Clara's 1830 Ball Gown

In the 1830s, the empire dresses of the previous three decades lost popularity, and some more complicated designs came into fashion. Small details like pleats and pin tucks were very popular. Lace, ribbons... well let's just say the more lace and ribbon on the dress, the better. At least in the eyes of the fashion designers of the 1830s.

Sleeves took on ridiculously wide proportions. In fact, this dress is pretty conservative on the sleeve size compared to some of the mutton-chop sleeves of the decade. The sleeves in some dresses were almost as wide as the skirt.

This dress is from about 1830, and has a gathered bodice trimmed with a wide band of lace. The wide skirt has matching lace, and rows of pin tucks at the hem. The dress was worn over many layers of petticoats, giving it a wide bell shape. The huge puffy sleeves hang off the shoulder, making the shoulders of the dress into a fashionable, sloping shape.

The slippers are pretty simple in design, with a button on the strap and a little bow for trim. Some flowers for Clara’s hair finish the ensemble.

You may also be interested to know that along with white, ivory, and gray, these were some of the popular colors for clothing in the 1830s:

To print Clara's Dress, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 21 (917k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will be available on this blog as long as I continue to 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 (718k)

If you like my paper dolls enough to want to share with others, please email or post a link to my blog rather than sending or posting a copy of the paper dolls. Refer your friends so they can enjoy the free, printable paper dolls on my blog. Please do not post my artwork on your own sites, modify any of the files, or distribute them to others.