Heritage Fashion Paper Dolls now available for purchase

I am pleased to announce that earlier this year I created a set of paper dolls from the 1820s and 1830s. They were published, and are available for sale exclusively from "Celebrating Family History," a company dedicated to family history and creating and preserving family memories.

The 1820s and 30s were the early days of the American Frontier expansion, when pioneers began to move west. The paper doll collection includes a little fashion history, and a lot of beautiful historical clothing for a family in the early 19th century.

The collection is available in both black and white and color versions. You can read more about the collection here at Celebrating Family History's website. There is a link at the bottom of the page, or you can buy the paper dolls here.

I am working on another collection which will be available soon.

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 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.

Clara's 1838 Frock and Pantaloons

This week's fashion page for Clara is drawn from a fashion plate which appeared in The World of Fashion; January 1838. You can see the source of the fashion plate here if you are interested. (Click on the image to see a larger version of the fashion plate.)

This is the description found in the magazine:

YOUNG LADY'S DRESS.

FIG. 3.--India muslin frock and pantaloons; the corsage is trimmed with a fichu drapery, and the sleeves with knots of ribbon. Ceinture, neck knot, and hair knots en suite.

Notice the use of French throughout the description. Paris was (and mostly still is) the center of the fashion design world, so the magazine used French terms. For instance, a corsage is the bodice of the dress. A fichu drapery is basically a lightweight scarf worn over the shoulders, sometimes crossed over the chest. A ceinture is a waistband or belt... in this case, the ribbon around the waist of the dress. The term en suite means that all the bows and ribbons would match.

In the fashion plate, the little girl's frock matches her mother's ball dress. As was the fashion back then, a young girl was not old enough to wear a full-length gown. The pantaloons she is wearing under the dress would cover her legs to the ankle, to fit the standards of modesty.

Clara is wearing the dress shown in the fashion plate, but with some pretty big changes. Her shoulders do not match the curve of those in the drawing, and her waist is not painfully thin. I hope they did not put girls that young into corsets! (I had to change the width of the neck to cover Clara's swimsuit.)

Clara has her hair in ringlets, tied up with ribbons. She also has a fashionable neck knot in place of a necklace.

The slippers from this era were very thin and fragile and would only be worn at a dance. The slippers are tied with bows, making them look like ballet shoes.

Stockings were common in this time frame, and were usually made of a light cotton. The stockings were knit into a tube, and then the sole was cut and sewn into place. Because Clara is wearing ribbons on her ankles, I have given her plain stockings, but some of the stockings from this time were embroidered with beautiful florals or other designs. It was interesting for me to look at stockings from the 1830s, including these from the Kyoto Costume Museum.

You can see the original colors of the dress in the fashion plate above: white with pink ribbons. The original shoes were a beautiful leaf green, and must have gone with a green ball gown, since most outfits were "en suite," or carefully color matched.

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 15 (622k)

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.

Clara's Pennsylvania Dutch Dress

Clara’s Pennsylvania Dutch dress is from the 1820s-1840s. This simple calico dress is typical of the early nineteenth century. The dress is very plain, and a little awkward in its design (the sleeves are a bit strange) – definitely not haute couture. The dress would have been sewn by hand.

Although Clara would be likely to spend most days barefoot, she would have some boots for colder weather, or for dressing up. These boots are not fitted, and just have simple laces on the sides. Clara's boots are made out of thin, fragile leather, which would be ruined by the cobblestones, mud, and messes of the streets in her town. To protect her boots, Clara would have some pattens, which are sandal-like wood and leather shoe coverings. When she had to travel through the streets, she would wear the pattens, and the thick soles would protect her expensive boots.

A sun bonnet would also be a must for the outdoors, both winter and summer. In the winter, the bonnet would keep her head warm. In the summer, the bonnet would protect her face from sunburn.

As a side note, the Americans known as Pennsylvania Dutch are not originally from the Netherlands. The German word for "German" is "Deutsche." So if a person said he was a Pennsylvania "Deutscheman," he meant Pennsylvania German. However, English-speaking Americans understood "Deutsche" as "Dutch," and the German immigrants who settled in that region soon became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch.

This Pennsylvania Dutch dress was a rust red cotton cloth, with a dark gray calico pattern of simple little flowers. The boots were leather dyed deep red. The pattens were also a matching red leather. The sun bonnet was originally white, but has faded to ivory.

Be creative as you color the outfit. I simply provide the original colors of the dress as a reference point for historical accuracy. You may also be interested to know that along with white and ivory, these were some of the colors for everyday clothing in the late 1820s through the 1840s:


To print Clara's Pennsylvania Dutch Dress, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 5 (598k)

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.