Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Paper Dolls




When I was a girl, I played with paper dolls. All kinds of paper dolls. But my favorite was Betsy McCall, the best known magazine paper doll in America. She debuted in 1951 with Nosy, her dachshund, and her parents. In the fifties, she stayed close to home. By the 1960s she had traveled to California and down the Mississippi River. In the 1970s she visited Europe. Throughout the decades she modeled fashions that could be made with McCall’s patterns. Since I’m sewing challenged, I never created any of her clothes.

I loved, loved, loved my paper dolls. How about you? Did you play with them? If not, you can start now by downloading your very own.

Since Joanna blogged yesterday about royals and Diana, I thought it might be a good time to give you a link to print out a Princess Diana paper doll and some of her wonderful outfits, go to
http://www.100megsfree4.com/gogators4/DianaDoll.html


8 comments:

pattinase (abbott) said...

I liked them more than real dolls because you could change the clothes easier.

Deb Baker said...

Yes, pattinase. Me, too. And they were less expensive in a time when my family was really struggling to make ends meet.

Monica Ferris said...

I liked them, too -- except when you tried to make them move around, have little scenes to play, their dresses fell off. LOL

Camille Minichino said...

LOVED them! I'd trace their bodies on colored paper or old greeting cards and make paper clothes, adding the paper tabs.

Now, I have to do this today. I'm annoyed with you, Deb, for providing one more way to procrastinate on my writing!

Anonymous said...

I picked up a large set of paper dolls in Thailand, mainly to get the Sailor Moon dolls. Scans are on the web at

http://washuu.net/images/dolls.htm

Joanna Campbell Slan said...

Deb,

I love paperdolls! I'll have to share some of mine! Thanks for this...I passed the site onto my sister for my nieces.

Anonymous said...

Loved LOVED LOVED my paper dolls, especially Betsy McCall, because she was free and I didn't have to try to loosen my mother's grip on the purse strings to get her.

--LindaB

Kathryn Lilley said...

When I was a child, I had a babysitter who created paper dolls and all kinds of wonderful outfits for them. She was so creative! Kathryn