I did not have time today, as I had planned, to dedicate exclusively toward my dolls, but I didn't want to start my first week of scheduled postings off on the wrong foot. So I share with you today something like proof that I'm actually working on these: a draft of the coats and hats for the Morse brothers.

I do all of my drafting on old dot-matrix printer paper (you can see the little "feed" holes up top if you click to make the image bigger). I work out the designs in pencil over rough outlines of the characters. Then I use a lightbox to make sure the measurements are correct before transferring the designs to the actual watercolor paper for coloring. I'm actually considering doing these clothes on cardstock instead of water color paper since I will probably be coloring them with markers instead of paints.

I'll probably make some changes on these before they are finished, including more specificity in the pattern on the vests, and adjustments to the lapels on the winter coat there. Not sure about the hat on Tennessee. I can't imagine him wearing a hat, though surely he must have one. I might change it to another style. I have some ideas, but I will reveal them later.

Today's offering (the first of hopefully many Fashion Plate Fridays to come), is from Magasin des Demoiselles, February, 1859 and features some lovely children's fashions in addition to the more common adult subject.  A number of my female characters are young girls in the 1850s, so I have been particularly looking for these kinds of examples.

Children's clothes wouldn't become more practical under late in the century. For most of the era, girls dresses were simply miniature versions of what their mothers were wearing, with shorter skirts until age 14-18 (depending on the culture and social status of the family), when a girl was expected to come into society as marriageable young lady.

I especially like the little blue booties on the older of the two girls here (probably dyed satin in this case).

This plate was found at the immense and amazing Casey Fashion Plates Index, courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library.

Inspired by the maestro, who did not live nor die in the Victorian era, but who accomplished so much well before he reached my age, I am attempting to get some kind of schedule going for this blog. I have decided to commit myself to updating on certain days of the week. This will insure that you get fabulous new content on a regular basis and that I will stay focused providing it! I think I have attempted to set a schedule before, but never posted it. In this way I will make myself accountable!

So, starting on the 29th of January, I plan to adhere to the following schedule:

Monday Mourning: fashions, ephemera, and other notions surrounding the intricacies of Victorian mourning (an art form all its own!)

Tuesday Tabs: Victorian-styled paper dolls by other artists from my personal collection and others found around the web.

Fashion Plate Friday: plates from the 1830s-1900 from my own collection and the many internet collections around the web.

Saturday Sartorial: Original paper dolls and their clothes!

Check out: 19th Century Post: a mourning cover & miscellany collection. This website has a lot to offer! The miscellany part includes a great blog with a variety of interesting art & ephemera (including many painting and photographs of the fashions of the day), and the rest of the site is devoted to mourning covers (envelopes), which were an art form all their own in the 19th Century. You always knew it was bad news when you received a letter with black-trimmed edges or a black seal of wax. Click on the image at the left to see some details on this English example from 1872, then go browse the rest!

What a beautiful (if somewhat sad) collection of letters... 

I have been away a while, but as I promised, I have been working (slowly). I have been much encouraged by the comments I have received lately ~ it's always nice to know someone is reading the blog and following along and hoping for updates. It definitely motivates me to get back to updating!

Today I am sharing with you a draft of three new dolls from the Morse family (from left to right): Ginny (short for Virginia), Tennessee (also called States), and Mish (short for Michigan). There are nine children in the Morse family, so for the moment six other sisters are absent (want to guess which states they are?).

The Morses are the "ideal" Southern family of the era: wealthy, beautiful people who have literally been raised to "inherit the earth". Their father is a retired merchant sea captain who built a fortune in the slave trade and other "property" investments. But their world is far from ideal. Scarlet fever took their mother and blinded Ginny at a young age. Mish is a willful abolitionist zealot, and Tennessee...well, there's just something not quite right about him.

And that's all the backstory you'll get from me for now. I'm working on their first outfits this weekend and will post a draft of those as well. Ultimately the downloadable/printable versions of these dolls will be featured along with the series when it kicks into gear hopefully in February!