1939 White Dress with Red Trim and Autumn Leaf Pattern for Thanksgiving

Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

Today is Thanksgiving here in America, and last year I did a Thanksgiving-themed 1860s ball gown as a reference to the year the holiday was established. But in 1939, in the middle of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed it up a week so that there would be a longer shopping period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. As you might imagine, this didn’t go over well with everyone at the time, but for my purposes I am imagining my dolls to be early adopters. So this year, we have a 1939-style dress with an autumn leaf pattern to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Do I ever feel like I have a lot to be thankful for this year! My husband, my family, my friends, the entire medical establishment — I could really go on and on. I won’t bore you all, though, but rather will leave you with one piece of new information: we went in for the ultrasound yesterday, and it’s a boy!

I hope that those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving today will have a lovely one!

Purple and Red Empire Waist Gowns with Black Lace Overskirts

Click for larger version (PNG): purple, red; click for PDF version:purple, red. Click here for the list of dolls.

Well, this isn’t the most Halloween-ish dress I’ve ever drawn, and there’s no particular story to go with it, so I’ve added a red version in hopes you’ll overlook those flaws. It might not be a bad one for the Halloween ball, though, considering most of those in attendance seem to prefer huge poofy skirts and overdone detail. Besides, it would be harder to hide a gigantic spider under this dress: always a plus.

Not my best October, but not a total failure either. I’m feeling a little more into the idea of drawing lately, though, so we’ll see how the rest of the year goes!

Black Lace and Red Satin Ballgown with Gold Bats, Plus An Announcement!

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How sad, it is almost the end of October and I have hardly thought about Halloween costumes… To tell you the truth, I’ve had quite a lot to think about, recently, because I’m pregnant! I’m in the second trimester, and if all goes well the baby will be arriving late April. Things are going well, I’m healthy and doing much better than I was in the first trimester, when I was exhausted and had pretty crazy morning sickness — all within the range of normal, but crazy nonetheless. (If you’re interested, I wrote about it for a new baby-centric tumblelog Brian set up: First Trimester Recap: “Hm, what does this button do?” But it is mostly a bunch of complaining about eating nothing but cereal bars and saltines, plus one of the ultrasound pictures.)

Baby news aside, it is almost Halloween, and that’s important around here, no matter how pregnant I am. It’s always the best time for paperdolling, and as it so happens I feel energetic enough that this October may not be a total waste… So check back again before the 31st!

I guess the only thing Halloween-ish about this ballgown is the “bat bling,” as Brian termed it. (They started life as albino bats, but there was too little contrast, so now they’re gold.) I don’t really know where the roses came from. But no matter, it is dramatic enough that one could acquit oneself honorably at a vampires’ ball.

Queens of the Sea #9: Red Patchwork Tunic for Winnie Flapjack from Random Magic by Sasha Soren

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Welcome to day nine of the Queens of the Sea series, part of the Random Magic Pirates book tour! Here is the mini-bio for today’s pirate, provided again by Lyrika:

Winnie Flapjack: The Future Pirate Queen

Winnie Flapjack is the main character from Random Magic, a girl of distinctly piratical disposition who bests a pirate king and finds her own destiny waiting for her on the waves.

She crosses paths with bemused book-jumper Henry Witherspoon when he quite accidentally helps her rescue herself from a fate worse than death.

Orphaned at birth and essentially a scrappy loner with a gift for magic and sarcasm, she’s brave, feisty, abrupt, resourceful, very loyal and also very tricky.

As Henry soon finds out, he’ll have reason to thank his lucky stars a thousand times for having Winnie by his side — if the experience doesn’t kill him, first.

Winnie is described as wearing a red patchwork tunic; I pulled out all my most random colors for the fabric scrap patterns, because this is indeed a very random book! I still do intend to review it, but I’m not finished with it yet so I don’t want to review it prematurely. When I do, I’ll post it here.

Tomorrow is the last day for this series, and I’m going to have two polls: one for your favorite pirate story out of the ten, and one for your favorite pirate outfit. I’ll definitely do another outfit for the winner of “favorite outfit” — if I’m really ambitious, I might do a second outfit for the one who wins “favorite story.” I’ll try to get it up nice and early, so don’t forget to come by and vote!

The contests will be open until May 27th, 11:59 PM Pacific time. So if you haven’t entered, be sure to write your comment today! Click here for the chance to win an original drawing, for those of you who can give me an address if you win, and click here for the chance to design a pirate outfit, open to everyone!

Check out the tour schedule here! And for more information about Random Magic, here’s the trailer for the book.

Also, check out the Rum + Plunder treasure hunt for more pirate prizes!

Queens of the Sea #7: Pirate Costume for Unknown Pirate Captain

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Welcome to day seven of the Queens of the Sea series, part of the Random Magic Pirates book tour! Here is the mini-bio for today’s pirate, provided again by Lyrika:

Unknown French pirate captain: The Mystery Captain

Jamaica Rose and Michael MacLeod relate the tale of a mystery pirate captain in their book, The Book of Pirates

In 1805, an American who was held prisoner in Cuba reported on a French privateer vessel, La Baugourt. He said the ship had a crew of one hundred, ‘commanded by a woman.’ This is about all that is known of this unnamed captain.

This anecdote might’ve easily been dismissed as just a fanciful tale, if not for the fact that there is, indeed, a mention of the activity of French privateers at that time — and this very ship — included in a volume of The Mariner’s Mirror, a quarterly bulletin printed by the Society for Nautical Research.

I have been trying to stay at least true to the spirit of the historical periods, and to think “well, someone in this century would have worn this, not that” or “if someone was just a regular sailor she wouldn’t be swanning around in a fancy coat, right?” or “no, somehow, I get the feeling hot pants were never actually part of most female pirates’ wardrobe.” But if this mysterious pirate captain may have never existed, I feel a little more free to give her a costume that never existed! Well, it’s not the most unreasonable pirate costume I’ve ever seen…

By the way, I’m scheduled to have another paper doll up tomorrow, but I’ll be out of town, so I’m going to try to do two over the weekend instead.

Don’t forget to enter my contests! Click here for the chance to win an original drawing, for those of you who can give me an address if you win, and click here for the chance to design a pirate outfit, open to everyone!

Check out the tour schedule here! And for more information about Random Magic, here’s the trailer for the book.

Also, check out the Rum + Plunder treasure hunt for more pirate prizes!

There is still time to join my crew… Take the poll!

Queens of the Sea #4: Jacket and Pants for Anne Bonny

Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

Welcome to day four of the Queens of the Sea series, part of the Random Magic Pirates book tour! Here is the mini-bio for today’s pirate, provided again by Lyrika:

Anne Bonny: The Southern Spitfire

The illegitimate daughter of an Irish lawyer, who left Ireland for the colony of South Carolina (at the time, there was no United States of America, the settlements were all colonies of the British Empire) and became a merchant.

She married a small-time pirate but ran away with Jack ‘Calico Jack’ Rackham after they met on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas, a pirate lair of the time.

A comrade of pirate Mary Read, Anne Bonny was captured along with Mary Read and Jack Rackham in a pirate hunter raid but mysteriously vanished from historical records after being imprisoned, although Mary died in jail and Jack was executed.

You can read more about Anne Bonny at The Epic Rat on May 17th, as part of the Queens of the Sea series. (I’ll update the link after it’s been posted.)

Now, with Anne Bonny, one of the most famous female pirates, the outfits are getting a little more traditionally pirate-looking… You will have to imagine her carrying pistols, though, that’s far out of my area of expertise! This whole series is a little out of my area of expertise, really — I’ve drawn more pants this month than I probably did all last year — but I’m enjoying it, and I hope you are too!

Don’t forget to enter my contests! They’re open until the end of the tour. Click here for the chance to win an original drawing, for those of you who can give me an address if you win, and click here for the chance to design a pirate outfit, open to everyone!

Check out the tour schedule here! And for more information about Random Magic, here’s the trailer for the book.

Also, check out the Rum + Plunder treasure hunt for more pirate prizes!

Hm, let’s have a poll, I haven’t done one for a while… How about a nice long one?

Introduction to the Random Magic Pirates Book Tour and Queens of the Sea #1: 1300s Outfit for Jeanne de Clisson

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So for the rest month, I’m doing something a little different… A while ago, I was asked to join in an online “book tour” highlighting the book Random Magic that would be centered around a pirate theme. The idea is that multiple blogs would all do something interesting and pirate-related as part of the tour, and although I’ve never done something like this before, it sounded like it would be fun to try. Check out the organizer’s blog to see the schedule and get an idea for the kinds of events that will be taking place!

Each day’s outfit is going to be based around a pirate (nine historical pirates and one character from Random Magic); I don’t intend to give much more than a passing nod towards any sort of historical accuracy, so although most of these women were real historical figures, the outfits are going to be a little on the fantastic side — more like costumes.

Today’s pirate is Jeanne de Clisson, who lived from 1300–1359 and was an active pirate between 1343 to 1356. Here is a mini-biography about her, written by Lyrika:

The Avenging Angel

One of the most bloodthirsty female pirates in history. Jeanne de
Clisson, nicknamed the Lioness of Brittany, was driven to piracy by a
desire for revenge, after her partner was executed.

She sold off all that remained of her estate to raise enough money to
buy three warships, had all three ships painted black, and the sails
dyed blood red. Her Black Fleet was the terror of the English Channel (an arm of the Atlantic Ocean), but one
personal proviso was enough to save hundreds of seafarers.

The proviso was this: The Lioness held the French king accountable for
the death of her beloved Olivier, so she spared the ships and crews of
other nations she met on her way — she only attacked French ships.

You can read a more in-depth biography about her at the blog Fluidity of Time, as part of the “Pirate Queens” series!

I had fun thinking about what she might wear, as this is a good couple of hundred years before the age most connected with pirates in the popular imagination. Women’s clothes in the early 14th century were rather pretty, I found, but rather less than practical for life at sea, or for personally beheading captured aristocrats. She apparently didn’t disguise herself as a man the way some other women pirates did, but I like to think she went with men’s clothes anyway, so today’s outfit is loosely based on men’s clothes from the first half of the 14th century.

I’ll be changing my regular schedule a bit during the tour: I’ll be posting a new drawing on the 12th and 14th, a drawing each day from the 16th to the 20th, and two final drawings on the 23rd and 24th. There will be a poll to determine everyone’s favorite pirate outfit that will be open on the 26th and the 27th, and on the 28th I’ll draw an extra outfit for the winning pirate and also announce the two winners of the contests I’ll be holding during the tour.

That’s right, two contests! For one, the prize is the original drawing of any one of the ten pirate outfits, and since that one requires an address, it’s open to anyone who is able to provide me their address if they win. Because I know I have a lot of readers who can’t give out their address online, I’m running a second contest that’s open to everyone, where the winner gets to design a pirate outfit! Click here for more information about the first contest; click here for more information about the second contest.

Welcome to anyone who’s joining us for the tour, and for my regular readers, I hope you enjoy it too! I personally am looking forward to a lot of buckles being swashed — and maybe little parrots perching on shoulders of dramatic coats…

Don’t forget: check out the tour schedule here! And for more information about Random Magic, here’s the trailer for the book.

Also, check out the Rum + Plunder treasure hunt for more pirate prizes! (I like the look of that pirate puppet, myself…) Speaking of that contest…

Green and Red Elf Gown

Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

So this dude named Brian won my Academy Awards contest, and he wrote:

In an alternate version of “The Lord of The Rings”, the Council of Elrond determines that the only way to get the One Ring safely to Mordor is to deliver it using an iconic promotional vehicle from 20th century American culture. Please color the black and white elf gown (with circlet) to suit an fair elfin maiden as she pilots the following vehicle to Mordor: http://bit.ly/bmJLcf

This guy is obviously bad news, but he won, so I guess I’d better humor him…

Nah, just kidding. He’s my beloved husband, which usually disqualifies him from my contests, but since I was open to having multiple winners for that particular contest I thought I might as well give him a chance for once. I rather ended up regretting it; somehow, when faced with such a description, my normal creativity deserted me entirely.

“I won it fair and square,” he says. “Not saying ya didn’t,” I reply. “But I’m excluded from the future ones, right?” “Well, I usually reset it every year…” “I’m excluded for bad behavior.” “Yeah, I think so.”

Anyways, I’ve put it off for all this time, but I thought I had better just get it done and hopefully never think of it again. So here we have the ketchup-swirled tunic with mustard yellow borders over a gown patterned with an abstract relish-and-white onion design; a mustard yellow circlet completes the ensemble. Oh well. This is why I do the paperdolls and he writes snarky things on Twitter.

Help me get the taste of this one out of my mouth (rimshot) – let’s do a new contest! Thanks to Brian for suggesting the question for me, as penance. Winner, as always, gets to tell me how to color a black-and-white dress (and please please choose pretty colors).

What (present-day) US state was my great-grandfather born in? At the time, my great-great-grandparents owned a hardware store in a boom town.

Update: Nikki guessed it! He was born in Skagway, Alaska.

January Birthday Gown in Deep Garnet Red with Gold Trim and Snowdrop Corsage

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Here’s the 2011 January birthday dress! I had thought about not doing them this year, actually, but then I had an idea for a March one that seemed like it would turn out beautifully, and now I think I will take another shot at completing a set this year. Now that January is finished, all I will have to do is one for February and I’ll be all caught up for at least a whole week!

I’ve got a good feeling about this year. This year may bring a dress for every month, including poor neglected April, July and August (thanks Liz!). For those of you with January birthdays, I am sorry this one is late; speaking of which, I’m sorry that today’s dress is late in general. Well, Sunday isn’t too bad — and for those of you for whom it is already Monday, well, I throw myself on your mercy.

January’s birth flower is the snowdrop, and the birthstone is the garnet. Incidentally, this is the first January dress I’ve done that I really like. (Technically, I liked the previous year’s dress, but it scanned out really badly and you can hardly see the pattern…)

Livedolling the Oscars: Anne Hathaway’s Red Gown, Natalie Portman’s Purple Gown, Gwyneth Paltrow’s White Gown and Amy Adams’ Blue Gown

Click for larger version (PNG):red gown, purple gown, white gown, blue gown,; click for PDF version: red gown, purple gown, white gown, blue gown, Click here for the list of dolls.

Oscars Contest: The contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered!

8:43 PST: And there’s my last dress – Amy Adam’s gown. Yes, I know that those four thumbnails look awful, maybe I’ll fix it tomorrow… Anyways, thanks to those of you who entered the contest and followed along! This was a lot of fun, I hope to do it again next year.

8:36 PST: Congratulations to Brian and Angie – they both guessed Alice in Wonderland for Costume Design, Colin Firth for Best Actor, Natalie Portman for Best Actress and The King’s Speech for Best Picture!

8:25 PST: Four people so far have gotten three of the four categories right…

7:22 PST: Well, I’ve done three – I can kill my fingers on Amy Adam’s dress now, I think.

7:20 PST: Hm, now what? I’d do Helena Bonham-Carter’s dress if I had Cool Grey 90% or 70%, but both are too small to sharpen… Bored now

7:00 PST: Only one commenter guessed a movie besides Alice in Wonderland for Best Costume Design… so the field is still wide open. :)

6:59 PST: And Alice in Wonderland has it!

6:57 PST: I thought I’d take a stab at Gwyneth Paltrow’s shiny dress – unlike most of the things I draw, I think it turned out better scanned than the original! I took a little artistic license with the placement of the gold ornament. The costume design Oscar is coming up… I wonder if anyone’s going to win my contest?

6:16 PST: Finished Natalie Portman’s dress! And now… hmmm.

5:38 PST: I like Anne Hathaway’s new dress better than the red one! Great patterns… sparkly too

5:33 PST: Trying to figure out how to watch online – maybe it’s just a ploy to get people to pay the $5 for the extra content, but the Oscars official site seems a lot more fussy than necessary. This site seems to work – hat tip to ask mefi. Lys did a fantastic drawing of Mila Kunis’ gown!

4:53 PST: In contrast, I could probably finish Reese Witherspoon’s in about twenty minutes – not necessarily a compliment. Next will probably be Natalie Portman or Helena Bonham-Carter, but I haven’t decided yet.

4:48 PST: I do like the color on Amy Adams’ gown and the green jewelry she’s wearing, and I would probably draw it if I didn’t mind killing my hands for the evening…

4:45 PST: Anne Hathaway’s red Valentino gown! I’ve been listening to the red carpet patter, but I’ve only taken a few glances away from the drawing, so now it’s time to pick another one…

3:40 PST: I guess I’ll start with Anne Hathaway, seeing as how she’s hosting. Incidentally, I’m looking at Getty Images’ Academy Awards Arrivals page for close-ups. Again, if there’s a better source, pass it on!

3:00 PM PST: The Oscars site says that the red carpet starts in an hour, but the AP live stream is already going. I guess the dresses won’t really be here for a bit, so time to get my colored pencils together…

10:15 AM PST: Welcome, everyone! Before this gets started, two things:

1) Let’s have a special Oscars contest! In the comments section, post your guesses for which movies will win Best Picture and Best Costume Design, and which actors will win Best Leading Actor and Best Leading Actress. (Click for the list of nominated movies.) The contest is closed when Best Costume Design is announced, one guess per person please, and it’s open to anyone. The prize for anyone who gets the right combination is a black and white outfit of your choice colored by me as you like, plus something new for the first person to guess correctly… :)

2) And how about an Oscars poll?

See you all in a few hours!