Poppets Archives • Page 2 of 6 • Paper Thin Personas

Rapunzel, Rapunzel Let Down Your Long Paper Doll Hair

May 19, 2020July 17, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Rapunzel

The Fairy Tale and Nursery Rhyme series continues today with a Rapunzel paper doll. Certain fairy tales need a doll to really share them. After all, Rapunzel is only Rapunzel if she has super long hair.

After some technical debate about how to mange the super long hair, I decided to make the braid a separate piece, so that it could be pasted to the back of the head. That way you an easily slip the tabs around the paper doll’s body.

One of the challenges of depicting fairy tales is the overwhelming presence of Disney. If you search for images of Rapunzel, the images from the Disney film Tangled overwhelm all other depictions.

The last thing I wanted to do was copy Disney and I don’t really like their version of Rapunzel, so I decided there was going to be no pink in my version.

My Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes board on Pinterest to see the non-Disney related images I used to inspire my version of Rapunzel.

The Fairy Tale and Nursery Rhyme series contains a lot more storybook characters. There’s currently six paper dolls and outfits in the series, but I have a few more waiting in the wings.

Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Poppet Paper Doll Here.

A 1920s Children’s Playsuit for the Poppet’s Printable Paper Dolls

July 7, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: 1920s Children’s Clothing

Playsuits were the 1920s version of overalls for small children. Overall out start being worn by both sexes in the 1930s, but before that the play suit was the thing to do.

Playsuits are bloomers worn under a short dress like tunic. They usually have a high waist and a aline shape to the dress and then the bloomers just peep out the bottom.

It’s really a very girly look for play clothing, but still is pretty practical, all things considered.

Normally a style for younger children, I had some conflict about drawing a play suit for the Poppets.

In my head, the Poppets are between 7 and 9 years old. The playsuit is really a style mostly for younger children, but I found a few that were cited as fitting children up to 8 years old. I decided that they were on the edge of the age range, but I would go for it anyway.

I didn’t record where I got this design from. This is shameful behavior for a librarian and I swear the next batch of the Poppet’s 1920s Collection is all properly cited.

However, I am pretty sure this play suit is from the book 1920s Fashions from B. Altman and Company. I can’t say for positive, but I am pretty sure.

(Mostly, because I am too lazy right now to get off my couch and double check the book which is sitting on my bookshelf.)

If you feel like you need a Poppet to wear this outfit with the right hair or you are just feeling like you’d like some more 1920s styles, you can check out the whole collection under the “1920s Children’s Wardrobe Collection” tag.

So, what do you like today’s 1920s paper doll playsuit? Let me know in a comment. Always love to hear from y’all.

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Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Poppet Paper Doll Here.

Poppet’s Paper Dolls Go A Bit Tom-Boy & There are Rocketships

June 20, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Little Boys Clothing & Rocket Ships

I will confess that I tend to like girly clothing for the Poppets. Lots of skirts and ruffles and things, but I realized not every one shares my feelings, so I wanted to do some tom-boy clothing for them as well.

I’m not sure about the rocket. I think it would not make it to space, but oh well… not every rocket is a winner, as they say.

I want to give the pants deep pockets for collecting important things, like interesting rocks and other treasures of childhood. The colors were chosen to be masculine without feeling stodgy or old. It’s a riff on a primary color scheme, really, with some orange added in for good measure.

The scheme was my original plan for the Asian Poppet paper doll that I posted earlier in the month, but I didn’t like the yellow being in both the clothing and on the doll’s stand. But, since I did like the color scheme, I used it in today’s set of paper doll clothing.

I am all about recycling and limiting the work I have to do.

Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Poppet Paper Doll Here.

Poppet Printable Paper Doll’s Little Miss Muffet Costume

June 14, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:Little Miss Muffet and Kate Greenaway

Today’s Poppet paper doll dress is a Little Miss Muffet costume. In case anyone doesn’t remember the nursery rhyme, it goes like this:

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her,
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

So, I did a little research on the rhyme. It turns out that its origins are unclear (not uncommon in nursery rhymes) and it was first published in 1805. The truth is that you will sing ANYTHING to a baby to get it to stop crying (trust me, I know) which means many nursery songs have their origins in popular or political ballads.

When designing today’s Little Miss Muffet costume, I wanted something that was colored with cream accents, rather than cream with colored accents. I was inspired by Kate Greenaway‘s illustrations, but only in the sense that I like her work and always tend to think of it when I start drawing late 18th century inspired children’s clothing.

Okay, I know the rhyme involves a spider, but I am not a big fan of spiders and I was not about to draw one. Deal with it. Instead I made a bowl of curds and whey, which is a dish I’ve never eaten or really know anyone who has eaten.

Have any of you, fair readers, actually eaten it? I know it’s a dairy dish, since curds and whey are both part of the cheese making process.

Her shoes are pretty classic 18th century style (you can see a bunch more like them on my 18th Century Clothing Pinterest Board). She also has a mob-cap which may or may not fit depending on which Poppet doll you put it on.

You can check out my Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes board on Pinterest to see some more of my inspirational images and, of course, you can check out the rest of the Fairy Tale and Nursery Rhyme series for more fairy tale and nursery rhyme inspired paper dolls and outfits.

Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Poppet Paper Doll Here.

A New Modern Asian Poppet Paper Doll

December 6, 2020June 5, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:The Lack of Asian Poppet Paper Dolls

There are 14 Poppets dolls that I have created over the course of the Poppets 4 year existence and only one of them is Asian. That seemed rather sad to me, so I decided to create a second Asian poppet paper doll. Sometimes, it is by noticing what I haven’t done lately that makes me realize, “Oh, I should do a ________________ I haven’t done a _________ in a while.”

(Like the pajamas last week were totally that.)

It also felt a little odd to only have on Asian Poppet paper doll when you consider that they are all based on Ball Jointed Dolls from Asia, which also rarely look Asian, now that I mention it. I’ve always wondered why… but I digress.

Today’s paper doll has the same skin-tone as Posey from 2014, so they can share shoes. Poor Posey hasn’t had any sandals for the last 3 years. You have to feel a little for her, you know?

I went back and forth a bit about clothing options before I settled on a simple knit dress. The dress went through about six different color combinations, I confess. For what is a pretty simple paper doll, this doll gave me some trouble.

Love her? Hate her? Wish they made that dress in your size? Let me know in a comment.

Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Poppet Paper Doll Here.

The Poppets As Little Red Riding Hood

May 19, 2020May 26, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:Little Red Riding Hood

Today’s paper doll dress is part of the Poppet’s Fairy Tale and Nursery Rhyme Collection where I draw designs for different fairy tales. Today’s tale is Little Red Riding Hood. I knew from fairly early on that I would want to create a Little Red Riding Hood outfit. I don’t really feel like I need to recap Little Red Riding Hood, as it is a pretty well-known tale- girl goes into woods, girl meets wolf, girl gets eaten.

Depending on the version you read, that’s how it ends. Little girl and grandma devoured by wolf. In most modern tales, there is a friendly Woodcutter who saves the day, but in the early versions of the tale there was no Wood cutter.

The woods, in Little Red Riding Hood, are generally treated as a metaphor for growing up or recognizing a space where the rules of civilized society fail to function. The play Into the Woods takes this metaphor and really runs with it.

This is actually one of my favorite designs I’ve done so far for the Poppet’s Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes Poppet paper doll series. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to create a reference to the Woods in the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

So, I created this trim on the bottom of the hood to reflect the deep dark woods. Because of the shape of the hood, I designed floating tabs to be attached to the back of the hood to hold it onto the doll.

Her boots are a reddish brown leather and her dress is cream and inspired a little by the children’s illustrator Kate Greenaway.

Of course, you can see the other tales I’ve illustrated in the Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes Poppet paper doll series tag. If there’s one I haven’t done that you would like to see, let me know in a comment.

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend here in the United States.

Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Poppet Paper Doll Here.

The Poppet Printable Paper Dolls Finally Get Some Blue Jeans

May 16, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:The Realization that the Poppets Have Very Few Pairs of Jeans

Most of us have jeans in our closets. I certainly do. In fact, since I am pretty picky about jean fit, I have three pairs of nearly identical jeans in my closet. Levi stopped making my favorite 514 curvy fit jeans and I have yet to forgive them for this, but I can still get them in talls from Amazon. Once they run out of stock, I really don’t know what I’ll do about jeans.

Anyway, my point is that jeans are central to most people’s wardrobes and I’ve always thought that every paper doll should have a few items that fall into the “basics” category- stuff you really need to mix and match with some of the more exciting clothing. Jeans fall into the “basics” category.

So, imagine my surprise when I realized there had literally only been one pair of traditional full length jeans for the Poppet paper dolls back in 2013 with literally the first Poppet paper doll ever Petunia. The second pair jeans are a pair of rolled shorts that I drew January and posted in February.

Well, all that changes today. Today’s Poppet paper doll clothing set includes a t-shirt with a pink elephant on it and two pairs of jeans. One is a light colored wash with a rolled hem and the other is a dark blue flared pair.

The way I see it, jeans go with pretty much any top I have ever drawn though this one might be a stretch. Ain’t gonna lie.

I also drew a stuffed teddy bear, because I like stuffed teddy bears. Not every choice is well justified in my world.

So, do you have jeans on your closet? Are they a favorite or a least favorite clothing item? (Also is there anything worse to shop for than jeans?) Let me know in a comment or just let me know what you think of today’s paper doll.

Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Poppet Paper Doll Here.

A 1920s Poppet Paper Doll to Print and Play With

December 6, 2020May 1, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:1920s Children’s Clothing & Frannie Fisher on PBS

So, with all the 1920s paper doll clothing I have been drawing lately, it seemed dumb not to have a 1920s Poppet paper doll to wear it. This is the first of what I hope will end up being two or three 1920s Poppet dolls, but for now I am calling one a victory.

I am also a huge Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries on PBS fan and it seemed to me that the best 1920s doll would be one with Phryne Fisher’s coloring which means dark hair and pale skin. This was very fashionable look for women of the 1920s thanks to the movie star Louise Brooks. The paper dolls hair is based on Louise Brooks.

I gave our 1920s paper doll a period slip with attached drawers and lace accents. I also wanted to give her two pairs of shoes to wear with any of the 1920s collection dresses or any of the other Poppet clothing. She has the same skintone as Poppy, Paradisea and my Vintage 1950s one.

Her side-glancing eyes are a nod to Lenci dolls, one of my favorite doll companies of this era.

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Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Poppet Paper Doll Here.

The Poppet’s Get a 1920s Spring-Time Dress and Matching Cloche

May 19, 2020April 27, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:1920s Children’s Clothing- One of my True Loves

Today’s Poppet 1920s Children’s Wardrobe Collection contribution is a spring time dress. I sort of thought of it as an Easter dress when I designed it, but Easter was a few weeks ago. I chose a pale color scheme with soft blue and pink for the dress. With the dress is a matching cloche, because lord knows the 1920s loved a good looking cloche.

I know I’ve spoken before about how much I adore 1920s children’s clothing. There’s just something about clothing of that era that I adore. I have equal love for children’s clothing of the 1930s, but I haven’t had as many opportunities to draw that.

Maybe that’s a project for another time.

I openly confess that I don’t have a good record of what I used as reference when I drew today’s dress. I am pretty sure I used Children’s Fashions 1900-1950 As Pictured in Sears Catalogs, 1920s Fashions from B. Altman & Company and/or Everyday Fashions of the Twenties: As Pictured in Sears and Other Catalogs. All of these books are from Dover which is a great source of reasonably priced fashion history books. I think I own almost all their 1920s fashion books.

The realization that fashion history books are a justifiable business expense has made it a lot harder to talk myself out of buying them.

I do realize that recently most of what I have posted for the Poppet’s paper dolls to print have been either from the Fairy Tale project or the 1920s project. Never fear, there are also normal clothing on the horizon. I mean, even paper dolls need jeans.

So, what do you think of today’s 1920s paper doll dress? Love it? Hate it? Wish it was purple? Let me know in a comment.

Meanwhile, if you want to support the blog, then think about becoming a Patron or liking it on facebook and tune in tomorrow for a paper doll outfit inspired by one of my favorite novels.

Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Poppet Paper Doll Here.

The Poppets Dress up as Gretel of Hansel and Gretel

April 12, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Gretel of Hansel and Gretel

The new addition to the Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes Poppet paper doll series is a Gretel costume from the tale of Hansel and Gretel.

Recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812, Hansel and Gretel are a young brother and sister captured by a cannibalistic witch living deep in the forest in a house made of candy and gingerbread. The two children save their lives by outwitting the witch and their own cruel parents.

The story is, like a lot of fairy tales, a bit dark.

When I was working up my list of fairy tales, I had not intention to originally include Hansel and Gretel. It’s just not a fairy tale that I really love.

However, it is a fairy tale with a child protagonist and a pretty strong female character, as it is Gretel who pushes the cannibalistic Witch into the oven.

So, it seemed like a fitting on to do.

I wanted to use the colors of ginger bread in this Gretel costume, so I stuck with brown, cream and red. The edge of her skirt is decorated with gingerbread men and peppermint candies, mostly because I knew I could draw them.

The shape of the jumper is based on braces used with lederhosen. I don’t know a lot about Bavarian clothing, ain’t gonna lie, but I’ve always liked the suspenders/braces that go with lederhosen.

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Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Poppet Paper Doll Here.

The Poppet’s Springtime 1920s Dress

April 25, 2017April 6, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: 1920s Children’s Clothing

This is the second dress of a bunch of 1920s stuff I have drawn for the Poppets paper dolls, so much so that I actually think I should really start a special series for it.

I mean, I already have two 1920s paper doll outfits and a doll finished to go up and I have another batch of it penciled. Basically, I think it is time to accept one simple fact, “I am completely obsessed with 1920s children’s clothing.”

So, I have created a new on-going Poppet’s series called the 1920s Children’s Wardrobe Collection.

I know, it’s not a very creative name.

And I failed to carefully note where I got the images for the batch of 1920s children’s clothing I have finished, but I am going to get better at citation in the future.

Also, because I am me.

Anyway, I’d love to hear what people think of a flood of 1920s children’s clothing, so let me know in a comment.

Today’s 1920s paper doll dress was based on one from I think a Sears catalog. I really loved the floral detail on the bodice and I chose bright fun spring colors. I probably should have made the shoes brown or black, but once I start coloring sometimes it gets away from me.

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I think that’s all my general announcements for the moment. 🙂

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Poppet Paper Dolls Play At Snow White

May 19, 2020March 20, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:Snow White

One of my long term projects this year has been drawing fairy tale and nursery rhyme inspired Poppet paper dolls. You can find them all under the creatively named Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhyme Poppet Series. Today, there is a Snow White paper doll. Other fairy tales I have been working on are Hansel & Gretel and Little Red Ridinghood. I’ve already posted Little Bo Peep and the Princess and the Frog (though I did that one long before I started the series.)

In some fairy tales the look of the main character hardly matters, but Snow White is not one of those fairy tales. The 1857 edition of Brother’s Grimm contains the tale of Snow White and it opens like this:

“Once upon a time in midwinter, when the snowflakes were falling like feathers from heaven, a queen sat sewing at her window, which had a frame of black ebony wood. As she sewed she looked up at the snow and pricked her finger with her needle. Three drops of blood fell into the snow. The red on the white looked so beautiful that she thought to herself, “If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood in this frame.”

It seems somehow wrong to create a Snow White paper doll without giving her super pale skin, black hair and red lips. Her skin isn’t actually white, but it is fairer than any of the other skin tones I have ever done for the Poppets. So, she won’t be sharing shoes that show flesh with anyone.

For her dress, I wanted to show some of forest elements that are so integral to the story, hence the trees and butterflies. In the 1857 version of the tale there are three attempts on Snow White’s life.

The first is with a bodice lace (like a shoe lace but for a corset) that is laced so tight it strangles her. The second is with a poisoned comb and the third is the apple attempt. I did not draw a comb, but I did was to give my Snow White paper doll a lace up bodice to reference that first attempt.

Of course, the 1857 version also ends with Snow White and the Prince torturing the Evil Queen to death with red hot shoes. As usual, older Fairy Tales are a trifle violent and rather dark.

Meanwhile, if you want to support the blog, then think about donating through Patreon. If you’re not sure wha the behind the scenes blog posts are like here’s two I’ve opened to the public- sketchbook photos and Some Stuff about my Process.

Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Poppet Paper Doll Here.

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