Aqua and Peach Elf Gown with Silver Beading

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An aqua-colored gown with three-quarter sleeves and a low boat neckline. It has princess seams and is covered all over with a delicate scroll pattern. At the base of the skirt, the color changes to light peach, and there's a silver beaded vine pattern along the hem. There's an peach underdress that shows at the neckline, extending a few inches above the top of the gown. The light peach scroll pattern on it shimmers subtly, and there's a row of beading along the neckline. There's silver lacing along the collar of the aqua gown, and the dress is open over the bust, showing the underdress. The lacing crosses three times over the opening and is fastened under the bust with a brooch of silver and a coral-colored gem, then the laces hang down nearly to the bottom of the gown. The sleeves have long, delicate lengths of semi-transparent scroll-patterned peach fabric that hang down nearly to the base of the dress at each cuff.This gown is the product of my last contest, in which my readers first chose for me to draw an elf dress, then the contest winner Lorie Harding wrote:

Here is how I would like the dress colored. I picture the sleeves sheer and the dress done in soft pastel colors. My favorites would be peach and aqua. A delicate pattern of your choice would run through the dress. Thanks!

I like doing these contests just for their own sake, but also because I think that it’s easy for me to stick to what I’m good at, and other people’s suggestions help me improve. For example, I don’t think I really do a lot of dresses with this kind of light coloring, and I struggled to get the shading looking right. I still think I could have done better, but Friday is already upon me, and anyways I am pretty happy with this one overall!

Let’s get started with the next reader’s choice contest…

poll by twiigs.com

Next week will be a princess gown and some thoughts on princess culture. 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 pretty illustrations. If you enjoy my work, I’d also appreciate your support through Patreon.

Correct Size for Last Four PDFs

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Sarah 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!

White Gown with Rainbow Tulle and Rhinestones

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A strapless white satin gown with a subtle scroll pattern woven into the fabric and a rhinestone pattern on the bodice. The dress has an empire waist and is mermaid style, fitting tightly around the legs. On one hip is a puffy white satin bow, under which are several puffs of tulle arranged in rainbow colors that fall to the floor. Each puff of tulle is decorated with a number of rhinestones at the edge.

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)

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A ballgown with a halter-style black bodice and a floor-length, bell shaped skirt. The bodice is patterned with a metallic gold brocade. The gown is divided into three layers. The first one is shades of layered orange, yellow and red tulle under a light layer of black tulle, which the warm colors show through. The second layer is light green, dark green and light blue under a layer of black tulle. The third layer is dark blue, purple and magenta under a layer of black tulle. 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!

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