Sewing for Barbie

As a kid, I received a Barbie for my 7th birthday. My aunt had sewn her an entire wardrobe, and I was thrilled.

Just like today, the dolls were fairly inexpensive, but the clothes were more than my parents wanted to pay. I remember sewing Barbie clothes with my aunt and grandmother, and it seemed fun then. A couple of decades later, when my children were little, I tried sewing doll clothes again, and it was awful. I hated it. The pieces were small and the effort was too much for the output.

But for Christmas 2019, I got my granddaughter a Barbie, and decided to make some clothes. I didn't like it any better than I did when my girls were little.

A friend posted some Barbie clothes she had made on Instagram, and I responded with a minor rant about what a pain they were to make. My online friend gave me some great pointers on how to make them quick and easy, and even shared some patterns and pattern sources with me. I took the opportunity then to make an entire wardrobe (above) for my granddaughter's birthday.

Barbie clothes, and doll clothes in general, no longer hold any fear for me. In fact, I'm about to make another Barbie wardrobe for another granddaughter's birthday, which is coming soon.

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.

Sewing for Ken

Once I had a wardrobe for Barbie, I realized that Ken deserved equal time.  Naturally I had to purchase a Ken and a Barbie as models for my clothes-making efforts.  Ken showed up at my house wearing only a swimsuit.  Barbie was slightly more fortunate, wearing a top and skirt and adorable pink high heels.  But Ken?  Ken was desperate!  As mentioned in the previous post, not so very long ago, I hated making doll clothes, but I have found a few techniques that have been shared with me, and I've included them here as "helpful hints."  I hope they help you too.

First, I dug in the scrap basket.  I found this piece of gray Kona cotton and a coordinating piece of light gray in a weave design left over from a quilt I made way back when.  I had lots of the gray Kona, but just enough scraps of the weave to make the shirt.  I found patterns for the shirt and the pants at chellywood.com.  Here's the link.  It should be noted though that I did not read the small print.  She clearly says this pattern does not fit Ken...  and she is so right.  I finished the first pair of pants, and I'm not sure it would have fit Barbie.  That first pair went in the trash.  But, being the resourceful person that I am, I slit the let of the pattern up the middle added 1/2" all the way up, and made the pants again.  This time, they fit!  It's possible that adding only 3/8" would have made for better fitting pants with no wrinkle across the derriere, but these are intended for rather little people, and I think ease of dressing and undressing counts for something.

The cutest - and most difficult - part about these pants are the pockets.  Clearly, I have more work to do to make classy back pockets.  Chellywood has a tutorial for the pants, and I assume it includes her method for the pockets, but naturally, being the impatient person that I am, I didn't watch it.  I don't think my littles will care.  

The shirt was from this same pattern, and it fit Ken pretty well.  It was also easy to construct, which counts for a lot.  The collar and sleeves fit perfectly, which is unusual for doll clothes in my experience, and also a plus.  The pattern shows long sleeves, but I cut them short - I live in Florida after all.  Helpful hint:  Hem the sleeves before you sew up the side seam.  For the blue beach shirt, I just used velcro - no buttons.  I cut a piece of 3/4" sew-in velcro in half lengthwise, so enough for 2 shirts from 1 length of velcro.  (The pattern set also has a tie and a pair of dress pants I haven't tried yet.)

This shirt also has a velcro closure, but I really love the effect of the buttons.  They are for show only.  No way do I have patience enough to even attempt buttonholes this size.  And in truth, the littles who are dressing the dolls probably couldn't manage buttons and buttonholes that small anyway.  I had a friend ask where I found the tiny buttons.  I bought them in a package at Joann's in the buttons section.  The brand is Findings.   I also found this online store that has both zippers and buttons for dolls, and Nancy's Notions also has doll buttons, but they seem to be in much larger quantities and consequently, much more expensive.

 I found Ken's T-shirt pattern here.  It looks a bit strange when it isn't on him, but it fits him pretty well.  For the fabric, I cut up a couple of t-shirts that have holes in them.  I have to say, using scraps and worn out clothes does make me feel a bit thrifty.

I used the same pants pattern to make Ken jeans and  shorts from my favorite pair of summer skimmers that unfortunately got a hole in an unmentionable place.  Barbie will get a pair of jeans from these too (and now that I'm making doll clothes, I might make some American Girl clothes since those are sooooo expensive!)   Helpful Hint:  Hem the pants before you sew up the inseam.

At the same time, I went hunting for a pattern for a pair of leggings for Barbie because every girl needs leggings these days.  I cut up a t-shirt I didn't like and Helpful hint:  used the bottom of the cuff for the hem, which made them super fast and rather decorative.  Helpful hint:  Putting the casing in the pants and skirts has been a pain up until now.  On this pair, I tried a technique I used on the sleeves of the hospital gowns - I sewed the casing, pulled the elastic through just far enough to stitch it down on one end,  pulled it the rest of the way through and stitched it down on the other end of the casing, then sewed the back seam.  It's counter-intuitive, but it really cuts down on the frustration of trying to sew the two ends of that tiny piece of 1/8" elastic together.

So, I'm having fun getting these dolls attired before the grands get here next week.  I promised the oldest that we would make clothes for her AG doll, but I think the younger ones would be frustrated trying to sew these little pieces for Barbie and Ken.  Then again, I was making doll clothes with my grandmother when I was about their age.  We may give it a try if they're so inclined.

Sewing for Barbie and Ken

When Spring Break started, I envisioned spending the whole time making quilts.  I was really into cleaning out the scrap baskets and it was going pretty well.  But once the covid-19 craziness started, I started making masks and gowns, and a quilt somehow seemed out of the question.  I just couldn't settle on a pattern, and I really didn't want to cut stuff out when my sewing room was so uprooted by the masks and gowns situation.  But I had gotten one of my granddaughters a Barbie for Christmas, and one day while we were talking on FaceTime, my daughter said that her youngest two would play Barbie for hours.  They had all kinds of adventures.  And imaginary adventures for kids are just my thing.  I really like to encourage kids in that regard.

So I started making Barbie clothes in between mask and gown sessions.  Honestly, I have always hated making Barbie clothes.  Other dolls, OK, but Barbie?  They're just so darned small.  I had made some Barbie clothes for her at Christmas.  And hated it.  All those little pieces!!! But I was lamenting the Barbie situation on Instagram, and an IG friend. said she made lots of Barbie clothes - and there was an easy way and a hard way.  Apparently, I had taken the hard road.

She told me about a Barbie skirt she had made over and over made from a simple rectangle.  She shared her "recipe."  Then she shared a couple of Pinterest pictures of other easy Barbie clothes.  I dug into the scraps from the hospital gowns (of all things!) and started sewing.  First, a skirt.

Then a boxy top to go with it, which is just about the easiest outfit ever!  A rectangle skirt and a rectangle top and two straps (which I have to say I'm pretty good at now after making the ties on masks and gowns for several weeks!)

Then another skirt that coordinated with the top.

Then yet another skirt.  But wait - Barbie needs more tops!

And this top coordinates with all the skirts, so that's a plus.

And let's try putting darts in the top and make another skirt.

And now since I'm getting pretty confident, let's try a dress.  This is the same top as the one above, with a gathered rectangle sewn on as a skirt.  This is pretty fun.

And now let's dig in the scrap bin and find more fabrics to coordinate.  Let's try a strapless dress this time.

And before I knew it - literally in one afternoon - Barbie had a whole new wardrobe for granddaughter's birthday.  And I couldn't wait to sew for Ken. 

Stay tuned!