I was browsing around for some quality reading (AKA dolls reading) and I found the digital version of “Fashion/ Forward“, a mini magazine (a supplement to Dolls Reader) dedicated to fashion for dolls. I love that the outfits and accessories are presented and described as in real fashion magazines.

Brenda Cox is one the designers reviewed in this issue, look at her beautiful creations for our favorite doll: Barbie! and start to dream

Don’t miss though the preview of Gene paper dolls and the review of the a steampunk bride dress and pattern for Ellowyne: you can download the instructions and patterns itself here.

The only disappointment is that you cannot download the mag as PDF file but..oh well…we’ll survive.

If after this dolls and fashion galore you are still lusting for more check out the Dolls magazine. From the home page you can download (as PDF!!!) the digital preview of their December issue. They are just few pages but really nice I’m totally in love now with Goodreau Upside Down Oz collection!

ok…ok…I’m a bit single minded…but not really! I don’t always lust after dolls or dream about miniature furniture. Sometimes I also get fascinated by paper (dolls, models, craft) and I have a soft spot for fashion, even just looking at clothes lift my spirit and if I can buy even better. I love for example the new blog I stumbled upon:paper fashion! I’m tempted to write to the owner and ask to post a nice paper-doll as freebie, it would be stunning!

Another blog of fashion illustrations I like very much is Flushbunny, look at the fashion sketch inspired to Jem dolls, don’t you love it? And let’s not forget the fantastic Irina Ivanova’s flickr stream.

But here are my faves

I would really like to post tons of links, I think fashion illustrations are just art on their own and they remind me very often of beautifully crafted paper dolls (ok, so perhaps after all I AM SINGLE MINDED).

And this reminds  me also of what is most probably next on my wish list (the one for things I can actually get ): it looks like a nice set

It comes with patterns, a paper doll and much more.

And a new Barbie calendar for the year to come:

I will let you know if I ever come around buying them

Always from DeviantArt: Tracy Turnblad paper doll:

Tracy Turnblad Paper Doll by ~Cor104 on deviantART

I  spent again almost 2 hours on the site looking at the amazing pictures and not just paper dolls!

I found this on DevianArt:

Tiana Paper Doll by ~Cor104 on deviantART

Is she not beautiful? I love her!!!

Today I was all excited because we planned to visit 2 big flea-markets in town and even if the weather didn’t look good we tried anyway but…oh boy…on the way in it started raining cats and dogs. We anyway went to the first one hoping it would stop pouring down but no chance.

After getting soaked for 20 minutes we just went back home

I’m so disappointed and no nice finds for me to show. So I thought about posting about some of my nice recent “virtual” dolls finds: paper dolls!!!

The first one is Betty Boop from Paper dolls and other paper toys blog. I love the fact that the doll comes with clothes inspired to famous movies, included “Gone with the Wind”.

Always on the same blog I found some Modern Barbie dolls, they are really nice, they look like Fashion Fever girls. So all together a site to bookmark.

Then surfing around I saw these pd from The Office. They are not really paper dolls in the classic sense since you cannot change their clothes but I liked them and I’m a huge fan of the show. If you never saw The Office you need to pick the DVD up, it is just hilarious.

Last but not least some Nancy Drew pd from Tangarang blog (I never read the books but I believe they are quite popular here in Germany) and not really paper dolls but paper models of Final Fantasy characters , who didn’t play at least once with the game? I actually tried really just once long ago but it was too complex for me

I really enjoyed my first day back home. What can I say? I’m a creature of habit. I just love to sit on my sofa, my cat beside me, my laptop close by, my husband just a kiss away

To make the day perfect I received one of my Amazon preorders: “Cinderella-Paper dolls and 17th Century Costumes” by Brenda Sneathen Mattox and “Michelle Style” by Mandy Norwood.

I also found a new blog!!!If you are a lover of paper dolls  as well check “Passion 4 Paperdollz”, it is a beautiful blog and each month the author offers great pd for download. My favourite ones are the Modern Deco paper doll and “It’s a fashion thing” but she has many other nice ones, included Reese Whiterspoon.

And if you are also an admirer of Michell Obama, read the long interview published by Time, found via Mrs.O blog.

Tomorrow it is time start working again but…I even missed my colleagues, just don’t tell them so that’ s ok . I hope you are all having a nice springy week.

I’ve been wanting to reroot dolls for quite a while ( I have few of them who are really in need of new hair) but the written tutorials on the net never helped me much. There’s always a step I don’t understand.

In all “manual” things I need to see it done to be able to repeat, or at least attempt to. All of this to say…THANK YOU YOUTUBE!!! Here some absolutely brilliant, clear, neat tutorials on rerooting dolls (incidentally I need to reroot Sindy dolls).

With reroot tool:

Knot technique

Lock and Loop method:

This last one looks like the best of all 3 but also the more time-consuming one.

I love the stories of queens of the past like Elizabeth the first, Sissi from Austria or Marie Antoinette. At the moment I’m reading “Queen of fashion: what Marie Antoinette wore to the Revolution” by Caroline Weber:

I really like the way she tells Marie Antoinette story, with a fresh perspective on the social and cultural implications and impact of the clothes wore by the queen.

To celebrate the reading of the book here is a nice free paper doll I found, of Marie Antoinette of course!!!

from Totally Severe, thank you so much, I really like her

I also would love to get the DVD of “Marie Antoinette” movie from 1938 with Norma Shearer and the paper doll inspired to it, the costumes look just awesome.

This evening I got lost in DeviantART. I didn’t visit the site for a while and I almost forgot what amazing stuff you can find there.

Here are some of my favorite paper dolls, but really a small selection: Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett, they are really nice and you can download them with the DOWNLOAD button on the left handside or from the link at the bottom of the page.

I also like the flash paper doll of Mrs Lovett:

Mrs.Lovett flash dress up doll by *Rinmaru on deviantART

If you want to play, give it a go.

Another flash paper doll is Jessica Rabbit, just drop dead gorgeous

And then, again a traditional one, John Travolta as Edna in Hairspray, just great!

Edna Turnblad Paper Doll by ~Cor104 on deviantART

Just go to the site and you will spend hours browsing

It looks like the idea of using dolls, specifically paper dolls, to advertise products is not so new. Here is the leaflet promoting a tobacco brand, the customers were promised a free paper doll posted to them when sending 6 coupons from the product packages. I think it is from the  19th century:

I found it on the digital gallery site of the New York Public Library.

It looks like the company anyway was fond of paper dolls since they published also some farm-yard animals pd on the Blackwell’s Durham telegraph, here you can see them.

Here you can actually see the list of items available for customers according to how many coupons they sent in. Basically a “loyalty program” ante litteram, fascinating!