Clara's 1930s Pajamas

In the 1920s, lounge pajamas were quite fashionable as beachwear, worn to cover a bathing suit. As the decade progressed, pajamas were worn as day wear and even worn to parties.

In the movie Singin' in the Rain, which was set in 1927, Lena Lamont is wearing gorgeous silky pink and black pajamas on the movie set when she meets Donald Lockwood. And in the fashion scene, the model wears some outrageous fur-trimmed turquoise and green pajamas "for lounging in your boudoir."

By the 1930s, movie actresses had made pajamas into a popular fashion choice for wearing day or night, worn as a casual alternative to dressing up.

Clara’s pajamas are quite stylish, and she could wear them for day or night. The pajamas have a short-sleeved tunic top, tied with a soft silky bow, which was worn over soft, loose pants.

If the pajamas are a bit too avant-garde, Clara also has a long nightgown with butterfly sleeves and a high, curved waistline. Pinch pleats add a nice stylish accent to the yoke, and some piping adds extra detail.

To print Clara's pajamas & nightgown, use this PDF file:

Clara's Dress 65 (760.9k)

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's 1930s Trench Coat

The Nancy Drew series was first published in 1930. My daughter is currently reading as many Nancy Drew books as she can find in the local library. She aspires to own every single Nancy Drew book, but that is not very likely, since there were 175 books published in the original series. I didn't know how many had been written until I looked it up a few minutes ago. She gets to stick with what she can find at used book sales and the library.

This week, Clara gets to wear a 1930s double-breasted coat, the uniform of sleuths in every clichéd mystery book and movie. Clara is wearing a similar coat and hat in the black and white illustration from an original copy of The Bungalow Mystery, one of the first three Nancy Drew Books published in 1930. The original cover has Nancy in a very cute blue suit with a stylish yellow scarf. The familiar yellow spines for the Nancy Drew book covers were not created until 1962, when the books were republished. 

After seeing the outfit for today, my daughter has requested some of the outfits from the other Nancy Drew books for Clara. We'll have to see if any of them will work as paper doll fashions.

Although trench coats were created sometime in the mid-1800s, they did not gain much popularity in the general population until after World War I. During the war, soldiers found that trench coats were very important to keeping warm and dry on the battlefield. After the war, designers began to create nicer styles, and women began to wear the double-breasted trench coat. At some point, the trench coat became the symbol of detectives and spies, but probably not as early as 1930, when the original book illustration with Nancy in a trench coat was created.

Clara has a cute double breasted trench coat, worn with a drapy scarf around her neck. She also has a floppy rain hat to match the coat. And finally, she has some galoshes to finish off her rainy-day outfit. Galoshes were pulled on and worn over whatever more fragile shoes were being worn underneath, thus protecting the shoes from mud or water.

 Clara's Dress 50 (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)

Clara's 1930s Day Dress

The 1930s saw a big change in fashion design compared to the Roaring Twenties. Tucks, ruffles, ribbons, and more structured designs were added to more feminine shapes. In the 1930s, many women sewed their own clothing because of the Great Depression. Sewing patterns became more popular, and women copied the clothing of movie stars, using many of the same patterns worn by the most popular actresses. 

Clara's dress has a square neck and a nice ribbon trim on the bodice. The skirt is gathered at both sides, emphasizing the hips, and creating a very feminine outline. Compare this to Clara's striped 1923 dress, which has a very straight, dropped-waist outline.

Clara also has a cute, floppy cloth hat trimmed with a pretty bow. The hat was worn low over her eyebrows to frame her face better.

Finally, Clara also has some soft suede leather shoes with low heels and a plain ribbon trim.

The original dress was a bronze-brown wool. The original hat and bow were lemon yellow. The original shoes were seal grey with a grey ribbon. Clothing colors from the 1930s were generally darker or soft, dusty tones, and patterns (if used) were very understated.

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

 Clara's Dress 47 (741k)

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's Vintage Swimsuits

To celebrate the hottest August on record here in the Phoenix area, I have a few swimsuits for Clara. Considering the fact that it is still 111°F right now, I think swimsuits are the only outfits that will work this week. Maybe next week, too, if it doesn't start to cool down.

One of Allison's favorite things to do in the summer was to swim, and we would probably be going swimming tonight if she were here. Not having her with us turns fun things into difficult things to do, especially if the activity was something she loved. Perhaps that's why we've not been swimming much this summer, despite having access to some pretty neat swimming pools and beaches.

[ sigh ]

Ok, so these are some pretty fun swimsuits. Clara has three swimsuits for a hot summer day at the pool or beach.

The first swimsuit is from the late 1930s, and has a fitted semi-gathered skirt with a cute anchor trim. This is actually a little more risqué than many of the suits from the 1930s, but the skirt is still pretty long, at least compared to what we wear today.

The suit from the mid-1940s is rather plain in design, but has some bold stripes across the chest. The bottom looks almost like some of the swim shorts that are popular right now.

The swimsuit from the early 1950s is nearly form-fitting, and has some cute stripes and polka dots. The suit had two layers: the part that is visible, and a tight swimsuit underneath. I may not be making any sense right now. It's probably the heat. :-)

To print Clara's swimsuits, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 24 (741k)

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)

Depression Era Dress

Clara’s Depression Era Dress is a very simple outfit with big pockets and a zipper down the front. This dress has a style reminiscent of the sailor suits popular around the turn of the century (like Clara's dress here). The dress would have been made of calico or any type of cotton fabric. The large pockets are stylish, but practical, since Clara can stash many things in the deep pockets.

This particular dress is unusual because it was on the cutting edge of children's fashion for 1937. The unique thing about this dress is the zipper down the front. Although a sort of zipper-type fastener was invented in about 1850, the modern zipper wasn't invented until 1913. The zipper took a while to catch on, and was not commonly found in clothing until the late 1930s, so this dress is one of the first ready-made items of clothing to have a zipper.

Clara also has some wedge heel shoes with a little ribbon-style trim, although she might have spent many summer days barefoot.

And since peaches are just ripening in Arizona, Clara has a big basket of peaches she picked to bottle or make into jam. Mason jars full of peaches or other fruit were “put up” for the winter by many industrious families in this era.

The original dress is a bright pink with a white hawaiian print. The shoes were sea green with white, red, orange, yellow, and blue ribbon trim. They only match in black and white!

You may also be interested to know that along with white, brown, tan, and ivory, these were some of the popular colors for clothing during the depression:


To print Clara's Dress, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 12 (644k)

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.

1930 Daisy Dress

This week, Clara is wearing a beautiful spring dress from about 1930. The scalloped collar is surrounded by little daisies, and the petal sleeves are a nice touch. The dresses of the previous decade were characterized by dropped waists or no waists at all. However, the boyish, straight lines of the Roaring 20s were gradually replaced by the more feminine, flowing lines of the 1930s. Waistlines were coming back into style in the 30s, although some dresses — like Clara's other dress here — still had dropped waists. This dress has not only a natural waistline, but also a scalloped drop waist.

Hats also took on a more feminine look, as brims widened to frame the longer, softly curled hair that had come into fashion. This hat is reminiscent of the close-fitting cloches of the 20s, with its low, tight cap, but the brim is a floppy, wide style. A silk ribbon and bow are the finishing touches for Clara's straw hat.

Clara also has some cute shoes to go with the dress. The silk slip-on shoes are trimmed with rhinestone bows. The bows were clip-on brooches that could be removed and exchanged for a bow or another decoration. By putting on a new decoration, the shoes could be worn with more outfits.

The original dress is a red calico print with white trim. The collar is also red, also with white trim. The daisies were white with green stems and leaves. The hat is straw dyed into a nice shade of coral with a matching ribbon. The shoes were black silk with silver trim and clear rhinestone bows. Please don't use the original colors for the entire outfit, since the coral hat definitely does not go with a red dress!

You may also be interested to know that along with white, tan, and ivory, these were some of the popular colors for clothing in the early 1930s:


To print Clara's Daisy Dress, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 8 (580k)

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 1930 Dropped Waist Dress

Clara’s outfit for this week is a beautiful dress from about 1930. The pleats and stripes are classic for this era in fashion design. The dropped waistline was very popular in the 1920s, and continued in popularity into the next decade.

The hat Clara is wearing is called a cloche, a tight-fitting style very popular in the 1920s and early 1930s. Clara's cloche has a pleated silk band around the crown.

The shoes are simple, low-heeled shoes with contrasting ribbons. If the outfit was for a special occasion, the ribbons would be dyed to match the dress.

In case you are curious, the original dress has a bright pink top with cream neck trim. The stripes and bottom trim of the skirt are in a pink that matches the top. The skirt itself is tan. The shoes were dark brown suede with tan trim.

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, tan, and ivory, these were some of the popular colors for clothing in the late 1920s and early 30s:


To print Clara's Dropped Waist Dress, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 4 (579k)

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.