Piccoli Piselli

Did any of you ever play with paper dolls as a child? I did. Well, kind of. Do you remember Colorforms? I had a set of Holly Hobbie Coloforms that you played with like paper dolls. In case I am dating myself here among the younger crowd, Colorforms are made of thin plastic cut-outs that you could either "stick" on windows or on plastic coated paper. They are repositionable and in my opinion oodles of fun. I can't really picture the set I had too well, but I can still smell that plastic.

Side note: Apparently Colorforms are still around and as popular as ever.

I've kind of veered off original topic...paper dolls, not plastic dolls. There are a couple of great sites for downloading paper dolls. My favorite is a compilation of high resolution images of the first 10 years of Betsy McCall Paper Dolls. The May 1951 issue of McCall's magazine was the introduction of the 5 year old Betsy McCall. You can even find images of Betsy all the way up to the 90's here.

What I love most about these old fashioned paper dolls is not just the fabulous clothes she gets to wear, but the adorable story that accompanies each month. Most are seasonal so in February Betsy "Gets a Valentine", in October Betsy "Meets a Witch" and some peculiar months like "Betsy McCall Has a Half Birthday" or 'Betsy McCall Meets a Sea Monster".

If you want to get some amazing "modern" day paper dolls you must see these from the Black Apple. Emily Martin is an amazing artist (I purchased quite a few of her prints for Luca's bedroom walls). I'll have to post photos of them soon.

Above are some pictures of the paper dolls I printed and cut out. The third picture shows some charming fabric I found with Betsy McCall images. I found it at my local craft/fabric store in a fat quarter bin with no information in the selvage. When I Googled paper doll fabrics I could not find it, but I did find some other beauties...