Clara's 1990s Lace Dress

Clara is all dressed up for a special occasion in this 1990s lace dress with a tulip-petal wrapped skirt. This dress has a very simple shape, but the lace adds a lot of texture to the design. The heavy lace top was very stylish, and dressy in the early 1990s. Lace was very popular in the 80s, and stayed popular in the 90s for a while.

The shoes are some cute slingbacks, decorated with a rose trim that matches the flower on the dress. With such a dressy outfit, Clara would probably wear nylons, although hardly anyone here in Arizona ever does (especially not in the summer!)

There's not much to say about 1990s fashion in general, other than it's sort of a hodge-podge of fashions from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. It's not as distinctive as fashion from, say, the 70s. Maybe the fashion will appear to be more distinctive when there is more of a time distance from the 90s to today — more of a historical perspective.

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

Clara's Dress 74 (1.6Mb)

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 1918-1920s Nightgowns

A couple weeks ago, I got a request to do a nightgown for Clara. Nightgown fashion is rarely documented compared to day and evening fashions. Museums are full of gorgeous, pristine clothing. For example, most wedding gowns and many evening gowns were only worn once. Nightgowns, though, were bought to be worn, and many were worn out, so there are fewer examples around.


However, nightgowns or pajamas are still just clothing, and they follow the fashion trends, too. If lace and poofy sleeves are in fashion, they show up in nightgowns. If flowing lines and slinky fabrics are in fashion, the nightgowns follow the trends. If bright colors and bold patterns are in style, they show up in pajamas, too.


So here are two nightgowns from the late 1910s, or early 1920s. Unlike earlier Victorian or Edwardian nightgowns, these are shorter in length, and less elaborate. Both nightgowns have similar A-lines, and very elaborate yokes. One has more geometrical decorations, the other more lace and pin tucks.

Nightgowns have been made of many materials, from silk and satin to cotton or rayon. In the late 1910s and early 20s, most nightgowns were made of silk or batiste, which is a lightweight cotton or linen. 

Although nightgowns were usually white or ivory, by the late 1910s, nightgowns could be found in the popular colors of the day.

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

Clara's Dress 60 (774k)

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 1990 Bridesmaid Dress

This week, we will jump forward in time by a century from the last post, Clara's 1891 Party Dress. Although the dresses are separated by an entire century, many of the major fashion elements of the dresses are similar... the puffy sleeves, the full skirts, the tight bodices and pointed dropped waists. Even the use of lace is paralleled in the two dresses.

The more formal dresses of the late 1980s and early 90s are actually in a romantic style that borrow elements from Victorian styles of the previous century. The romantic style of dress was a sort of reaction to the ripped and sloppy looks of the early 80s.

The lace, puffy sleeves, and ruffles may have been a bit much for the fashion world, and by the end of the 1990s, most styles were pretty casual, and not very extreme.

Clara's dress this week is even more formal than some dresses might be in 1900, since it was intended to be a bridesmaid dress. The original dress is made with a layer of a gauzy peach fabric under a gauzy sheer layer of lacy white.

The original shoes were gold silk, of a shade that would clash with the peach dress. Fortunately, you can select your own colors.  Dyed silk shoes have been poplar for centuries, because they can be dyed the exact color of a dress, making a completely cohesive outfit. Nowadays, matching dyed shoes are usually only worn on very formal occasions like weddings.

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

Clara's Dress 56 (783k)

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 1891 Party Dress

Today's dress is a very frilly "princess dress" that most girls would love. Fashions in the early 1890s were very ornate, although the bustles and crinolines of previous decades were even more elaborate. Tight bodices and drapy skirts were quite popular, and sleeves got puffier as the decade went on.

Clara’s party dress is covered in lace and bows. The ruffles at the neck, elbows, waist, and knee are quite showy, adding enough detail to make this into a princess dress almost any girl would love.

Clara’s hat has a wide brim and is completely covered in ruffles and bows.

The party shoes worn by Clara are slippers with low heels. The shoes are covered with ruffled silk, and decorated with small bows to match the dress.

The original dress was light pink with a white lace collar. All the lace details and bows were black. The original hat was a straw hat with gold and white ribbons on top. The shoes were a light pink silk.

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

Clara's Dress 55 (843k)

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 1895 Victorian Winter Dress

I hear it snowed somewhere in the country this week. Here, the citrus trees are blooming and it smells heavenly. Nevertheless, I drew a winter dress for Clara this week for all of you who had snow and ice.

Clara's dress is from the late Victorian fashion era. Victorian dresses in the 1890s were very tailored, and decorated. They often had sleeves that were called leg-o-mutton sleeves, due to the shape created by their wide upper arms and tight lower arms. 

Clara’s dress has a blousy top with a wide lace collar, and the very typical wide sleeves. The skirt has a bell shaped silhouette, also very popular in the 1890s. 

Clara’s hat has a stiff bow, a buckle, and some feather trim. Hats appeared in many styles in the 1890s, but this one is the sort of wide, flat hat popular in the mid-nineties.

And finally, Clara has some sturdy button-up boots with thick stockings to keep her warm.

The original dress was gray silk with a pink lace collar and belt. The gloves were white. The hat was all black, and so were the boots and socks.

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

 Clara's Dress 48 (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 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 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 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 1885 Formal Dress

Clara is dressed in a formal dress for a dance or evening party. With lace and ribbons and ruffles, the dress is quite typical of fashion designs from this era. In the 1880s, bustles returned to popularity, but this time with a narrower silhouette. Clothing became heavier and more ornamented than it had been in the previous decade. Pleats were extremely popular, and Clara's dress has its share of them.

Clara's dress is representative of these overly decorated dresses of this decade. Velvet, brocade, and other heavy fabrics were popular, although Clara's dress is made of silk and lace.

The slippers are also made of a lightweight silk with ruffles to match the dress. They are finished off with buckles, and would have been very fragile, and thus only worn for special occasions.

Clara's hat completes the outfit, with plenty of silk bows to match the dress and shoes. The hat brims of the 1880s were narrower than previous years, but this particular hat has a tall brim reminiscent of a top hat. I think it is a rather silly hat, but this style was relatively popular 125 years ago.

The original dress was an ivory silk. The shoes were ivory leather with silk bows. The original color of the hat is unknown.

Be creative with your coloring. I simply provided the original colors as a reference. You may also be interested to know that jewel tones were very popular in the 1880s. Some pastels were worn, but bright colors were more stylish:


To print Clara's Dress, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 18 (903k)

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.

1980s Dress with Square Collar

Ok, don't laugh! Girls really did wear their hair like that in the 1980s! My sisters and I all had perms and big bangs. The perms may have fried our hair into frizzy messes, but that was the style. Celebrities and movies stars did the same with their hair.

Looking back, a lot of fashion from the 80s was just in bad taste. Punk rock and gothic styles abounded. Movies like Flashdance and Valley Girl influenced fashion designs throughout the decade. Do you remember leg warmers, leggings, bangle bracelets, huge earrings, and ripped sweatshirts? All these fashions were based on pop culture. Workout clothing, baggy clothing, zebra stripes, bright colors... some of the clothing from the 80s is so over-the-top that it borders on the ridiculous.

Clara's dress for today, however, is from the "new romantic" movement in clothing. Lace, flowers, bows, and lots of frills were typical of this movement. Some of the lacy frills of the 80s went over-the-top as well, but overstatement seems to have been the trend of the 80s. Clara’s outfit is a classic style from the late 1980s with lacy, scalloped edges. The dress is a tea length, and pretty conservative for that decade.

Clara’s shoes are some simple vinyl slip-ons with low heels and square toes. Instead of being made of leather, synthetics were more prevalent as shoe materials. Even plastic shoes were popular.

The original Clara paper doll has a short, straight haircut, not in character for the 80s. So today, Clara has some frizzy, permed hair with stiff, hairsprayed bangs to go with her 1980s style dress. Personally, I would skip the "big hair," but it sure shows a major hallmark of the decade.

My husband has a great hairspray story from the late 80s. He and a group of friends decided to have a campfire one evening. As they sat by the fire, one girl pulled out her can of hairspray to add another layer of lacquer to her bangs. Unfortunately, the fire ignited the fumes, and caught her hair on fire. The quick thinking boys were able to pat the fire out, and the girl was unharmed, although she had some very singed hair. I wonder if she used less hairspray after her hair grew back?

In the 1980s, bright colors and patterns were very popular. Flowery impressionistic prints and neon colors were fashion fads, too. Along with black, white, and gray, here are some colors found in the clothing of the 80s:


To print Clara's dress, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 10 (909k)

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 (718k)