Happy Flag Day! In celebration of Flag Day and in great anticipation of the new American Girl character, Caroline Abbott from 1812, I had my friend Randa at FreeStuff4Kids.net design us our very own Regency era inspired paper doll and dresses to color, decorate and play with. I also decided to play around with some of the dresses we already have and see what I could do to make them a little more like something Caroline would have worn.
Before we even get to the printables you can have fun “creating” your own Regency fashions using dolls and dresses you already have. One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the dresses in the 1812 time period was the high waistline. You can get creative with doll clothes you may already have and make your own Regency style dresses. I used Elizabeth for our model (who is our next Downy spritz candidate) and borrowed Felicity’s summer dress. I turned the lacy sleeves under to make them shorter and give them a little poofiness (yes, I know that is not a word). Then I took a piece of ribbon and tied it around her waist but at a higher level than it should be for Felicity. Ideally this would work even better using Felicity’s Night Shift or another dress that had no waistline sewn in. I’m sure with a little creativity you can come up with some fun fashions of your own, too.
Now for the good stuff – the printables! Print out multiple copies and design a whole wardrobe of dresses for your 1800′s girl. Add embellishments like small paper or fabric flowers, rick rack trim, or pieces of ribbon to give the dresses your own touch. You could even make some of the dresses a little shorter for day time play or school dresses. Cut out your model and the dresses and have a paper doll fashion show. Another way to give the paper doll and her outfits more play value is to laminate them before you cut them out and then add self adhesive magnets to the back of the dresses. Then you can easily change up the dresses or create scenes on your refrigerator door or on a large metal cookie sheet.
Download the Regency Era Paper Doll and Dress as a PDF file.
Download the additional Regency Era dresses to color as a PDF file.
What do you think of this style? It was a very short-lived trend in fashion as the waist lines quickly came back down by about 1820.
Firstie! Oh this is so cute!
secondie! very cool!!!!!!
secondie (I think) cute!!!
OMGeeeeeeeeeee! That is soooooooooooooooo awesome that paper doll!
These would be great for designing the dresses and then making them. On Etsy there are some people who sell or have sold regency dresses, they are so cool!
And thanks for the printables, they are fab-a-licious!
cool! i sould make a dress like that!
Weird, my birthday is on Flag Day, I guess you learn something new every day.
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday Amber!!!!!! Hope you have a great day!!!!
Happy Birthday, Amber!
Poofiness is not a word? Color me surprised.
These will be fun for the girls I babysit. I make paperdolls myself for my own enjoyment, and they’re always complaining that it’s too hard to draw clothes themselves :rolleyes:
I don’t think Caroline is gonna be from the 1812′s but it is a nice printable
Happy Birthday!
Megan, AG’s confirmed it. She is from 1812.
happy birthday amber. i can not wait tell Caroline is coming out when is her release date? Does she even have a release date?
How cool! Happy Birthday Amber!
Char, do you think i could use Julie’s Birthday Dress ( or whatever it’s called
) for this? I do not have Felicity or any of her clothing so Julie’s dress sounds like a possibility. Also, these paper dolls are so cute!
oh and Happy Birthday, Amber!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! have the best bday ever!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Birthday!
Definitely!
ok thanks! did people wear there hair in buns often? cuz my lanie has her hair in a bun right now. thanks again!
^Yes, they did. Young girls wore their hair down, but young women would wear mostly buns.
agisthebest- I have Julie’s birthday dress, it’s almost exatly the same! I, personaly, think it would work great.
I LOVE PAPER DOLLS!!! YAY!! I might be telling my age with this but when AG Magazine first came out, they had paper dolls every month in the middle of the mag. I have a whole box full of them. Thanks for this Char! I am loving this 100 Days of doll play! I have created a folder on my computer where I save the PDF file daily. That way I can print them out and then go back later if I need more copies of the activity!! LOVE IT!
Cute!!!!!!!
Hi Char, Where did you find out that Caroline is from 1812? Could you give me a link? Oh by the way happy birthday Amber!
^Facebook. They announced it there. And a bunch of people who went to the NY book fair reported a poster with her sillhouette, name & the 1812 date.
thanks lena! you are always so helpful!
also thanks erica!
She is definitely from 1812?? Yes! You have made my week, Lena and Char! I’m so excited for this doll, especially as Monday, June 18th marks the beginning of the commemoration of the War of 1812. Ring the bells for 1812 on Monday!
Char, I know you have a Carpantina doll, and I was exploring on their website, and on the left side of the screen of the home page when you scroll down, there’s a menu listing the different areas of the site, and there’s a section titled patterns, and I clicked on it, and there were patterns for the empire waist fashion for Carpantina dolls. I just thought it was interesting, and I thought maybe you would be too!
Katie – isn’t the Carpatina site neat. Her fashions are amazing!
Hi char I just created a outfit on Nellie that looks like an outfit from Caroline’s time It is real cute I wish I could show it to u!
Hanna – take a picture and email it to me at share@dolldiaries.com
Ok!
Yay
more 1800 era dolls more to my collection now 
and great now I have to decide between 3 hostoricals now -.- wish me luck
Thank you Lena