sweaters Archives • Paper Thin Personas

Pastel Winter Printable Paper Doll

September 11, 2023September 8, 2023

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Something about winter and pastel colors makes me really happy. I think it might be that where I grew up in Alaska, there was a very long dusk, especially in winter. The sun would never get very high in the sky and so the snow on the mountains would turn the most brilliant pink color as it reflected the light.

Maybe that’s why I associate pastel colors with winter. They feel softer and somehow more mellow and quiet- all things I also associate with winter.

The truth is, if I maybe honest, I wanted to do this set in pastel, because I had this idea of experimenting with texture and I wanted to see how the texture would look on different color schemes. So, this is the first of several dolls I made for this purpose.

Now, since I don’t think I should call this series “Texture Experiment 2.0”, please let me know if you have a series name suggestion. There will be, at least, three of these ladies.

Edit: For a million reasons involving layout and dresses and other things, I ended up resizing and redoing the layout on these paper dolls, so I’ve updated the PDF files. – Rachel 9/12/2023

Nordic Winter Wishes: The February Printable Paper Doll

April 30, 2023February 24, 2023

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For those of you who have been following along in my newsletter, you’ll likely notice there’s a few extra pieces on this set (specifcally the winter coat and one pair of the shoes). I went back and forth about what to do with that coat. I’m not 100% sure it will layer over all the sweaters and I didn’t feel right giving just one of the dolls a coat (what if the other dolls get cold?). So, I thought- I’ll just keep it as a fun extra for folks when they get the whole set.

Another little detail I didn’t talk about in the newsletters was the coffee cups. I don’t know why I thought it was a fun idea to draw a mug for every paper doll with a different motif, but I did and so I drew one. To give a secret look at my process- I actually did all this layout and design work before I split it up for the newsletters. I’m very happy with how it turned out.

A few differences in these dolls and my usual stuff- I gave the dolls permanent shoes. I go back and forth on this a lot. I used to be strictly anti-attached shoes. But then I spoke with my 5 year old niece and she was deeply bothered by my paper dolls that didn’t have shoes.

So, I realized that shoes were more important than I had often thought. If you’re an attached shoes fan, you can thank her for showing me the error of my ways (though I still think I’m a bit ambivalent on the subject.) And I tend to think it depends on the paper doll- like mermaids SHOULD not have attached shoes.

That’s just silly.

Speaking of shoes- largely thanks to the shoes, there’s over 85 outfit combinations- well over 100 if you add in the scarf or the coat into the mix. So, that’s super fun!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this collection of paper dolls as much I enjoyed drawing and sharing them all with you!

A Whimsical Winter Paper Doll to Print

February 22, 2022

A winter themed paper doll with nine mix and match clothing pieces including coats, jeans, sweaters, and hats.

A winter themed paper doll clothing page with nine mix and match clothing pieces.

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In my world, it is still way below zero and the snow is still deep. People tell me spring will come, but I am beginning to have my doubts. I’m antsy and super tired of winter. Up here, some people call this feeling the “heebie-jeebies” – that antsy icky anxiety that comes from wanting winter to end. This time of the year time seems to blur together. There’s not enough day light yet and there’s not enough changes in the weather. You start wonder- will Winter ever end?

Different people deal in different ways. I deal by being deeply and intensely attracted to all things cheerful and whimsical. I want hats that look like pandas and pink shoes. So, I designed this paper doll set to capture the whimsy of winter- the things I seem to crave as the dark and cold feels like it will never end.

Other coping strategies this time of the year for me include covering my planner in flower stickers and sticking unicorn washi tape all over my journal . What do you do to deal with long winters? Or do you live in a place where spring is already on the way? I’m only a little jealous.

By the way, I have restarted my newsletter for 2022 quietly. If you haven’t signed up, you can do that here- Newsletter Sign Up. It usually goes out about every two weeks and there’s a paper doll coloring page in every issue.

If you’d like to support PTP in a more direct way (plus get extra paper dolls very month and access to a backlog of wonderful things as well) you can sign up to be a patron on Patreon. It was a slow start to 2022, so you haven’t missed anything new there.

Winter Fashion Week: Sweater & Jeans

January 23, 2019

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Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll
So, today’s paper doll outfit is the one that inspired the whole idea of doing a winter fashion week. I came up with the idea for the sweater and then the pants. And then I thought, well one contemporary fashion outfit doesn’t make a whole wardrobe, so what if I did more…

And winter fashion week was born.

Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll
Confession: This whole sweater happened, because I rediscovered my shapes stencil. Meant for technical drafting, I am totally in love with drafting stencils like this one. You can pick them up at most office supply or craft stores like Micheals. I love mine.

Specific Source Images: Nothing really this time.

Learn/See More
On the Blog: I’ve done other sets with sweaters before. Here is one of my favorite sweater heavy sets and here is another. Aso, more Jewels & Gemstones Paper Dolls
Around the Internet: Hmmm… I got nothing.
Last Thoughts
Normally, I try to come up with interesting related links to my paper doll outfits, but today I’m pretty much drawing a blank. This paper doll outfit really was basically because I have a drafting stencil and I wanted to draw jeans. Every paper doll needs jeans.

Maybe not the most thrilling source images heavy post, but there you have it.

Over on Patreon voting is still open to help me prioritize my drawing plans. Poor fantasy armor week does not look like it is going to win. The four way time between Regency, 18th century, Lolita and Space Princess is thrilling. If you are a patron and haven’t voted yet- do so here– if you aren’t a patron, join and you can vote too.

Tomorrow, tune back in for a skirt and boots combo. In case you’re wondering- hey, where are the coats? Those ended up getting their own post. And that will probably go up next week.

Trendy Winter Styles For The A Pose Dames

February 19, 2018

Printable Black & White PDF Printable Color PDF More Paper Dolls & ClothesI love fashion magazines, particularly People Style Watch, because it has really clear clothing photos that make it super easy to draw paper doll clothing based on the styles.

Yes, I judge fashion magazines on how easy it is to draw paper dolls based on their photos.

Anyway, one of the things I enjoy in the fashion magazines is seeing what is considered trendy in any given season. This winter two big trends have been sleeve details, folkloric florals and embroidered jeans. I love embroidery, so I am not at all upset about this trend.

Today’s A Pose paper doll clothing covers all these trends. There’s a bell sleeved sweater, a folkloric printed skirt and a pair of embroidered jeans. To accessorize each outfit, I also added a pair of ankle boots. The pattern on the jeans is based on traditional crewel embroidery designs. I’ve always loved crewel embroidery.

It’s one of those things that I feel like if I had time, I would want to learn how to do. I never seem to eke out the time to do it, though.

(Also, because I was curious, the phrase “eke out” dates back to the 1590s and means to “extend or make last longer.” Who knew it was that old?)

Anyway, this is the first contemporary fashion set for the A Pose girls dames.

Need a Doll to wear today’s outfit? All the A Pose Dolls & Clothing

Marisole Monday Rocking Some World Ending Fashion

June 9, 2017June 8, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: My Post-Apocalyptic Fashion Pinterest Board

So, I tend to think of paper doll clothing I create as falling into several large genre categories- historical, contemporary, traditional fantasy, Asian inspired fantasy, steampunk/neo Victorian, sci-fi/futuristic/cyberpunk, or post-apocalyptic. When I am drawing for a specific series, I try to dip into several of these categories usually based what I have or haven’t drawn recently for that series.

Clear as mud? Excellent.

So, I was working on Marisole Monday and Friend’s clothes and I realized that I hadn’t drawn Post-Apocalyptic fashions for them for a while. I did a Mikhail pair last year in color and in black and white, but it has been a while since then.

So, here is a Marisole Monday & Friend’s lady paper doll outfit. Of course, it’s about as practical as yesterday’s Space Pirates, but we all know that practicality is never a criteria when I draw paper doll clothing.

I would never draw anything if practicality was a criteria.

She has a sweater at least, so maybe we can ignore her tragic lack of pants? Or maybe not. Hard to say, really.

I keep a Pinterest boards for most of my various paper doll obsessions- fantasy clothing, fantasy armor, cyberpunk/futuristic stuff, steampunk, and, of course, post-apocalyptic. So, if you want to see what is interesting me at any given moment, then feel free to check those out.

What do you think of today’s paper doll post-apocalyptic fashion? Let me know in a comment. I always love to hear from you all.

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

Happy Hanukkah from Marisole Monday & Friends!

December 6, 2023December 26, 2016

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Hanukkah, Also Ugly Holiday Sweaters

Happy Hanukkah! Here’s a Hanukkah paper doll!

So, Hanukkah celebrates the re-dedication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after the Maccabees led a rebellion and forced the Seleucid’s (Syrian-Greeks) out of Judea (AKA Israel).

So, when it came time to rededicate the Second Temple, which had been defiled by order of the Seleucid King, there was a problem. Very little holy oil remained to light the menorah (candelabrum) in the Temple. The menorah was supposed never go out, but there was only enough oil to burn for one day. It would take eight days to make more oil. Well, miraculously, the small amount of oil burned for those eight days.

So, Hanukkah is the celebration of this miracle. If, of course, it ever actually happened. There’s some debate about that part, because the references to the miracle only appears in the Talmud and are not verified by any other sources.

Anyhow, Hanukkah is celebrated by lighting a candle each night, saying prayers, giving small gifts, playing a gambling game called driedel and eating potato pancakes, known as latkes. If you want to know more, here’s a nice FAQ about the holiday.

In celebrating Hanukkah, Meaghan, our very un-Jewish named model, has a menorah, and a dreidel. You shall have to draw your own latkes. While today is third night of Hanukkah, I decided to draw the menorah as though it were the eighth night, since I think that is the most beautiful one- when all the candles are burning. You light one candle a night going right to left.

In designing today’s Hanukkah paper doll, I wanted to reference the ugly sweater trend and I wanted to try drawing a menorah again. My last attempt wasn’t great, I admit. This attempt is also super uneven looking, but I am getting better. I swear.

Meanwhile, I hope everyone has or had a wonderful Holiday time.

If you want to give the blog a holiday gift, might I suggest supporting it through Patreon?

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

Sprites: Casual Jeans, Sweaters, Shorts and a T-shirt

May 28, 2020November 23, 2016

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: College Guy’s Clothing, Shirts Under Sweaters and Slightly Failed Color Schemes

This is the first of two outfits for male paper dolls this week. Shocking, I know.

The truth is that compared to women’s clothing, I confess I find a lot of men’s clothing boring. Despite that, I am trying to draw more for the guys and I do find this new format liberating in that regard. One guy outfit is much less pressure than say… three.

The Sprites are a challenge, because I want the guy and girl paper doll outfits to match in some way and I think in this set, I kinda failed to do that very well. The boy paper doll gets jeans and shorts and our lady paper doll gets a sweater and skinny jeans. I thought if I used the same grey it would kinda pull the outfits together, but I rather think it fails to do that. Never the less, not every coloring job is a success.

I work at a college, so I see what college students wear. 99% of the time, guys wear t-shirts. Sometimes they mix it up with a hoodie, but generally it is a t-shirt. In that respect, I enjoy trying to find interesting ways to pattern the t-shirts of my male paper dolls. Meanwhile, the lady paper doll is wearing one of my favorite looks which is a shirt under a sweater.

I haven’t got much else to day about these guys. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so I am in full on pie making mode. I hope everyone who celebrates has a great Holiday tomorrow and everyone who doesn’t celebrate just has a lovely Thursday.

If you happen to love the blog, and I know you do, then think about becoming a Patron.

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

Summer Garden: A Paper Doll and Her Clothing

May 28, 2020February 8, 2016

I love color. I have teal dining room chairs, after all and a red cabinet in my dining room that holds my larger serving dishes. My favorite sweater is lime green and very fuzzy. I call it the Mountain Dew sweater. The point I am trying to make is that if I have the choice between neutrals and a color- you can pretty much count on me picking out a color. And this helps explain why I decided to go so bright and rich with Marisole’s paper doll clothing.

Someone, I think it was Boots, remarked that she was picturing a lot of yellow and green. Well, she wasn’t wrong… Yellow and Green are definitely here. I wanted color in this paper doll set- the sort of vibrant colors I love in flowers when they are in full bloom. Of course, right now it’s cold and damp here in Alabama, but eventually it won’t be and then the bright colors of spring and summer with come.

And I can complain about the heat on this blog, thereby continuing my theme of never being happy about the weather. (Though I suppose this isn’t true, I do enjoy Spring in Alabama.)

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One of my grand frustrations with Marisole’s pose is that you can’t actually layer a long sleeved top under a skirt and expect the skirt to stay on the doll, because of her right arm which is against her stomach. This is one of the annoyances that occurs to me when I am designing mix and match paper doll clothing for her and I want to do things that just won’t work.

I’d scrap the series and redraw, but it is uber hard to give up something that I’ve been doing for six years. There are about 240 Marisole Monday & Friend’s posts on the blog. It is my most popular series and so I feel a little bound to it. It’s also a tiny bit weird to be working on something I drew over six years ago. I remember drawing the first Marisole doll. I was in grad school sitting in the library killing time between class and when I had to go to work.

And now I live in a totally different state and she’s still around. Kinda crazy, honestly.

(Don’t fear, I don’t plan on getting rid of Marisole Monday & Friend‘s anytime soon. Just thoughts about the paper doll series.)

As always, I love hearing comments from readers and, if you want to support the blog, here’s the Patreon page for it.

And Happy New Year to those celebrating the Year of the Monkey!

A Hanukkah Printable Paper Doll!

May 19, 2020December 11, 2015

Happy Hanukkah to everyone like me who is celebrating tonight! It’s the Sixth night of Hanukkah tonight and I’ll be lighting the candles in my window and saying my prayers at sundown. Some of you might be playing with this set of Poppet paper doll clothes.

I always tell myself I am going to do a Hanukkah paper doll and then I never seem to actually pull it off. This year I managed it. I chose the Poppets, because Hanukkah tends to be most celebrated by those with children. Plus the Poppets are dolls and I can imagine that dolls might be given as a gift and that seems fitting.

For the holiday, the Poppets have a sweater, tights with Stars of David on them, and a purple skirt trimmed in blue. Of course, they also have a menorah.

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A menorah is a candelabra that usually holds nine candles. Eight candles are for each night of Hanukkah, and the ninth candle, which stands usually taller than the others, is to light the eight candles. It is called the shamas. So, every night you say prayers, light the shamas and use it to light the other candles. Chabad has a nice FAQ about the holiday, if you want to know more.

Frankly, drawing a menorah is actually rather hard. I ended up drawing half of this one and then using photoshop to duplicate it. I don’t think it came out very well, but there is always next year.

I keep telling myself I will be organized enough to do something special over the holiday, like Julie at Paper Doll School does during her month of December post. I never seem to really get around to it. The Holidays are just such a busy time for me.

Again, maybe next year.

I hope that whatever holiday everyone is celebrating this time of the year (or no holiday, that’s cool too) is filled with friendship, family and fellowship.

A Little Retro Style: Printable Paper Doll

May 26, 2020November 2, 2015

Like any good printable paper doll should, today Marisole is showing off her full color autumn paper wardrobe complete with some sassy boots. The colors I chose are rich jewel tones for these paper doll clothes. I wanted something that said autumn to me and nothing says autumn like jewel tones.

There are color schemes I come back to over and over again in various forms and one of those is teal, dark pink, and green. I just love these colors together. I do confess that I sometimes I tell myself I can’t use “pink” or I must use “green” and that forces me out of color scheme ruts.

I confess this is a color scheme that I have done before, or at least, I feel like I have done it before. Maybe I’m wrong… anyway, it feels awfully familiar to me.

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Marisole Monday & Friends Printable Paper Dolls}Every once in a while, I return to things in the deluded belief they are going to come out better. Like red hair and dark skin, I return to it even though I feel that I have yet to actually get it right.

There’s a term for doing the same thing over again expecting different results. They call that, “insanity.”

Anyway, I once again tried red hair and dark skin. I think this attempt was better than several of my other attempts (Mint and Roses, I am looking at you).

There’s a big announcement coming up Wednesday, so stay tuned for that.

A Little Retro Style: Printable Paper Doll Coloring Page

January 31, 2016October 26, 2015

Every once in a while, I imagine totally re-doing this blog. Abandoning my printable paper doll sheet format and switching to an outfit a day or something else totally different.

I doubt I’ll ever have the nerve to do that, but once in a while it does occur to me that it might be interesting to just “start over”. I had no choice back in 2010 when the site crashed, but it was also rather cathartic to be able to think about clean slating things.

(Don’t worry, the site is not destined for radical change at the moment.)

Today’s printable paper doll is Marisole, of the Marisole Monday & Friends Family, showing off her dynamic autumn wardrobe. It has been a while since Marisole has gotten any love which is funny considering she is the oldest of the Marisole Monday & Friends collection.

I love autumn. I love the turning leaves and the crispness in the air and the excuse to wear boots. I also love that the fashion magazines come out in September and provide a wealth of fun and interesting fashions for paper dolls. This is the time of year when I often draw a bunch of fashionable paper doll ladies, but this year I found between moving and a few other things, I just didn’t have the time to devote to my contemporary paper doll drawing habit.

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Marisole Monday & Friends Printable Paper Dolls}For this printable paper doll set I actually drew a crop top which I confess I pretty much NEVER do, but I have had requests and I have noticed they are coming back in style. As someone who remembers the 90s, I would rather crop tops not come back. Still, can’t fight the tide forever.

I was going through some of my childhood paper dolls lately and I kept seeing crop tops and miniskirts. I was a little obsessed at age 12, clearly. I’ll have more about childhood paper dolls to share in the beginning of November.

As always, comment if you want and I hope everyone enjoys the paper doll!