Poppets Paper Dolls Vintage Inspired Jumper and Tights

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: 1960s Betys McCalls designs, like this and this

A 1960s inspired vintage paper doll outfit with a jumper over tights. The jumper is smoky blue, the blouse is yellow and the tights are a paler yellow. The jumper is trimmed in orange piping and the shoes are orange to match. Sized to fit the Poppet paper doll series.

A 1960s inspired vintage paper doll outfit with a jumper over tights. The jumper is over a puffed sleeved blouse. The jumper is trimmed in piping and the shoes have cross cross straps. Sized to fit the Poppet paper doll series.

I finished a commission a few months ago for 1960s paper dolls, and I had a lot of fun dabbling. During that time, I drew this Poppet’s paper doll dress. I was spending a lot of hours with 1960s fashions in my research. Betsy McCalls 1960s designs, such as this set from 1965 and this set from 1964, inspired today’s paper doll set.

The commission was for Costume College, by the way. They were a dream to work with. If I was on the West Coast, I would treat myself to their convention which starts this Thursday. I wish I could go, but being in Alabama does have disadvantages.

Anyway, I don’t plan to do a whole slew of 1960s inspired kids clothing, because a girl can only draw so many a-line dresses. I just don’t feel the same love of 1960’s children’s clothing as I feel for 1920s children’s clothing. My love of 1920s children’s clothing is eternal and intense, as demostrated by my 1920s Children’s Wardrobe Collection. I have a new batch of those done, by the way- 2 dresses and a coat are forthcoming.

Now in the interest of full disclosure, I should note that there is nothing historically accurate about today’s paper doll outfit. It’s not like I poured over tons of 1960s primary sources to put it together. It was more like, “I like this and I want to draw something like it.”

The color scheme was my attempt to do something that wasn’t traditional. I tend to associate girls clothing with bright pinks and teals. Colors I am naturally drawn too, but I loved this combo of orange, yellow and a smoky blue.

It also feels kinda 1960s to me.

Clearly, I was channeling my inner Betsy McCall. Everyone should have an inner one of those, I think.

Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Poppet Paper Doll Here.

A New Modern Curvy Paper Doll and Her Summery Chambray Dress

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:Chambray Summer Dresses and Sandals

A redheaded paper doll with a chambray dress and two pairs of sandals from paperthinpersonas.com. Free to print in color or black and white.

A curvy printable paper doll with a chambray dress and two pairs of sandals from paperthinpersonas.com. Free to print in color or black and white.

Sometimes, I draw paper dolls and I have wonderful detailed ideas of what I want to say about them. Sometimes, I draw paper dolls and I have really nothing to say about them. Today’s paper doll falls into the later category. I just don’t really have much meaningful to say about her.

I like her, don’t get me wrong, but she’s not as full of complex inspiration as some of my other work.

She was a case of drawing the dress and then drawing a doll to go with the dress. I wanted to draw a short chambray dress. One of the big trends this summer is chambray dresses. I mostly use chambray for sewing doll jeans. It’s super useful for that, but it also works really well as a sundress material.

My plan was to make two sundresses and use them as a clothing post. I hated the other sundress so much that I scribbled it out of my sketchbook, so that didn’t work out.

To salvage the dress that I had, I decided to draw a doll do go with it. Drawing her hair gave me a chance to practice short hair. I need to practice short hair more. Also, I am sort of in love with her eyebrows and I can’t explain why.

I designed her shoes to be basics. I wanted them to go with pretty much anything else she might decide to wear.

So, what do you think? Cute? Looking slightly pissed off? Let me know in a comment. I always love to hear from you all.

Need to get some more clothing for this Bodacious & Buxom paper doll to wear? Pick out some clothing here

Sprites Summery Paper Doll Clothing

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Stuff I See Kids Wearing These Days

Contemporary paper doll clothing set which includes a pair of pants and shirt for a boy paper doll and two dresses for a girl paper doll. The clothing can be worn by any of the Sprites paper doll series.

Contemporary paper doll clothing set which includes a pair of pants and shirt for a boy paper doll and two dresses for a girl paper doll. The clothing can be worn by any of the Sprites paper doll series.

One of the classic problems I face is that I tend to draw and then ink and then scan and then post. Sometimes, this means I am posting weeks or months after I drew the paper doll content. While I actually like this schedule, because it keeps me from going nuts, there is a downside.

The downside is that sometimes I really don’t remember why I drew a set of paper doll clothing or what inspired me.

Take today’s summery Sprite clothing, for example. I have no idea why I drew these. I have the vague recollection that I felt like the Sprites had gotten so much fantasy stuff, that I should create something that was not fantasy.

“Something not fantasy” is not the most revolutionary reason to create a paper doll set, but that doesn’t make it less true.

I do remember in the coloring process that I struggled to find a color scheme that could be both masculine and feminine. It is no doubt a sign that I have stereotypical views of color, but I struggle with putting male paper dolls in pink.

If you do feel comfortable putting male paper dolls in pink, there is always the black and white version of today’s paper doll clothing.

In a side note, I really like the butterflies on the green dress and am super proud at how they turned out. Drawing tiny butterflies is hard and I am pleased with those.

A few other bookkeeping sorts of thing, I am starting a graduate program in the Fall. I don’t know how it will impact the blog, yet. I hope to continue posting regularly and with a minimum of disruption. However, I can not confidently promise that will be the case. So, I am just trying to let people know ahead of time.

Meanwhile, if you want to support the blogs continued “life on the web” than consider becoming a patron and making a small monthly (or one time) donation.

Looking for some Sprite paper dolls to wear these outfits? Pick out Sprite paper dolls here.

Sorceress’ Element Dress for Air

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:Tang Dynasty Hanfu, Sort of…

A paper doll fantasy gown inspired by the element Air. It is a pale pink draped coat with flare sleeves over a cream colored under dress over a pale blue under-dress. Over the coat, there is a wide obi like belt with decorations. The boots are pale yellow and there is a staff with a wing design.

A paper doll fantasy gown inspired by the element Air for coloring and printing.

Today’s paper doll gown is for the curvy B&B paper dolls. It’s part of my Sorceress Gowns Project. My goal with the Sorceress Gowns Project was to create a series of gowns for a sorceress, as one might imagine. I started with the classic four elements- earth, air, fire and water. The element of Air inspired today’s paper doll gown.

For a series of gowns based on the elements, most of the Sorceress gowns were pretty easy to design. I created Water, Fire and Earth. Earth was the hardest, but only because my sister is a geologist and I feared judgement if I didn’t get it right.

Air was hard, because air is transparent. So, unless I wanted to post a blank image and declare it an Air dress, I needed to come up with some way to give Air some form. So, I went with flowing garments and soft drape. Her staff references a bird’s wing and the swirls on her dress are meant to be the breeze.

Traditional Chinese dress from the Tang Dynasty influenced this paper doll gown. I saw things like this and and this being labeled as Tang Dynasty. Now, I realize these have about as much in common with actual Tang Dynasty dress as this does with actual Italian renaissance dress. Intrigued by these outfits, I did a little more research and found this painting and this painting. Again, I have no idea how accurate most of this is. My knowledge of Chinese clothing is distinctly Qing Dynasty. And even that era, I know only the most surface of facts.

Still, I love the shape and the drape of these garments, so they heavily influenced today’s paper doll gown.

The chose to use colors I associate with the sky at dawn. I didn’t know exactly what colors would symbolize Air, but I thought pale pastels made the most sense to me.

As always, I love to hear what people think in a comment.

Need to get a Bodacious & Buxom paper doll to wear these fabulous clothes? Pick one out here.

Mini-Maidens Visit the 1770s

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: This Dress From the 1770s, This Dress from 1775-1780 and This dress from the 1770s
A paper doll dress based on the designs of the 1770s. The dress has matching shoes and stockings. It is black and white for coloring and fits the Mini-Maiden paper dolls.
Today’s Mini-Maiden paper doll dress should have maybe been posted on the 4th of July since that is Independence Day, but I decided to hold off on it. I’m not sure why exactly, but I did. So now, I am posting it on the 19th of July for really no reason, except that I really love 18th century clothing.

Often when I created historical pieces, there is a specific piece I am recreating. I choose a dress that I love and then I draw it. That was the case with my 1820s morning dress for example, but today’s 1770s gown is much more an expression of several gowns from the era. This dress, this one and one more all from the 1770s are some of the source images that I combined. Check out my 18th century pinterest board for way way more examples of clothing from this era.

Because I did not use just one dress, there is a a lot of room for error. It is highly possible that someone from the 18th century would look at this dress and think it was way off for reasons I can never know.

Clothing is full of tiny nuanced rules. Most of these are never written down and are now lost to us on the whims of time. Mostly, I’ve come to accept this as part of the creative process. I’m never going to be perfect.

Perfect, I am fond of saying, is the enemy of good.

I can however been well researched. In the interest of that, I wanted to mention that Dover has just reprinted the book, Eighteenth-Century French Fashion Plates in Full Color edited by Stella Blum. This is a great book that I have been wanting for a while. So, I just ordered my copy and while I get no benefit from the link above, I wanted to mention it in case anyone else has been wanting this book.

Should I do more 18th century stuff? I have been thinking about maybe a riding habit. Thoughts?

Need a Mini-Maiden paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Mini-Maiden Paper Doll Here.

1920s Pajamas for Marisole Monday & Her Printable Paper Doll Friends

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: 1920s Fashions from B. Altman & Company
A pair of 1920s paper doll pajamas for the Marisole Monday and Friend's paper doll series. The pajamas are based on a design from the 1920s and are pink trimmed in dark pink.

Paper doll Dress. Printable paper doll series from paperthinpersonas.com.

So, it was pointed out to me earlier this year that I had done very few sets of paper doll pajamas. As a result, I’ve been working on creating paper doll pajamas for the various series over the last year. Every paper doll needs pajamas, after all.

One of the things that always surprises me in my costume research is when I see something and I think, “Well, I didn’t know that was a thing.”

All of us, myself included, suffer from the tendency to see what we want to see in historical evidence. It’s very easy to get so used to a time period as to stop noticing it. When I found this pajamas in 1920s Fashions from B. Altman & Company, I thought to myself, “Wow, that’s awfully modern looking.”

Sadly, the illustration was in black and white, so I have no idea the true color of these pajamas. However, I know coral was a popular shade in the 1920s, so that is what I went with. I love the art deco floral design on the right side of them.

One pair a pajamas is hardly enough to make up for years of pajama paper doll neglect, but hopefully this pair helps a bit.

And I think it could pass as super comfortable lounge wear in the 21st century. I’d wear it.

(And I can’t say that about all the paper doll clothes I create.)

What do you think? Would you wear it? Let me know in a comment.

And if you want to support the blog, think about donating through Patreon.

Need a Marisole Monday & Friends Lady Paper Doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick One Out Here. 

Rapunzel, Rapunzel Let Down Your Long Paper Doll Hair

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Rapunzel
My Rapunzel paper doll is printable and has a long braid of hair. Her skin is a soft brown color and her hair is darker brown. Her dress is two layers in darker and lighter teal. She has matching shoes.

My Rapunzel paper doll is printable and has a long braid of hair.

The Fairy Tale and Nursery Rhyme series continues today with a Rapunzel paper doll. Certain fairy tales need a doll to really share them. After all, Rapunzel is only Rapunzel if she has super long hair.

After some technical debate about how to mange the super long hair, I decided to make the braid a separate piece, so that it could be pasted to the back of the head. That way you an easily slip the tabs around the paper doll’s body.

One of the challenges of depicting fairy tales is the overwhelming presence of Disney. If you search for images of Rapunzel, the images from the Disney film Tangled overwhelm all other depictions.

The last thing I wanted to do was copy Disney and I don’t really like their version of Rapunzel, so I decided there was going to be no pink in my version.

My Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes board on Pinterest to see the non-Disney related images I used to inspire my version of Rapunzel.

The Fairy Tale and Nursery Rhyme series contains a lot more storybook characters. There’s currently six paper dolls and outfits in the series, but I have a few more waiting in the wings.

Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Poppet Paper Doll Here.

A Fantasy Gown for the Ms. Mannequin Printable Paper Doll Series

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Baroque Maiden

An elegant medieval inspired fantasy gown with stockings and shoes for the Ms. Mannequin printable paper doll series from paperthinpersonas.com. The gown has double puffed sleeves, a long skirt and a corset over top of it which is accented in piping. The shoes are multi-strapped high heels with stockings and garters.

An elegant medieval inspired fantasy gown with stockings and shoes for the Ms. Mannequin printable paper doll series from paperthinpersonas.com. The gown has double puffed sleeves, a long skirt and a corset over top of it which is accented in piping. The shoes are multi-strapped high heels with stockings and garters.

Today’s printable paper doll gown for the Ms. Mannequin paper dolls was based on a Marisole Monday & Friends set called, “Baroque Maiden.”

Even years after I did them, there are a few specific paper doll sets that I don’t like that much. Usually not because of my drawing skill, I can let those problems go. I mean, I always do the best I can at that moment which isn’t the best I could do today, but skills improve with time. No, it’s usually color choices that I regret after the fact.

One of the nice things about the project I’ve taken on to drew new paper doll content inspired by old paper doll content is that I can rectify some of those sets that I have mixed feelings about.

One such set is Baroque Maiden. I did the color scheme that way I did it, because I wanted to experiment with darker color schemes. However, I really hate the color scheme now that I’ve had to live with it for 5 years.

And the darkness of the colors means that there is no way to extract the line-work easily to make a black and white version.

Plus it is one of the few pale skinned Marisole versions and those always look off to me. I much prefer Marisole with her original skin-tone.

Anyway, I hope you like today’s re-imagining of Baroque Maiden.

If you hop over to the Patreon page, I posted my sketchbook photo of this dress a few days ago. The post is open to the public, so check it out if you’re interested.

And, as always, consider donating if you’d like to support the blog!

Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick out a Ms. Mannequin Paper Doll Here

Some Post-Apocalyptic Paper Doll Fashions for the Sprites

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Mad Max: Fury Road and Post-Apocalyptic Fashions from my Pinterest Board

A set of post-apocalyptic fashions for paper doll inspired by all things end of the world. Designed to fit the Sprites paper doll series from paperthinpersonas.com.

A set of summer paper doll clothing for boy and girl paper dolls in color or black and white from paperthinpersonas.com. Jeans, t-shirt, shorts and a tank top are all included.

Some of you may recall that I posted a pair of post apocalyptic Sprites a few weeks ago- Willow and Shirou. Around the same time I drew them, which was around the same time I rewatched Mad Max: Fury Road, I ended up drawing this set of clothing as well. I decided to wait a little while to post it, because really, how much post-apocalyptic fashion is too much?

There may not be a good answer to that question, I confess.

While I do enjoy the post apocalyptic stuff, I find the color schemes are often intensely limited. Things tend to be army green, camo colors and khaki. For this set, I really wanted to embrace the colors of the desert, so I chose a light teal, purple-brown and a oxblood red. The teal reminded me of succulents and the purple-brown of rocks.

Along wit Mad Max: Fury Road, which inspired a round of sketching for post-apocalyptic paper doll attire, I also used my own Post-Apocalyptic pinterest board for inspiration.

While I have doubts about the practicality of most of this clothing, I think we all can agree that practicality is never the hallmark of  my paper doll creations.

As always, let me know what  you think in a comment and have a great day!

Looking for some Sprite paper dolls to wear these outfits? Pick out Sprite paper dolls here.

B&B Russian Fantasy Outfit

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin and kosovorotka shirts

A set of fantasy paper doll clothing inspired by traditional Russian clothing from paperthinpersonas.com. One of hundreds of free printable paper doll designs.

A set of fantasy paper doll clothing inspired by traditional Russian clothing from paperthinpersonas.com. One of hundreds of free printable paper doll designs.

Personally, I blame my fascination with all thing Russian on growing up in Alaska and reading The Hunt for Red October at far to young of an age. I hope you all will interperate today’s paper doll outfit as an expression of love for the art of Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin and not a statement on current events in the United States.

(I’m not really sure what a fantasy Russian outfit would be saying about current events, but that’s neither here nor there.)

I’ve loved Russian fairytales for most of my life. Well, I love all fairy tales, but the Russian ones I think resonated with me more than a lot of the others. Perhaps it was growing up in Alaska where there was a lot of Russian culture still or perhaps I saw in Ivan Biliban‘s illustrations a landscape I recognized- over grown forests and snow.

In fact, I sometimes think my fondness for flat color and heavy line is in part because of the exposure to those illustrations. At the time, those things were a limitation of the printing medium, but Biliban took advantage of them to make incredible works of art. It really was the golden age of children’t book illustration.

Anyway, today’s set of printable paper doll clothing consists of a traditional Russian style blouse, a corset, trousers tucked into books and a big fur hat. Everything is better with a big fur hat. The blouse is based on a kosovorotka which is a side fastening men’s shirt.

See? I did some research.

Questions about today’s paper doll outfit? Thoughts on other wonderful classic children’s book illustrators? Let me know in a comment!

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Need to get a Bodacious & Buxom paper doll to wear these fabulous clothes? Pick one out here.

New Romantics Paper Doll Fashions

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: A Patron Request for New Romantic Fashions
A guy New Romantics paper doll outfit with a poets shirt and several belts from paperthinpersonas.com.

Paper doll post-apocalyptic fashion with boots, stockings and a sweater for the Marisole Monday and Friends printable paper doll series from paperthinpersonas.com.

While I was researching New Romantics fashion for yesterday’s printable paper doll, I discovered that it was a lot easier to identify men’s clothing that was influenced by the style than it was women’s clothing.

This picture was my primary inspiration for the outfit. Because I knew I wanted to tuck the poet’s shirt into the trousers, I had to make it all in one piece

I do sort of regret not going further and doing like an Adam Ant sort of outfit… but there is always next time.

This isn’t the usual way I design paper doll clothing, but I do think you have to the adapt to the medium as it makes sense. In fact, I just finished penciling a regency Sprite’s men’s suit that does the same thing.

Sometimes, it is easiest to draw outfits in one piece, even if that’s not my natural instinct.

Now, I will admit that while I don’t know much about New Romantic fashion, I do have a soft place in my heart for a man in a poet shirt. Can’t lie about that one.

I should add my favorite Adam and the Ants song is Stand and Deliver, but I should say in the interest of full disclosure that his music is more New Wave Punk than New Romantics, or so I’ve been told.

(I still listen to that song while I clean my apartment and dance around, so I will not be deterred from liking it.)

Meanwhile, I don’t really have a guy paper doll with quite the right hair for this outfit, but I might actually recommend Marcus The Warrior. The beads in his hair seem apropos of the style. Super long haired Mikhail might also work, but not as well.

As always, let me know what you think of poet shirts or paper dolls or anything else in the comments.

Need a Marisole Monday & Friends Guy Paper Doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick One Out Here. 

Marisole Monday & Friends: A New Romantics Paper Doll & Her Outfit

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: A Patron Request for New Romantic Fashions
A paper doll celebrating the early 1980s New Romantics music and fashion movement from paperthinpersonas.com.

Paper doll post-apocalyptic fashion with boots, stockings and a sweater for the Marisole Monday and Friends printable paper doll series from paperthinpersonas.com.

One of my patrons asked me last year for some New Romantics paper dolls and I was stumped a little.

First of all, the New Romantics music and fashion movement was born in London and I’m not from there. Secondly, it’s actually tough to research fashion from the 1980s. It just hasn’t been long enough for there to be a lot of scholarly work on the subject.

So, nearly two years passed while I tried to figure out what I was doing.

But now I am pleased to present the first of two New Romantics paper dolls.

The second piece of this set is a set of clothing for the guys of the Marisole Monday and friend’s family.

For those you who, like me, aren’t an expert on these things, the New Romantics or New Romanticism was a movement in the early 1980s. Music wise think David Bowie, Adam Ant and Visage. There’s a decent article about the while thing from the Guardian.

Fashion wise, think poet shirts for men and lots of lace for women. Exotic makeup was also a big trend and wild hair. In fact, I don’t think the makeup I did here was nearly wild enough, but I did the best I could given some of the limitations of pen and ink.

Okay, so I know some of my readers lived through this era (and I did, technically, but I was very very little), how did I do? Let me know in a comment!

Think about supporting the blog by becoming a patron. Not only do you get to help keep the blog around, but I am also way more likely to actually draw requests from Patrons. Even if sometimes it takes, you know, a few years.

Need a more outfits for today’s Marisole Monday & Friends Paper Doll? Find More Ladies Clothing Here.