Lady’s Clothing

Marisole Monday & Friends: Fantasy Warrior Paper Doll Armor

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Xena: Warrior Princess, Ancient Roman Armor, and The Color Red
Absurd fantasy paper doll armor with weapons in black and white and color. From paperthinpersonas.com.

Happy Friday! I try to save paper doll pieces that I really like for the end of the week. I think of them as a fun treat.

So, I know I have mentioned in the past my love of Xena: Warrior Princess. I also know I have mentioned my strange affection for absurd fantasy armor that wouldn’t really protect you, but darn it looks good. So, today I am pleased to provide both a nod Xena and a nod to “Wow, I don’t think that armor will work like you think armor should work.”

But seriously for a second, I think sometimes there is a lot to be said for embracing absurdity. And since I embraced absurdity with this set, I will not apologize for giving her boots high heels.

Along with the armor and boots, she has fun weapons- a pair of swords and a spear. I actually had fun trying to make them all match in design motifs. These are the thing I think about when designing paper dolls.

So, my dear readers, should fantasy armor be practical or absurd? Let me know what you think in a comment.

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Need a Marisole Monday & Friends Paper Doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick One Out Here. 

Marisole Monday & Friends: On the Red Carpet

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Say Yes to the Dress and Gowns Like This One or This One or This One
A purple ruched evening gown for the Marisole Monday and Friends paper doll series. Free to print in color or black and white.

One of my guilty pleasures is the show, Say Yes to the Dress. I thought I would have to give it up when I gave up cable, but fortunately, you can watch it on Hulu and who doesn’t want to watch insane bridal gowns on TV?

This only important because the show was on when I came up with the idea of doing a ruched paper doll evening gown like today’s for Marisole Monday & Friends lady paper dolls.

I will openly confess that I didn’t want to do a paper doll wedding dress, so I chose a lavender color for today’s paper doll evening gown. I’m just not a big wedding dress person, even though I like the show. Even as a kid, I was never one of those people who imagined my own wedding day. Don’t get me wrong, I cry at every wedding, but it was never part of my imaginary world as a kid.

Now, I did totally imagine being at a ball as a kid. So, red carpet paper doll gowns was much more up my alley.

So, are you a wedding dress or evening dress kinda person? Let me know in a comment.

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Need a Marisole Monday & Friends Paper Doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick One Out Here. 

Ancient Greek Fantasy Gown Paper Doll

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Ancient Greek Dress, Corsets, Lyres and Pale Aqua

A ancient greek inspired paper doll fantasy gown with a corset and lute.

So, I have been spending some time with my big paper doll index and I have noticed there are a few tags with very few items in them. I don’t think everything has to be even, but I was surprised at how few Ancient Greek Inspired pieces of paper doll art I have posted. The last one was back in 2013. So, just like I created an Astronaut and a Ninja recently to try to flesh out those areas, I decided to dabble in the world of Ancient Greek inspiration.

Therefore today’s fantasy gown was inspired by Ancient Greek clothing, particularly the peplos which was women by women and fasten at the shoulders. Because I have a fondness in my heart for corsets, I added one over the top and her accessories are a scroll and a lyre, because everyone needs a lyre, don’t they?

Plus, they didn’t have codex format in Ancient Greece, so scrolls it is.

Other paper doll light tags include Russia inspired, cyborgs and ballet. Which one of those should I work on next? Let me know in a comment if you have an opinion, just remember: I always reserve the right to ignore suggestions and, of course, things take a long long time to go from idea to finished paper doll.

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Need a Marisole Monday & Friends Paper Doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick One Out Here. 

Ninja! Paper Doll Ninja!

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:  Ninjas, Obi Belts and The Lack of Ninjas On the Blog. 

A paper doll ninja outfit for the Marisole Monday & Friends series. Free to print in color or black and white from paperthinpersonas.com

Sometimes, your paper dolls just want to be Ninjas. To solve that problem, today’s outfit is a free printable paper doll ninja outfit. Everything I know about ninjas I learned from watching Kung Fu movies in college which means I really don’t know anything at all. Mostly, I tend to think that ninjas fall into the “vaguely Asian feeling assassin/spy territory” and I can live with that.

Part of my decision to draw a ninja outfit for the Marisole Monday and Friends paper doll series came from the realization that I hadn’t done very many ninjas over the years. Last time I did one was 2014 and she was less ninja and more scantily clad Asian warrior chick.

The general idea of creating an all black paper doll outfit doesn’t hold much interest for me, so I brightened up my Ninja paper doll outfit design with some red trim.

I did seriously consider making the outfit all white, because the color white is associated with funerals in China. However, I didn’t think white would be a very logical color for a sneaky stalker of the night to wear. Along with the outfit, there are some accessories. I did some throwing stars and knives, because they are cliche.

And a kusarigama which translates to “chain-sickle.” I omitted the chain for both space and practicality when cutting out the pieces. So, I guess mine is just a sickle.

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Well, what do you think of today’s paper doll ninja? Let me know in a comment.

Need a Marisole Monday & Friends Paper Doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick One Out Here. 

Marisole Monday & Friends Masquerade: Mia as a Loon

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:  Loons and… well, Loons. That’s actually all I got. 

mia-loon-masquerade-paper-doll-dress

Of all the dresses I designed for this week, the only one I was really worried people wouldn’t get was this one. Loons are beautiful birds for which I have always had a fondness, but they are hardly as well known as the Raven or the Flamingo. Interestingly enough, the Loon is the state bird of Minnesota, where my mother grew up. As a child, I had a puzzle my grandfather made featuring a loon, so I have fond associations with the birds.

Wig instructions are available if you’re not sure how to attach the back piece here.

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Well, now that the week of bird masquerade gowns is wrapped, I am curious which one people liked the most. So, let me know in a comment. Was your favorite the Owl, the Flamingo, the Raven, the Hummingbird or today’s Loon?

Need a more outfits for today’s Marisole Monday & Friends Paper Doll? Find More Clothing Here. 

Marisole Monday & Friends Masquerade: Monica as a Hummingbird

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:  Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds, Chokers, and Yellow Hibiscus Flowers

A beautiful hummingbird inspired masquerade dress and black paper doll to wear it from paperthinpersonas.com. Also available as a coloring page.

This was the only dress I based on a specific bird subspecies. I knew I wanted to so the Red Throated Hummingbird from the start. Hummingbirds come in so many color combinations, I really felt like I had to pick just one to focus on with this paper doll masquerade gown modeled by the wonderful Monica.

Of course, the choker is red to match the red throat of the hummingbird. The flowers decorating the wig and the gown are yellow hibiscus which are a hummingbird friendly flower. If my Raven masquerade gown was a gothic fantasy, than this gown is much more romantic and soft.

I have some wig instructions if you’re not sure how to make the pocket by pasting on the backing piece. Read them here.

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Tomorrow will be the last bird masquerade gown- a gown based on the Loon.

Need a more outfits for today’s Marisole Monday & Friends Paper Doll? Find More Clothing Here. 

Marisole Monday & Friends Masquerade: Margot as a Raven

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:  Ravens, this Gold Corset, and 18th Century Hair Styles

An elegant Raven inspired masquerade costume for a paper doll with matching shoes and a mask and wig.

I love Ravens. I grew up in Southeast Alaska where there are a lot of Ravens. We also had a fair number of Crows, but I hate Crows for being loud and annoying, so I refuse to draw a paper doll gown based on them.

So, this is a Raven Masquerade dress that Margot, of the Marisole Monday & Friends paper doll series, is modeling.

Ravens are some of the smartest birds in the world and they can do fairly complex problem solving. No unsurprisingly, they show up a lot on myth and legend. In Tlingit stories, Raven is trickster who frees the sun, moon and stars. In Norse mythology, the god Odin is depicted as having two ravens serving as his eyes and ears. They are named Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory). In Ancient Greek myths, ravens are associated with Apollo, the god of prophecy.

And of course, there are always the ravens of the Tower of London who, should they ever be removed, would foretell the fall of the Kingdom of England.

So, if you want folklore heavy animals, it doesn’t get much better than the Raven.

This is the most fitted of the gowns. There’s something mysterious about Ravens and I wanted the masquerade gown to capture some of that mystery.

Here are some instructions for the wig, if you’re not sure how it works.

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So, I am curious, what is the favorite Masquerade gown so far? Let me know in a comment!

Need a more outfits for today’s Marisole Monday & Friends Paper Doll? Find More Clothing Here. 

Marisole Monday & Friends Masquerade: Marisole as a Flamingo

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:  Flamingos, 1980’s Prom Dresses, and Spiky Hair Cuts

A paper doll masquerade ballgown based on a flamingo available in black and white or in color from paperthinpersonas.com

There is something really silly looking about flamingos. Still, I love their color and I wanted to do something a little playful for one of the masquerade gowns, and who doesn’t want to dress their paper doll up like a flamingo?

I was trying to research flamingo folklore and I didn’t find much. I did however find a great history of the pink plastic lawn flamingo, should anyone be curious. I also learned, though I haven’t been able to confirm this through a really reputable source, that in Ancient Egypt Flamingos were considered sacred to the sun god, Ra.

The over-skirt of the gown is meant to mirror the fuller body of the flamingo. Originally, I had a very narrow skirt attached to the bottom, but later I altered it to fit in better with the rest of the gowns. Due to the very low neckline and decorate edging, I think the dress will work best with floating tabs, so I positioned two on the page. You may need to add some longer floating tabs for the skirt.

Our printable model for the flamingo costume is Marisole. I thought her light brown skin-tone would be set off really beautifully by the pink gown.

If you’re not sure how the wig works, here are instructions. Also, I would recommend adding some additional tabs to the skirt as needed. It is a very wide skirt.

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Need a more outfits for today’s Marisole Monday & Friends Paper Doll? Find More Clothing Here. 

Marisole Monday & Friends Masquerade: Meaghan as an Owl

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:  Owls, Victorian Ballgowns, and Platform Sandals

An owl masquerade dress for Meaghan of the Marisole Monday & Friend's paper doll series. Free to print from paperthinpersonas.com.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween always feels like it is a holiday ripe for paper doll activity. It’s all about costumes, after all. So, while I abandoned themes last week, I will be returning to them this week. Each day this week there will be a different Marisole Monday & Friend’s doll and her bird themed masquerade ballgown.

Meaghan is starting us off with an owl themed paper doll masquerade dress which was the first of the dresses that I designed. The sketchbook page of this gown on Instragram went up a few months ago, but it can take a long time for things to be finished. My goal was to capture the idea of an owl without being specific to species, so the buns on her head are supposed to be like the owl’s ears and the layers in the skirt give a sense of wings.

Due to the width of the skirt, I would strongly recommend adding some floating tabs to the back of it. Her wig is designed to work with my usual method of pasting the back to the front and leaving a pocket for the dolls head. Here are the full instructions. I really should do full instructions on floating tabs, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Now, tomorrow there will be a flamingo and after that, I haven’t decided which ballgown will go up next.

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Need a more outfits for today’s Marisole Monday & Friends Paper Doll? Find More Clothing Here. 

Marisole Monday & Friends: A Retro Astronaut Paper Doll

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:  Retro Sci-Fi Magazine Cover Art, Krylorians and Lavender Hair

Sometimes, I feel like drawing a different sort of paper doll, so today we have a little pink skinned retro alien astronaut paper doll, because why not?

Over the course of the year, I have continued to move closer to my roots. And today, I am moving there even further. When this site started, before the whole thing went down in flames in 2009, there was just one series and that series updated with whatever the heck I felt like. Later, I added the first Curves series, but continued to post whatever I felt like.

Starting today, I am going to abandon weekly themes, except when I feel like there is a real reason I want to do one.

For example, I have only one astronaut paper doll until today. For several years, I’ve wanted to draw a really retro inspired, pin-up inspired sort of astronaut, but I’ve never wanted to make a whole set like that. But during my short hiatus I had an epiphany, I realized that I didn’t have too. There was no reason I had to do a whole week of retro-astronauts. I could just do one!

And on the next day, I could do something else entirely.

So, today enjoy this “Friend of Marisole Monday” and her retro inspired astronaut suit. I also gave her a pair of somewhat impractical shoes, because I thought she might want to wear something other than her space suit and with her pink skin, burrowing shoes might be straight out, unless they were boots.

Thoughts on the new plan? Do let me know in a comment. And if you love the blog, than think about supporting it through Patreon.

Need a more outfits for today’s Marisole Monday & Friends Paper Doll? Find More Clothing Here.