So, I’ve been coloring paper dolls like a mad woman all week, super enjoying myself.
Here is the first set of girl paper dolls.
Top: (L to R) Alice and Akiko. Bottom: (L to R) Benedita and Beatrix
The top two dolls are in the A pose. The doll on the left is Alice and the doll on the right is Akiko.
The bottom two dolls are in the B pose. The doll on the left is Benedita and the doll on the right is Beatrix. These girls are still in progress, obviously. I need to color Beatrix and finish coloring Benedita.
Each doll’s face will be used regularly and I’ll note each new style of doll with the term “version” so these are all version 1. The dolls won’t always come with just shoes, but these first ones will in order to establish and certain number of shoes seemed logical. I want to later do themed dolls with at themed outfit, like this Min-Seo punk doll, for example.
There will be guys as well, of course. They will be in the C pose and will all have C names. I am still working on them. Like often happens, the ladies took priority.
So, what do you think? Do you have a favorite already?
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.
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.
Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Trendy Tropical Clothing
The trend for this winter is sleeve detail. As I write this, I am wearing a flared sleeve sweater and that was a tame version of some of the things I have seen out there. I couldn’t imagine not creating some trendy sleeved tops for the Ms. Mannequins and here they are.
The sweater is pretty close to what I am actually wearing today (though mine is a tunic and has a lace up neckline, so maybe… not that close?). Anyway… I’ve certainly seen sweaters like the one I’ve drawn for them. The blouse is floral (also a trend) and has ruffle details on the sleeves. I tried on a blouse like that recently and I did not look good in it, but part of the joy of paper dolls is that they do not sure our own insecurities about their arms.
Nor do they worry they will get the ruffle cuff in their soup when they try to eat it. Life maybe, I confess, easier if you are a paper doll.
On the flip side, I suspect paper dolls have phobic feelings about puddles and being accidentally ripped in half.
So, perhaps paper doll life would be more wrought with terror than I thought.
Meanwhile, what do you think of today’s paper doll outfits? Would you wear crazy sleeves? Do you wear crazy sleeves?
Wednesday, there will be the last two 1920s dresses for the Poppets. Forever. (It sounds so dire when I put it that way.)
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.
In 2009, something horrible and magnificent happened- I crashed my entire blog.
I didn’t have a great backup and I didn’t know that I had a friend (he was just an acquaintance then) who could have probably fixed it.
It was simitaniously horrible and completely liberating. Freed of the constraints of what I had done before, I started fresh with a new format, new layouts, new everything.
Lately, I have felt a great deal of blog ennui. Since I haven’t crashed the entire site (thank goodness), I don’t have any kick in the pants to change things.
A week ago, a dear friend said to me: If you could do anything with the blog, what would you do?
It took only an instant to know the answer: Update daily and only have one paper doll series.
And then I gave all the reasons I couldn’t do that: Marisole Monday is my most popular series. B&B is my only curvy series… I have a million reasons.
But the reason I should do it was also utterly clear- It excited me.
Ever since I made the decision, I have been working with the sort of manic delight that I haven’t felt about creating paper dolls in at least a year or more. Last time I really remember feeling it was when I was researching vikings for my Viking paper doll.
I spent all of Saturday sketching and erasing and scanning and fixing. I called my mom and asked what she thought of various names for the new series.
I lost track of time and stayed up far to late working on shoes and watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Hulu.
In short, I felt delight and delight is why I have this hobby to begin with.
Every Thursday until the end of the year, I will share updates about where and how this is going. I will keep you all as much in the loop as I can. Until then, I hope you can share my excitement as I close the door on one period of the blog’s life and open it to another one.
Here’s the two previews to share:
The templates I sketched in my notepad. On the left, many many drafts of the guys. I confess I am still not great at drawing guys. On the right are the ladies.
The base dolls of the new series whose name will probably be Dames and Dandies. The gents on the left and the two lady poses on the right. I will share more next week.
Let me know what you think in a comment.
P.S: I am currently working on updating my theme. Please forgive me while things look a little messy and strange around here. 🙂
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.
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.
Hello all. So, I will be on a break until December 11th when my semester ends. AsS some of you might remember, along with being a full time librarian, I am also getting an additional Master’s Degree in Education.
It’s final project crunch time at my school and so I am focusing on school work right now.
(Plus, Wednesday’s paper doll was literally the LAST thing I had finished and ready to go.)
I shall return on the 11th, full of vim, vigor and paper dolls I hope.
Until then, I hope everyone has a great first week of December.
Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:Â Sears Fashions from 1934 and these shoes from the Met Today’s paper doll is post is the last one for a the next little while. I am not only out of paper doll content that is finished, but I am also in the midst of finals for my graduate program. So, as of Friday, the blog will be on hiatus until December 11th and the end of the semester.
Meanwhile, today’s paper doll dress is a 1934 evening gown. The major reference book for today’s dress was Everyday Fashions of the Thirties As Pictured in Sears Catalogs from Dover Publications. The decoration at the neckline would have been a removable clip on piece, according to the catalog description. These slinky evening dresses are really pretty fun (though would not be very flattering on me). The sleeves are two tiered flutter sleeves which, now that I mention it, remind me of the sleeves that my friend had on her wedding dress.
The shoes are a pair of high evening pumps from The Met museum based on this pair. I was super happy that I could locate shoes from the same year as the dress. It always makes me excited when that happens, though of course, people keep clothing for longer than I year. In fact, right now, I am wearing three year old shoes, two year old pants and a year old sweater.
Meanwhile, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving if you celebrated and, as mentioned, I’ll be laying low until my school work if finished. So, no paper dolls will go up until the 11th of December. There will be a “formal” hiatus announcement on Friday.
(I try not to just disappear on you all. I know that’s kinda annoying and sometimes people send me emails worried about me, so I’d hate for anyone to worry.)
As always, I love to hear comments or, if you’d like to support the blog further than become a patron.
I usually try to keep pretty good track of where things come from. I’m frankly not totally sure if I had reference images for this. I went back through my Cyberpunk/Sci-fi Fashion Pinterest board and I didn’t see anything that reminded me of it. But I also drew it a while ago, so I can’t be totally certain.
So, I was thinking a lot about layering and the interesting dynamics that layering can create.
It’s also an outfit that I am a little worried might work better in concept than in execution. The idea is that the various bands wrap around the paper doll’s body and the shorts are layered under the dress/tunic thing.
Given the way the dress/tunic thing is cut it would be rather exposing if there were no shorts involved.
I mean, sure if that’s what your paper dolls are into, no judgement from this corner, but my paper dolls are going to wear the shorts.
I had a really hard time coming up with a color scheme for this set. This color scheme I really liked. I reminds me a little of the 1990s Star Treks- The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. If it was in more neon colors than I think there would be a Fifth Element vibe.
I also created a pink a teal version. That version is posted over on my Patreon page for my patrons to enjoy. If you’d like to see it, consider becoming a patron. It really does help keep the blog on the internets.
Need a Marisole Monday & Friends Lady Paper Doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick One Out Here.Â
Each month has a different theme. This month’s theme was to draw a dress inspired by a personal hero. I chose Mother Jones, the famous labor organizer.
Mary Harris Jones “Mother Jones” was born in Ireland in 1837 and died in Maryland in 1930. At one point, she was labeled the most dangerous woman in America for her work organizing miners.
She lost her husband and four children to yellow fever in 1867. Just four years later, she lost her business, a dress shop, in the Chicago Fire of 1871. So, she began working as an organizer for many labor groups including United Mine Workers of America, then known as just the United Mine Workers.
In her 60s, she became known as Mother Jones, an image she cultivated by wearing black and dressing in out of date fashions.
I don’t agree with all of her views though. She was opposed to women’s suffrage and thought women shouldn’t work. She was also a bit of a publicity hound, but people are people. No one is perfect.
One of Mother Jone’s most famous quotes is, “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”
I didn’t want to draw a literal 1890’s dress for my paper doll, so instead I created this victorian inspired dress (which should be black if you want it to really be a Mother Jone’s look) and gave her a protest sign of her own. Also, I doubt Mother Jones would approve of exposed knees, so I would suggest coloring her legs like she’s wearing tights.
I have no desire to discuss politics on this blog, but one thing I will say is this- the rights workers have today in the US like the 40 hour work week, no child labor, sick leave and overtime would not exist without the work of labor unions in the early part of the 20th century. Never forget that people literally died for these rights and we should be grateful for them.
So, pray for the dead, as Mother Jones would say, and fight like hell for the living.
Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:Â Um… India, I guess?
Happy Day before Thanksgiving everyone! I think I warned people on Facebook that I wasn’t going to have anything holiday related this year. I always swear I am going to get something done for all the holidays and then, inevitably, I forget until the last minute.
Good intentions and all that.
Anyway, instead of something holiday related, I have Kamala, a new Ms. Mannequin paper doll. Kamala is East Indian, I think, and her name means “lotus” or “pale red” in Sanskrit. It can both be a feminne or a masculine name. It’s also one of the names of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. Lakshimi is the goddess of wealth, fortune and prosperity.
I confess that I don’t know much about the Hindu religion, but it is my understanding that Lakshimi is one of the major gods.
Kamala shares a skintone with Sunitha and Aishwarya which gives her four other shoe options. And who doesn’t want more shoe options?
Personally, I really like Kamala’s up do and it makes me think of some of the evening gowns I have drawn of these paper dolls. I’d put her in this dress, this dress and this dress. Probably also this dress, though it is more fantasy than the others.
Tomorrow there will be the November installment of the 2017 paper doll collab. We had to create a paper doll based on a personal hero. My choice will probably surprise some people, though not those who know me well.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
