Clothes Archives • Paper Thin Personas

The Poppets’ Purple Princess Dress & Headdress

December 27, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Burgundian Gowns,
Sorta Kinda

I’m a sucker for an over the top princess dress. Always have. Always will be. One of my favorite sticker paper dolls when I was a kid was called Storybook Princess.

You can still get it from Dover, should you like.

I bought it more than once and played with it for hours before the stickers would wear out and I would have to buy a new one.

My other favorite was a cat sticker paper doll that had outfits for each season. I don’t think they make it anymore.

I digress.

So, the whole idea with today’s princess paper doll dress was to have fun and draw something that I imagined a little girl would love.

The basic silhouette of the dress and the headdress are both Burgundian, but really… there’s nothing historically accurate in either. Last year, I did a snowflake Burgundian inspired fantasy Poppet gown which could definitely go with this one.

For my Patrons, there’s an different color scheme of today’s dress. Join if you’d like to see it and/or support the blog.

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

The Poppets Paper Dolls Get 1927 Dresses for School and Parties

December 20, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Montgomery Ward Fashions of the Twenties

Today I am doing something special and posting two Poppet’s dresses- a school dress and a party dress from 1927. First up, the school dress.

When I was a kid, I loved the idea of a school dress. Despite my mother’s horror stories of wearing patent leather shoes to school, I imagined the idea of having a school dress as something very romantic and old fashioned.

Despite realizing that there’s nothing magical about having special dresses for different activities, I still love the concept.

As anyone who has been following this blog for any length of time has probably figured out, I love the idea of changing clothes several times a day for different events.

I do realize in reality, this would be a total pain in the butt, but hey, it’s a neat idea.

So, I knew I wanted to find a school dress for the Poppets for their 1920’s children’s wardrobe collection. This choice is from the Montgomery Ward catalog of 1927.

The pleated skirt makes me think school dress even though there’s no other reason to associate it with such.

I picked out the hat, because I thought the detailing was similar to the dresses piping details. The dress and the hat both come from Montgomery Ward Fashions of the Twenties. I don’t highly reommend this book, unless you already have a lot of 1920s books. It’s just from 1927, so it doesn’t really give you the range of years that some other books do.

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Montgomery Ward Fashions of the Twenties

When I was going through the Poppet’s 1920s Children’s Wardrobe Collection, I noticed that they didn’t have a party dress. I poured through the different books I have until I found this one in the book Montgomery Ward Fashions of the Twenties.

Something about this dress made me think of spring time, even though outside the weather is chilly and there was even snow a few weeks ago. Snow in Alabama is a big deal. Everyone buys milk and eggs. Even I buy milk and eggs and I don’t even like milk or eggs very much.

I digress.

The point is that I decided to color this dress pale green, because I thought it seemed like a summery dress. The ruched waistline was tough to draw and I am not sure I was entirely successful. I really had fun drawing the ruffles.

I like drawing ruffles.

Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing some clothing probably? I mean, I haven’t really decided yet what to share about the new series. So, I should get on that. 🙂 Friday will be B&B Sorceress gowns.

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

Poppet Paper Dolls Get A Princess Ice Skating Toilette

December 15, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Her Ladyship’s Skating Outfit

Several years ago in 2014, I created a black and white paper doll called Her Ladyship. It was a fun project and I still really like a lot of the designs I made for that paper doll. If you like to color, than I would highly recommend printing her out. She’s a hoot to color. An ice-skating toilette from that paper doll inspired today’s Poppet ice skating toilette.

Sometimes, when I am short on ideas, I go back to my own older work and look for things to adapt to the new series or dolls. I never do this one request (so please don’t ask me), but I do it when I feel moved to do it.

Personally, I think of this as a princess outfit (though here is no crown) and it could go with some of the other fantasy things I have created for the Poppets, especially this one and this one.

There’s a much more pink version of today’s ice skating outfit over on the Patreon page for my Patrons. It’s very pink.

In case you’re wondering, next week will be Ms. Mannequin paper dolls and the B&B series. As I mentioned on Monday, I am basically posting backlog for the month of December while I work on new things to post beginning in January.

By the way, I’ve clearly been playing around with putting up my new blog theme. Please be patient with me while I work out all the kinks.

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

Poppet’s 1920s Apron Dress: A Paper Doll Dress to Print in Color or Black and White

December 14, 2017December 13, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Montgomery Ward Fashions of the Twenties

First off, Happy Hanukkah to anyone, like me, who is celebrating. It’s the second night tonight and my menorah is burning in the window. No Hanukkah paper dolls this year, which I am a little sad about, but I didn’t manage to get one done in time.

As I mentioned Monday, all the latest 1920s Poppets stuff comes from Montgomery Ward Fashions of the Twenties by JoAnne Olian. This dress was described as an ‘apron dress’ which is a term I’ve seen as far back as the Edwardian era to describe dresses with that flap tabard like thing in the front. This one was one of the less expensive dresses on the page, so I suspect it is meant to be more of a home dress, rather than a school dress.

I loved the piping in the design and the patterned contrast cuffs and pockets.

The hat was on a different page and might not have been worn with the dress, but I really enjoy drawing hats and I thought it was awfully cute.

If you pop over to my Patreon page you’ll find a pastel based version of today’s 1927 apron dress that you might like better. I was fully divided on which version I preferred, I confess.

So, if you like this than check out the rest of the 1920s Children’s Wardrobe collection which is full of 1920s goodness. There will be another Poppet outfit on Friday- it’s a fantasy ice skating toilette.

Tomorrow, there will be a post about the future of the blog! With pictures! Tune if you like. Otherwise, I shall see you Friday.

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

The Poppets 1920s Pajamas for a Printable Paper Doll

December 11, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Montgomery Ward Fashions of the Twenties

One of the books I treated myself to recently was Dover’s Montgomery Ward Fashions of the Twenties by JoAnne Olian. It was on sale as I recall. Anyway, the book is fashions from one year- 1927 and all from Montgomery Ward which was a higher end department store. So, this next batch of Poppet’s 1920s Children’s Wardrobe collection all comes from this book.

Today’s addition to the 1920s Children’s Wardrobe collection is a pair of pajamas. One of my Patrons asked for Pajamas a while ago and I realized I’ve done very few pajamas over the years. So, here we are. Pajamas!

This week will be all Poppets paper doll posts. I have a bunch done and I wanted to share them. In fact, this whole month will be a bit random, because I am clearing out the backlog I have of current paper doll series.

In January, all the of the current paper doll series will cease updating and a new series, as of yet unnamed, will take their place. I know this is a big deal and I know there are probably questions.

But at the moment, I have limited answers.

Two things I can promise:

1. The blog is not going anywhere.
2. None of the old content is being erased.

So, I’ll share more as I sort it out in my head, but until then, please feel free to ask questions in the comments and I hope everyone enjoys today’s foray into the 1920s.

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

Poppet Paper Doll’s Get a 1920s Coat to Wear With Matching Hats

October 25, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: 1920s Fashions from B. Altman & Company

I’m writing this post on a Sunday night, as I often do. Outside, it is raining very hard and I am reminded of how much we all need outerwear. So, it seemed fitting to post a 1926 coat for the Poppet’s 1920s Children’s Wardrobe Collection today.

But paper doll outerwear poses a unique challenge, because paper doesn’t exactly conform to the shape of the coat in question. So, when I create outwear for paper dolls, I tend to size up in the hope that the layering will all work out all right.

There’s a lot of complex 1920s coats in magazines. Fur trimming was popular and so were asymmetrical styles. But I didn’t really feel like drawing all that. I just wanted a coat. Nothing too complex.

I haven’t really drawn many coats (or any?) for the Poppet’s. So, I figured if the coat could be both part of the 1920s Children’s Wardrobe Collection and serve as a regular coat than that would be useful.

This is the last piece I have ready to go for the 1920s Children’s Wardrobe Collection, but don’t worry. There’s four more pieces in my sketchbook that I inked today, including some really cute pajamas.

If you haven’t checked it out, there’s about 8 posts in the 1920s Children’s Wardrobe Collection including 2 different dolls.

Just in case you are curious, today’s paper doll coat comes from 1920s Fashions from B. Altman & Company by Dover. I now own all of Dover’s 1920s fashion books, so clearly they need to publish more of them for me. I am running out of places to find my 1920s children’s clothing designs.

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

Poppets Paper Dolls’ Tunic and Leggings for Spring

October 6, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Leggings and Tunics

Simple, cute, and spring-like, today’s Poppet’s outfit was largely inspired by what I see actual children wearing. I wanted simplicity and sweetness which are not traits I generally associate with my work. I tend towards the more complicated.

Also, I’ve done a lot of Poppets series paper doll clothing lately. I can always return to the Fairy Tales and Nursery Rythmes series and the 1920s Children’s Wardrobe Collection another day. Today is for something sweet and cute.

It’s hard to get cuter than ruffles and a heart, after all.

Originally, I had some plays for a more grey and yellow color scheme. Truth be told however, I really found that I liked the absurd sweetness of the pink and sea glass blue.

For some reason, this whole outfit just feels like spring to me. I’m not craving spring. It’s autumn and I love autumn, but this outfit doesn’t feel autumnal.

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

A Vintage Historical Printable Paper Doll Dress from 1926

September 27, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: The book 1920s Fashions from B. Altman & Company

This month, as some of you may have noticed, I’ve been posting a historical paper doll outfit each week. I decided to do that, because I had the content and I really love historical stuff.

I know a lot of you enjoy the historical paper dolls as well.

This week’s contribution to the historical paper dolls is a Poppets paper doll dress from 1926. It’s part of the 1920’s Children’s Wardrobe Collection that I’ve been adding to all year. Right now, there’s seven posts in the collection including two different dolls.

The design for today’s Poppet paper doll dress was taken from the book 1920s Fashions from B. Altman & Company which is a collection of reprints of pages for the catalogs issued by the B. Altman & Company.

B. Altman and Company was a luxury department store founded in New York City.

An interesting thing to think about is that Sears, the dress I posted here is from there, was a middle class store. B. Altman was a luxury store and their styles are much more cutting edge than Sears. That’s one of the reasons multiple sources are so useful when thinking about historical fashion.

Today’s dress feels later in the decade to me than 1926, but that’s partly because it is more “fashionable” than what you might see in a less fancy catalog.

There’s one more piece I’ve got finished for the 1920s Children’s Wardrobe collection and I have to ask, should I continue it? Are you all enjoying these forays into 1920s kid’s clothing? Let me know in a comment. I always enjoy your feedback.

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

Vasilisa the Beautiful Paper Doll Costume for the Poppet’s Fairy Tale Series

August 30, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Vasilisa the Beautiful

If I had to pick a favorite fairy tale (and how could I ever do that?) than Vasilisa the Beautiful would be in the top two or three. I’ve always loved Russian folklore and this tale is a wonderful one. It has Baba Yaga and skulls with glowing eyes and a matryoshka doll that talks.

What more could a person ask for?

Actually, I think my love of the tale comes from the lavish illustrations of Ivan Biliban. As a child, my mother gave me a book of Russian folktales with his amazing illustrations. So, it was probably the pictures that first drew me to these stories, but there’s something really magical about his work.

Vasilisa the Beautiful is a tale I had mixed feelings about illustrating for the Poppets, as the heroine is a grown woman rather than a child, but since I did Rapunzel (and Rapunzel gets pregnant) I though it would be okay.

The paper doll costume for Vasilisa the Beautiful that I designed is based on traditional Russian clothing. She wears a sarafan over a blouse. Here’s a lavish version from The Met. The headscarf was inspired by matryoshka dolls who you often see wearing them.

She has, of course, her own matryoshka doll as an accessory. I didn’t draw more than one, because one seemed enough.

When I was a child, my mother had a handmade set of matryoshka doll’s that came from Russia when it was the Soviet Union. They were precious to her and I remember playing with them as a child. I’ve always wanted a set of my own to display.

Anyway, I hope everyone has been enjoying the Fairy Tale and Nursery Rhyme series for the Poppets.

The Poppet’s Printable Paper Dolls New Dress from 1923

May 19, 2020August 2, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Children’s Fashions 1900-1950 As Pictured in Sears Catalogs

First up, I wanted to thank everyone for their kind words on Monday. I meant a lot to me to hear from you.

So, I promised myself that the next batch of 1920s clothing for the Poppets paper dolls, I would make sure to note where each dress came from. Today’s 1920s doll dress is from a 1923 Sears catalog. Children’s Fashions 1900-1950 As Pictured in Sears Catalogs provided the reference image for today’s 1923 paper doll dress.

Sadly, the Children’s Fashions book is out of print. I wish there were more good reference works on children’s historical clothing, but that’s a different problem.

The original 1920s dress illustration was in black and white, as most of the illustrations in catalogs were in those days. The description just says a crepe dress which really doesn’t mean much.

I decided on a monochromatic blue color scheme, because I wanted to do something a little unexpected. I tend towards traditional when I think of flowers, but I love how this came out.

Meanwhile, you can see all the other 1920s Children’s Wardrobe Collection dresses and see what else your 1920s Poppet needs. I just bought a new book on the 1920s, Montgomery Ward Fashions of the Twenties, so there will no doubt be more of this series as I look through that one for inspiration.

If you have a moment, think about becoming a Patron or liking it on facebook. It really does help.

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

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