ShareSarah and dannyscotland reported that the dresses weren’t printing out right, and it turns out that the problem was on my end: I was resizing them to 80%, not 85%, so they were just a little bit too small. This affects the last four dresses (the 1930s dress, the red dress, the tulle ballgown and the rainbow gown). I’ve updated all of the PDFs on the site as well as the collected PDFs on Gumroad. I apologize to anyone who printed and cut out dresses that didn’t fit, and I’ll take more care in the future. Please let me know if there’s any other problems with them!
Year: 2014
White Gown with Rainbow Tulle and Rhinestones
I said that today would be the contest winner elf dress, but I just got back from a trip back to Michigan for my sister-in-law’s wedding and didn’t leave enough time to color the dress properly. Luckily, I already had this dress finished! Before I left on my trip, I was nearly three dresses ahead of schedule, and now the number is back down to zero…
After I finished my previous tulle gown, I wanted to do more and more tulle. I sketched out some dresses, and after I’d sketched this one I decided that I needed to make it into a proper dress immediately. I’m very proud of it — the tulle was fun to make, and I love how billowy it looks. The dress has a Marilyn Monroe singing Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend-style vibe, I think.
Next week will (actually) be the elf dress from my last contest, plus a new poll to decide on what I’ll do for the next contest. Don’t forget that you can now download combined color and black and white PDFs of all of my 2014 dolls and outfits for free! Also follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest for sneak previews, paperdoll thoughts and Art Nouveau jewelry. If you enjoy my work, I’d also appreciate your support through Patreon.
Ballgown with Tulle Skirt (A Not-Really-A-Tutorial Tutorial)
One of my Pinterest boards is titled “Paperdoll Reference.” It may as well be titled my “Why Can’t I Draw Like That?” board. I’ll pin dresses with interesting coloring, particularly shiny dresses or dresses with great draping, with the intention of using them to study from. Not being the most diligent artist in the world, I’ve been piling up interesting examples and not doing all that much with them. Then the thought came to me, why not make the learning process into a paper doll outfit? (Everything’s better with paperdolls.) Sort of like a tutorial, except I, too, start out with no clue what I’m doing. Let’s learn together!
Red and Gold Party Dress
This dress was intended to be a birthday dress, but after much fussing in Photoshop I couldn’t get my initial vision to look as I had intended it to. Just for fun I gave it a bright red color and a playful golden pattern, and then I couldn’t bring myself to change it because it is just too cute. They don’t all have to be super fancy, and I love the movement in the skirt. Maybe this will be the year I finally do a full set of birthday dresses, but this is not the month they will start.
Thanks to everyone who entered my contest last week! I enjoyed reading everyone’s opinions. The winner of the contest was Lorie Harding. I didn’t have the black and white version ready by last week, but it’s done now, with Mia modeling it for us. So, Lorie, please post a comment or e-mail me by next Friday to tell me how you’d like this one colored!
Next week, we have Adventures in Tulle, in which you all get a view into my digital coloring learning process and we wind up with a ballgown with a tri-color tulle skirt. Don’t forget that you can now download PDFs of all of my 2014 dolls and outfits for free – easier than fussing with all the files individually! You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest for sneak previews, paperdoll thoughts and pictures of pretty jewelry. If you enjoy my work, I’d also appreciate your support through Patreon.