As some of you may remember from when I did my Ladies of the 1940s set, I’ve been trying to learn to work smarter, not harder. I’ve never felt comfortable releasing the exculsive patron sets for free on the blog, but I also felt like it wasn’t fair that folks couldn’t enjoy them who weren’t patrons.
So, I’ve decided to round up some of them and some of my blog content and reformat all of it and now I’m offering it for sale on Etsy in a new format (though the same sizing) for people who want to see and play with the full collection. This is the whole of the 1960s ladies wear I drew last year.
It’s about 50% unseen content and 50% recycled content with three dolls and about 32 clothing pieces. There’s everything from beach clothing to evening gowns. While mod fashions of the 1960s might be most identified with the era, there’s actually a lot of ladylike 1950s styles that shine in this period. I’ve arranged the clothing roughly chronologically, but everything is dated if you want a more precise look at the looks!
For my patrons, there’s an exclusive discount code you can use. Find that code here.
For everyone else, I hope you enjoy this little foray into the styles of the 1960s. And yes, I’m planning to adding the 1930s and 1970s to these collections, but I’ll need to do more drawing before the 1950s can join in the fun and I’m not sure if my forays into the 1980s are cohesive enough… I’ll need to think on that one.
First off, I want to start by thanking everyone whose ever supported me on Patreon, past and present. You’re all the best! Because those funds to make a big difference in this site (nothing is free to maintain) and I can’t express how much I appreciate your support.
Here’s how it will work for anyone who signs up to Patreon going forward:
Button to click to log into Patreon or sign up to unlock posts.
You get to pay whatever you feel is fair with a suggested donation of 5 dollars per month. If you want to pay more than 5 dollars, you 100% can. If you want to pay less, you can do that too. It’s totally up to you what you feel comfortable with.
You may have noticed there are now a few posts on this site that are Patreon only. There are going to be more of those. I have a secret goal per month, but I am not sharing it, because this is all about reducing pressure on me and once I say something out loud it becomes a THING.
And now to answer questions you might have:
What is Patreon?Patreon is a service that helps people support creators, like me. Basically, you pay what you’re comfortable with every month and you get some more paper dolls (and my thanks). Plus, you get to know your pledge keeps Paper Thin Personas available for everyone. (Patreon FAQ has a lot more information about the details for you.)
What if I am already a Patron and I want to keep my current support? You don’t need to do anything! I appreciate it. Thank you! This will keep your access to all the content on the Patreon site you currently have access to and get you access to everything on the blog as it gets added.
What if I am a Patron and I want to stop supporting you? I 100% understand and wish you the best. So, you will need to cancel your pledge. Instructions on how to make that happen here. Thank you for all the support up to now. If you want to just reduce your amount of support, you’ll need to cancel and resubscribe, I believe.
What about current Patreon projects? These will continue! For those who don’t know, I have two- Vivian, whose a beautiful paper doll slowly getting a steampunk/Victorian inspired trousseau. My other current project is sets of paper dolls based on antique dolls called Dolly and Her Dresses. So, those will continue and there maybe more Patreon projects.
What about past Patreon projects? Well, some of these will eventually migrate to the blog, but it might be a long time and it may not be all of them.
What other Patreon content will there be? Polls, behind the scenes posts and requests will be open to Patrons as they have in the past. I’m actually super excited about these. Additionally, there will also be posts for the Jewels and Gemstones, Talia Tuesday and DDJ that’ll be Patron only.
What if I want to support you and not become a patron?Consider my Etsy store! A lot of my Patreon projects end up on Etsy later as a single purchase.
What if you didn’t answer my question? Please ask! Comments are open!
If you want to start supporting PTP, hop over to Patreon and sign up. If you don’t want to, you can totally ignore this post and continue on your merry way.
Or, if you want to support PTP with less commitment, consider grabbing something from my Etsy store.
To me, purple feels magical, royal, and a little mysterious. I’d say this was because it was a secondary color, but I sure don’t feel this way about orange or green.
Back in the ancient world, purple dye came from a rare sea snail in the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre (Lebanon). Tyrian purple, as it was known, was so costly that basically you had to be a king to wear cloth dyed purple. Hence the long and fascinating association of purple with all thing royal. There are other ways to get purple without the use of sea snails, generally by dying fabric red or blue and then over dyeing it in purple.
As with all my other paper doll color collections my selection criteria was simple- does it seem purple to me?
20 Paper Dolls Wearing Purple
Anyway, when I do my paper dolls, I have a long affection for purple. As, I was working on these color based paper doll collections, I knew it would be fun to look at all my purple paper dolls. There’s a real variety of purple things in here from evening gowns to princess dresses. I don’t really know if I have a favorite here, but I do love that there are so many shades of purple from this blue-violet color to this mavue-ish pink.
Whenever I draw mermaids, I end up thinking of Liana of Liana’s Paper Dolls. This sadly defunct site is an amazing ode to all the things you can do with mermaids and paper dolls. (Seriously, if you haven’t ever spent anytime in her archives, it is well worth a gander.) I don’t think my mermaids even get close to hers. Liana had a fascinating entire world around her mermaids and I just don’t think that way. Creating stories around my paper dolls is not my natural tendency, though I am in awe of folks who can do that.
Today’s mermaid set is part of a larger mermaid project. The set got created, because I was somehow inspired to draw mermaids. My long term plan is that collection of drawings will become into something for Etsy. In the meantime, I’m sharing some parts of the set here as smaller creations.
When I design mermaids, I like it when the tails go up over the doll’s bust, so it feels more like an entire outfit, because I can not figure-out why mermaids would wear clothing (seems totally impractical in you’re underwater). Also, I don’t know if they would need to nurse young. Are mermaids mammals? Fish certainly aren’t.
Generally, I don’t base my mermaids on actual fish (questions about mermaid’s mammal status aside). However, clownfish inspired the tail on the left.
Fun Fact: Mermaid tails are one of the only things that usually get a full sized first draft. I need to make sure the curve of the tail makes sense. The tail usually ends up taking several tries on separate paper before I transfer them into my sketchbook for final penciling and inking. This maybe why I don’t do mermaids that often. Years ago, Julie Matthews did a centaur paper doll and I am still in awe over it. I can not even imagine trying to draw that.
Any how, if you want some more mermaid tails for Opal here, there’s been other mermaid paper dolls. Might I direct you to this one with Amethyst and this patron only one with Citrine. Stay tuned, because someday I will get that Etsy set done and there are some really neat mermaid tails in there that I am very proud of. I’ll let you all know when that happens, promise.
Creating a 4th of July paper doll was hard this year, but I have been wanting to try to get a paper doll done for all the major holidays I can. The thing about these holiday paper dolls is that they are super handy to have around (like instant social media content) and easy to draw (theme’s kind of done for you). However, I confess that I’ve been pretty angry and depressed about the current state of affairs in the United States. So, it was harder to build up enthusiasm to draw Americana then usual.
Still, I have so many fond memories of the 4th of July. It’s a big holiday in my hometown. There’s two parades, fireworks at midnight on the 3rd (the sun doesn’t go down until 10pm) and huge bonfire organized by our family friends. I do mean huge- it’s like several stories high and designed by architects and engineers made from pallets. There’s usually a theme for the bonfire- it’s been a T-rex, the throne of swords from Game of Thrones, and many other structures.
We make our own fun up here in the Northland.
Anyway, today’s paper doll is a riff on my Valentine’s Day vintage themed paper doll. She originally had different hair, but it did not look good. I didn’t have time to redraw it, so I borrowed the hair from the Valentine’s doll. Of course, I made a few little changes in photoshop, but it’s basically the same . I’m still trying to hit my 10 DDJ paper dolls in 2022 goal and this gets me a little closer!
By the way, there are some changes coming to Patreon (more on that later). So, just an early heads up for folks. You might start seeing posts on the site like these which are blocked unless you’re a Patron. Basically, I’m slowly adding old Patreon content to the blog in the months when it appeared on Patreon. Just so no one is super confused as to what is happening.
I’m taking a vacation in June from the blog. I hope everyone has an amazing June!
I had thought I would have time to load up a bunch of preplanned content before I left town to get married and you know what? I didn’t, because planning a wedding is super complicated even when you have amazing support. But there will be newsletters! Those I got done.
So be sure to sign up for the newsletter below and you can still get some fun new paper doll coloring pages during the month of June.
When it comes to creativity, I’m a sprinter, not a long distance runner. When people talk about doing one thing very day for ten minutes for a year or two years or ten years, I get twitchy. I don’t work that way. I like to work intensely for short periods and recoup with something else for a while. As I said, it’s a sprinter sort of mentality.
The new Etsy coloring pages with vintage 1940s fashions.
The downside is that I sometimes have ideas and I work on them intensely and then I stop when I lose interest, get distracted, have other things to do, or whatever. One thing I’ve been planning for years has been to do a better job of repackaging my Patreon content for Etsy. I want people to get to engage with the stuff I’ve made there, but also not have to sign up to be a patron if that doesn’t seem appealing. It’s not for everyone and that’s 100% cool with me.
Back when I drew my 1940s, 1930s, and 1960s sets, I intentionally drew more clothing than I knew would fit in my usual paper doll format with plans to use that extra content for some Etsy sets. (Okay, the first time I did it, it was 100% an accident, but like after that it seemed like a good idea.)
Lately, I’ve been having a big of a creative lull. I don’t really feel like drawing and I thought I’d turn to these older pieces and see what I could do with them. After all, sometimes working something that isn’t creative in the same way that drawing is creative helps me get through minor blocks. So, I thought- I’ll focus on layout and some older things I’m proud of and give my brain a little break. Never under estimate the value of brain breaks.
Long story short- there’s a new Etsy coloring page set of 4 pages of 1940s clothing! It’s 50% exclusive and new content and 50% recycled content from the site which has been reformatted. Some of the new and exclusive pieces include an additional doll, overalls, dresses, hats, and a very 1940s evening gown.
Anyway, if you nab one, leave a review, because that always helps. If you don’t want to nab one, 100% cool- enjoy all the free 1940s paper doll content on this blog (there’s a fair bit). If you’d like to join Patreon then you can do that here, there’s a lot of more paper doll stuff over there waiting for a second lease on life.
The other good news is that this did help with my creative lull and I am now working away on a big mermaid collection (probably also destined for Etsy and Patreon) and a dog paper doll for the next issue of Paper Doll Review. Yes, a dog paper doll. No, I’m not 100% certain it was a good idea, but I’m too far along to turn back now!
I don’t mean to brag, but I pride myself on the diversity of my paper doll drawings. I do a lot of different themes, but Alina Kolluri might well give me a run for my money. Her work ranges from animals to mermaids to Christmas to 1960s fashions. Today, I want to look at the two paper doll books of hers I own- Gal Pals Paper Dolls and Mod Brides. These two were a gift, clearly by someone who knows my taste in paper dolls. These are probably the two I would have chosen, because I love historical fashion paper dolls. Both are from Paper Doll Review, but my feelings about them couldn’t be more different.
Spoiler: One of these books I loved so much and one of them I was super disappointed by. Let’s start with the one I didn’t like, so we can end on a high note.
Mod Brides Paper Dolls
Mod Brides is, as one might expect, a foray into 1960s fashions. The book is smaller, measuring 8.5 by 11 inches, rather than 9 by 12. There’s four dolls on the back which confused me a little, because from the cover I would have thought there would have been five, but that’s not really important. I like the cover design, I think it has some wonderful movement and the doily design really echos the flowers in the background and the pop graphic quality of Kolluri’s art.
I confess the rest of the graphic design in the book is kinda boring. The dresses are laid out fine, but there’s no backgrounds and no real attention is paid, it feels, to making the interior shine.
I wish, as always, there had been more variety in the dolls skin tones. The poses are also very stiff, but that’s just Kolluri’s style. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the paper doll’s hair. It didn’t read as super 1960s to me, because it felt like it lacked the volume of the era, but I think some of that was done to accommodate hats and veils, so I 100% understand those compromises.
Mod Brides is stuffed with clothing. It’s a total of 8 pages of very very 1960s fashions with peaches and pistachio greens abounding. It all looks pretty correct to me- including the shapes of the dresses- which for the 1960s are super specific. The lace details on a lot of the clothing are amazing, as is the drape of those veils. As someone who has avoided drawing wedding dresses, because I hate drawing lace, I have to say this felt like a reminder that it is possible to render lace beautifully in line work.
Plus, when you work in white, getting depth is hard. The light grey Kolluri uses really works to her advantage here.
My phone is in focus, but this veil somehow isn’t.
As usual with Paper Doll Review, I am always happy with the quality of the card-stock and the paper. The covers are a little thin, but the paper feels satin smooth. I think it would be a dream to cut. I can imagine spending hours carefully trimming out these little outfits.
Not that I plan to do that, but if I did, I think I would be happy.
So, now for the big problem- I was super disappointed in the quality of the images. So disappointed that I almost didn’t review this book. The entire book looks slightly out of focus. And somehow the blacks aren’t black enough, so it almost feels pixelated. Or like somehow the images were interpolated one two many times by a graphic design program. For whatever cause, the results are disappointing and distracting.
I tried to capture this on camera and I don’t think I really managed to do it. It’s a case, I suspect, of the digital printing being part of the problem.
Because of the image quality, I just can’t recommend picking up Mod Brides. It’s super frustrating, because over all, the book’s content is fun. However, I can’t seem myself ever flipping through it again to just enjoy the visuals.
Let’s move on to a book that I am utterly in love with and will now get to gush about.
Gal Pals Paper Dolls
The Front CoverThe Back Cover
To start with the basics, Gal Pals Paper Dolls has four dolls and a lot of clothing. It’s a 9 by 12 inch book. The cover says 93 fashions and I could get nit-picky about that. There’s probably 93 pieces, but is a purse a fashion? Hmmm… Never the less, I’ve rarely seen a paper doll book so stuffed with clothing. This seems to be a trend with Kolluri’s work and I like it! Each doll has at least a dozen outfits, one of which is a wedding dress. Plus, there’s matching hats and purses for many of them.
The doll’s faces are super cute, the poses feel borrowed from a WW2 magazine which is awesome. I adore their victory roll hairstyles. Can we gush over the Gal Pal’s cover for a minute? It’s maybe the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. The dolls are flowers! Flowers in a watering can!
(Note: I’m like 95% sure this is a reference to 1940s paper doll books where the cover would have cut outs revealing the doll’s faces beneath.)
Also, did I mention that the borders on the pages of clothing for each doll match the doll’s swimsuits? How fun and cute is that. It’s so clearly thought out that it makes me super happy. This is paper doll book design at its best. All over the book the design is top notch. So much glorious attention to detail.
Granting that I didn’t exactly look for sources, within the confines of the highly stylized art, the clothing seems accurate to the era. There’s day dresses, coats, suits… everything. Even though I am not a wedding dress person, how fun is it that every doll has a wedding dress? The one for Patty (bottom left) looks strikingly like what my Grandmother was married in during WW2 (which might be why I photographed it.)
The fact that each doll basically has a micro-wardrobe is such a cool concept. I can totally imagine how much I would have liked this book as a kid. I can picture myself on the couch carefully cutting out each outfit, penciling the doll’s name on the back, and diligently storing them all in little envelopes.
(Yeah, given my paper doll storage habits as a child, I sorta should have known I would end up a librarian.)
So, if you haven’t already guessed, I love Gal Pals! I really have nothing negative to say about it. If you like color, whimsy, and want a fun diversion, here it is. It was wonderful to see a black doll included, though another skin-tone or two would have been nice.
I’m super happy to have added this to my collection. If you don’t own one, go grab it! Gal Pals is the kind of paper doll book that makes my heart happy!
(Also, I don’t think I’ve ever used this many exclamation points in one blog post. I feel like I should apologize to my college writing professors who would be wincing right now.)
I guess, as I finish this up, I think that these books illustrate how important graphic design is to an effective paper doll book and how work by the same artist can strike me totally differently. Even if the image quality of Mod Brides had been up to snuff, Gal Pals is just a better book. So much attention has been paid to all the tiny details and those details matter so much.
As my niece gets older and more ready for paper dolls, I often think about if I would buy the books I review for her. And Gal Pals I 100% would pick her up a copy.
I fell in love with the 1980s power fashion clothing as I was looking through these old catalogs. So, clearly, the thing I needed to do was draw a 1980s fashion paper doll ready to take over the board room.
The mix and match options seemed really cool here, because so many pf these clothing pieces were designed to match with the black pencil skirts and black trousers, specifically pleated ones. Pleated trousers are super comfortable, so I can get behind that. One perk of this was that just doing two bottoms and then five tops gives a lot of options which I think is a big part of paper doll functionality- which is a passion of mine. This paper doll has 11 outfits, which is a lot for 9 pieces of clothing.
Listen, some people contemplate how to make the perfect pulled pork bbq, I think about how to make a functional one sheet paper doll. We all have our hobbies.
A few other thoughts- one thing that really struck me about 1980s clothing was how color was used. If you look at the black and white sweater (original here), it’s really the way the shirt is color blocked that makes it 1980s. The pattern could be today, but something about the color blocking really dates it to the decade of the 1980s.
So now Amethyst is ready to go rock the corporate world in huge shoulder pads!
Honestly, the 1940s and the 1980s are both super into the giant shoulder pad thing and I try to get it (I do), but I just don’t. I guess if I’m going to draw a 1980s fashion paper doll I just need to get into the whole shoulder pad thing, but… Oh well, I barely understand modern fashion. I just like drawing paper dolls.
Sometimes when I go through old fashion catalogues, I notice something and then I need to draw it. When I started working on my 1980s paper dolls I ran into a classic problem- the 1980s wasn’t that long ago. While a lot of clothing looks dated, a lot of it looks like things you could wear today (with maybe different hair and less blush). However, one thing stood out as distinctly 1980s- leotards and leggings for the Jazzercise workout craze.
Seriously, I could have filled a whole paper doll book with these looks. They were wild. A few of my favorites were the 1983 Sears Spring/Summer collection which included puff sleeves (why?). The 1988 Sears Spring/Summer Catalog which features some super high cut silhouettes. And my personal favorite, the 1984 Sears Fall/Winter Catalog with its actually flattering color blocking. Montgomery Ward seems to have mostly sold these looks for kids, like in this 1985 Fall/Winter catalog. I didn’t have access to enough Montgomery Ward or JCPenney catalogs to see if they got into the same styles, though I suspect they did.
The 1985 Sears Fall/Winter collection was the inspiration for the color scheme and several of the pieces for this paper doll. I liked the oddly spring feeling colors and I thought they were more fun than the black and dark tones people associate with workout gear. Ruby, the paper doll here has make up, because clearly everyone in the 1980s had perfect lipstick while exercising. (I look like a half-drowned puppy after exercising, but that’s just me!)
One thing that struck me as I looked at these was that they weren’t badly designed, by which I mean there was effort being given to making them flattering. The use of color blocking and the V going down the body are actually slimming on most people. The belts would have called attention to the waist which, again, can be flattering on some people. However, I do think there’s a bit of a problem because leotards in shiny polyester are never going to be a great look.
While I was too young to really remember the Jazzercise craze, I do remember my middle school in the 1990s did a step-aerobics class for gym for a few days and I loved it. I loved that I didn’t have to do a team sport (which I was awful at) and I loved the music. I wonder if there are still step-aerobics classes in this world? Maybe I should go find one. I don’t see why gym classes in the USA are so obsessed with team sports. Not all of us want to play basketball, darn it!
I digress.
I know it has been a while for my patrons on the “1980s fashion” request front, but I hope this paper doll gets us a little closer to some 1980s fashion fun and there’s another 1980s paper doll forthcoming with a more professional wardrobe.
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