Jill’s Flowered Easter Dress and White and Green Flowered Easter Hat

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So when Jill saw my rendition of one of Min’s hats, she asked for me to do her Easter hat, a gorgeous confection (that Brian termed an “ultra-hat” — sorry) that she made to match her dress. That request has since been percolating in the back of my mind until I was reading her blog earlier and saw that she got robbed at a “Mad Hatter” contest.

Paperdolls always make a great consolation prize. In my world, anyways, where they also make good hobbies, gifts and eye candy.

If one was cutting this out, the hat would be cut underneath the brim, right underneath the broad green ribbon; on the large version I put a dotted line there. Krysti will have to tell us if it works anything like how I hope it does!


Mermaid Monday #4: Bride Mermaid in Red Tattered Wedding Dress with Iridescent Blue and Purple Tail

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My poll was a success! Thanks, everyone who voted. While black had a strong showing near the end, iridescent won the day, rather to my chagrin as I haven’t really drawn anything iridescent before… I think it worked out reasonably well, though not perfectly. I based the iridescent part on one of the pearls in this picture.

Mermaids associate the colors pink and red most strongly with weddings and brides, possibly due to red seaweed being a traditional bridal decoration. Pink has a rather old-fashioned feel and deep reds display the family’s wealth, because the deeper the color is, the harder it is to waterproof successfully, and so dark or rich colors weren’t available until more recently and they’re more expensive. These days, mermaid brides tend to choose a shade between pale pink and blood red that they think best suits their tail. (This means that mermaid bridesmaids grumble more than human ones if the bride insists on their wearing the same color; the green-tailed mermaid does not like the poppy red that sets off the bride’s black tail so well, and the mermaid with the light yellow tail feels washed out in the pale pink favored by the silver-tailed bride.) Pearls are also traditional wedding decorations, and a moderately priced rope of white pearls serves much the same function at a mermaid wedding as a toaster does at a wedding for American humans. Different-colored pearls, particularly black and rose ones, are most valued. Red seaweed is, of course, very popular, although seaweed of every type might be used much as humans might use flowers. Depending on where a mermaid lives and on the fashions, other flowers are popular; water lilies are often used in some areas, and tropical flowers such as hibiscus might be more popular in others. Not all mermaid wedding dresses are tattered, but it’s as hard for mermaid designers to resist as lace is for human ones, because of the strong romantic overtones.

For the veil, you will want to cut a straight line between the bottom of the crown, underneath the seaweed, and the veil. This way the doll’s head can be poked through.

New poll for this week:


Bai Ling’s Green Satin Corset and Plaid Balloon Skirt via Go Fug Yourself

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Now, I don’t read People or any of that, beyond what I can’t help skimming at the checkout line or if I’m reeeally bored at the dentist’s office. I don’t mean to be snobby about it — I’ve certainly got enough nerdy, timewasting obsessions to make up for the lack of this particular one — but the whole celebrity gossip thing just never has been quite my thing. Except… for the blog Go Fug Yourself. It’s shallow, catty and downright hilarious. I think the appeal, for me, is something like, “Here is this gorgeous woman, and she has looks and money and access and stylists, and she’s at some amazing event where she knows there will be pictures taken of her and… she is wearing… what? why?” I haven’t a particle of style and I don’t really follow fashion, but even I’ve got better sense than to wear a dress like this.

And now they’re doing their Fug Madness, and I was Team Peldon, but then she got spanked by Sharon Stone. So I switched my allegiance to Team Bai for the final rounds. (That would be Bai Ling. “She was in Star Wars, right?” says Brian. Among the followers of Go Fug Yourself, that isn’t precisely what she’s known for.) She and Posh are squaring off on Monday, and I have total confidence in my girl Bai… Posh just doesn’t have the crazy I associate with quality fug.

So this is an outfit that Bai wore sometime in 2007 and, the more I look at it the fonder I am of it, actually. I mean, that skirt.


Princess Garnet’s White Gown from Final Fantasy IX

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Brian finished Final Fantasy IX recently, and since I’ve always loved the gown that Garnet a.k.a. Dagger wears at the beginning and end of the game, I just had to paperdoll it. For cutting this one out, it ought to work to cut the sleeve around the ends, and then both arm and sleeve go above the skirt. I am tempted to do a “Fancy Gowns of Final Fantasy Games” series…

Once again, Verithin pencils to the rescue with those vines. I love those things.

Don’t forget to vote for the mermaid tail for next Monday: