I didn’t really love mermaids as a child. I was never really a mermaid person, so to speak. The Little Mermaid movie scared me. However, I really have found there’s a lot of fun to be had drawing mermaid tails and that’s where today’s mermaid doll came from.
She’s made up from some of the different mermaids I drew last year and this year. Along with her tails, I thought one dress for land based adventures would be useful and a trident for defense. After all, there are predators in the ocean. I chose Amethyst to show off these tails.
One of the wild things about tropical fish is that even though I think of them as being blue, they are actually super not blue. Anyway, I had a lot of fun looking at tropical fish photos and then picking out colors for the mermaid doll’s tails. This is certainly a tropical mermaid.
I had so much fun with these mermaid tails. I think mermaids are always fun, don’t you? I’ve done a few other mermaids like these.
Remember, if you enjoy the blog and would like to get even more paper dolls, check out Patreon. I’ve got fun things from 2 dollars and up including two other paper doll collections and more Jewels and Gemstones content.
I couldn’t be more excited to share my second Jewels and Gemstones paper doll to have some 1890s dress up fun. A few weeks ago, I share Lapis with her At Home and bicycle outfits. Today, we have Pearl with her walking suit and tea gown. These paper dolls can, of course, share outfits.
While I was researching this era, I kept seeing floral patterned corsets. So, those inspired me. This pale blue one from the Chicago History Museum and this black one from Augusta Auctions. Drawers that inspired the paper doll’s underwear include this set, this set, and this combination set. All shoes come from Harpers Bazaar, but not from an online source. I used one of my fashion plate reprint books.
Promenade or Walking costume from the Delineator from 1894. The actual illustration is here. One thing you see a lot of in the 1890s are tailored suits for women and I am a sucker for a good looking cut away coat. So, that was clearly my favorite.
The tea gown is also from 1894. The dress comes, again, from this plate in the Delineator. Teagowns might look super soft and comfortable, but that’s a lie! They were heavily boned, meaning they weren’t as relaxed as they appear.
The color scheme is more pastel than I used for my Lapis 1890s dress up doll. At first, I was going more sedate with the colors. Then, to my surprise, something about the pale blue corset inspired the spring colors. Now that the paper doll is all colored, I keep thinking of Easter cards. Wrong time of the year, but I’ve never let that stop me before.
I really do recommend looking through Delineator Magazine if you have any fondness for historical fashion. It is a fun read.
Huge shout out to my Patrons, because they chose this era! And because I had a lot more fun illustrating the huge sleeve madness of the mid-1890s than I thought I would. Almost makes me want to draw the 1830s, another era of big-sleeve madness (also hair madness- 1830s hair was bananas.)
There’s something super relaxing for me in drawing evening gowns for paper dolls. I don’t know if I like it so much because it’s one piece garments or if I just like drawing clothing I am never going to need to wear.
I do not live a lifestyle that makes sense to wear evening gowns very much.
I really went back and forth about color schemes. I actually did two different color schemes. You can see the other one on my Patreon page. It’s open to everyone, so you don’t need to be a patron to download it. It’s a more light pastel color scheme.
However, maybe because my Spring Evening Gowns set, I thought some more rich colors would be fun. This set feels winter to me, though I don’t really know why. It’s not like these gowns look very warm.
My favorite thing about the decade of the 1890s is that short period in the middle of the decade when sleeves become truly absurdly huge. I mean, like sleeves the size of your head. It’s utterly charming and impractical and I love it. So, if I am going to draw an 1890s fashion paper doll, she is going to be the middle of the era.
By the 1890s, there’s a bunch of fashion magazines being published by home sewing pattern companies. The sewing machine has made this a super lucrative field. So, most of these pieces come from the Delineator Magazine which was published by the Butterick Company. One of the reasons I like the Delineator is that their fashion plates were all available for sale as patterns. So they aren’t a dress someone imagines, but one you know people could have actually made.
The 1890s underwear is a combination with a corset over it. Combinations were a “combination” of pantaloons and a chemise. They went under corsets while on top of them a woman might wear a corset cover and slip or a slip that combined those two garments. V&A has a nice photo.
Lapis, our 1890s fashion paper doll, has two outfits. The first is an At Home Costume based on an illustration from 1896. You can see it on this page of the Delineator. In the 1800s, there’s also a lot of interesting things going on with women’s sporting clothing. Bicycles were super popular in the 1890s thanks to the new “safety bicycle”. There’s many different styles of women’s bicycle clothing from this period, but I chose a Turkish trousers ensemble which comes from the Delineator Magazine in 1894.
Colors are actually pretty vivid in the 1890s. Thanks to chemical dyes, there’s a lot of richness. I was really struck as I poured through museum collections at the number of dark colored corsets I saw. While bright purple seems sort of scandalous, jewel tone corsets really do seem to be a thing from the decade like this purple one and this pink one.
Her At Home Costume I did in pinks and corals. The bicycle outfit I thought would be more practical in blues and browns. After all, it wouldn’t make sense in a world where laundry isn’t easy to be biking around in white or pale blue. I’m sure people did, but I mostly saw brown and blue in my examples.
Anyway, I had fun with this paper doll and I hope others enjoy her as well. If you have a few hours to kill, pouring through Delineator Magazine really is neat. I also want to thank my Patrons, because I don’t think I would have drawn this era if it hadn’t won a poll. I had a lot of fun doing it.
Okay, so way back in May of last year, I created this version of Lapis. I knew I wanted to expand that set into something more robust, so I drew a few more dresses. This fantasy paper doll with dresses was a fun foray into medieval styles without having to worry about actual history.
When designing this set, I wanted to think about fantasy clothing that maybe wasn’t too fancy. Don’t get me wrong, I will always love my over the top gowns with huge skirts, but for these I wanted to draw something more simple. I inspired by kirtles from the 1300s, but mostly just by what I remember from reading too many fantasy novels in my life. The long underdress sleeves shoved up around the wrists are a nod to the style of the Anglo-Saxons and the girdles are a nod to the 12th century Norman dress.
A few things I decided early on were that I really didn’t want to use cream as a neutral as I often do in these sort of medieval sets. Instead I challenged myself to focus on the soft blue as the primary neutral color. I wanted the colors to feel like they could have come from natural dyes, but also be vivid. Natural dyes can be super bright and fun!
Her shoes were inspired from actual 13th and 14th century footwear.
Personally, I think my favorite is her bright yellow dress, but that’s just me.
Normally, I would link to other paper dolls I’ve made with similar style to mix and match with this set. These dresses would fit in with my 12th Century and 13th Century sets though they are not historical. However, if you want fantasy things like this, you’ll need to wait a few more months as I get those done.
Some of you may recall that in 2019, I posted a Regency Fashion Week. I’ve taken some of those pieces and reformatted them into a paper doll with Regency dresses. I specifically chose pieces from the 1810s as a starting place. I am always conflicted about calling this era Regency. The styles we think of as “Regency” stretch from about 1805 through about 1825 when the waist line begins to drop. It lowers steadily through the 1820s before settling at the natural waist around 1828 or so. The actual period is 1811 to 1820, only about 19 years.
Now let’s talk clothing! There’s a myth that in the early 19th century women didn’t wear corsets/stays. This is not true. Women totally wore corsets/stays, but since the styles were changing rapidly, there wasn’t a single silhouette. No woman with actual curves wants to not wear some sort of bust support. It is true corsets weren’t boned as heavily as they would be in later decades. This pair from the Met 1811 and this fashion plate from 1813 are the sources for her stays/corset/whatever you call it. Under that, she wears a shift like this Shift from the MFA.
The original color scheme came from specific items that inspired the paper doll outfit. Turkey red was a very popular color in this early era. Another popular color was cerulean blue, which was a very unstable color that tinted towards green. More about regency colors on this website.
Anyway, one of my personal missions has always been to draw historical clothing for paper dolls (because I love it) and especially for models that aren’t white (because it bothers me that history tends to be depicted as all white people until 1950). I think we’re getting better about this, but there’s still a long way to go.
Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy today’s paper doll with Regency dresses. There’s more where this came from, but I haven’t yet decided how to put those outfits together into a set.
I don’t draw a lot of men. I don’t really think I’m that good at drawing men, truth be told. However, I have drawn a fair number of fantasy prince paper dolls and I thought they would be a fun thing to highlight in today’s paper doll round up.
I do tend to return to some of the same periods for my fantasy attire for men. I really love the 18th century and that tends to come out in these paper doll designs.
15 Fantasy Prince Paper Doll Designs
A few other thoughts, there’s a lot of paper dolls on this site that could be seen as fantasy men, but I was trying to focus on paper dolls that felt prince-like to me, rather than some of my warriors and knights. I get this category is more about my instinct than any actual measure. However, the whole point of these posts is to expose my readers to things that are buried in the archives.
And lord knows, the archives are deep. Sometimes, even I am surprised by what I find.
This was my second foray into medieval clothing for the Jewels and Gemstones and, at the time, my first foray into 13th century women’s clothing of Western Europe. I like to be specific, because this isn’t what folks were wearing in Asia or the Middle East in this era.
I tend to call these sorts of paper dolls “clothing” not “fashion.” While the idea of dress as a social marker existed in the 1200s, it wasn’t really fully defined yet. It wouldn’t be until the 1300s, and then introduction of tailoring, that you really start to see trends. By the 1400s, headdresses provide plenty of space for people to engage with fashion.
Okay, I took really good notes while I was working on this paper doll, so I have a mess of sources.
Lapis is wearing a shift based one illustrated in Roman de Giron le Courtois (fol. 87v). I made the length is a little shorter and the style is quite fitted. Both of these changes were done to facilitate the paper doll layering clothing over the shift. The source material is 100 years post this paper doll’s era, but illustrations of women’s shifts are super rare. So I’ll take it.
As usual, the shoe designs come from Stepping Through Time by Olaf Goubitz, an excellent, if exceedingly dry, book on historical footwear. I love this book, but man… it is not a fun read. The illustrations are great though. Sources for the dress on the left include Biblia Porta, Lausanne, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire, U 964 (fol.178r) and Collection of poems in Old French, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal- Arsenal 3142 (fol.292r).
You can see barbett and fillet headdresses in the Romance of Alexander, England, Cambridge University Library- Cambridge MS O.9.34 (fol.25v)
I based the right dress off of this dress from BNF Arsenal 5211 Bible de Saint-Jean d’Acre (fol.069v). The book dates from 1250-1254. The other inspiration was this dress from U 964 – Biblia Porta, housed at the Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire. The brooch at the throat comes from this illustration in Morgan M.638 Maciejowski Bible (fol.33) dated 1244-1254.
So, I did have some issues with her headdresses. They are such a defining part of 13th century women’s clothing. The barbette is the piece that goes under the chin and the fillet is the pillbox hat looking piece that wraps around the head. One thing I’m not sure about is whether the fillet was open or closed at the top. This manuscript illustration and this manuscript illustration it looks closed, but this one is definitely open. Anyway, I settled on closed, but I’m still not 100% sure that’s right.
Anyway, disclaimers aside, I hope you enjoy today’s 13th century paper doll! One of her dresses was a Patron piece from last year and I encourage you to head over there if you’d like to get more paper dolls every week.
One of the major trends of 2020 is polka-dots (and I did a paper doll celebrating that already) and then my other trend that I have been super interested in is the 1980s and the tendency as corset tops. Plus, I think when it comes to celebrating fashion, paper dolls are pretty much the perfect fashion paper craft. They allow us to not just explore trends, but kids can draw their own paper doll clothing.
Personally, I don’t really remember the 1980s, because I was both very young and living in Alaska. Alaska is not exactly trendy as a other parts of the country. We’re a little behind in fashion. Also, we all wear lots of rainboots, polar-fleece and puffer vests. Puffer vests might have trended last year, but we were wearing them long before they were trendy.
Anyway, the big trends in this paper doll are the 1980s styles, corsets, bra tops, and Bermuda shorts. The bra tops and corset tops seemed like similar ideas to collapse together. The suit jacket works with either the lose trousers or the skirt, but I colored it as though these were separates for more flexibility. You can, of course, color them any way you choose.
Color wise, I wanted to use the Pantone 2020 palette called Snorkle. I’m not a huge fan of pantone’s color of the year– Classic Blue. It’s just kind of… boring? Can I admit that. I’m not against it, but it’s not super exciting to me. I guess given how 2020 has gone people are not super into exciting these days. Anyway, there’s also a trend for the return of some neon colors and the bright green was my nod to that trend.
Among my favorite things about this version of Pearl is her hair. I’m always working to learn to draw hair better and I feel like this hair came out particularly nice. It’s a process, after all.
Are you into fashion trends? I confess I’m pretty boring in my clothing choices, but I do like drawing them for paper dolls. I try to stay at least aware of what’s happening in the world of trendy clothing.
Here we are at the end of July 2020 (how did that happen?) and I feel like it’s time to do a little mid-year assessment of how things are going here in Paper Thin Personas land. It’s a small land, mostly me and several hundred paper people, but none the less.
This has certainly been a year of upheaval thus far (pandemic, anyone?) I think it’s still important to look at goals and see where one is.
One of my new paper doll designs for the Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 Series.
After many years of not creating sets, I returned to sets this year. Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 debuted in April. I thought about saving it for a “logical” time, but really this is my little world and I can decide when I want to change things. I absoultly don’t regret this decision, but I do feel a little bad for folks who printed out a bunch of Jewels and Gemstones 1.0.
Slowly but surely, I’m converting some of my Jewels and Gemstones 1.0 content into the new size and adding more pieces when needed to fill out the sets. So, that’s been a fun project.
Keep your eyes open for some contemporary sets, a regency set and some 1950s sets, too. Also, some fantasy gowns and possibly ninjas.
365 Project for Patrons
Despite one big break which I just recovered from, I am super pleased to day that my 5 dollar patrons are currently somewhere around paper doll item 213. I am quite proud of my progress on that project. So, that’s been super fun.
Print Product
Paper Doll Studio Issue 126
Did I mention the pandemic? Seriously, the idea of dealing with the logistics around this right now have totally put me at a stand-still. I think I’ll get there eventually. It just won’t be soon.
The pandemic has cancelled the convention, so I did not attend. I had bought a plane ticket and I am slightly annoyed that I didn’t get to use it. I was looking forward to meeting Julie Matthews in person and getting to hang out with paper doll people. Plus, since I was going to Chicago for work the week before, I was also going to get to see some good friends in that city. Oh well, hopefully next year.
New Goals for 2020
Mostly, my goals for 2020 remain- just get through this year!
However, as I like goals and they keep me focused I have two to add to my list for 2020.
Create 12 historical paper doll sets for Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 with totally new content. I’m not counting my reformatted sets.
Create at least 12 Dolls Du Jour paper dolls. I have three so far and they need some friends!
I do want to create something as print product. It might not happen, but I am going to try.
Anything my readers would love to see as the year wraps up?
If I had to pick one thing I like drawing the most, I would have a lot of trouble, but it would probably be a tie between historical paper dolls and fantasy paper dolls. Historical because I love doing research and I am big costume history buff. Fantasy because sometimes I really don’t want to do so much research before I draw a paper doll. Of the fantasy things I draw, I think dresses are probably my favorite thing to create. I’m a sucker for a fantasy gown, what can I say?
This is funny, because in the real world, I am very much a jeans and t-shirts kinda girl.
Last year, I started a whole series of princess fantasy gowns I called the Princess and Their Gowns Collection. So far, there are two princesses and today’s paper doll is the third. They can not only share clothing, but the dresses are all in the same color scheme. Many mix and match options, I think.
The Dinner Dress owes a lot to the dresses of the 18th century with the petticoat and the sleeves with ruffles. The “Rococo/Big Skirted Absurdity” section on my Fantasy Pinterest Board has more stuff in this genre. I have a fondness for 18th century inspired paper doll gowns.
I’m really happy with how Lapis’ hair came out and I am glad to have her joining Sapphire and Opal. Between the three of them, there are six dresses which I think is a good beginning. I need to draw more though. I’m thinking maybe a sports outfit, perhaps hiking? And also maybe something for the seaside. I haven’t totally decided yet. Is there a theme for a gown you’d like to see?
In my second Topaz paper doll of the week, here’s some 12th century clothing to go along with the Tudor paper doll from Tuesday. If I had a chose a period of fashion I both really like and know very little about, it would be the 12th century aka 1100s. 12th century clothing in Western Europe is both super interesting to me (I love the sleeves) and very alien.
As much as possible, I try to work from primary sources, ideally illuminated by well written analysis by scholars who know more than me. However, the books I have tend to start in 1200 which is more well documented period and leave 1100s out entirely.
Perfect historical accuracy is impossible, so knowing that I did my best on this paper doll and her 1100s dresses.
Topaz is wearing a shift based one illustrated in Roman de Giron le Courtois on Folio 87v. The manuscript dates from between 1370-1380 even though this is 200 years after the 1100s. Illustrations of women in shifts are just super rare, so you have to use what you can find. I made my version shorter and tighter than the originals, because paper dolls have to layer. Paper doesn’t fold like fabric.
Additionally, Topaz’s shoes all come from Stepping Through Time by Olaf Goubitz, a book on archeological footwear finds. It’s fascinating, but very densely written work. Her hair and headdress are based on illustrations from Women’s Hats, Headdresses and Hairstyles by Georgine de Courtais. Her veil is based on the one seen on the Ushaw Virgin, a brass from the British Museum, as is the dress on the right. The statue, Enthroned Virgin and Child, from The Met, was another source for the dresses. I also used some of the manuscript images from this German site on the Bliaut. All the illustrations are properly cited and that always makes me happy.
The bliaut is the subject of a lot of debate. Statues of the time show a very wrinkled, almost pleated fabric effect (like this), but illustrations by and large don’t. When they do show horizontal wrinkles across the abdomen they tend to be more subtle. I went with the more subtle option and the no wrinkles option. Inevitably, drawing fashions from history requires making editorial decisions, but I try to capture the silhouette of the period.
Books consulted in the creation of this paper doll included Stepping Through Time by Olaf Goubitz, Women’s Hats, Headdresses and Hairstyles by Georgine de Courtais, Medieval Dress and Fashion by Margaret Scott and Fashion in the Middle Ages by Margret Scott, though this last one was not helpful, particularly.
This is an era I’d like to learn more about. So, if anyone has a book recommendation I’ll happy accept it. Most of my books don’t cover this early period very well.
Today’s set was put together from pieces posted here on the blog last year and on Patreon.
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