Clara's 1877 Walking Dress

Just in time for Christmas is a fancy dress for all the shopping Clara will be doing. Clara's dress for this week is an 1877 "walking dress." The dress got its name from the intended purpose: the dress was meant to be worn while walking around outdoors. Whether the activity was shopping, strolling, or just visiting... anytime a wealthy lady was going to be seen outdoors in public during the day, she would wear a walking dress. Worn to impress others, walking dresses were generally more elaborate ensembles than a regular day dress. The outfit would typically include a hat, boots, gloves, purse, coat, scarf, or any conceivable accessory, all carefully matching and coordinated.

Clara’s walking dress is very typical of the 1870s, with heavy drapery decorations. Clara’s dress for today has a pleated underskirt with an overskirt drawn up with a wide ribbon on the side seams to form drapes. A ruffled yoke dresses up the high-collared bodice.

For footwear, Clara has the ever-popular tall boots. In the 1870s, the style was to have square toes, so Clara's boots have square toes... she has to be completely fashionable!

To finish off the outfit, Clara has a straw hat with ribbons on the crown and roses for trim. As a final touch, a long, drapy scarf finished off the hat.

Popular colors for the 1870s were bright jewel tones, with yellow, red, and purple prominently seen. Of course, many other bright, clear colors were worn. The original dress was ivory silk with rose pink ruffles, ribbons, and trim. The hat was a golden straw hat with ivory ribbons and scarf, and rose pink flowers. The shoes had a light tan upper with black bottoms.

To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 40 (780k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)

Clara's 1940s Aprons

During the Thanksgiving holidays, I got to bake some pies at my mother's home. My sister was there, and we had a chance to look at the aprons in my mother's drawers. Some were from my great-grandmother, and I was reminded how beautiful vintage aprons can be. So, just in time for Christmas baking, Clara has two cute aprons from the 1940s.

Clara has a plain day dress that she would wear to attend school or help out around the home.

The first apron is a bib apron with a large scalloped hem. Large pockets would come in handy for a quick place to tuck something as Clara works or helps cook dinner. This apron, although definitely 40s in style, has a very traditional shape.

The second apron is less traditional, with a cute ruffle detail on the front, and a unique diamond-shaped pocket. The side straps and v-neck of the bodice are classic 1940s style, though.

Aprons were very popular — and useful — in the 1940s. Almost every woman owned at least one apron, since it protected her clothing as she cooked and worked. Many aprons were homemade from various patterns, so each was unique.

To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 39 (745k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)

Clara's 1950s Poodle Skirt

A poodle skirt is the iconic symbol of the 1950s. In fact, the poodle skirt is kind of an overused cliché for the decade. I always thought that the skirts were more costume than reality, but my mother said that she had a poodle skirt, and that they really were a popular style. So I looked into the interesting origins of the poodle skirt, and found the history to be fascinating.

The history of the poodle skirt begins in 1947 with the original designer: Juli Lynn Charlot. Her husband had just lost his job, so money was tight. She wanted a new skirt for Christmas, but could not sew, so she chose the most simple pattern she could, deciding on a circle skirt as the pattern. Felt was the only fabric available wide enough to cut a full circle without seams. Her mother owned a factory, so Juli Charlot was able to obtain the felt for free.

After making herself a skirt with Christmas appliqués, the result was so cute, she made three more and took them to a local boutique to sell. They sold so quickly, the boutique ordered more, and after Christmas, requested a dog design. She designed a skirt with dachshunds, which also sold well. The boutique requested poodles for the following set of skirts, and thus was born the poodle skirt. A department store owner saw the skirts, and placed a larger order for his store. As the popularity of the skirts grew, orders began to come in from across the country.

Charlot decided she would need to learn how to sew, and enrolled in classes, but was too busy to attend. She hired her former sewing teacher, and learned on the job. She soon had a full line of fashion designs and accessories, and became very successful in her work. It's amazing what a little creativity and hard work can do.

Clara's fashion page for today has a classic poodle skirt and a blouse with turned-up cuffs on the sleeves. She also has another classic icon of the 50s: saddle shoes worn with bobby socks. The original poodle skirt was a bright turquoise with a black poodle. The shirt was plain white. The original shoes are the classic white with black patches running across the center of the shoes, under the laces.

To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 38 (757k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)

Clara's 1975 Blouse and Pants

I was watching a 1970s movie, and even if I could have ignored the cheesy acting, the clothing was hilarious. The outrageous hairstyles and clothing made me wonder if any clothing from that decade could be worn today without everyone knowing it was a vintage outfit.

I looked for "timeless classics" for a while, but all of the clothing from the 70s is immediately identifiable and very dated. The huge collars, modern-art or floral fabric patterns, bell bottoms, platform shoes, wrap dresses, and fitted blazers are all iconic of the 70s.

I did find one design for a blouse that would make a really cute, stylish blouse today. The original had an outrageous modern art design inset with a red gingham print. In a different fabric, it could be worn today. The blouse has butterfly sleeves, and two triangular insets on the bodice.

Clara's pants are bell bottoms. Originally made of a nice thick rayon. Eek.

Clara has some hair in a feathered "wings" style, similar to Farrah Fawcett's hairstyle in Charlie's Angels. I tried to make the cutting lines as simple as possible, but the hair still turned out pretty tough to cut out. Apologies for that. The hair does look pretty cute when it is on Clara, and won a complement from my youngest daughter. Tuck the dotted line tabs behind Clara's neck, and leave the rest of the hair in front of her shoulders.

Clara's shoes are some cute espadrilles. The thick platform soles are similar to shoes in style now, but the actual styling of the shoes is classic 1970s.

To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 37 (749k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)

Clara's 1620 Pilgrim Dress

This vintage Thanksgiving card has a typical cute Pilgrim girl wearing a long black dress with a big white collar, wide cuffs on her sleeves, and a white apron. For accessories, she has a huge white bonnet and clunky black shoes with big buckles. The stereotyped Pilgrim is immediately recognizable as a symbol of Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, the dress is almost certainly not anything a Pilgrim would have worn. The only historically accurate items in this photo are the apron and the cuffs on the sleeves.

In reality,  a real Pilgrim girl from the 1620s would be more likely to wear almost any color besides black: purple, brown, red, green, yellow, or blue. The colors were probably muted, since the cloth was colored with vegetable based dyes. Even a wealthy girl who could afford the more expensive black cloth for a dress would only wear such an outfit on Sunday or for special occasions. Pilgrims had no religious objections to bright, fashionable clothing like the later puritans did, so many colors would have been worn. The later Puritans wore more sober clothing, and their fashions are perhaps what later artists (not worried about accuracy) used to create a "Pilgrim."
 

In Clara's more authentic Pilgrim dress, you may be able to recognize the Dutch influence in the style of clothing. Dutch styles and colors were popular in England at the time of the Pilgrim's journey to America. See if you can find similarities between the dress in this Frans Hals painting and Clara's Pilgrim dress.

In terms of actual fashion, a girl would have worn underclothing, a chemise (undershirt), a bodice or overdress, petticoats, a skirt, an apron, stockings, shoes, and a hat or bonnet. The bodice usually matched the skirt, and was sleeveless. It was worn over a chemise, which was usually a different color than the bodice. The stylishly narrow collar and long sleeves of the chemise were all that would show under the bodice. Wrist ruffs and turned-back cuffs were popular on sleeves for many, many years. Also, sometimes a ruff might be added to decorate the neckline.

Although Pilgrims are typically shown wearing huge buckles on their shoes, buckles were not fashionable or readily available. Buckles would not have been worn on shoes nor hats until the late 1600s. In the 1620s, shoes were tied with a ribbon or leather strips. Clara's shoes have round toes, low heels, cover most of her foot, and are tied neatly with a ribbon.

Clara has a tight-fitting bonnet – also called a coif or biggin – which she would wear daily to keep her hair clean. She may have worn a floppy felt hat in the same style as the men of the time. Women also commonly wore wide straw hats over their bonnets in the summer as they worked outdoors. However, the bonnet was the most common head covering at the time, although probably not with the huge wings most cartoon pilgrims wear.

To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 36 (717k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)

Clara's 1928 Cape and Dress

In the 1920s, fashion designs changed radically. Instead of simply changing the shape or decorations on the dresses, the entire approach to fashion design changed. It became socially acceptable to wear short skirts — and even pants — and the corsets of the past ended up in the attic. This dress is a little outside the normal silhouette that was iconic in the 20s: a straight-down "flapper" dress like Clara's other 1920s dress here. However, as popular as the flapper dress was, other styles were worn

Clara’s dress is from about 1928, and has long, straight sleeves, a plain bodice with a simple collar, and a knee-length flared skirt. The plain styling of the dress is dressed up with a little bow and a ribbon belt with a shell buckle. A little half-cape provides style, but not much warmth.

Clara also has some soft “bar” style silk slippers.  "Bar" shoes were simply shoes with a strap, making dancing a lot easier. The strappy heels of the 1920s are pretty neat shoes, many with intricate crossed straps. In this case, Clara's are rather plain to match the simple style of this dress.

To finish the outfit, Clara has a floppy-brimmed cloche-style hat, with a cute ribbon and some little roses for trim. This style of hat was worn fashionably when it was pulled down to just above the eyebrows, covering the forehead.

The original dress is dark green with a red ribbon belt. The cape is the same shade of green, with a matching red lining and buttons.

The shoes are white silk shoes with peach trim

The hat was baby pink with rose pink stripes, and white and pink roses.

Popular colors in the 1920s included a lot of brown, ivory, and pink. Light yellow, and many shades of green were also prevalent. Here are some colors found in 1920s clothing:

To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 35 (749k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)

Clara's 1915 Layered Dress

In the 1910s, shaped silhouettes and clingy, flowing material were all the rage, as the Art Nouveau movement finally began to influence fashion designs. Art Nouveau was an artistic style with very romantic subjects, flowing lines, and stylized florals. Asian influences added to the flowing nature of fashions in the 1910s. You can see similarities between this week's dress and two others from the same decade: a Sailor Dress and a Long Tunic.

Layered skirts came into fashion, and Clara’s 1915 dress is one example of the layered style, with three soft layers in the skirt. A wide, drapy yoke covers most of a loose shirtwaist – maybe otherwise known as a blousy top.The high neck is decorated with a pretty lace collar, and the belt also has a decorative floral brooch.

During the 1910s, hats lost some of the excessive trim so popular in the preceding decade. Simpler hats came into style, with the rims starting out wide, and ending up pretty narrow by the end of the decade. Clara’s hat is a simple wide-brimmed felt hat trimmed with an ostrich feather, worn on an angle.

For footwear, many styles of shoes were worn in this decade. Slippers, strappy shoes, and high heels were popular. Clara's shoes this week are tall boots, which continued to be in style through the 1910s.

To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 34 (788k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)

Clara's 2010 Everyday Clothing

The most common type of everyday clothing in the United States today is probably a t-shirt and jeans. Although t-shirts have been basically the same shape for many years, there are differences in styles in different years. In the late 2000s, and through 2010, t-shirts had a more fitted shape than in previous years. Scoop necks and v-necks were popular (and still are). Clara has both styles of t-shirts this week.

She also has some flare jeans, which returned to popularity in the first decade of the 2000s. By 2010, flare jeans had lost 1970s wideness, and narrowed to a simple bootcut profile, seen in Clara's outfit. In addition, Clara has a pair of capris with rolled hems, also a pretty popular style in 2010.

This is a simple mix-and-match outfit, so you can use either shirt with the jeans or the capris.

What can make this a complex project is how you decide to decorate the shirts and pants. Are you going to use stripes? flowers? words? Perhaps the pants have flowers or patches. Despite the apparent simplicity of the clothing, this fashion page leaves a big space for creativity. Enjoy!

Here are some popular colors from 2010:

To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 33 (742k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)

Heavy Hearts

Apologies for no paper doll page this week. Although I have several sketches, my heart is not in it at this time, and I will not be able to finish and post a fashion page.

Tomorrow evening – October 26 at about 6:00 – marks the first anniversary of the loss of our beautiful daughter Allison in a tragic bicycle accident. We have been missing Allison with a constant hole in our hearts. It has been a rough year filled with grief and sadness, but also hope, kindness, and love. We have families and friends who give us constant love and support. We have journals and pictures and memories of Allison. We know we will see our daughter again.

I tried to think of something profound to say, but others are more eloquent at expressing comfort and love in times of grief. I have learned that as I reach the depth of sorrow, the atonement of Christ can lift me and help to heal the broken heart.

Clara's 1835 Pleated Dress

Clara's dress this week is from 1835. This time period is referred to as the Romantic Era for fashion. Women wore floaty, gauzy dresses with lots of bows and pleats. Large sleeves made women look like butterflies. Ribbon-tied ballet slippers were quite common as fancy footwear, and the stockings were sometimes richly embroidered. For women, the new fashion was a dress hem that fell just above the ankle to show off the fancy stockings. For girls of Clara's age in the 1830s – as in other time periods – a mid-calf hem was the proper length of a dress for an 11-year-old young lady.

Bonnets in the 1830s were large and covered with ribbons and bows. Clara's is a little simpler than some of this decade, but has the fashionable long ribbon ties.

The original dress is a beautiful shade of bronze, the color of luscious melted chocolate. The hat is emerald green satin. I don't know the original color of the shoes, but they should probably be ivory or the same color as the gown.

To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 32 (754k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)

Clara's 1620 Royal Court Gown

Clara's dress this week is a court gown suitable for visiting with royalty. My daughter asked if this was a Queen Elizabeth dress. Queen Elizabeth I lived from 1558-1603, so the king would have been James I (who died in March 1625) or Charles I, who succeeded James. However, fashions did not change very much at that time, so Clara's dress does indeed look like an Elizabethan dress. Children of noblemen dressed in the same style the adults did, just in smaller sizes, so Clara's dress looks almost just like one an adult would wear.

The original dress is in a painting of the English nobleman, Sir Thomas Lucy and his family from 1625, painted by Cornelius Johnson, a Dutch artist. In this painting, there are seven children, although the Lucy family eventually had thirteen! An older boy stands near his father on the left, dressed in adult-style clothing. The three daughters have very similar dresses, with only small variations in style. The baby may be a boy or a girl... there really is no way to tell, since baby boys wore the same dresses as baby girls. The two children in front are actually boys. Although they are wearing dresses like the baby, the style of dress is masculine, with a doublet top like their father. At this time, boys wore dresses until they were about 5-7 years old. I am sure there are plenty of boys out there who would be glad they did not live back in the 1600s... although the practice of keeping baby boys in dresses persisted through the late 1900s, but only until a boy was toilet-trained at about age 2.

In the painting, you may be able to see the original colors of rusty red and greenish-gray brocade fabric, with wide white lace at the neck, cuff, and collar. The tiara is gold inset with a red gemstone. The girl on the right is wearing some cute little red slippers, which I used for the shoes. (Correction August 16, 2013: The child on the right is most likely a boy, since he also has a double top. Thank you John Cass.)

To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 31 (770k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)

Clara's 1902 Pleated Dress

Clara's dress this week is a little similar to the 1890 Day Dress from last week. Both dresses have a wide collar and pleats, but other than that, they are representative of their own fashion eras.

Clara’s pleated dress is a stylish fashion design from 1902. The wide collar and high neck balance the blousy sleeves and waist. Pin-tucks on the bodice provide a nice detail to the dress. The short, pleated skirt was worn over some petticoats to give it the wide shape.

The first decade of the 1900s is known for the extravagant hats worn by ladies (think My Fair Lady). Clara’s wide hat fits in with the style of the day, and sports a flamboyant bow and feather. Additionally, the hat was worn at a jaunty angle for more emphasis.

The patent-leather shoes had low, wide heels and were worn with long stockings to cover the legs. The stockings would have been made of fine cotton.

The original dress was all light blue. The stockings were also light blue. The shoes were black, shiny patent leather. The hat was all white, including the bow and feather.

In the 1900s, white and pastels were very popular for clothing. Fancier clothing and evening gowns would have bright jewel tones, but day wear was more muted. Here are some colors found in clothing from about 1900:



To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 30 (755k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)

Clara's 1890 Day Dress

Here is an elegant late Victorian Day Dress for Clara. A day dress is actually just what the name describes... a dress to be worn during the day – to school, visiting, or whatever activity. Although this day dress is quite elegant, it is not an evening gown. The evening gowns of this time period had really elaborate designs.

This particular day dress is one of the earliest examples of a new fashion trend – the bell-shaped skirt, which was popular throughout the 1890s. Clara's dress for this week has a slight bell shape. As the decade passed, the bell shapes of the skirts got more pronounced, and the dresses added a mutton-leg shaped sleeve. But this dress is from 1890, so it has straight, loose long sleeves. Clara's dress has a blousy top with a wide square yoke divided with several pleats. The ribbon trim on the sleeves, yoke, and hem is a classic Victorian rose pattern.

The hat has an oversized bow with some leaves for decoration. As extravagant as it is, this hat is plain compared to some of the outrageous hats from the 1890s. Still, it fits with the ensemble.

The boots are a plain, classic tall style, similar to those worn for many decades.

The original dress was a light sea-foam green with rose pink and green ribbon trim. The pink hat had a pink bow, with green leaves. The boots were all black, with black stockings.

To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 29 (818k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)

Clara's 1860 Party Dress

My youngest daughter looked over my shoulder at this dress and said, "Mommy, I would like that dress." Definitely a princess dress.

Clara's fashion page for today is a party or dance ensemble, with a dress, rose wreath, and slippers.

The dress is a crinoline, or hoop skirt, in the proper mid-calf length for a young girl. The tight bodice is offset by the layers of ruffles and the huge bow.

When crinolines came into fashion about 1856, it seems the fashion designers tried to add as many ruffles, bows, and bits of trim as possible. I wonder how much cloth would be used to make the ruffles for this dress?

Apologies to all who get to cut these out for your young ones... those ruffles are a challenge, although I tried to make the bottom row as simple as possible, while still matching the rest of the ruffles. If I'm in a hurry, sometimes I just cut some curves just below the lines, instead of following the exact outline.

The original dress was white with a deep rose pink bow. The shoes were also white, and the roses on the shoes and in the wreath were a matching pink.

To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 28 (796k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)

1950s Summer Outfits

Clara has two complete, interchangeable outfits for a hot summer day. The button-up blouse and thin sweater go well with either the pleated shorts or the circle skirt. The sweater is still in fashion today, or – to be more accurate – it's back in style now.

One interesting little note: fashion seems to follow cycles. The wide circle skirts of the 1950s mirror the short crinolines girls wore in the 1860s. Instead of being covered with ribbons and ruffles, the circle skirts of the 50s were plainer, with simpler decoration. Still, they were worn over many layers of petticoats, just like crinolines. Circle skirts are the hallmark of the 50s – a fashion style instantly recognizable as belonging to one specific decade, but add enough frills, and you have a crinoline from many years before.

As for shoes... when I was a little girl, I almost never wore shoes in the summer, even to cross the road when it was 115°. I would run from one patch of grass to another to get to my friends' houses. I had very tough feet. Since it's summer, Clara could also go barefoot with these outfits, but I included some simple shoes with a cute bow.

Bright, clear colors, and black and white were popular in the 1950s. The original blouse was white with tiny blue and green vertical pinstripes. The sweater was white, and the shorts were also white. The skirt was red.

To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 27 (747k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)

Clara's Pedal Pushers

Another scorcher of a week here in Arizona. It's a little cooler than last week; only 106 today. So this week, since it's still so hot, Clara has some capris – or pedal pushers – from the 1950s.

Up through the 1940s, pants were still scandalous for women to wear. However, pants became suitable for women during World War II, when women wore trousers to work in factories in place of the men who were at war. By the 1950s, many styles of pants were worn by women and girls, including these short pants, known by many names: pedal pushers, three-quarter shorts, capris, or clam diggers. Clara's pedal pushers have some cute trim on the cuff.

Clara also has a matching long tunic for a blouse, with geometric trim at the neck, and large pockets. The tunic style of top was quite popular in various forms through the 1950s.

To finish off her outfit, Clara has some simple ballet slippers. Although Clara's pair for today is quite simple to match her outfit, it was also the style to have bows, buckles, rhinestone clips, or other decorations on similar shoes.

The original tunic and pants were a navy blue with a gingham trim (red and white checks) around the neck, sleeves, and pant cuffs. The original shoes were white.

You may be interested to know that black and white were extremely popular in the 50s. Ladies wore white with black accessories and trim, or black with a little white. Some of the other popular colors for clothing in the 1950s were:


To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 26 (731k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)