Dressmaking for Barbie

Like, I assume, a large proportion of girls who have grown up since the 60s, I had several Barbie dolls (and probably a few fashion-dolls-that-just-happened-to-be-the-same-size-as Barbie).  And while my sister and I had lots of clothes to dress them in (many of which were clothes from my Mum's childhood), I never sewed any myself.  So why now?  Is it a reaction to the stress of uni causing me to regress to childhood?  Well no, much as my assignments (two and a half to go!) have driven me up the wall or into procrastination crafting, the incentive for today's post topic was the upcoming 3rd birthday of my niece.

As a poor uni student, I didn't see the point of spending a lot of money since she has a ton of doting parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles.  Besides, that's good craft money and she's three- it isn't like she understands the difference at this point anyway.  But she loves playing with dolls and with Barbie so I thought I'd try crafting something for a Barbie doll for the first time.  A quick search on google for a pattern or two surprisingly did not turn up as many as I thought.  But the pattern I choose for the first attempt was a lovely simple pattern I got from the Janel was here blog.  Very simple strapless bodice pattern and then you just wing it for the skirt.

Sorry for the photo, afternoon lighting sucks and my prime photo spots are all dark colours which makes the brown dress camouflage in perfectly.  The dress was made using offcuts from a skirt I made for myself a few months ago.  Around the bodice is a row of french knots in gold (note to self, given the vagarities of your ability to do french knots, particularly when doing it in already sewn material, next time just use beads or some other stitch!).  The back is held in place using a velcro fastener (much easier for little fingers to manage than press studs at this point).  All in all, very happy with the pattern (the darts for the shaping are perfect) and I will certainly use the bodice pattern again if I make my niece any more doll clothes.  Christmas is coming, after all...

For now, I need to get off the computer to go wrap up a certain birthday present she's also getting the miniature flower shop that featured in a earlier blog post and a Barbie doll.  This information is safe to post as A) no one in my family knows of my blog (that I know of) and B) my niece can't read :D