Paperdoll Review Issue 97 - Tea Party Paper Dolls, Hosting Tips, Vintage Fashion & Nostalgia

 

Paperdoll Review Issue 97

Let's Have a Paper Doll Tea Party! 

Put the kettle on, pick a paper doll book, grab your scissors, and you're ready to sip, snip and play paper dolls! Our latest issue #97 puts two favorite pastimes together—tea and paper dolls—in one delightful issue. As managing editor, I'm always on the lookout for subjects that could work for our magazine. Some are better suited to a stand-alone article, while others are worth exploring as a main theme throughout the magazine. I've been collecting tea-themed paper dolls for years, and as my collection grew, the idea grew to cover the topic in a variety of ways. So I put the "tea" on the docket and asked my contributors to bring their best ideas to the table.

Goldilocks, a British 1950 read-and-dress book; Alice in Wonderland, Whitman, 1976; a Shackman reproduction of Cecile from the 1940 Dionne Quints series.

These tea party greeting cards fall into the paper toy category, with props to punch out and insert into scenes.

Martha Raively piped up with a charming idea: an article on tea party tips. As a retired librarian, she loved the idea of diving into old etiquette books and comparing their advice to today’s tips for hosting a cozy tea. For visuals, I decided to focus on paper dolls that specifically depict a tea party, including several charming book covers and vintage greeting cards that invite you right into the scene.

Tea Gowns, Jenny's Tea Party Dress-a-Doll, Brits & Their Tea

More ideas bubbled up among our contributors. Fashion historian Brenda Sneathen Mattox covered elegant tea gowns, while my co-editor Lorna Currie Thomopoulos explored the rich traditions of the British tea culture. 

For our dress-a-doll feature, the subject is yours truly! Starting with a paper doll drawn by David Wolfe a birthday gift, we asked readers to create costumes to fit the tea party theme of their choice. I was tickled pink to see all the clever, pretty costumes that came in. Shown above is one of the 6 dress-a-doll pages displayed throughout the magazine. 

As if there weren't already enough "Jenny" in the issue, Bruce Patrick Jones surprised me with a new paper doll called "Jenny á la Mod" featuring fashions I've really worn at paper doll conventions—including Coca-Cola pants on loan from Bruce himself! He created it for his article on "Paper Dolls of Paper Doll People," and as a bonus, Bruce granted permission to make the paper doll available as a free download! Click here for the link.

This is just a sampling of all the paper doll goodness filling the pages of Paperdoll Review Issue 97. If you love tea parties, vintage fashions and nostalgia, this one's for you! Click here to order Issue 97, or better yet, click here to subscribe so you can enjoy future issues of paper doll fun!

Paperdoll Review 2025 Year in Review - All the Pretty Paper Dolls!

 

Paper Doll Books and Magazines of 2025!

Look at all the fabulous paper doll books and magazines from 2025! None of this would be possible without the talents of our artists, writers, editors and designers—and, of course, all of you wonderful collectors who buy our paper dolls and subscribe to the magazine! Thank you to everyone for keeping us going!

Tom Tierney - Thanks to Tom's niece Kathy O'Tierney, we have two new paper doll books by Tom! Parade of Stars celebrates eight classic stars who had been special guests of Paper Doll events in LA. Cherished characters from Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz are transformed into paper dolls in Tom's Alice and Dorothy.

Julie Allen Matthews illustrated two fun books: Emma McKay Every Day, inspired by classic magazine paper dolls such as Betsy McCall; and A Very Flapper Halloween featuring a flirtatious flapper and her spooktacular fancy dress costumes. 

Ralph Hodgdon entrusted us with a big stack of his original paper doll art in hopes we'd publish new paper doll books. In 2025 we issued Marie Antoinette Vol. 1 and Marion Davies. We hope to offer more books by Ralph in 2026!

Dan DeSantis has become a favorite among collectors. Two books came out in 2025: Madaling and Lockie McLuckie, both inspired by adventurous ladies of the Jazz Age. Coming in 2026: Beverly Bazaar!

Kwei-lin Lum created the most inventive paper doll of all! A to Z Paper Dolls takes you from Apricots to Zodiacs. Isabelle and Chloe model fantastic fashions based on alliterative adages, one for each letter of the alphabet. 

Eileen Rudisill "Rudy" Miller created a classy collection of 20th Century Couture Paper Dolls, showcasing 100 years of fashion, from Worth to Versace. Rudy is already working on two new books for Paperdoll Review. What are the topics? Think tea and princesses!

Inspired by our own girls' camping trip early in 2025, Alina Kolluri dreamed up a camping trip for paper dolls in a most charming book called Glamping with Opal and Briar Lee. Alina also illustrated a paper doll book featuring authentic folk costumes for her favorite storybook character in Red Riding Hood in the Black Forest.

In association with the Deanna Williams estate, we produced another delightful paper doll book by Deanna—Caroline Comes Calling with elegant Victorian era gowns.

Rachel Cohen tapped into the big-eyed doll craze with her Big Eyed Girlies paper doll book, inspired by such dolls as Blythe, Pullip and Rainbow High.

Golly, that's a lot of terrific paper dolls! We also issued a mid-century reproduction called Hisayo-chan’s Dress-up and produced three issues of our Paperdoll Review magazine! 

There's a whole lot of paper doll image sharing happening all over the Internet, but we need folks to actually buy paper dolls in order to stay in business. We take pride in producing high quality, professionally published books and magazines and hope collectors will continue to shop and new generations will embrace this enriching form of play. Whether you're into fashion, classic film, storybooks, history, nostalgia or kitsch, there's a paper doll for you! Please visit paperdollreview.com and shop for paper dolls!

Jenny's Favorite Paperdoll Review Magazine Issue Soars to New Heights in Sci-Fi Style

My Favorite Paperdoll Review Issue

The comic's Katy Keene by Bill Woggon is featured on the cover of
Paperdoll Review Issue 95 (2025)

As I enter my 35th year of publishing paper doll magazines, I must confess that I've said "This issue is my favorite" upon publication of every single issue. The pride and joy is palpable as I flip through a copy of the magazine fresh from the printer. Though I have a hand in every square inch of its 48 pages, I couldn't do it without the many wonderful folks who provide art and articles and assistance with design, editing, proofreading, suggestions, and so on. Our printer does a fantastic job, too!

Here's what's different about this "most favorite issue." The overall theme is Sci-Fi Style—and the thing is, I am not at all a sci-fi fan. I have no interest in sci-fi movies, TV shows or comic books. I've never been to a comic-con and I know nothing of the Marvel Universe. But here's what I do like: fashion and paper dolls. Add sci-fi to the mix and we've got a colorful, creative array of paper dolls to enjoy! I may not like sci-fi, but I sure like sci-fi style!

ci-Fi Style Dress-a-Doll pages from Paperdoll Review Issue 95
Doll by Kwei-lin Lum, costumes by our readers

 
I super enjoyed seeing the creative costumes come in for our dress-a-doll as well as the wild and wacky paper dolls submitted by artists. The stellar design on the front cover is from a vintage 1963 Katy Keene Comic by Bill Woggon. Though she's not a sci-fi girl, Katy imagined many out-of-this world scenarios including a honeymoon in space.

Iconic Sci-Fi Characters, our lead article by Kwei-lin Lum

Kwei-lin Lum has the coolest paper doll collection of anyone I know, and she graciously offered to cover Iconic Science Fiction Characters in her feature article which includes Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Superman, Captain Marvel, The Jetsons, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, and many more. 

Steampunk Style article by Lorna C. Thomopoulos

My favorite article is Lorna's piece on Steampunk Style. The super cool paper dolls shown here are by Sandra Vanderpool. Sandy and her BFF Bev Micucci created altered books centered around the paper doll. The costumes are designed to be removed from each page to dress on the doll. 

We couldn't do a Sci-Fi issue without including Star Trek! So our resident Trekkie, Tracy Williams, takes us into the world of Star Trek Fandom. And to round out the issue, we have two non-theme articles: Listen & Play Paper Dolls and a Ginghams Paper Doll Mystery. Click here to order the issue or better yet, subscribe to our magazine!

 Soon I will begin work on the next issue, which is sure to become my favorite.

The Best Paper Doll Ever? A Stellar Creation by Bruce Patrick Jones for our Summer Fun Issue

The Best Paper Doll Ever?

"Alexander Catches the Wave" by Bruce Patrick Jones
for Paperdoll Review Issue 94 (2025)

When Bruce Patrick Jones sent me the preliminary sketch of his surfing paper doll, it was a jaw-dropping moment. It was last May, and I was in the car with my girlfriends following our Morgantown, PA, Paper Doll Luncheon. I passed my phone around to show off Bruce's art, and everyone had the same jaw-dropping response. 

We've all come to expect excellent artistry from Bruce, but this particular paper doll is exceptionally good. First off, we recognized the subject as Bruce's partner, Alexander Best. We were all charmed by Alexander during his first paper doll convention last year, so it was especially fun to see him transformed as a paper doll. No, Alexander is not a surfer, but in the paper doll world there are no limits. Surfing is an unexpected subject for paper dolls. In fact, we found very few to go with an article on the topic for Paperdoll Review Issue 94.

The general theme for this issue is Summer Fun and we planned articles on boating and golfing. Considering my co-editor, Lorna Thomopoulos, is a former surfer who married a champion surfer, she simply had to write about surfing. Any article in our magazine needs to relate to paper dolls, so the hunt was on. I asked Bruce if he had any surfing paper dolls. He did not, but he could certainly draw one! 

Though I was expecting a surfing-themed paper doll from Bruce, I never imagined it would be this dynamic. The handful of paper dolls we did find depict figures standing up, some holding a surfboard, some with a separate surfboard to cut out, along with a few outfits suitable for the beach, swimwear and maybe a wetsuit. So it was especially exciting to see Bruce's paper doll showing a surfer actually surfing! Putting a paper doll in an unusual pose is a challenge in getting proportions right while at the same time being visually pleasing and functional as a paper doll. Bruce hits all of those marks. 

The artistry itself is something to behold. The details are realistic yet not overworked. Notice how Bruce achieved the look of partly wet fabric in the white shirt. The overall design is exceptionally good. The eye goes right into that wave, and we feel the anxiety on Alexander's face. 

Here's the behind-the-scenes scoop: Bruce had Alexander pose in the living room, mimicking the movements of a surfer, and also referred to photographs of Alexander on a vacation, his hair slicked back from the sea. Alexander actually wore those swim trunks in his living room pose. The other clothes are Bruce's own designs based on his research of what "surfer guys" wear. The pattern on the purple shorts comes from one of Bruce's mother's old dresses! Why did Bruce choose Alexander as his model? Simply because he was available and willing... and a cheap model, added Bruce. The art is all done in watercolor, and the pink bar at the bottom is gouache.  

Though I consider this paper doll to be the star of the issue, Bruce himself has a starring role. He happens to be our featured artist with a 6-page article about his work as a commercial artist and his long connection to the paper doll community. If you'd like to dive in to this issue, click here to order. Better yet, subscribe to our specialty magazine—all about paper dolls!