Lapis the Swashbuckler and Adventurer Paper Doll

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Okay, so here’s a wild thing I learned when looking up where the term Swashbuckler came from. The term originates back in the 1550s and meant something like “blustering, swaggering fighting man.” I find that so fascinating, because I’ve always associated the term with Errol Flynn and other sort of pirate films of the 1950s. So, I assumed it was a more modern term. Who knew?

Anyway, Wikipedia describes it as adventure literature that focuses on a heroic protagonist stock character who is skilled in swordplay, acrobatics, guile and possesses chivalrous ideals. Sounds about right. I do love me a good fun adventure movie with sword fights.

Yes, I watched too much Highlander in the 1990s.

Anyway, I really wanted to diverge from my usual fantasy gown looks into something a little more adventurer, though let’s be clear- it isn’t any more practical. Practical fantasy clothing sort of seems to defeat the whole point, I think.

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Twenty-Five Paper Dolls Rocking in Red

Yes, I like alliteration, let’s move on… Maybe it’s that it’s winter and I always think of red in the winter time, or maybe it is that there’s lots of darkness and snow and I am craving brightness and brilliance.

I love red. It’s one of my favorite colors, but I have to lean towards the blue-red side of the red spectrum. It also occurs to me that in a different context, this entire blog post could be seen as a political creed for Communism… hmmm…

Paper Doll Printables All Wearing Red

When I do these color based collections, I really just skim through the archives and grab things that strike me as “red” which is to say there’s no real logic to the concept. I mean, I hardly plan things to begin with. One thing I do try is to have a variety of the shades of red from the softer red to the very bright racy red!

Stay warm out there in this chilly time of year and wear whatever colors bring you joy.

Pearl in the 14th Century Women’s Clothing: A Paper Doll

14th century women's clothing illustrated by printable paper doll coloring page with two gowns, veils and a hood. The paper doll wears a shift and has her hair up in braids. Her dresses are two different styles- a fur trimmed sideless surcoat and a cotehardie with pockets.
14th century women's clothing illustrated by a printable paper doll with two gowns, veils and a hood. The paper doll wears a shift and has her hair up in braids. Her dresses are two different styles- a fur trimmed sideless surcoat and a cotehardie with pockets.

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I love historical fashion, I love book history and I love research. So, my medieval paper dolls are a chance to both draw paper dolls and spend way too much time doing research. Best part- I always learn something new. As I finished this super long post about today’s 14th century paper doll, I realized it mighty be a little much for people, so if you don’t want info on braids, sources, and scandalous surcoats of 14th century women’s clothing, stop now and just enjoy the paper doll and her pretty dresses.

One thing I learned since my latest foray into14th century women’s clothing is that I was wrong about how hair worked. I’d always thought that the hair was parted and then braided into two braids. I wasn’t sure what happened after that, but I assumed the end of the hair was tucked behind the ear. I now realize that the braid was actually tucked up under the front of the hairline. This is really clear in some of the manuscript illustrations. Pearl’s hair here is based on this illustration from the  Bodleian Library’s MS. Bodl. 264: Romance of Alexander (fol. 181v). Over their hair, women wore veils or hoods (think like, just the hood part of a coat). There’s a lot of different styles of these that I’ve seen.

Looking away from hair for a moment, 14th century women’s clothing (aka 1300s) involved layers of dresses over a shift. There’s a lot of inconsistency in words used for clothing. I am going to use surcoat for the outer most dress and kirtle for the inner dress. The kirtle went over a shift and then a belt (called a girtle) was often worn over the kirtle. Here’s a paper doll example of that. Over top of all that, a surcoat could be worn for keeping warm or for being fashionable. Some surcoat’s had slits in the front, so women could get to purses hanging off their girtles. This was an early form of pockets. If you had the money, fur lined the surcoats for warmth and fashion. Cotehardie‘s were surcoats with buttons, as I understand it.

Starting with underwear, Pearl’s shift is based one illustrated in Roman de Giron le Courtois (fol. 87v.) at the National Library of France from around 1370-1380. Her shoes come from Stepping Through Time by Olaf Goubitz. Pearl’s dress on the right is a cotehardie (aka: button fronted surcoat) over a kirtle which was inspired by MS. Bodl. 264: Romance of Alexander (fol. 097v) and (fol. 181v) from between 1338-1344, plus this casket lid.

And now, a word about sideless surcoats… (aka: the gown on the right.)

Sideless surcoats are basically gowns with huge armholes. You can see examples in BGE Ms. fr. 190/1 Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes (Fol.35v) housed at the Bibliothèque de Genève from 1410 and this one in Besançon BM MS.677 Fleurs des chroniques from the Bibliothèque municipale de Besançon (fol. 087v) from 1384-1400. This French 14th century tomb slab shows the same style. If you poke around on my 14th century Pinterest board I’m sure you’ll see more.

This fur heavy version seems to mostly be ceremonial. De claris mulieribus in an anonymous French translation (Le livre de femmes nobles et renomées) Royal 16 GV (fol. 02) (my source) is from 1440, but was trying to show things that had happened in the 1300s. By the time the mid-1400s rolled around, only Queens on court occasions seem to be wearing these furry surcoats.

I find that a little ironic, because the sideless surcoat was sometimes called “windows to hell” or “windows to purgatory” when it first showed up. It showed off so much of a woman’s kirtle that it was scandalous by 14th century women’s clothing standards. It’s interesting evidence that extreme forms of fashion eventually become an accepted part of society, even some 600 years ago.

Lastly, our paper doll has veils and a hood. While I am not totally certain about the “rules” involving veils, they were definitely common and I think more common if the woman was married. Her double ruffled veil comes from Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Speculum Humanae Salvationis (fol. 37r). However, the large number of illustrations that show women with their hair exposed, so I don’t think it was verboten for women to have exposed hair in this era.

Her hood is based on BNF Français 20090 Bible Historiale de Jean de Berry (fol. 290r) which is from the National library of France. I’m not 100% clear on how hoods fit into the social structure of the 14th century. I can’t imagine wearing one with that fancy fur trimmed surcoat, but then I doubt fancy fur surcoats were worn outside much.

And this is the end of this super long, super involved post on 14th century women’s clothing. If you made it to the end, good for you! By the way, Topaz with 12th century clothing and Lapis with 13th century clothing have the same basic shift and therefore can easily share clothing with today’s 14th century clothing paper doll. It’s a 300 year medieval paper doll trifecta. Yes, I did plan it that way.

Amethyst Goes to the Beach in the Early 1960s

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I started these 1960s paper dolls around the same time there was a bit of a medical crisis in my family. It’s all resolved now, but I finished what I thought was going to be the three 1960s dolls, got home, and promptly stopped working on them or looking at them for four months. 

When I finally came back to them, I decided I didn’t like any of their underwear (it all got redrawn). Then I decided I didn’t like the themes I’d originally planned to do and I wasn’t sure about the hair and I thought the…

Well, you get the idea. 

Looking at this now, I’m still not 100% sure how I feel. I really wanted to do the 1960s, because I did the 1940s, 1970s, and 1950s and it seemed weird not to have the 1960s. However, I’m still not 100% happy with any of the things I drew. Maybe I’ve been staring at them for too long. 

For this set, I wanted to embrace the beach wear I kept seeing in sewing patterns and I wanted to do something that would capture the more casual side of the 1960s styles. I didn’t really want to go mod, but I did want to explore the simple shapes. 

Color-wise, I noticed at lot of yellow and orange and a lot of pink and orange. So, those were the major influences for the color choices. 

Autumnal Evening Gowns with Amethyst

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It feels funny to me to be talking about autumn when the temp hasn’t been above zero here in at least three weeks. Well, it was warmer when I designed these gowns, I guess. The thing about them that feels autumnal to me is the color scheme. Jewel tones feel like winter and fall to me. Not sure that other people agree with me on that one, but that’s how I’ve always felt about it.

Weirdly, I know these gowns have source images, because I almost never draw formal gowns without using my Pinterest Formal Gowns and Cocktail Dresses board (creatively named), but I’ll be darned if I can find the source images. I usually save them carefully… So, read into that one what you like I guess.

Meanwhile, snow is falling, Hanukkah has begun, and I hope those who celebrate a holiday in the coming months have a wonderful one. As I move towards the end of the year, I always find myself beginning to think about the future and what has been done this year. It’s a funny time of the year for me. I plan to take a few months off soon, so I’ll have time to be contemplative.

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A Little Slide into Punk Fashion with Pearl

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Last week, we did Gothic fashions, so for this week, we’ve got some more alt fashion adventures with some punk looks for Pearl. As I know I’ve mentioned before, both my Cousin and my best friend in High School were super into the early 2000s punk look. Looking back, I wish I had the nerve to dress in the style, because I always really liked it, but I never wanted to call much attention to myself.

Anyhow, as is my habit occasionally, this paper doll and some of her clothing comes from here, I am slowly expanding and occasionally reinterpreting my early Jewels and Gemstones into the new format this year.

Meanwhile, there’s a few things to look forward to- I’ve got some evening gowns and some fantasy stuff and some historical stuff all coming down the road soon. Meanwhile, I hope everyone is safe and warm, as the weather turns colder.

A Little Round Up for My Gothic Fashion Paper Dolls

Something about Halloween makes me think of all things Gothic, so I had planned to share this over October, but something about me and October. I always think- Nothing is going to happen in October and then October always proves me wrong.

There’s probably a lesson there, but I’ll forget it by this time next year.

Anyhow, when I think of gothic fashion, I often end up thinking of what was in style in the early 2000s when I was teenager- lots of low rise pants, corsets and fishtail skirts. I also really like Gothic Lolita, because I get such joy from drawing ruffles.

Twenty Gothic Fashion Paper Dolls to Print and Play With

Putting together this set made me realize that I really should do another Gothic set soon, though I don’t know if I’ll get to it before the end of the year. Life is, as often happens, getting in the way of my paper doll related pursuits, but that’s okay. One of the most wonderful things about the over a decade I’ve been posting on PTP is that it’ll be here when I’m feeling prolific and it’ll be here in times of rest.

Happy Halloween! Printable Paper Doll Fun!

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Every year, I try to do something Halloween themed. Valentine’s Day and Halloween are, I think, my most consistent paper doll pieces. I like the colors and I like corsets and Halloween seems like a corset heavy holiday.

Her hair is supposed to have a widows peak and I wanted a sort of elegant feeling with these. Some of it is recycled, but I am 100% okay with that. It gave me a place to start. With this set, I had a lot of fun designing patterns. There’s a cute little ghost dresses, pumpkins, and skulls.

I think some fun could be had coloring these as a Halloween party activity. My grandmother used to send us Halloween greeting cards that were often paper dolls and I like to imagine someone sending this to kids or printing it out for them.

My niece is still too young for me to really be sending her paper dolls, but soon… soon.

Meanwhile, stay safe this Halloween and then enjoy!

My First Paper Doll Book in Print: A Lady’s Paper Trousseau & A Giveaway!

I am super excited (and a bit nervous) to present to you all my first ever paper doll book. Based on the contents of Greta’s Trousseau, this steampunk inspired print on demand paper doll book is now available from Lulu. I tried out several print on demand services, but liked best the quality of Lulu’s printing and paper.

The Specs: The book is 6 by 9 inches with a high gloss cover (making it hard to photograph, but super cute in person.) There are 2 dolls, over 60 mix and match pieces over 9 plates, and over 20 different outfits, plus more if you mix and match with gusto. There’s outfits for everything from fencing to balls all printed on satin finished paper.

You can pick up a copy here.  But, before you do, I have two copies to give away!

I bought a few extras when I was doing my photography and I am now ready to pass them along to new loving homes.

To enter, comment on this Patreon post and/or comment on the blog on this post. Be sure to use a working email address, because I’ll need that to contact you!

No purchase is needed to enter and the contest is open to the public if you’re over 18. On the 25th, so one week from now, I will draw two random names and will email the winners. Please don’t give me your mailing address in the comment- save that for a private email, please.

This is open to everyone, even overseas folks, assuming the USPS delivers to your country. Due to Covid-19 and US law, there are a few countries they don’t deliver too, but I don’t think it will come up. (If you’re curious, there’s a list here.)

I am so happy to get to share this two year long project with you all and I want to give a big, huge, thanks to Julie Matthews who steered me through this experience with grace, kindness, and fantastic feedback.

Ruby, A Steampunk Fashion Paper Doll in Stripes

A printable steampunk fashion paper doll coloring page and a 13 piece mix and match wardrobe with over 30 outfit combinations
A printable steampunk fashion paper doll with dark hair and a 13 piece mix and match wardrobe with over 30 outfit combinations

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Back in March I did a steampunk fashion paper doll set. This feels like a lifetime ago when I thought the pandemic would be over by now and I would be once again frolicking through life mask-free. This clearly hasn’t happened, but you know, back in March I was living the dream. I digress.

So, this set is made up from some things I did a few years ago, few new items and some Patreon things. I did a second color scheme just for my patrons, but you don’t need to pay for Patreon to see it. Just set up an account and you can view them.

Like all my steampunk fashion paper dolls, I try to design sets where there is some mix and match options making it a little micro-wardrobe and I think that really worked in this set in ways I am quite proud of. This isn’t my most Halloween paper doll ever, but stay tuned. I do have one ready for later this month.

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