Ms Mannequin Archives • Page 6 of 7 • Paper Thin Personas

Steampunk Paper Doll Clothes for the Ms. Mannequinn Series

May 22, 2020September 5, 2014

Over the years, I have done a fair number of steampunk or neo-victorian inspired sets of paper doll clothing. I’d name them all, but I really don’t feel like digging through the blog’s massive archives to track them all down.

Generally, I see the whole steampunk thing as an version of the Arts and Crafts movement of the 19th century. A sort of call back to a fantasy of an analog time while ignoring major issues of the actual 19th century like lack of labor protection, colonization, and treatment of the mentally ill (to name a few), just as the Arts and Craft movement exalted the medieval and gothic periods while ignoring the plague. Within reason, I don’t find this troubling though sometimes I do worry that when we exalt certain periods of history, than it is far to easy to ignore their horrors.

And every period of history, including our own, has a few horrors.

Still, I have always found alternative fashion movement fascinating, be it goth, punk, steampunk or the dress reform movement and therefore have every intention of continuing to draw neo-victorian clothing for the blog.

{Click Here for a PDF in Color} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG in Color}{Click Here for a PDF of Black and White} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG in Black and White}{Click Here for Clothes for Her}{Click Here for Dolls to Dress}

Somehow today’s set got awfully Christmas looking with the red and the green color scheme. I was thinking more burgundy and olive while I started, but it came out a bit brighter than I’d intended it to be. Despite the small number of pieces in this set, there’s actually 18 outfit options and more if you include the shoes each of the Ms. mannequin paper dolls come with.

Okay, quick question to my readers. I’m debating working on Flock stuff this coming weekend or working on Pixies. Anyone want to express a preference?

Hello Natalie! A New Printable Paper Doll

May 22, 2020July 31, 2014

Okay, so years ago there was this show called Forever Knight which I confess I loved when I was in middle school and high school, as it was shown on Sci-fi as reruns. In fact, in graduate school when I found out the library had the whole series of DVD (okay.. so that library had some weird DVD options… they also had all the seasons of Law and Order) I openly confess to re-watching all the adventures of the vampire cop.

So, when I created a brunette paper doll with curls, I had to name her after Natalie Lambert played by Cathrine Disher who was the coroner best friend of the vampire cop. I still don’t know how the show ever got made, since it is such an absurd premise to begin with- Vampires Fighting Crime! Still, there’s a lot of other stupid TV shows that made it, and Forever Knight at least didn’t fall into the trap of having every show end with a happily ever after.

Truth be told, I watch very little contemporary TV, except home decorating shows. I do keep meaning to finish the first season of Orange is the New Black.

So.. confession… her eyes kinda bug me…. But despite that, I do like how she came out.

I was going to make her blond and she was blond for a while, but I noticed that I have a lot of blond printable paper dolls here. It’s one of my pet peeves that in sets of doll with lots of skin colors, the white doll always seems to be a blond or a redhead. I do the same thing a lot, because after a while brown hair gets boring and it’s not like I can apply red hair to a brown skinned doll and call it natural (though red highlights to appear naturally in some dark haired people). Anyway, this is a long involved way of saying that today’s paper doll is a brunette, though in the future there maybe more paper dolls with the same skin color and other hair colors.

And that’s all for today. I do want to know though… Has anyone else ever watched Forever Knight or am I the only one?

Ms. Mannequin in Skinny Jeans and Peasent Tops

May 22, 2020April 16, 2014

One of the quirky things about working so far in advance is that sometimes I stumble across files I sort of forgot about. And today’s paper doll clothes post is one of those files. Opps.

This set of paper doll clothing was completed last year for the Ms. Mannequin series and I actually thought I’d posted it, but when I was looking through my files, I realized I never had. After a few moment of, “Well, now I feel rather foolish…” I decided to put it up. After all, there’s no reason not to post it even if it’s a little old.

When I had started this series I had decided to stick to a pretty small selection of colors designed to provide the most mix and match options for outfits, but in hind sight, I seem to recall getting pretty sick of the color options before the set was completed.

{Click Here for a PDF in Color} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG in Color}{Click Here for a PDF of Black and White} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG in Black and White}{Get some Paper Dolls to Wear these Clothes} {Get More Clothes for These Paper Dolls}

Now you might be thinking, but where are some paper dolls who can wear these clothes? Any of the Ms. Mannequin paper dolls can wear any of these stylish clothing options. Personally, I’m a sucker for that yellow sundress.

Captain Mannequin

May 22, 2020January 28, 2014

When I started the Ms Mannequin paper doll series, my goal was to draw primary contemporary clothing. I had high plans of doing stylish designers and other things. Maybe dabbling a little into vintage Dior, but mostly being contemporary. The dolls were designed to be models, not curvy at all, so they could wear the contemporary styles.

However, it wasn’t long before I was sketching and suddenly pirates reared their heads and demanded to be drawn. I ignored them for a while, but soon they were saying, “DRAW US.”

And I said, “Okay. No need to shout.”

And so this pirate set was born.

What can I say? I like pirates. I feel like there’s nothing “new” about this pirate set though, so I’m not sure it’s my best set. Still… sometimes you just have to draw pirates.

{Download a PDF in Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG in Color}{Download a PDF of to Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG to Color} {Get some Paper Dolls to Wear these Clothes} {Get More Clothes for These Paper Dolls}

By the way, I’m doing site clean up, sometime I do every Jan/Feb to tidy up categories, fix things that seem broken and a little spring cleaning is done. So, things might be morphing and changing around here in subtle ways. Nothing to worry about, just me tidying up my files. 🙂

Playing with Pattern on Ms. Mannequin Paper Doll Clothes

May 21, 2020December 13, 2013

Today is Friday the 13th which is apparently bad luck, though I have no idea where that came from. Does anyone know? Anyway, I figured a good way to get rid of bad luck was to post some paper doll fashions. 🙂

As a lot of my longtime readers know, I am often playing around with patterns for my printable paper doll clothes. I think pattern, while a pain in the behind, is important for the diversity of paper doll outfits. Solid colors are all well and good, but most of us have some patterned things in our closets and there’s not real good reasons why paper dolls shouldn’t be the same.

When thinking about pattern, I tend to fall into the same styles repeatedly. I suppose I can only be so creative on any given paper doll set. Still, I am always looking for new pattern inspirations- even if they don’t make their way onto the blog. I really admire the pattern work of Julie of Paper Doll School. Her patterns rock.

(She can also use Illustrator. I’m so jealous. I have the program, but I think that like a wild dog it can smell my fear.)

Anyway… Miss. Mannequin and friends are getting pretty girly today with their full patterned skirts and rose printed strapless dress.

Before I forget, I wanted to mention that I recently stumbled across a Peal Chang paper doll. Soft Film is a blog devoted to Chinese film, as far as I can tell, and the author commissioned a fantastic paper doll of Pearl Chang, who was an actress. I confess to not being at all familair with Pearl Chang, but I knew the name Kwei-Lin Lum from her incredible paper doll work. Check it out, it’s a pretty neat paper doll.

Of course, now I have to go on Netflix and see if I can find any of these movies. Does anyone know anything about her?

Hello! Stella… A New Asian Ms. Mannequin Printable Paper Doll

May 21, 2020December 4, 2013

First of all, Happy Last Night of Hanukkah.

And then… what to say about Stella?

Well… hmmm… I confess I try to avoid talking to much politics on this blog. The truth is that I like paper dolls. My readers like paper dolls. And really… that’s why we’re all here right? To enjoy paper dolls, play with paper dolls and feel guilt free about being in my late twenties and still in love with these tiny ephemeral objects.

Still, I think Stella deserves some commentary. I drew her several years ago, like most of the Mannequin’s while I was reading a book on the history of Asian-American theater, creatively titled, A History of Asian American Theater. I picked it up for a class I couldn’t take and ended up reading it anyway, because I was curious. So, when I sat down to draw my Mannequin heads, as I do when I’m starting a new paper doll series, I was full of thoughts about repression of Asian-Americans and stereotypes of the “oriental”.

I knew I wanted to create diversity in the paper doll series, but I also felt weird drawing an Asian paper doll and not acknowledging that Asia is a very large, very diverse place. Is it fair to simply stick Stella up, note in my tags that she’s Asian and then move on with my life? I just wasn’t and still am not sure.

Which brings us to Stella and what I can say about her. She’s based on no one in particular. I have struggled to draw Asian features, particularly eyes which have epicanthic folds and a single eyelid, for a long time, so I don’t trust myself to do them very well. I think she looks good though. She’s based, very vaguely, off a very kind Korean student I knew and also some Chinese girls who rode the same bus I did in the afternoons and with whom I struck up conversations sometimes. They were both law students.

Personally, I think Stella is Asian-American, perhaps Chinese or Korean in descent (in honor of my various models), I think she is going to university and studying to become a historian. That’s all I’ve decided about her. Perhaps other people have other ideas?

Some more paper doll clothes for the Mannequins…

May 21, 2020November 29, 2013

So… personally, I would love to own that orange dress.

I would wear it around here and people would say, “Are you an Auburn football fan?”

And I would say, “Nope, but I have on a sassy orange dress.”

See? Everything is better when you’re wearing a sassy orange dress. (By the way, I’m neither an Auburn or an Alabama fan, but I’ve learned it’s best not to mention football at all around here unless you really want to be dragged into a conversation about it. Since I can’t stand football, I keep my mouth shut.)

I have no idea how the Ms. Mannequin paper dolls feel about football… I somehow seem them as being more polo types, but that’s perhaps an unfair sterotype of the rich. Not being rich, I really have no idea what absurdly wealthy people do for fun. (I always assume my paper dolls are absurdly wealthy, since they have such large wonderful designer clothes.)

And yet more clothing for the Ms Mannequin Printable Paper Dolls

May 21, 2020November 3, 2013

Paper doll blogs are odd creatures. I think all craft blogs are odd creatures, but I don’t do a general craft blog, I do a paper doll blog, so I don’t think I’m qualified to talk about all craft blogs.

The thing about paper doll blogs (and all craft blogs, I suppose) is that you, the author, is creating all the content. It’s not a matter of reviewing something which exists or responding to the latest news story, it’s a matter of producing work. Work production takes time, energy and inspiration, but mostly work. Hard work.

And I tend to work in spurts. So, I would be lying if I said that I drew these dresses this month. I didn’t. I drew them… I don’t even remember when. At least one sketchbook ago. They’ve been sitting, finished, on my computer waiting to go up until I had something coherent to say about them.

Well… I don’t have anything coherent to say about today’s printable paper doll clothes, but I knew if I didn’t get them up than I would regret it. I don’t have anything else to post today and I wanted to get a post up this week.

I’m not ashamed of that and I’m not ashamed of the paper doll clothes. I think they’re pretty darn cute.

Another sheet of paper doll clothing for Ms. Mannequin

May 21, 2020September 27, 2013

{Click Here for a PDF in Color} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG in Color}{Click Here for a PDF of Black and White} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG in Black and White}

So, I actually drew this, colored it and re-sized it before I left for Alaska and before my apartment flooded. It feels weird to be posting it now, but also very nice to be getting back to the blog a little. A tiny moment of normal in what has been a very insane few weeks.

I normally tend to be someone who carefully considers options, procrastinates, gets distracted, gets bored and then, after much dawdling, finally does something. If my parents are reading this, then they are saying… Yeah, that’s about right.

Except my apartment flooded.

So, suddenly all of my procrastination habits went out the window and I found myself having to just get things done.

Finally, I’m sitting at my tiny dining room table in my new place feeling good, dislocated, confused, frustrated, but…. at least not homeless. And not homeless is a pretty impressive state at the moment.

I’m still unpacking, organizing, looking for things that got thrown into boxes. I am pleased to say that none of my sketchbooks were ruined (a few were damaged) and none of my journals were ruined (a few were damaged). I still have my master copies of all my paper dolls (thank the heavens for plastic containers). I’m pleased and thankful for all of this and for the kind words I’ve received from readers.

I don’t know if I’ll get a Marisole up next week or when the next post will happen, but hang in here with me guys. I’m trying my best.

Meet Kira… An African American Paper Doll

May 21, 2020September 12, 2013

I decided my Tanya paper doll was lonely and needed a new paper doll friend. So, I created Kira, a stylish African American paper doll sporting a retro look. Her hair was inspired by the 1930s. Her shoes are very modern though and she can wear any clothing from the Ms. Mannequin paper doll series. If she needs more friends, eventually I do plan to draw more Ms. Mannequin dolls. These things take time, so be patient with me.

I’m traveling at the moment, back in Alaska for a little while. I really love my home state and it’s great to be able to be home and see the beautiful mountains and things…

Of course, I’ll have to return to Alabama, which is lovely as well, soon, but in the mean time, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much I love and miss Alaska.

{Click Here for a PDF in Color} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG in Color}{Click Here for a PDF of Black and White} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG in Black and White}{More Paper Dolls Like this}{Clothes for This Paper Doll}

Anyway… I think of Kira as a vintage inspired sort of elegant lady. Her style is distinctly art deco, in my head. How much of this resembles reality? That’s hard to say really… there’s nothing terribly vintage about her shoes. Still… she’s elegant and put together and that’s what I’m going with.

Have I mentioned I’m a little sleep deprived from the traveling thing? Well… I am.

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