Clara as Glinda of Oz

Glinda of Oz Cover, 1920. The last Oz book published by L. Frank Baum.
(Source: Wikimedia Commons – Artwork is in the public domain.)

Since Clara has already dressed up as Dorothy in Oz and Dorothy in the Emerald City, and also as Ozma, her final Oz costume will be of Glinda of Oz. 

Have you read all of the Wizard of Oz books? They are in the public domain, and are available for download for free from most book readers. If you want to read them online, you can read them on Project Gutenberg, which currently has 42,000 free ebooks. Just search for "Oz" and you'll get a list of all the Oz books — some of the versions even have illustrations. For a list of the books in order, you can check the Wikimedia article listing the books.

Illustration from Glinda of Oz, ©1920
Artwork in the public domain

Glinda is the wise sorceress who appears in most of the Oz books as a mentor and helper for Dorothy and Ozma. In the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz, she is the Good Witch of the East.

John R. Neill illustrated 13 of the 14 Oz books written by L. Frank Baum. Neill's Art Deco style illustrations are beautiful, and romantic, with lots of drapy, floaty cloth and flowers, and other glitzy details.

In the books, Glinda is portrayed in several different ways by Neill, but always in a long, drapey dress. She usually wears a helmet type of headdress with a narrow crown and some curvey hair nets.

Clara's dress (on the left) is based on Glinda's costume in the book named after her, Glinda of Oz. She has a long dress with yards of cloth, and a wide, pointy collar. A little scalloped trim decorates the bodice of the dress. The headdress is based on the way Neill usually portrayed Glinda.

Once again (like Ozma's hair), apologies ahead of time for the hair and crown... they are not fun to cut out.

To print Clara's dress, use this PDF file:

Clara's Dress 69 (762k)

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)

Illustration from Glinda of Oz, ©1920
Artwork in the public domain

Clara's 1883 Draped Dress

I'm taking a break this week from the Wizard of Oz series to post a special dress. This Saturday, October 26, is the third anniversary of Allison's death. We miss her so much. Actually all of October's posts were created ahead of time, since I don't like October much.

This fashion plate has special meaning for me. The beautifully framed picture was a gift from a dear friend.

The artwork is a hand-colored engraving from an 1883 copy of the Journal des dames et des demoiselles. The Journal was a Belgian fashion magazine published in French by Bruylant-Christophe et Compagnie.

Clara’s dress is based on the little girl's blue dress from the fashion plate. The bustle had come back into fashion in 1881 after five years of being out of style, and remained fashionable through 1889. Dresses were made of heavy fabric, and highly decorated. Clara’s dress is actually relatively plain, compared to some of the dresses of the era.

A simple crenellated, velvet decoration crosses the bodice and also appears at the cuffs. Her dress has a stylish dropped waistline, with a wide, gathered, draped waistband. Pleats were very popular in the 1880s, and Clara’s skirt is no exception – wide pleats add detail and dimension to the short skirt.

The velvet hat is decorated with lots of ribbons and tucks. It is hard to tell if the hat is a bonnet with a rolled-up brim, or a wide beret.

Clara’s shoes are simple boots, worn with tall, thick stockings to cover the young girl’s legs.

To print Clara's dress, use this PDF file:

Clara's Dress 71 (778k)

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)

Clara as Ozma of Oz

Glinda, Dorothy, and Ozma from The Emerald City of Oz

Since Clara has already dressed up as Dorothy in Oz and Dorothy in the Emerald City, this week she is dressed as Ozma.

For the latest costume in Clara's Wizard of Oz series, I based the dress on Ozma's costume in The Emerald City of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, which was illustrated by John R. Neill. After writing the original book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Baum worked with the illustrator, Denslow, on producing a play based on the book. As the costume and set designer, Denslow was so difficult to work with that Baum refused to work with him ever again.

In 1904, Baum published a new Oz book called The Marvelous Land of Oz. This time, he used John R. Neill as the illustrator. Neill's illustrations are beautiful, romantic, and very much done in the Art Deco style popular at that time. Neill's distinctive illustrations appeared in the rest of Baum's Oz books.

Ozma is portrayed in may different ways in the books, but always in a long, drapey dress. She usually wears an "Oz" diadem (a headband ornament) with big poppy flowers on the sides. Ozma also has a funny narrow crown that she wears as well.

Apologies ahead of time for the hair and crown... they are not fun to cut out. I strongly suggest not trying to cut the spikes on the crown, but rather just cutting along the curve formed by the top of the points. Those little tabs at the shoulders are important to keep the hair from sliding down Clara's face.

(Update 10/18/2013) I had the wrong file linked. Here is the correct file.

To print Clara's dress, use this PDF file:

Clara's Dress 70 (778k)

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)

Clara as Dorothy in the Emerald City

Last week, Clara was dressed as Dorothy when she arrived in Oz from Kansas via the tornado. The costume was based on W.W. Denslow's original book illustrations instead of the costumes from the 1939 musical film with Judy Garland. This week, Clara is wearing another of the original Denslow costumes that Dorothy wears to meet the (fake) wizard of Oz.

Source: 1956 reprint. Art in the public domain.

Dorothy got a new outfit upon arriving in the Emerald City, with jingle bells on her collar and skirt. Notice that the Silver Slippers no longer have bows like they did last week! They must indeed be magical to change their appearance. She wears this dress to track down and melt the Wicked Witch, and deal with the flying monkeys.

Source: Library of Congress, in public domain

So Clara has another Wizard of Oz costume this week, this time a puffy dress with some cute jingle bells and an apron. The dress looks very much like a court jester's outfit. The magic slippers don't have bows this week, but her hair does...

And Toto is back, of course.


Next week, Dorothy dresses as another Oz character!

To print Clara's dress, use this PDF file:

Clara's Dress 68 (807k)

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)

Clara as Dorothy in Oz

Judy Garland as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz
movie of 1939.
(Source: Library of Congress Images)

Many people are familiar with the 1939 musical film, The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland as Dorothy. But how many have read the original book published in 1900 by L. Frank Baum? Like many books and movie adaptations, there are many differences between the screenplay and the original story.

Original cover from 1900 edition (source: Wikimedia Commons)

The original book was illustrated by an editorial cartoonist named William Wallace Denslow. He drew many very cute pictures of Dorothy, Toto, and all the characters.

Cover from The Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by W.W. Denslow
(Source: ©1956 version, original illustrations
now in the public domain.)

L. Frank Baum wrote many other novels about Oz, but Denslow only illustrated the first. The cover of this 1956 reprint (seen above with the big red poppy), was based on one of the original illustrations in the book.

Left: Illustration from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by W.W. Denslow
(Source: Library of Congress Images);
Right: Illustration from The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by W.W. Denslow
(Source: ©1956 version; the text & original illustrations are now in the public domain.)

This cute illustration (on left above) of Dorothy contemplating the scarecrow shows Dorothy in a cute gingham dress. Notice the bows on her magic shoes, which were actually silver slippers in the book, not ruby slippers. Costume designers thought that sparkly red shoes would look better in the new technicolor film that was used for the color portions of the Wizard of Oz film.

The blue illustration above (on the right) is one of the illustrations I based Clara's dress on. The dress is a simple prairie dress with a wide yoke, plain sleeves, and no waistline. As you can see, Denslow was not consistent in how he drew Dorothy. Sometimes she wore a checked gingham, other times the dress was plain. Sometimes Dorothy had a bonnet on, as you can see in the illustration to the left. (The shoe bows are back!)

Denslow's Dorothy always has loose braids. How did they ever stay braided without a tie of some sort?

Clara is dressed as Dorothy today, with the gingham prairie dress, bonnet and braids, and the magic slippers (with bows). And Toto... Dorothy could not possibly go anywhere without Toto by her side.

Next week, Clara arrives in the Emerald City!

To print Clara's dress, use this PDF file:

Clara's Dress 67 (799k)

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)