historical

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.)

Cut & Color Couture: 1942 War Era Wardrobe

A 1940s style paper doll with her mix and match wardrobe of three dresses three purses and one hand. She's a coloring page, so you can color her anyway you want.

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Today’s 1940s style paper doll happened because I had access to full digitized sears catalogs from 1942. I don’t know who put together the website simply called Catalogs & Wishbooks, but I am grateful to them on a regular basis. It is a collection of dully digitized catalogs from major department stores- Sears, JCPenney, Montgomery Ward. You can search the catalogs or to just look through. It’s simple and very very internet old school. I love it so much. It’s why this paper doll exists, because it gave me access to fully digitized catalogs of the era.

To summarize the era very briefly, World War II really influenced women’s fashion in the 1940s (not surprising, I know). As resources became scarce due to wartime rationing, practicality and functionality took precedence over extravagance. This led to the emergence of simpler silhouettes, with tailored suits and dresses becoming popular. Women’s outfits often featured shoulder pads, defined waists and just longer than knee length skirts. Plus, military inspired details like patch pockets and shoulder details were popular. Fabric rationing created “efficient” dresses, particularly in England where rationing was most intense. There’s also a lot of whimsy in hats at this period.

Our 1940s style paper doll has dresses, hats, purses, swimsuit, and shoes which all come from the Sears 1942 catalogs. From the Spring Summer Catalog, on page 195, there is the swimsuit (The white one) and the shoes on page 146. I mean, I can’t exactly grab a swimsuit from the Winter catalog. Her hat comes from the Winter catalog on page 119 (I avoided trying to draw the net on the hat.) The dresses all come from the Winter Catalog on page 61, on page 71 and on page 47.

It’s getting chilly up here as winter sets in. I sort of love this time of year- the leaves turn and everything sort of moves toward preparing for winter. The seasons dictate life in Alaska, which is one to the things I really like about it. You can not ignore the seasonal change up here. Winter is around the corner.

Cut & Color Couture: 1926 Flapper Fashion

A 1926 paper doll coloring page

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As a librarian, I usually make it a point to cite my sources, especially when I talk about historical stuff. But I have to admit, I didn’t jot down all my references this time around, so… you’re just going to have to trust me.

I know all of these lovely dresses are from Good Housekeeping from the year 1926, but the exact months and page numbers remain unknown. You can read all the issues from that year, over on the HathiTrust website. It’s a cool online library run by a bunch of big research universities in the U.S., so there’s a ton of great info to explore. Seriously, I end up spending hours poking around there, if I’m left unsupervised.

Anyway, this is one of a collection of Cut and Color Couture series paper dolls that I have been working on that are historical. It’s been fun. I can’t wait to share it- even if I don’t have perfect citations for most of it.

Ensemble Eclectica: Vacationing in 1936

A 1930s fashion paper doll with clothing from a 1936 issue of McCall's style news including a six piece mix and match wardrobe to color.
A 1930s fashion paper doll with clothing from a 1936 issue of McCall's style news including a six piece mix and match wardrobe to cut out and play with. She has blond hair and a summer inspired color palette.

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Happy Labor day! I can’t quite believe August is over. Wow. That was an unexpected month off! But life has quieted down a tiny bit (okay, not very much). The least I think I can do is share the last of my 1930s sets, before I potentially disappear again.

(Nothing bad, but I’m teaching this semester for the first time and it’s a lot!)

Out of every 1930s fashion paper doll I’ve created, this one stands out with the most cohesive theme. This paper doll design hopefully captures the essence of a vacation wardrobe in around 1936. She showcases clothing for sports and summer activities. I keep thinking beach vacation, probably because of the swimsuit. (I could have labeled things here, but I’ve delayed in so long in sharing this that I decided to share and move on.)

For my 1930s fashion paper doll, I picked out pieces from the McCall’s Style News magazines of 1936. I really wanted to try to make a cohesive set. So, the mini-wardrobe has a stylish sports dress, ideal for casual daytime activities, with matching jacket. There is also a playful split skirt romper, which I assume you wear while playing tennis or other athletic activities. The trousers with top are there for golf or whatever a girl might do in trousers at the time. I’d say horseback riding, but an actual riding habit would be more for that.

To complement these outfits, I added a straw hat. It can be mix and matched with any of the clothing pieces. I decided on just one hat, though of course, hats were crucial for the era of the 1930s. Feel free to draw more or steal them from other paper doll sets.

This 1936 photo of Carol Lombard inspired this paper doll’s hair. Just in case you were curious about where that came from.

I have an amazing time at the 2024 Paper Doll Convention in Indianapolis. I didn’t take nearly as many photos as I should have, but I will try to put together the small number I have into something. Overwhelmed for a million non-paper doll reasons at the event by other “real life” things that were happening at the same time, I just haven’t managed to quite get my feet back under me.

(Real life should not intrude on paper dolls, darn it! Though I am trying hard to be kind to myself about it, because as one very nice and friendly blog reader reassured me at the convention with something like, “I’ve been following along since the beginning and I know your life has gotten more complicated. Please don’t feel bad about missing posts.” )

As with all my 1930s paper dolls so far, I have a second page I’ll be sharing for my patrons at some point this month.

Patron Exclusive: Expanding the 1932 Autumn Wardrobe

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Ensemble Eclectica: A Fall 1932 Fashion Paper Doll

A printable 1932 fashion paper doll coloring page with a coat and two dresses.
A printable paper doll with clothing from 1932 with a coat and two dresses.

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In my continuing series of 1930s creations, I made this 1932 fashion paper doll celebrating autumn styles. I love the color blocking that is trendy in the early 1930s. I also love the big soft sleeves. They don’t yet have the stiff shoulders of the later part of the decade. There’s also a lot of asymmetry in 1930s clothing. The complicated caped coat on the bottom shows some of that off (and I had both fun and cursing while drawing it.)

All of these dresses are from McCall’s Style News from September 1932. I linked a few free scans from the publication. I paid for a full scan from this Etsy seller. Like most fashion magazines of the period, it was printed in only one or two colors. So, the details are a little hard to be certain of.

For colors, I looked at fabric reproductions. I ended up with an acid green, a coral pink, and a soft navy shade with warm brown and cream as the neutrals. Her shoes and hats are based on references from my own fashion book resources. I wasn’t always sure what was happening in the hats in some of the drawings in the source magazine.

As with my last 1938 paper doll, I ended up with more clothing than I had space, so I have a second page of clothing for my paying patrons that I’ll be posting later this week for them to enjoy.

Are you enjoying this little trip to the 1930s? I sure am!

Patron Exclusive: Extra Clothing From 1938!

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