paper doll party!

‘Member the paper doll I made for an East Coast friend a few years back? The doll that created a firestorm of controversy because some random commenter thought I’d made an evil devil-worshipping poppet doll? And then I got all mad at him and wrote a whole raving post about it??

Good times. Good times.

Well, not long after that, still being possessed by the devil, I made a doll for Piper’s 5th birthday using the same pattern — only her face on the doll, of course, not mine. Then I made like 5 different outfits for the Piper Paper Doll. Completely nutso of me, I know. She opened them and gasped and — I remember this — blushed this sweet pink blush. Her mom has them stored in a special box and while I knew she might be too young for them when I gave them to her, apparently, now she’s really into them, wants to know how to make more clothes for them, and has told my sister she, uhm, “wants to be a designer, like Tee Tee.” Hahahahahahaha. As I sit here in my ratty jeans. Yes, I am so Vera Wang.

Well, my BIL took a bunch of photos of them back then, sent them to me, and the files were just too huge to load on the blog. Plus, I didn’t have a cellphone then so there was no way to take crappy cellphone photos of them. But now, I have “the best news ever!” as Piper would say. When we went trick-or-treating with her this year, she got them out and I took some super-crappy cellphone photos! At night! In her dimly lit bedroom! YEE-HAW!

So here we go. I will explain as we go. Because, yes, some explanations are in order. The first one being that for several of the shots, the Piper Paper Doll was posed in a bucket of Piper’s Halloween candy.

This one is your basic blue medieval sunflower princess. Note the cone cap with the frizzles dangling from the top. I guess you can’t see those too well. Trust me. There are requisite medieval frizzles dangling there on the right side of her head. The top is just a random bit of paper I had. The skirt is tissue paper covered with this silver metallic tulle. There are sequins here and there because if you’re making a doll for a little girl, there had better be sequins. Oh, and dolly has no shoes. None of the dolls has shoes. Uhm, because I got tired and her birthday was coming up fast. So they are all just wild elfin creatures running barefoot through the forest. Little bohemian wood nymphs. Or some such.

Your basic pink petal princess and/or fairy. Hat and skirt made from fake flower petals. Top, textured paper trimmed in gold ribbon. Oh, and rather than make it easy on myself and make them all one-piece outfits, I made separate tops and bottoms. I guess so she could mix and match. Or because the devil possessing made it impossible to stop. Oh, and also? This is where we enter into the weirdest area. It’s kind of embarrassing. Okay. This is SO OCD. I don’t like little tabs on paper dolls. I have vast and lonely experience with paper dolls from childhood and those damn tabs were always the first thing to go. Every time. They were always the flimsiest part of every paper doll, as if they were made of toilet paper. They’d rip. They’d get soggy when you dropped them in your cereal. They’d just generally decompose. They suck and I hate them. And I remembered being 7 years old and hating them. So ….. the doll is actually two dolls glued together …. with a flat metal rod between them. Then I made all tops, bottoms, and with flat magnets on the back and so they just stick to Paper Piper’s body. The freakin’ doll is magnetized!! Like, wha?? It seemed entirely rational — maybe even ingenious — at the time, but looking back, it is totally insane. It took me forever. Plus, the “flat metal rod” I just mentioned? Let’s be honest. I tore it off the Saran Wrap box in my kitchen, promptly forgot that I had even done that, and then got all pissed off at the Saran Wrap when I couldn’t tear it off anymore.

All just an outgrowth of my deep-seated paper tab hatred and generalized mania.

Your basic pink-and-purple jazzy princess. With a tissue paper and fake flower skirt. And a flapper headband. (That pink pearly thing behind her to the left is not part of the doll.) Oh, and allow me to further mention that this is a black-and-white copy of a picture of Piper that I …. uh, hand-colored. Her hair, her cheeks, her lips, etc. Yup. OC DeeDee.

Sweet Lord, this photo is awful. I apologize for any permanent damage to your retinas. Your basic golden princess minus her crown — we forgot that, but it’s imperative that you know that she has a golden crown, pippa. This skirt is actually my favorite, I think, and Piper thinks it looks like a wedding dress. A layer of white tissue paper, topped with this amazing lace ribbon, and trimmed with a scrap of woven gold ribbon.

So, okay. Piper as Peppermint Patty. I dunno. I thought she should have a casual alternative. You know, in case dolly’s going to a luau. Or a wienie roast. Or moving to Boca.

I’m a nutjob.