How to entertain yourselves
You will need
Paper dolls
3 or 4 gay or female friends
Nothing to do
Like many little girls I loved playing with paper dolls. I would expand their wardrobes with my own crude designs—I’ve always been partial to capes, armor-like shirtwaists and long coats that could carry a sword. Do kids still play with paper dolls? There are many websites that let you mix and match outfits, but there’s nothing like drawing designs on paper and cutting them out with tabs so they can be attached to the 2D mannequins.
Last Saturday while we were sitting around having coffee I took out the book of paper dolls that I bought for James and keep forgetting to hand over. (Maybe because I really don’t want to part with it.)
I haven’t seen these paper dolls in local bookstores, only Disney princess paper dolls and “beauty queen” paper dolls with fugly clothes. Dover publishes paper doll books with designs from the 1920s-1990s, the Belle Epoque, the Medieval and Victorian eras, etc; their website is here.
We started playing “Which One Is You?”, a game which usually involves going into a store and picking out an outfit or accessory. This time we passed the book around and each one chose the dress that was most herself/himself.
To make the game more complicated we also chose the dresses that we thought the others would choose for themselves, then the dresses we considered appropriate for them, then the dresses we guessed they would choose for us, then the dresses we thought they thought we’d choose for them. Because there is no game so simple that we can’t give ourselves headaches while playing it.
Big Bird chose this for himself: a short flowery muu-muu. Also, he liked the pose.
Ernie approved of this concept: peasant couture.
Bert went for the architectural.
And everybody knew which one I’d chosen.
It is not floral chiffon.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
August 3rd, 2010 at 11:09
I miss my old toys….those that are creatively crafted out of a child’s boredom…
August 3rd, 2010 at 12:31
The third one looks like something out of female anatomy. How, er, fitting.
August 3rd, 2010 at 13:29
I have a Dover paper doll book which I received as a kid! I still have it up to now. It’s the Pavlova & Nijinsky paper dolls, also by Tom Tierney (which I couldn’t find in the website but was able to Google it). I really wanted to cut it out and play with them, but my mom wouldn’t let me. My dad’s boss, who gave me the book, said I should do what I please since it was mine anyway. I ended up not cutting the paper dolls out and just using my imagination to play with them. I’m kinda glad I didn’t. Now I can just photocopy the pages in color and finally get the chance to play with my ballerina paper dolls! Yay!
I also made my own paper dolls by drawing all the dolls and clothes myself. It was a good way to use your imagination and creativity, plus it doesn’t cost anything.
August 3rd, 2010 at 20:29
Why nobody chose that geometric Piet Mondrian-inspired cut baffles me; oh those red stockings, rad! rad! rad! :D
August 4th, 2010 at 10:05
Oh, my sisters and I had those paper doll books too. But the paper dolls we loved the most were drawn by my sister. They were the teen Pebbles and her friends Wiggy and Penny from the Flintstones spin off, and they had lots and lots of clothes, and were always going to parties. Kids were much more imaginative and creative with their play back then.