Green Evening Gown with Embroidered White Underskirt and Gold and Emerald Necklace

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There really wasn’t much thought behind this one, so it is accordingly presented without much comment! I just have a feeling next week is not going to be simple, and I didn’t have a lot of time today to make something interesting (or a story that would render this dress interesting), so I wanted to play around with my colors a little bit.

Prismacolors used: French Grey family, Spring Green, Olive Green, Yellow Chartreuse, White, Goldenrod, Dark Umber, Light Umber, Sunburst Yellow, Colorless Blender


Colored Masquerade Gown in Black, White, Purple, Red and Gold

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Sofia won my last contest for guessing that one of my top ten favorite movies is Casablanca. (The other nine: Whisper of the Heart, Vertigo, The Thin Man, Some Like It Hot, Robin Hood (Disney version), Porco Rosso, North by Northwest, Dr. Strangelove and All About Eve.) She wrote: “Casablanca is one of my favorite movies, too, and definitely a film everyone should see. Anyway, I’d like to see the masquerade dress from this post: https://lianaspaperdolls.com/2009/10/12/halloween-masquerade-series-1-black-and-white-masquerade-gown-with-bonus-colored-brown-and-red-elf-gown/ in dark colors… maybe a mottled red/black/purple kind of brocade or damask pattern on the skirt, with gold trim.” I hope you like this version, Sofia. I certainly do, although it made my thumb go numb again. I’ve got to start splitting up these pattern-heavy coloring jobs over the course of a couple of days! (Not a complaint, I really like being challenged to do something cool like this.)

Colors used: French Grey family (white cascade, sleeves, etc.), Cool Grey (70% and 90% on the top part), Dark Umber, Light Umber, Goldenrod, Sunburst Yellow, Crimson Lake, Tuscan Red, Moss Green, Limepeel, Imperial Violet, Greyed Lavender, Black Grape, Black, Colorless Blender


Colored 1700s Gown in Gold, White and Pink

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Trazy won the contest before last, for being the closest to guess our wedding anniversary (August 9th). She wrote: “i think i would like the newest balck and white dress to be colored in the gold colors, and have some kind of royal feel to it. I want the bows/decorations/trimmings to be pink, and the rest either white, gold, tan, or something similar. the skirt should have some kind of lighter golden swirly royal pattern, a lighter gold than the background…”

I would write more about this dress, but this one took me four hours to color, and there is a sort of tingling feeling in the tip of my left thumb, plus I’m having trouble feeling the pad of my left index finger now as I type. I might have overdone it… but it was worth it!


Evil Queen Wedding Dress with Black and Purple Trim

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You may or may not have seen this, but there’s a line of wedding dresses based on the various Disney princesses. You can probably guess that I’ve got a soft spot for Ariel and the gang, and I’m certainly fond of my pretty princess gowns, but it seems to me like something was left out… The fact is, it’s the villains who deserve the most spectacular wedding dresses! If you really think about it, theirs ought to be even more wonderful than any ever made for your standard issue simpering, vacuously beautiful princess. I mean, wouldn’t that be part of the joy of being a villain? You don’t have to worry about looking modest or maidenly, frugality isn’t even in your vocabulary, and if anyone out there gives you static about your wedding colors or where you have your registry, well, darling, that is simply the kind of situation that pet dragons, leftover poisoned fruit or comic-relief henchmen were created for.

So, let us pretend for a moment that Snow White never quite made it to the little cottage in the woods, and there were no red-hot shoes or other such fates for the Evil Queen. (Did you know that in the Disney version she had a name? I didn’t, but it’s Queen Grimhilde, according to Wikipedia. There’s your trivia for the day.) After her husband’s unfortunate death, she found her own Prince Charming, handsome, lacking in empathy and appropriately weak-willed, and threw herself a wedding good enough for the fairest of them all. I like to think that eight sweet little village seamstresses went blind embroidering the trim on her dress, and that the lace underskirt — which you will note, isn’t even visible, although I assure you it’s fantastic — is stained a kind of rusty red with blood from the fingers of artisans working themselves to the bone to get it done before the big day. (Sure, it could have been washed, but why would she? She likes it better this way.)

Now, I don’t really think you could package this up and sell it to a modern audience. Why? They couldn’t handle all this fierce in one dress, that’s why. For most humans, it’s probably better to stick with an imitation of Cinderella or Belle.

I’m not entirely sure that this is small enough to print on one page – so if you print it and it doesn’t work, let me know and I will fuss with it. (It’s almost 11 PM, so I’m rapidly running out of patience…) Also, I think the collar would be tough to cut out; I think you would have to cut between the doll’s shoulders and neck and her hair, and then you would cut a line straight through the middle of the collar, so the collar would slip behind her neck. Or cut off the collar entirely, I won’t hold it against you. It won’t seem as evil, though – some sacrifices must be made to achieve the proper look, you know.