1830s

A Printable Day Time Dress from 1832 for the Ensemble Eclectica

A printable showing an 1832 paper doll dress with full sleeves and a matching bonnet.
A printable coloring page showing off an 1832 paper doll dress with full sleeves and a matching bonnet.

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Today’s 1832 paper doll dress is a bit of a mystery to me. One of my personal pet peeves is that so many fashion plates aren’t clearly labeled with the type of dress. I suppose people in the 1830s did not need the labels, but I do. Because fashion plates are often separated from the magazines, it’s a big headache trying to sort out the context of the costumes. I just don’t really want to bother most of the time.

Here’s what I can say with some confidence about this 1832 paper doll dress. I know it is day-wear because of the high collar. Because the dress has slippers and a parasol, my wager is that it’s a daytime walking or promenade dress.

June 1832 Fashion Plate from La Mode digitized by the LA Public Library

Might I be wrong? Yes, I might be totally wrong.

But that’s my wager based on the fashion plate and my growing knowledge of 1830s fashion.

A few elements about this dress that I absolutely loved. I loved the way the stripes emphasize the waist on the bodice It’s just so smart. I loved the bright yellow bonnet which contrasted rather than matched.

In the 1830s, roller printed cottons were very popular and they often had elaborate striped patterns on them. Roller printing is a method of printing fabric using a large copper roller, like a giant rolling pin, engraved with the design. Because the design is on a cylinder, stripes are very easy to print. Developed in the end of the 18th century, these fabrics got cheaper and cheaper over time. By the 1830s, they were widely available. So, stripes took the fashion world by storm. Plus, stripes really show off the silhouette of the era.

I decided to make my stripes white and pink and green based on this fashion plate from 1831, which is a bit of a deviation from the source material, the french fashion magazine La Mode. La Mode‘s fashion plates are really neat- they show the back and the front of the same costume, but often in different prints. So, you can see the dress on the left and the dress on the right are the same dress- just from two different angles. So cool.

Last, but certainly not least, I really am enjoying this process and I hope you all are too!

A Walking Dress from 1831 for Ensemble Eclectica

This is a paper doll dress is an 1831 walking dress in full color with a matching bonnet.
This is a paper doll coloring page is an 1831 walking dress with a matching bonnet.

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Today’s paper doll gown is an 1831 walking dress. When I wrote about the 1830’s carriage dress last week, I talked about the silhouette of this era. So, I’ll save you all from having to listen to all that over again and focus on walking dresses.

Fashion plate from the June 1831 issue of The Lady’s Monthly Museum digitized by the LA Public Library showing a pair of walking dresses.
Fashion plate from the June 1831 issue of The Lady’s Monthly Museum digitized by the LA Public Library

Like that carriage dress, this 1831 walking dress is designed for daytime wear and intended for outdoor activities like walking. Dresses like this could also be worn when attending informal events, such as visits, shopping, or afternoon social gatherings. Like most day dresses of the 1830s, the necklines were high, covering the collar bone. Along with the dress, there were essential accessories- bonnets and gloves. These bonnets were often quite large with wide brims to shield the face from the sun and covered in lots of ribbon trim. Just like the dresses of the 1830s, bonnets were lavish.

This gown appeared in the The Lady’s Monthly Museum in June 1831. This magazine is a treasure trove of 1830s culture with serials, poetry, music, and, of course, lots of fashion.

When I was reinterpreting this dress for my paper doll, there were several elements that I really loved, both because of the design and in terms of how they reflected 1830s fashion. One of the first things that stood out to me was the color combination. I really liked the periwinkle blue paired with the green. This color combination felt fresh and historically appropriate, as the 1830s saw a wide range of bold and contrasting color choices in women’s fashion. Green was particularly popular, because of the development of artificial green pigments, like Paris green in 1814 and the earlier Scheele’s green.

Unfortunately, this type of green pigment was made from arsenic compounds, so it was very toxic. That didn’t dull it’s popularity. Generally, people didn’t realize how toxic these green dyes could be and it wasn’t until the 1890s that they were discontinued, though green fell out of fashion as a fashion color in the 1860s which might have something to do with the toxicity of the dye. Who knows? It did stick around as an insecticide into the 1930s and 1940s.

Man, history is weird. It boggles my mind to think that this dye/paint pigment, which was so popular in the 1830s, later became used as an insecticide. The things I learn researching paper dolls…

Fashion history often intersects with other unexpected parts of culture in such funny ways. I digress, as I often do.

Next up will be a dress from 1832 later this week.

The Carriage Dress: 1830 for Ensemble Eclectica

A printable coloring page of an 1830s paper doll dress. It is a carriage dress with military details and matching bonnet.
A printable 1830s paper doll dress. It is a carriage dress with military details and matching bonnet in a rich teal green.

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Today’s 1830s paper doll dress is a carriage dress from June 1830. I’ve always loved the military inspired dresses of the 1830s and this is a great example.

Like any period of fashion, the 1830s had a specific fashionable silhouette. Women sought to achieve a wide, soft sloped shoulder line, very small waist, and full bell-shaped skirt that hit the ankles. The big sleeves, the wide skirts, the belts- all of these disparate elements came together to create the appearance of a smaller waist. The exaggerated fashionable silhouette is both charming and, at times, a little disquieting to the modern eye, I think. In poorly illustrated fashion plates, it sometimes ends up looking quite terrifying. For years, I disliked it. I remember as a child and teen seeing these dresses and thinking they looked so dumb.

A fashion plate from the publication The Lady's Monthly Museum in June of 1830 showing a carriage dress. This image is from the LA Public Library's Casey Fashion Plate Index.
Fashion plate from the June 1830 issue of The Lady’s Monthly Museum digitized by the LA Public Library

Now that I’m older, I’ve actually come to find a sort of charm to the 1830s. Yes, it looks very silly, but there’s some real whimsy here. It’s such a ridiculous looking period in western fashion that I find it endearing. I also think there is tendency to think of the Victorian period as sepia-toned and very elegant, but I love the 1830s for being silly.

Let us embrace silly looking clothing!

So, this is a carriage dress. Carriage dresses were slightly more formal than walking dresses and were worn for carriage rides. They almost always feature a matching bonnet and as day dresses, they have a high neckline. (Basic 1830s rule of thumb: If the dress is a day dress, the neckline covers the collar bone. Evening dresses don’t, while ball gowns get positively risque with their necklines.)

This carriage dress was published in a fashion plate in the June 1830 issue of The Lady’s Monthly Museum which was a British periodical publication (so like a modern magazine) that started in 1798. It went through a few name changes and mergers, but ran until 1847. Along with fashion plates, it published biographies and portraits of famous aristocratic people, essays, and poems. Serialized stories also appeared in the Lady’s Monthly Museum, often before being published as novels. The magazine was quite successful and very exclusively aimed at women.

When I was reinterpreting this dress for my paper doll, I actually simplified it- which seems hard to imagine. The bonnet especially, because I wasn’t sure how to get the long trailing ribbons in a way that would work for the paper doll. I sort of regret omitting them, because they’re so typical of the period.

Lastly, and I want to be very clear here, this is a sort of new time period to me and I was learning as I drew this 1830s paper doll dress.

An 1830s Paper Doll Printable with her Historical Underwear for Ensemble Eclectica

An 1830s printable paper doll coloring page wearing a set of 1830s underwear consisting of a corset, pantalettes, and chemise. Her hair is up in curls and her shoes are tied with ribbon laces. Commentary on the image describes each of these parts.
An 1830s printable paper doll with a set of 1830s underwear consisting of a red corset, drawers, and chemise. Her brunette hair is up in curls and her shoes are tied with ribbon laces.

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The Backstory of All This

I originally planned to spend all of December on a big project. It was going to be a series of paper dolls from 1830 to 1859. Julie Matthews’ December themes (like this one from 2015) inspired this idea, back when I started thinking about it. However, that didn’t quite go as planned — life happens. And that’s okay. My new plan is slightly smaller in scope. I’ll be posting paper dolls with historical clothing from the 1830s (and maybe 1840s and 1850s) on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the rest of December and possibly into January. Who can say? Not me.

I tend to hesitate about sharing things before they’re complete, because I dislike leaving projects undone. But lately, I’ve realized that’s a bit silly. Drawing paper dolls isn’t life or death, and it’s okay if things don’t go exactly as planned. I’d rather share what I’ve done and keep moving forward than leave the work sitting unfinished on my laptop. Plus, I think you’ll enjoy seeing the project even if it doesn’t work out like I had originally imagined it would.

In fact, no one would know I’d planned to do the 1840s and 1850s, if I hadn’t said anything. But here I am, being very honest. (I haven’t even started collecting reference images for the 1850s, so I am quite behind on that one. Probably won’t happen, which makes me sort of sad, honestly.)

Women’s Underwear In the Early 1830s

So, let’s talk a little about 1830’s women’s underwear, since today’s 1830s paper doll printable is a lady with some undies on. I based her underwear off this set from the V&A museum, though I made the stays/corset colorful based on this one.

In the 1830s, women’s underwear primarily consisted of a chemise, pantalettes, petticoats and a corset/stays. (Fun fact: The words “corset” and “stays” are both used in the 1830s, but the term “stays” largely falls out of use by the end of the decade.) Generally, these corsets used seams and cording providing support, rather then boning. (Also, boneing doesn’t mean bones- it means whale baleen.)

The chemise was a loose, knee-length garment made from lightweight cotton or linen, worn directly against the skin to safeguard outer garments from perspiration. Chemise’s had wide necklines. Pantalettes (also spelled pantaletes) or drawers covered the legs and provided some more modesty. I can’t seem to definitively determine which is the more precise term. Both terms seem to have been employed to describe similar garments and I’m not an expert on 1830s clothing.

Though not appearing in this 1830s paper doll printable, petticoats supported the wide skirts of the era. Here’s a lovely example from the Met. This is before anyone invented hoopskirts, so women wore lots of petticoats. Additionally, women often wore sleeve supports (like this or these) to get the right shape for the huge puffed sleeves of the era called, “sleeve puffs” which is the most wonderful name. I didn’t add sleeve puffs to the paper doll, because I wanted flexibility with sleeve shape, as it changes throughout the decade, and the puffs would have made that more difficult. Sometimes with paper dolls, functionality has to trump historical accuracy. (But man… I really do want to draw sleeve puffs someday.)

Marisole Monday & Friends in 1830s Fashion

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: This 1830 fashion plate, Bonnets
A green 1830s paper doll dress based on a fashion plate from 1830 with a matching bonnet and shoes from paperthinpersonas.com.

I’ve written before that the 1830s are a period of fashion I find a little absurd looking. Yet, the more I draw clothing from those years, the more it grows on me.

I am starting to almost like the era. Just almost.

So, a quick overview of the fashions of this era shows an abundance of sleeves and bonnets. If the three decades from 1800 to 1830 were the era of the column silhouette, than the 1830s were the era of the oval. The sloping shoulders, wide-sleeves, round bonnets, and full skirts all give a oval shape to the silhouette.

Plus, the wide skirts and sleeves also emphasized the desirable small waist, often accented with a belt.  The invention of metal eyelets in 1828 allowed for a much tighter fit on a corset. There was no longer the danger of the lacing cutting through the hand-sewn eyelet due to tight lacing. So, waists got smaller.

Like the earlier part of the century, people were still super into the Ancient Civilizations.  So, references to the Roman and Greek civilizations abound. Hairstyles have names like Apollo’s Knot, one of the dumbest looking hairstyles ever. The hair in this fashion plate is an Apollo’s Knot style and so is this. It was very popular. And, clearly, not one of my favorites.

Anyway, this 1830 fashion plate from the Casey Fashion Plate Index inspired today’s outfit.  As hard as it is to believe, I actually simplified the bonnet from the original drawing. Bonnets are not my forte, so I have mixed feelings about how this one turned out.

All in all, however, I think I didn’t do a bad job on today’s foray into 1830s fashion.

What do you think? More of this era in order? Not a favorite?

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An 1830s Historical Paper Doll Coloring Page Featuring Greta

1830s-greta-logo The 1830s is an era of Western fashion that I have generally found mystifying. Poke bonnets, giant sleeves, caplets are all features of this era of historical dress and none of them have ever really appealed that deeply.

And yet, I am nothing if not someone who like to learn about stuff and sometimes I try to challenge myself. I want to embrace periods of fashion that I don’t really like all that much and so I found myself deciding that this year, I was going to try out the Romantic period.

I would, I told myself, draw a paper doll with 1830s fashions and I would enjoy it!

(Or at least not totally hate it.)

The 1830s are an interesting time fashion wise though. The introduction of the metal eyelet in 1828 means that the 1830s are the first era when corsets were really capable of being laced terribly tightly (metal eyelets can take a lot more stress than handsewn ones) and to make matters more interesting, vulcanized rubber was used in clothing as well for the first time in the 1830s. Innovations all around.

The cage carioline which was used to support skirts in the 1860s doesn’t exist yet, so skirts are held out with horse hair petticoats and horsehair sewn in the hems. That means the silhouette isn’t as full as it would become in a few decades.

A historical fashion coloring page featuring a paper doll and her 1830s wardrobe. Exclusive to paperthinpersonas.com

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All right, so Greta, the paper doll modeling these 1830s outfits has a full set of underwear from this era which includes a chemise, corset, petticoat and sleeve supports. In order to fill out huge leg-o-mutton sleeves of the era, women used a variety of sleeve supports of various sizes. I made hers small so the underwear could easily layer.

She has two dresses. A day dress based on this garment and a ballgown. I swear the ballgown is based on something, but try as I might, I just couldn’t find the reference image I used. So… Trust me? Greta also had a poke bonnet and some false hair styled in the Apollo Knot style.

Women in the 1830s went a little nuts in the hair department. See this fashion plate and you know what I mean.

I hope everyone enjoys this little foray into the 1830s. This is an era I should stick around with? Drop me a comment and let me know!

Also, I am looking for questions to answer in a video about inking paper dolls. So, if you have a question that you’ve always wanted answered, put it in the comments. 🙂