lace

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

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A dramatic ballgown with a fitted bodice and overskirt made of rose-patterned black lace over white fabric. It has one shoulder strap decorated with a gold bat with red eyes, and there's four more bats evenly spaced around the scalloped edge of the overskirt. The underskirt is shiny red satin and flares out from underneath the underskirt. The skirt is bell-shaped and reaches the floor.Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

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 #8: Green Justacorps for Anne Dieu-Le-Veut

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

Welcome to day eight 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 Dieu-Le-Veut: The Brave Buccaneer

A buccaneer during the Golden Age of Piracy. She was originally from France, and deported from France to Tortuga by the order of governor Betrand d’Ogeron de la Bouere, himself a former adventurer and pirate.

She fought a duel with a Dutch pirate who’d killed her first husband. He was impressed with her courage in challenging him and asked her to marry him on the spot. He already had a wife whom he’d abandoned, but from that day forward they were recognized as partners and fought side
by side on raids, sharing command.

Anne had a reputation for being laconic, brave, and willful. She also didn’t back down, and this was how she earned her nickname (Anne Dieu-Le-Veut, or Anne What-God-Wants), as people said of her that what Anne wanted, God would make happen for her.

Although it was a common superstition at the time that a woman on board brought bad luck, Anne’s presence was considered lucky. Reportedly born circa 1650, she disappeared from recorded history in the early 1700s.

In my imagination, there was certainly at least one time in Anne’s life where what she most wanted was a sweet pirate coat and gloriously shiny boots. Who can say whether or not the Almighty granted that particular request, or indeed any of them; at least I can, although it is rather too late for her to enjoy it. In any case, this kind of coat is called a justacorps, and it’s what we think of — or, at least, what I think of — when we think of over-the-top pirate captains from the Golden Age of Piracy.

So, I’m quite behind on my pirate series, I’m sorry to say; today was supposed to be the last day, but I still have two left, so I’ll do one tomorrow and one on the 26th, which is when the final poll will be open.

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!

Green Regency Gown with Ivy Pattern

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

Ana won my last contest for guessing that my favorite flower is the morning glory, and she wrote:

I’d like this dress https://lianaspaperdolls.com/2010/06/12/black-and-white-regency-gown-with-flower-lace/ coloured please.

The main part of the dress I’d like an English Ivy pattern, with vines looking like they are growing up from the bottom of the skirt. I’d like the background of the dress to be a vibrant shade of green like lush grass in summer and the piping and lace to be an earth tone pink.

You know how if you put fabric or paper out in the sun it fades, and you can create patterns but placing objects on it? And then the background is faded version of the pattern? Well if you were to reverse that process so that the main part of the fabric was covered (i.e not faded) and the pattern was faded that is how I imagine the ivy pattern on the dress to look like. similar to the pattern in the gold on this dress https://lianaspaperdolls.com/2010/06/23/colored-1700s-gown-in-gold-white-and-pink/ but more pronounced.

I kinda hope that makes sense, but if not I’m sorry and I did my best.

It made sense, but I don’t know if I quite captured your vision, Ana, so I hope you like it!

I hate to disappoint people, especially my mom, but I won’t be drawing the royal wedding gown: the biggest reason is that I avoid drawing sheer fabrics because the dolls have different skin colors. It’s been suggested that I do two versions, but when the create-a-doll page is up — which I have been working on, albeit off and on — there will be around seven skin colors, so I’m not going to spend that much time on a dress that would be limited to the two dolls that are currently available.

Beyond that, I didn’t really pay attention to the wedding preparations or ceremony, I admired a dozen pictures of the dress and assorted hats, and now it’s out of my mind, which is essentially where it should be. Although I do draw a lot of pretty princess gowns, my affection for them stems from my deep love for fancy dresses and fairy tales; it has nothing to do with real royalty, which just strikes me as sad, stifling and generally illogical. If not for the lace part there’s a good chance I would have drawn the wedding gown, as it’s an iconic dress and a beautiful one, but I don’t care enough to spend the time on a substitute just for the sake of commemorating the fact that the House of Windsor is propagating itself. (I may yet make an exception for Princess Beatrice’s hat.)

If you all are so keen on royalty, I’ll put some time into a series of posts about the Japanese imperial family weddings I’ve been batting around in my mind for a while; my opinion of the Japanese institution isn’t particularly different from my opinion of the English one (if anything it is more critical), but the clothes and history interest me more. And maybe another paperdoll blogger will pick up my slack and draw the dress? Send me a link if you do, I’ll post it here.

Let’s do another contest… Here’s a good one. I’m in this picture. Which one of these kids is me?
Winner gets to choose a black and white drawing for me to color as they direct, as usual!
Update: Shannon guessed it! I’m the girl with short hair at the top right, underneath the outstretched arm of the boy on the chair.

Blue Regency Gown with White Sash

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

I’m sorry for the long absence! I hadn’t even realized it had been that long… I had a couple of days where nothing worked out, and then I got out of the habit, and here it is the middle of April and there are worried comments showing up in my e-mail. I didn’t want to make you wait until Tuesday for something new, so here is a dress for today. It’s been a while since I’ve drawn a regency dress just for the sheer joy of drawing a regency dress… but they do work up quickly, which is just what one needs when one has a paperdoll-related crisis of conscience somewhere around 9:30 P.M.
Hopefully this is enough to get me into the drawing habit again and I will have something new for you on Tuesday!