How to make a paper doll chain with dresses
Paper Doll Chain with Dresses: try all 9 steps in the 3D player. Turn and replay every move. Print the complete diagram sheet or save it as PDF.
Accordion-fold a paper strip into four panels and cut one doll in a dress through all of them. The hands stay joined at both folded sides, and the strip opens into four dolls with pigtails and flared skirts holding hands.
- You need
- Thin paper, a pencil, a ruler and scissors.
- Start
- Begin with one 24 × 8.4 cm strip of thin coloured paper. Mark four equal 6 cm panels along its length.
Your model is ready
Open every fold and smooth the strip flat. Draw a face and colour a pattern on each dress, then hang the chain on the tree or across the party table. The finished paper doll chain, four dolls in dresses holding hands.
Step-by-step diagrams
- 1
Fold panel 1 over the next
Measure another 60 mm panel. Fold the entire left packet over the paper to its right, lining up the edges. Keep all panels the same width.
- 2
Fold panel 2 behind the next
Measure another 60 mm panel. Fold the entire left packet under the paper to its right, lining up the edges. Keep all panels the same width.
- 3
Fold panel 3 over the next
Measure another 60 mm panel. Fold the entire left packet over the paper to its right, lining up the edges. Keep all panels the same width.
- 4
Cut over the head and arms
Draw the doll on the top panel first: a round head with a pigtail on each side, arms out to both folded sides and a flared skirt down to the bottom edge. Start on the left folded side at the top of the arm, 27 mm below the top edge. Cut in along the arm to the neck, round the pigtail and the head, and out along the other arm to the right folded side at the same height. Cut through all four layers.
- 5
Cut beside the left skirt
Start on the left folded side at the underside of the arm, 6 mm below the first cut, so each hand stays joined across the fold. Cut in to the armpit, down the edge of the dress and out along its flaring side to the bottom edge, 6 mm in from the fold.
- 6
Cut beside the right skirt
Start on the bottom edge 6 mm in from the right folded side. Cut up the other side of the skirt to the armpit and out under the arm to the right folded side, the same height as on the left.
- 7
Open pleat 3
Open this crease gently, leaving the earlier folds closed. Keep the uncut joins together.
- 8
Open pleat 2
Open this crease gently, leaving the earlier folds closed. Keep the uncut joins together.
- 9
Open pleat 1
Open this crease gently, leaving the earlier folds closed. Keep the uncut joins together.
- ✓
Finish
Open every fold and smooth the strip flat. Draw a face and colour a pattern on each dress, then hang the chain on the tree or across the party table. The finished paper doll chain, four dolls in dresses holding hands.
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