Sewing for Barbies

Tuesday night I resolved to sew some clothes for Abby’s Barbies. Her new ones all came with clothes, of course, but she’s gotten a few from Facebook yard sales that came without a stitch. I did sew one dress a little over a year ago, when machine sewing was still pretty new to me, but due to some novice choices in fabric and style, I determined one was plenty. Don’t start out making tiny clothes your first time with slippery knits, y’all!

The problem presented itself when they had a ballet a couple weeks ago, but not everyone could attend because there weren’t enough clothes to go around. Can’t be naked at the theater! Since I’ve sewn a few things since then and have become more ambitious, I figured it’d be easy enough to have another go at it.

I started with a slip dress, in a fashionable purple crushed velvet.

Easy enough, let’s move on to pants. They have one pair to share among their what, dozen? Fifteen? Buttloads, anyway. You’d be surprised how often Barbies are on clearance for a couple bucks.

So, pants. I used that one pair as a guide, leaving plenty of room for seam allowance and plastic thighs. Or so I thought. Would you believe I made pants that are too freaking small for Barbie? I did. They’re meant to be capris, so don’t scoff at the length.

They won’t even go past her knees. Sigh. I tried again, this time leaving even more room.

Success!

Now, a longer dress. Abby was started to get a little restless with picking fabrics and whatnot, so I wasn’t going to piece anything together with darts. One front, one velcro’d back, strapless.

We have a new model, one not so willing to stand–or lean, I guess. Lazy bum! Abby promptly dubbed this style the ‘wedding dress,’ and so we retired to the living room to get some Barbies hitched, to live happily ever after.