A Paper Doll of My Own

I'm moving house this week so my blog entry is a couple of days earlier than usual while I still have the time!

Earlier this month I celebrated my birthday. One of my closest friends from early childhood sent me the card I've included at the end of this post together with a comment about the paper dolls we used to make and play with as children.

I'm not sure if any of those dolls still survive, but I do still have this doll I made in the 1980's when I was in my early 20's.  Her dresses were all copied from my favourite illustrators. In those days there was no way of scanning anything and books were the only source of reference. Everything had to be copied by hand!

The first 3 dresses I've decided to post this week were all taken from the story of Sleeping Beauty in the Splendour Book of Ballet.  (I devoted a blog post to this book in January although none of these illustrations were included.)  They are the work of the Italian artist Maraja.

In each case I'm including the original illustration followed by the dress I made from it.

I'm also including the following two dresses although I can no longer remember what I based them on.  I think the Elizabethan dress came from a Nursery Rhyme book but am not completely sure.  I've posted half of the dresses I have for the doll this time and will include the rest next week.

This is the card that made me think of the doll again.  It's from Australia and I think its lovely. Thanks Vivienne!   

 Paper dolls copyright Sharon Souter - not to be used for commercial purposes