Polly's Paper Playmates

 

Polly's Paper Playmates Sister Prue at the Costume Ball from the Boston Post Supplement dated Sunday January 29th 1911. Title design copyright 1910 by Joseph P Schiller Syndicate Baltimore and New York, Next week advertised as Cousin Janet at Afternoon tea.  The two dolls each have a costume with masked hat. 

Meet Soli, a Filipina

 

Meet Soli a Filipina black and white paper doll from children's Activities magazine.  This two page paper doll is from December 1952.

The text reads "This is Soli (So-lee). She has black hair, dark-brown eyes, and tan skin.  Soli lives far away in the Philippine Islands. She can speak English, for as a child she studied it in school. (All Filipino children study their lessons in English although at home they may speak one of many Philippine dialects.)

Soli and her family live in one of the barrios (bar'-ree-ose) villages, where most of the houses are made of bamboo and nipa.  They are built high off the ground to protect them from the deep water that comes from the frequent typhoons. In the larger towns and cities, however, the houses are now being built of regular lumber. 

The school children in the Island dress as American children dress.  So do many of the women.  but when a special holiday celebration (called a fiesta- fee-es'-tah) comes along, they often dress up in their brightest prettiest native costumes. Every girl and woman wants a fancy camisa (kah-mee'-sah), slip, to wear under her dress.  Pink is a favorite color with many when an American-style dress is made.  The first dress shown is a pretty pink party dress.  It is made from a material called jusi (hoo'-see) This cloth is soft and is thinner than organdy.  Lavender flowers decorate the dress.

The second costume is worn by the older women on the island of Negros and Panay (Nay'-grose and Pahn-nye') these islands are two hundred miles south of Manila, the capital of the Philippine Islands.  the skirt is made of red-and-yellow-and-green plaid cloth.  It is sewed together like a tube.  The wearer steps into it, laps it over at the waistline, and tucks it in.  The top is white and is made kimono style.  It is embroidered in yellow.  A red-and-yellow scarf is worn over one shoulder.  In Soli's basket are redish-yellow mangos; a red, a yellow, and a green banana; and a yellow pineapple with green leaves.

The next dress shown is also won by Visayan women.  Note that the train is pulled up at one side into a shape of a fan so that the fancy trimming on the camisa can be seen! The dress is light blue.  The figures in the cloth are yellow and red.

The fourth dress, the balintawak (bah-lin-tah-wak) is worn on Luzon island, where Manila is located.  The under part of the dress is of a golden yellow.  The overskirt and scarf are red-and-yellow plaid.

The last outfit pictured is called the Maria Clara.  It is a period dress,popular in 1900.  It consists of white kimonolike top and red and black striped skirt."

I find it interesting that the text tells you what colors to use for the outfits, although I am sure many children just used whatever colors they liked.

Marvelous Fun and Games SpiderWoman

 

Marvelous Fun and Games  is from a comic book I beleive.  Jessica Drew aka Spider-Woman paper doll here with her costume and normal clothing.  That is quite some hair!  This one is 1-20-1980 and drawn by (Owen) McCarron 

Drawtober Day 5

 

Day 5 of Drawtober.  This theme is for zombie.  Hope it's not too spooky for the kiddos!  

For more click here

Drawtober Day 03

 Day 3, vampire costume

prompt list here

Drawtober Day 02

 Yeah so it's taking a bit longer then I thought to work on this, but it is in progress.  i've sketched 4 days and finished the first costume below.  Day 2 is clown,  Also modified the base a little bit so he's not so pointy in some places.  will be working on this today, so if I finish I'll post more

https://missmissypaperdolls.blogspot.com/2020/09/drawtober-prompt-list.html

prompt list here

Mermaid

I did another mermaid paper doll for Mermay.  I tried a different technique of copying the doll base 100% and then removing/editing it into clothing rather then drawing the outfits over the base.  Then the outfits are sized up lightly.  She has four outfits and three hairstyles, some rotated to fit the page better. She is topless but nothing is shown

Career Day at the Zoo

Here's a two page paper doll from Doll World Magazine.  I do not have a date.  I believe the artis is Susan Brack (because trying to do a google search for this brought up her name),  The doll has 6 outfits and some accessories including a face mask.

Valentine Card

So I created a Valentine Card this year using a vintage Valentine for the base.

The card I used for my doll is here https://www.pinterest.com/pin/352617845796348514/

Modified of course.

For the front cover, the card says "You are "Cut Out" to be My Valentine."  The doll wears a pink slip with white socks and black shoes.  She has blonde curly hair.  The inside of the card has a nurse outfit with cap, a bee costume with brown bob hair and matching shoes, and a maid outfit with hair accessory.  The puns are "Love Sick?"  "Bee Mine!" and "I was Maid for U"  The inside says "Be a Goodie Two Shoes and be My Valentine!" along with two pairs of shoes (get it!?) along with some space to write a message.  The back has six vintage dresses in pastel colors all inspired by vintage Valentine cards.

Collaborative Project 2019 April Fandom/Cosplay

base
Can you believe it's almost MAY! Been very busy with school, almost over only two weeks left.  Above is my very crowded page of clothing for this months theme.  I did a lot of mix and match pages.  For fandom, I decided to focus on graphic tees and printed bottoms of popular fandoms such as: Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Harry Potter, DC comics, Mario(video game leggings), My little Pony (looks bootleg) and a Sailor Moon inspired print skirt.  for the cosplay outfit, I chose the character Sakura from Card Captor Sakura anime.  

Please note I will be signing all my art as Melissa Pepe now.
 Make sure to check out the other blogs/artist to see what they have designed for this theme

Paper Doll School here
Paper Thin Persona here
Pop Culture Paper Dolls  here

Carmen Miranda

Here is a mostly uncut set featuring the celebrity Carmen Miranda.  This set includes two dolls and great costumes.  This is from Whitman and is dated 1942.

Inktober Witch Final

So somehow I totally forgot to scan the last two pages of my Inktober Witch project in October.  For the first page: October 26th is farm theme, October 27th is cook/chef, October 25th is insect, inspired by Thumblina, and October 29th is Lunar witch, so of course Sailor Moon/Princess Serenity inspired.  October 28th accidentally made it onto the next page and was Goth/Punk theme.  Also on the second page is October 29th Alchemist, I went with a Harry Potter robe.  October 30th was ghost witch, I gave her Sadako/Samara Ring girl hair.  And finally a free space, o Kawaii Witch lolita outfit.  More Outfits http://missmissypaperdolls.blogspot.com/search?q=inktober

Lei Lani

This single page paper doll is from Children's Play Mate Magazine October 1942.  She is named Lei Lani and is drawn by the artist Fern Bisel Peat, who also did the cover art for the issue of the magazine. Lei Lani has one Hawaiian themed  outfit with headdress and shoes.This is the sort of doll, as a kid, I would make outfits for, which I may do later.  She's too cute! 

Waikiki Wardobe Cutout

Here is a single page paper doll by the artist Neva Schultz from Golden Magazine dated May 1966.  The paper doll features a Hawaiian theme with two outfits and some accessories.  Love the bright tropical pops of color on the page. 

Doodle Dump 2

princess serenity

princess serenity

princess rose

princess serenity

princess rose

vampire

lolita

princess serentiy

lolita

ballerinas

Schools almost over, today is my last day!  So here are my sketches from the back of my school notes (all the ones I liked a bit at least).

My "Hero" Inspiration

What is a hero? "a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities."  I don't really idealize anyone.  I did think about doing a military theme, but I wanted to do something more personal to me and less generalized.  Who is my hero?  My mom, but I have no idea how to represent that in a paper doll outfit.  So instead, I think I went a little off topic and did more of my inspirations.  The first outfit I drew is on the right corner and represents the artist Mary Engelbreit.  My mother used to get her magazine Home Companion and I loved her detailed, colorful, and whimsical illustrations.  

Her style was instantly recognizable. Of course, her paper dolls!  I greatly admire her talent.  The second outfit kind of emerged from the first, since I drew a sailor collar.  I decided to do Sailor Moon, which falls more into another definition of hero as someone with super human abilities.  In my youth/teen years, Sailor Moon was one of my favorite TV shows along side Dragon Ball Z.  I loved watching the transformation scene and seeing a strong female team take on evil.  Later, I read the manga and loved Naoko Takeuchi's art style.  I drew lots of Sailor Moon fan art (and still do) and I even have a paper doll project buried away.  Sailor Moon helped me make friends (if that sounds dorky) and gave me something to look forward to after the long dragging school days.

For more outfits for this doll drawn by me click here

Wonderful designs from the blogs below as well! Everyone went in a very unique direction for this challenging theme.
Paper Doll School here
Paper Thin Persona here
Pop Culture Paper Dolls  here

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving.  I will be busy for the next few weeks with finals for school.  

Inktober Witch Continued

More costumes for the Inktober witch.  Can you believe this month is almost over!? So Oct 14 was space them, I went with a retro future look. Oct 15 was royal, I did a Victorian inspired queen. Oct 16th was beast master. I designed an animal skin costume along with a wolf head dress.  I thought about skin-walkers, those who become the animal.  Oct 17 was Necromancer, so I did some skulls and bones. And last on that page was Music, which i don't love, based on a majorette costume.

The second page has Tech witch, I was inspired by Mech suits and included some solar panels. Oct 20 was mermaid, petty fish design... Oct 21 was Potion Brewer, I did a variation on my merchant witch.  Oct 22 was Knight witch, so suit of fantasy armor.  Finally, Oct 23 was magical girl... which I want to redo. I don't like that design at all.  Forgot to add shading to this page too.

Paper Doll Collaberation Project Vampire Masquarde

 I have today off for Nevada Day, sad that it isn't on Halloween this year.  Can't believe it's the end of October already! Midterms in school right now, super busy!  Anyway, the theme for this month is Masquerade/Vampire.  The cape was inspired by Victorian Fancy Dress, particularity of a bat, .like this one.  I made the overall outfit more modern and pretty stereotypical of the vampire Halloween costumes. I always imagine vampires more conservative and covered up, still sexy but not reveling much skin, hence the gloves and long dress.  I've had lots of fun Collaborating on this project, it's great to see everyone design a the end of the month.

For more outfits for this doll drawn by me click here

Wonderful designs from the blogs below as well!
Paper Doll School here
Paper Thin Persona here
Pop Culture Paper Dolls  here

Will post more of my Inktober witch soon.

Haloween Children Pages

Various Joan Walsh Anglund children pages featuring Halloween themed cut outs and illustrations.