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Full Color
Unlock with PatreonCoastal Grandmother with Ruby!
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My mother very rarely makes paper doll suggestions. So, I was super surprised when she brought up the coastal grandmother trend. And since she is my mom, I had to draw it. Being my mom gets you special paper doll privileges as it should.
Coastal grandmother is a trend that focuses on really nice basics in neutral colors that can be easily interchanged with each other. It’s linen pants and crisp white shirts. Think very neutral, classic staples in light shades and hats, though I didn’t include one. While the grandmother’s I know who live on the coast are more xtratuf boots than nice leather sandals, I think the basic idea holds- it’s a casual style that also emphasizes the value of really classic clothing.
In honor of the grandmother theme, I did a rare grey haired paper doll which I’ve had request for through Patreon. Being a Patron also gets you special request privileges.
Anyhow, here’s the paper doll! I hope you enjoy.
And, unless my math is wrong (and it 100% might be), I think this paper doll gets us to 99 Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 sets.
Sapphire is a Fairy in Blue
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Tanya has a Formal Evening
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Today, we have Tanya with some evening gowns. This set has actually been sitting on my computer for way longer than I like to admit. However, it’s done now, so that’s okay.
Tanya’s last collection was very fantasy themed, so I thought she should get some more modern things, but I confess now I feel like the poor girl needs some pants. I’m not 100% in love with how her afro-puff came out, but I can live with that. I think that angle is wrong…
I digress.
All right, so yeah, paper doll! I know for like Search Engine Optimization I should really try to write between 300 and 500 words per post, but I haven’t got that much to say here. It’s a cute printable black paper doll. That’s kinda all I got today.
Vivian: The Original Project
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Athleisure with Ruby for My Patrons
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Jade in Circus Inspired Fashions
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I really love the visuals of circuses. I always have. After all, I have a whole pinterest board devoted to them, after all. So, sometimes I draw a circus paper doll like today’s to play with those visual motifs. One of the challenges of circus paper dolls is the color scheme. Generally, I do a black, white, and red for a circus paper doll, but I have played around with pink and blue as well.
For this circus paper doll’s color scheme, I decided to go with more a muted, softer cream over using black and added a moss green to add some depth to the whole thing. I wanted her swimsuit/bodysuit to be really a part of the set, so you can easily layer the skirts or hats with it. There’s no floating tabs for the top-hats, so you may need to make your own. I have faith in you all.
I hoped the addition of the green and the cream would make the whole thing feel more vintage. You might have seen the prototype for today’s paper doll a few weeks ago. In that version, I had played around with some weird lipstick for the doll, but I ended up scrapping it. Sometimes I think something will work and then realize… no, no it really doesn’t. Also, I got rid of the face makeup, because it read “evil clown” to me and that was not the vibe I was going for.
Another inspiration for all this was clowns. I don’t mean creepy party clowns or something, I mean traditional masked clowning which is super hard and very old. Goes back to commedia dell’arte, that semi-improvised form of Italian masked theater which dates back to the 1500s. I mean, we’re talking old old forms of art here. There’s something universal about masked theater. It seems to show up in most cultures in various forms.
As usual, if you love the blog then become a patron. It helps keep the blog on the internet and you get more paper dolls.
Pearl’s Lavish Evening Gowns
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I recently rediscovered the show Ru Paul’s Drag Race All-Stars when it showed up on one of the streaming services and I have been watching through the seasons I missed. I mostly just like getting to see the runway looks at the end, but I have never been much for reality TV show drama. Still, I love seeing the looks the drag queens come up with for the end and they always fascinate me.
So, yeah, that’s the context of today’s printable paper doll- I wanted to draw some slightly over the top dresses that really emphasized her curves. Bright colors and rich designs, I thought would be super fun. Not really inspired by Drag Race, but sort of inspired by the idea of evening gowns gone a little more wild than I usually do.
To give credit where credit is due, these dresses were inspired by the contents of my evening gowns pinterest board. However, none of them were specific to any of those I don’t think. At least, I’m pretty sure they weren’t. Who knows? Sometimes my brain doesn’t remember where I get my ideas. Enjoy!
Vivian August 2022 Steampunk Addition: Hiking Clothing
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Regency-Core: A 2022 Fashion Trend
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Today’s printable paper doll is all about regencycore. Which does lead to the next logical question… So, what is Regencycore?
Well, it’s sort of a hyper feminine style inspired by the Regency. Not the actual regency (I doubt we’ll see a neck-ruff revival), but the ideas people have of the Regency thanks to shows like Bridgerton. I’m a big Bridgerton fan and I was struck at how much I started noticing this trend in my fashion magazines and my online puttering around.
There’s a nice article about Regency-core from Women’s Wear Daily I think I highlighted this in a newsletter a few weeks back. This was my major inspiration as I designed this particular printable paper doll set. I wanted soft pastels, raised waists and lots of puffy sleeves. I also didn’t want to do a paper doll set of nothing, but basic babydoll dresses (there’s just one) and nothing else. That felt boring and not really modernizing regency. As for the puffy sleeves, I tried to get in as many variations on that shape as possible.
Along with the dresses, there’s a pair of high-waisted pleated front trousers (a trend that is returning which I am not so keen on) and I cropped most of these tops to match. I do like the fact that modern cropped tops are being paired with high-waisted pants. It’s a much better look than the hip-huggers of the 1990s.
The paper doll’s hair is based on the hair cut of Daphne from the Bridgerton tv-show. Normally when I see bangs in historical dramas I wince, because straight bangs were really not a thing in the 19th century for ladies. There were like curled ringlet sort of bangs in the Regency (see examples here), but not the bangs the paper doll or Daphne rocks. However, as mentioned, Bridgerton is a fantasy, so I am willing to embrace the bangs.
All in all, I’m pretty happy with how this turned out.
Meanwhile, I want to let my Patrons know there will be patron exclusive content on Friday! So, look forward to that- Vivian is getting another outfit in her steampunk trousseau.
DDJ: Dawn & “Ancient Chinese” Inspired Fantasy Gowns
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Sometimes I draw printable paper dolls and then by the time I get ready to share them on PTP, I find myself looking at them vaguely and being like, “Why did I draw this? What was I thinking about?”
My hunch, just because I know me, is that there was a distinctly Asian thing happening with this paper doll probably inspired by this weird “ancient Chinese” costumes thing I’ve seen on Pinterest. I find it fascinating, because China has a long and varied dress history (just like everywhere else), but (maybe in part thanks to Video games) there’s a sort of generic “ancient China” look. It’s super cool looking, but kinda like the Victorian view of medieval dress, probably hasn’t got much in common with what people were actually wearing in China a thousand years ago.
I don’t know enough about the history of Chinese dress to speak with any authority, but I don’t think anyone was running around in these, but that’s okay! It’s fun and beautiful. Sometimes, fun and beautiful is enough, you know?
As they do on NPR, I tend to wrap up my posts with two reminders to folks that these paper dolls are made possible by the generous support for my Patrons, so consider joining if you wish.
A Dive into Classic Lolita with Lapis
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Classic Lolita fashion inspired today’s printable paper doll. As I know I’ve explained before, but in case anyone is new around here or doesn’t remember- Lolita fashion is a Japanese street alternative fashion style. It is based on Victorian children’s clothing taken to the logical extreme of ruffled absurdity. Lolita fashion also has a bunch of sub-genre’s (like anything in the alt-fashion world). There’s sailor Lolita, gothic Lolita, sweet Lolita, and, of course, classic lolita which is what I’m sharing today. I thought this article was a nice quick overview of the major three styles- sweet, classic and gothic.
Classic Lolita is generally thought to be a much more toned down and refined Lolita style. It’s often called a little more mature, but that’s just in comparison to Sweet Lolita, which can be… a lot. I haven’t done a sweet lolita paper doll printable set yet for the Jewels and Gemstones. So, I’ll link this Sweet Lolita paper doll from my Dames and Dandies collection. You can see the contrast between that illustration and these without much trouble, I think (well, I hope anyway.)
There’s certainly some cottage-core trend filtering into here too. There’s a lot of scholarship about how times of social unrest also tend to be times of feminine dress. The Great Depression, for example, heralded a return to lady-like. There’s really no proof for the so-called Hemline Theory– where skirt length can be tied to economic highs and lows. Personally, I think it’s more likely that people just want a return to what they see as “safe” and “normal”. In times of social upheaval, that’s a return to a pervious time that’s perceived as being idyllic, even if such a time never actually existed. Anyway, I digress…
I keep a Lolita fashion Pinterest board for all my gathering up documentation on this fashion style. This dress and this dress inspired today’s dresses, though I think one is more gothic than classic. This paper doll was one of the few times when I’ve really dived into a color scheme. I don’t tend to use these sorts of muted soft colors that often, which is a pity, because I really love how it looks. Makes me want to use these sorts of colors on more printable paper doll creations.