Clara's 1900 Jacket Dress

Today's dress is a cute outfit I would buy for my daughters if it was available... maybe without the wide lace ruffle on the neck. But this dress looks like it would be fun to twirl.

The dress is from about 1900-1904. It has a cute bolero-style jacket worn over a fitted bodice. A belt separates the top from a wide skirt, flared and full. The entire outfit is trimmed with rows of ribbons. Clara has a pair of dancing slippers to go with the dress, decorated with ribbons, bows, and some rivets in a pattern on the toes. Finally, Clara has a cute little straw hat with some daisies and bows to top off her outfit.

For the 1900s, this hat is pretty conservative. Over the first decade of the 1900s, hat brims grew from modest widths to brims of ridiculous proportions. By 1910, hats had extremely wide brims, worn with feathers, bows, ribbons, and even entire stuffed birds. It's funny how fashions that seem reasonable at the time are quite silly in retrospect.

The original dress is a beautiful shade of rose pink for the jacket and skirt, with a white bodice. The original hat is a natural golden straw hat with white daisies, blue flowers, some purple ribbons, and a bunch of green leaves. I skipped a lot of the stuff on the hat, because it was just too much. The original shoes were a dark brown leather with brown satin ribbons, gold edge bows, and brass rivets.

In the 1900s, white and pastels were very popular for clothing. Fancier clothing and evening gowns would have bright jewel tones, but day wear was more muted. Here are some colors found in clothing from about 1900:


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Clara's Dress 20 (782k)

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.

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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 1980s Jumper

After I finished Clara's outfit for this week, I looked at her, and she looked very hot. Maybe it was just because we were in Maryland and it was 92° with very high humidity. It was sticky and I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to wear a turtleneck in that weather. Now, back here in Arizona today it's about 108°. Even hotter than Maryland and definitely not turtleneck weather.

Now, I never did like wearing turtlenecks, even though they were quite popular in the 80s, when I was a teen. The high neck made me feel claustrophobic. But they were the style for winter wear for quite a while, and you know Clara needs to be stylish. Clara's outfit for today is a cute Jumper with some daisies. The stems of the daisies decorate the edge of two pleats that give the jumper a little flare. And I made a version with a t-shirt instead of the turtleneck, so Clara gets a summer and winter version of her jumper.

Clara's shoes are penny loafers... back in style from the 1950s, along with some bobby socks. The penny loafers could be black or brown, or they could be dyed blue, green, red or teal. For some of those who may not be familiar with penny loafers, there is a little slot in the top of the shoe... a sort of pocket made by the design cut into the band across the shoes. You would tuck a penny in each little pocket as a fashion statement of some sort. It was one of those inexplicable fads that seem logical at the time, but just look silly now.

In the 1980s, bright colors and patterns were very popular. The original jumper was grey with red and white daisies. The turtleneck was ivory. The penny loafers were plain black leather. 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 19 (747k)

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.

Clara's 1967 Zipper Dress

Clara’s dress is a very simple outfit with big pockets and a zipper down the front.

Wait! Hold on! That's the same description I used on Clara's 1937 Depression Era Zipper Dress. Look below the new dress to see the old depression era dress. You can compare the two styles. Even with the exact same description and the same basic elements, the dresses are very different in their design.

This 1967 dress has an A-line silhouette, big square pockets, and a straight yoke as an accent. The 1937 dress has big round pockets, a little trim, and a flared skirt. The three decades that separate the design of these dresses saw a huge change in fashion design, from the plainness of the depression to the more structured outfits of the WWII era. Then on to the fluffy, feminine 50s, and finally to the 60s.

By the 1960s, clothing was very reflective of the modern art movement, using bold colors and straight lines.

Very much in character in the 60s, Clara’s hair is long, and held back with a wide headband.

To finish off her outfit, her shoes have a very low wedge heel, and are decorated with big bows and rhinestone buckles.

Most of the colors in this decade were bright, clear colors. Along with black and white, these were some of the colors found in clothing from the 1960s:

To print Clara's Dress, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 17 (746k)

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 Fourth of July Dress

Today we step back in time to 1776. Since next Monday is the Fourth of July, I thought Clara should wear a Colonial American dress this week. Happy Independence Day!

The design is not technically American, since most fashion designs were copied from Paris at that point in time. This particular gown is a style known as a robe a l'anglaise, or English style gown. It has a tight, fitted bodice with a pointed waistline in front, and tight sleeves. Sometimes the sleeves had lace or ruffles, like Clara's dress does. The skirt has a split front, open to show the petticoats, which were usually made from a different material than the overskirt.

Clara also has a fichu, or thin shawl or scarf tied over her shoulders. Most of these scarves were made of a sheer white material, although a few other colors can be found. The fichu continued to be popular for many decades, as seen in Clara's 1838 Party Frock that I posted here last week.

The hat Clara is wearing is called a "mob cap." You probably have seen it in pictures of colonial women and girls, since it was an extremely popular form of headgear in that era. It seems that the richer the lady, the more ruffles, lace, and ribbon on her cap. Some of the mob caps in paintings from the 1770s are quite a hoot. (Look at these mob caps if you want a chuckle.)

The last item on Clara's fashion page for this week is the shoes. [They don't show in my picture! Maybe I should have done just the paper doll clothes instead of dressing Clara for the blog post.] They are pretty cute, with crossed straps and no heels. They are very typical of this time period, although most dressy shoes had heels. But since Clara is so young, I gave her a flat version of the heavy brocade slippers worn at this time.

Most of the colors in this decade were very muted. I chose some of the brighter versions to put here in the blog, but most of the dresses I found were cream and tan, with a dull rose or dull green. Along with white and ivory, these were some of the colors found in clothing from the 1770s:


To print Clara's Dress, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 16 (606k)

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 Victorian Play Dress

Victorian fashion in the 1850s is generally dominated by the crinoline, sometimes known as a hoop skirt. (Clara has a Victorian Crinoline here.) However, large skirts would not be practical for a little girl to wear every day. Clara’s Victorian play dress is more useable and less fragile than a dress-up gown. The dress is a nice design with box pleats on the bodice, a full skirt, and butterfly sleeves.

Clara’s boots are a little awkward in style, due to a funny trait: there is no left or right foot. Both shoes are exactly alike and could be worn on either foot. Shoes such as these, known as “straight soles” were made for several hundred years beginning in the 1600s and continuing through the end of the 1800s. "Straight soles" were less expensive than pairs of shoes made for the right and left feet.

Clara today also has a nice summer bonnet. Bonnets were very popular in Europe and in America. In fact, they were the most popular kind of headgear in the 1800s. The wide ribbon was very popular in the 1850s, and was often a color that contrasted with the dress worn.

The original dress was an ivory wool with little green leaves. The original boots were blue with black toes. The original hat was in a vintage photo, so the colors are unknown.

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 1850s:


To print Clara's Dress, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 14 (595k)

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.