Ramblings

I am so happy to be getting back to paper doll book reviews. I did a few last year and I super enjoyed them, so here comes another one! One thing about these photos, the book is super glossy and it was super hard to get shots without bad glare. I did my best with my limited camera skills, but it’s far from perfect.

Glamorous Fashions of the Gilded Age Paper Dolls by Eileen Rudisill Miller came out from Dover Publications in 2020. It’s letter sized, has four dolls (two ladies and two gents). Clothingwise the ladies get 26 gowns and each gent gets an a morning coat to wear over their tuxedos. Apparently, balls and weddings are what the men are dressed for. Also, hats… a lot of fantastic hats. I am very jealous of Miller’s ability to draw hats.

The two male paper dolls both have very distinct faces. The blond sort of reminds me of Brad Pitt. I confess that the two lady paper dolls look the same to me. I wish they had maybe different skin-tones or more character in their faces. Heck, given that these dolls can’t share clothing, each one could have been taller or shorter or fatter or black or… there’s a whole range of options. There’s no reason all four dolls needed to be white skinny people.

I wish there was more paper doll diversity in general, but in the historical paper doll book world it’s particularly lacking. I find I am noticing it more than I used to. It’s not a new problem, though.

While the back of the book identifies the Gilded Age as being from the late 1860s to the late 1890s, I’ve never thought of it as starting that early. I’ve always thought of it as the last 30 years of the 19th century. My only quibble with using that language is that it gives the impression the book will cover those dates and it doesn’t. The dresses in the book are super 1880s.

You know, that silhouette where you could balance a tea-tray on the hard lines of the bustle? Yeah, that look.

This paper doll book is high quality. The covers are thick card stock and the interior pages are also card stock, but thinner. Everything is high gloss which, while super frustrating to photograph, does result in really brilliant color. The insides of the covers can be turned into a “ballroom scene”. It’s a neat idea, though I missed historical information from older Dover books.

All in all, while I might have some quibbles about the historical accuracy of most of these dresses, I loved the brilliant colors, hats, and Miller’s use of graphic shapes to great impact. I hadn’t bought a Dover paper doll book in a while and I’d gotten used to lighter weight paper in book interiors. While I suspect cutting this one out would be a little hard on the hands, the stiffer papers feels like it would stand up to hours of play. It makes me miss that style of paper doll book more than I thought I would.

This one is certainly worth your time if you have, like I do, a fondness for bustles. Just don’t expect much on the “historical accuracy” front or the paper doll diversity front. You can grab Glamorous Fashions of the Gilded Age Paper Dolls direct from Dover Publications or a lot of other places online.

I’m opening up comments on this one, as I am curious if other people have seen this book or if they have a paper doll book they’d like me to review. Let me know!

So, here is my review of the new paper doll book, Regency Paper Dolls by Amanda Kastner. There are things I love about this book and things which, frankly, I found a little bit less then ideal.

Let me start by saying, I am 100% behind more artists making paper dolls. I have been keeping track of paper doll new releases for my newsletter. So, when I saw a paper doll book was out by someone I didn’t know and it was historical fashion, I ordered it. Is there anything that could be better than that combo?

I think not.

The basics- This book is by Amanda Kastner, also known as Story Seamstress. It is published by Amazon’s self-publishing imprint, I believe. It is letter sized and has three dolls on the covers, a title page, 20 pages of clothing/furniture/stuff and two blank pages in the back. There is also a coloring book version.

I love the art, the line-work is delightful and there’s a sweet whimsy to it. It feels friendly, if that makes sense. The dolls all have very different faces and the hair is fantastic. Plus, each face is distinct looking, though I am like 80% sure the chins are duplicated. But I am not going to be upset about that, I reuse heads all the time in my own art. Who am I to judge?

While there’s some variation in skin tone, I’d love to have seen at least one dark brown paper doll rather than two different shades of white and one sort of tan paper doll. The lack of paper doll diversity in historical paper doll books is something I rail against often (and plan to continue to do so.)

Moving on, the style of Regency Paper Dolls feels almost like collage. Each page is double-sided with cutouts on one-side and a pattern on the back. The patterns on the dresses are repeated in the backgrounds in a different scale. The effect is super charming. Plus, she has drawn bonnets really well and I super need to get better at that, so I’ll be studying those closely.

And now, the downsides…. Most of these have to do with the Amazon Print on Demand situation, I suspect. The book feels cheaply made. I know when using print on demand that authors have limited options, but I can’t ignore this when paper dolls are so tactile. The covers are super thin and flimsy. The interior paper is nice and thick, but the whole book feels floppy. My cat already bent the cover by laying on it, so I’m not sure how it would stand up to actual children.

My biggest complaint is that the clothing is the same 5 plates repeated in different color schemes. There are over 100 pieces though and that’s super impressive. Never the less, I would have loved to have seen a long sleeved dress, a riding habit, a few more bonnets, a winter walking costume trimmed in fur… there are so many options!

One thing that stumped me is that the dolls have hair pieces on the title page. Even after staring at them for a few minutes, I’m not 100% clear on how the hair works. Do you glue them to the back of the doll’s heads? There was no explanation which surprised me since the rest of the instructions are wonderfully clear with little diagrams. Seriously, I wish I was this good at writing instructions for paper dolls.

Do I regret my purchase? Not at all, I am happy to get to add a paper doll book my an artist I didn’t know to my collection and I hope she does more. I would love to see her do some fairy tale paper dolls, I think her art would be lovely for that.

You can grab a copy of this paper doll book and the coloring book version I didn’t get from Amazon. I don’t think the printed books are offered elsewhere, but you can get downloads from her Etsy page to print your own.

So, the moment I learned Brenda Sneathen Mattox had a new paper doll book from Paper Doll Review of Victorian sporting outfits, I was in.

If there’s one myth about the Victorian era which won’t seem to die, it is the myth that women couldn’t do anything wearing a corset. The problem with propagating this myth is that it suggests women’s lack of agency in the 19th century European world was due to their clothing, rather than the patriarchal system that didn’t allow women a variety of basic rights.

So, anyway, Victorian Sports paper dolls got me excited, because women in the 19th century did lots of sports. We know this, because there’s extensive documentation. Tailoring magazines wouldn’t have published articles and patterns for women’s riding habits, hunting or hiking clothing if women weren’t out riding, hunting or hiking.

To start with the basics, the book has two dolls and 14 costumes. It measures 8.5 by 11 inches. The sports represented are Riding (1840s), Gymnastics (1850s), Croquet (1860s), Bathing (1860s), Hiking (1870s), Skating (1870s), Tennis (1880s), Baseball (1880s), Shooting (1880s), Fencing (1890s), Archery (1890s), Basketball (1890s), Cycling (1890s) and Golf (1890s). The costumes are beautifully rendered in colored pencil. I was particularly impressed by the tennis dress, because white is not an easy color to render.

The layout is great from the placement of the labels to the pairing of the costumes. There’s a subtle gradation to the pages that highlights the style of the art (which I think is colored pencil or watercolor? Not 100% sure). Additionally, a nice little bio in the beginning of Victorian Sports Paper Dolls tells about the artist, Brenda Sneathen Mattox. The book closes with a write up about Victorian sportswear by Lorna Currie Thomopoulos. The historian in me would have preferred something a little more in-depth about the topic, space was probably limited.

This is a book that feels really intentional and I love that.

The two dolls have wonderful faces that somehow feel very “healthy outdoors woman of the 1890s” to me. Their underwear is generic “19th century-ish” with the doll on the right looking more early 19th century and the doll on the left seeming more later 19th century. I did miss some indication of which costume went with which doll, even though they are facing different directions.

Some of the costumes had very wide skirts or a bicycle in the background which I suspect would benefit from a floating tab. The book doesn’t give an explanation or suggestion of floating tabs. That surprised me, because I learned about the handiness of floating tabs from a Brenda Sneathen Mattox book many years ago which had 1860s costumes. It’s a small thing, but paper doll functionality is important.

All in all, I was super pleased with Victorian Sports Paper Dolls and would certainly recommend you pick up a copy if you share my love of historical clothing, sporting or otherwise.

Actually, there’s several Victorian paper doll books from Paper Doll Review I love including this wonderful Worth book I own and should review someday and this book of non-white wedding dresses I don’t own, but want.

I got the most wonderful surprise in my mailbox last week- Issue 128 of Paper Doll Studio Magazine. The magazine, for those of you who don’t know, is merging with Paper Doll Review. I’ll talk more about this later in the post, promise.

The featured artist was JM Tolman. I was slightly familiar with her work from stumbling across her from her Etsy store and I always enjoy reading the interviews with the featured artists in the magazine. Her art style is super unique and unlike anyone else in the paper doll world right now.

The theme of the issue was Make Believe. Personally, I can’t think of a theme that I wanted to read more than this one. I mean, princesses, sci-fi, all things nerdy, this is was so what I love that I don’t even have words. I used some content from my Patreon project and reformatted it into this cute little fairy.

And seriously, every page of this issue had paper dolls on it that I wanted to photograph. Every page.

A few of my other favorite pieces from the issue were a Dungeons and Dragons paper doll by Dorta Meeiling Nielsen, because I have totally drawn paper dolls of my rpg characters. There was also a great article about cosplay by Tracy Williams with some of her beautiful paper dolls featured. Sylvia Kleindinst did a dress up cat with art inspired costumes. I’m biased, because the cat does look a bit my own furbaby Dewey.

There has been some sadness over the merger between Paper Doll Review and Paper Doll Studio Magazine. Personally, I super excited with this new chapter for the Original Paper Doll Artists Guild and our magazine. The world of paper doll lovers and artists is a small one and given the current climate for print publishing, having a magazine at all is amazing. I wish Jenny nothing but the absolute best as she continues into this new chapter for her paper doll publishing world.

By the way, if you have a subscription to Paper Doll Studio, you should get the merged magazine in 2021. If you don’t have a subscription, go grab one!

Speaking of new projects, there will be a whole new chapter for PTP in 2021. You might notice some small changes (like my new logos) around here as that happens, but there will be more changes in future. I’ll keep you all posted and if you’re a Patron, you’ll get even more info and some input. Join us!

Julie Allen Matthew‘s new book Rose and Ivy paper dolls published by Paper Doll Review press is what I am writing about today. I know both Julie and Jenny (who runs Paper Doll Review), but this isn’t sponsored or anything. I bought it with my own 13 dollars and thought I would share what I liked and didn’t like about the book, because I do like writing up my thoughts on various paper doll books.

So, let me start by giving the basic info. The book is a 8.5 by 11 inches staple bound. It has a light weight satin cardstock cover and the most beautiful interior paper. I didn’t cut into mine, but the feel of the paper is lovely. I think cutting up this book would be a dream.

The book has two dolls on the back, Ivy and Rose, who are each about 9 inches tall. There are 8 plates, so 16 pages. I counted 47 mix and match clothing pieces and 16 wigs, though I am not good at counting. So, I might be off. All in all, a pretty extensive wardrobe for these two girls.

The style is a neo-Victorian fantasy with lots of ruffles, floral patterns and cute hats. One thing Julie has done really well in this book is that the mix and match pieces color coordinate and the wigs often have flowers or other things, adding interest. I would have had so much fun with wigs as a kid.

Some of you may recall Julie’s 100 Day Project back in 2019. Three of us started, but (much like the Thunderdome) only one of us was left standing. That was Julie and her beautiful black and white creation. Julie is really good (much better than I am) at taking things she does for one thing and then refining them into something else for sale. So, this book is colored versions of those black and white illustrations.

Now, no paper doll book is perfect and this one is no exception. There are no stands or instructions for making stands with the book, nor is there any bio information about Julie or the concepts behind the paper dolls. It’s a small thing, but I think it would have been nice to include some of those details.

Also, there’s no identification on the clothing indicating which items are for which doll. A letter on the tabs would probably save some headache in that regard. Usually, I could tell by layout, but a few times I had to really think about it. I imagine if the pieces were cut out, it would be even more useful to indicate whose was whose.

All in all though, Rose and Ivy is a beautiful book in warm vivid color. The dolls are lovely, the clothing is fun and I think, in these Covid-19 times especially, it would make a wonderful afternoon toy for a child who likes paper dolls with pretty dresses. I would have adored this set as a child and drawn many more outfits for Rose and Ivy myself. I just know it.

You can pick up your own copy direct from Paper Doll Review.