy hair and a set of fantasy warrior clothing with vests and boots and a sword.

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Inspired heavily by Snow White’s costumes in Once Upon a Time, a TV show which I was watching since I’d never seen it before. However, I confess that I got to the 4th season and I just can’t seem to get up the motivation to finish it. This is partly because of a thing which I genuinely dislike and that is the Disneyification of fairy tales and classic stories. It is as though we can not as a culture engage with them without ending up back at Disney. Now, I realize the show is an ABC show and ABC is owned by Disney, but I think fairy tales and classic stories are such a rich text. I was far more fascinated by the show when it was working within a framework.

So, long story short, I’ve struggled to get motivation to continue watching.

But none of that has to do with this paper doll or the costume design, which has been overwhelmingly excellent.

To give a little backstory on this new paper doll series- I drew this doll for the newsletter before I realized that with all the things happening in my life (new job, house hunting, etc) that I really needed to strip back down to basics. And basics do not include the newsletter.

But I had so much fun coloring my Valentine’s paper doll with my niece that I wanted to do more. She colored the paper doll in a lot of reds and blues and then drew her swords and surrounded her with skulls and told me she was a “goddess of doom.”

And I could not be more proud of my niece.

Anyway, I decided to rename the series the Cut & Color Couture which I thought was a cute name. ChatGPT helped me brainstorm names for the series, so thank you AI for helping me come up with a name, which- while not very inspired- at least is simple and has alliteration.

I don’t want to promise anything in terms of future frequency of posts, but know that I am fine.