Making Barbie a Swimsuit

I mentioned in a previous post that when Ken got here, all he had was a swimsuit - in fact, when I got my first Barbie back in the day, the only item of clothing any Barbie came with was a swimsuit.  Times have changed!  Apparently, the constant beach-going got the kids playing "go to the beach" and E wondered why Barbie didn't have a swimsuit.  I was pretty sure I could fix that pretty easily.

It was not as easy as I thought.

I scoured Pinterest and the internet for a Barbie swimsuit pattern.  No dice.  The closest I came was this outline on Pinterest.    There was no .pdf pattern and no real way to print it out.  I finally took a screen shot, dropped it in a Word document, and sized it as best I could using the ruler guide on the screen.  Barbie's body is about 5" from shoulder to crotch, so that is the measurement I used.

Once I got the pattern printed out, I cut it out of a piece of scrap knit I had.  I liked the red mostly because the Barbie I had when I was little had a red swimsuit.  The pattern as it printed was about the right length, but way too wide, so I had to fit as I went.  It's still a little big, in fact, but I decided to go with it because it is easier for little hands to manage.

So now Barbie and Ken both have swimsuits and can go to the beach (or the pool) whenever they wish.