Costume History

Paper Dolls are a great way to learn more about the history of what people wear now and have worn in the past. Our clothing says a lot about our society and our lives. Besides that, paper dolls are fun to color and cut. I drew the paper dolls offered here at PolyMarket Press for my own amusement after studying Costume History and Design in college, but I like to share–so I sell them too.

Some of them have appeared in DollMaker Magazine, and all of them are due for a refurbishment soon, as I plan to put them into .pd form and make them available for people to download and print themselves, along with a tutorial of how to use programs like Paint, Photoshop, to color them in digitally and print them out, or print in black and white. Then color them in! I still love to spend time with my felt tip markers or colored pencils.

Here’s an example of one of the Egyptian Princess costumes colored in using Sanford Prismacolor Markers.