1/6th Scale Obsession

At one time, it was my goal to sew copies of all the vintage Barbie outfits. I was without a car in an area with poor public transportation, and had oodles of time to draft patterns, hold the results up against photographs of the real thing, and redraft. Sometimes I went through six versions to get what I believed was the right fit. Commercial sewing patterns for Barbie and similar dolls never fit quite right. The clothes were meant to go on a range of dolls whose measurements were not identical. Really, when a pattern says it will fit Barbie and Tammy, you know you're going to have to tweak it.

Just like the Mattel Sheath Sensation, this version uses seed beads as buttons on the bodice, and has two pockets on the skirt. I cursed those shoulder straps.

I discovered that the boxy suit jacket used in a couple of vintage outfits would work with the sheath.

I couldn't get the shape of the jacket right, and went through several versions. This is a scan, sorry.

Plantation Belle was appealing, but the skirt of the original is a full circle. To get the skirt to behave in real life, I removed a few wedges. Obsessed, I used soutache braid and cut down polyester lace to get the right width. This dotted swiss is poly/cotton but the vintage dress is made from cotton.The model is a repro Barbie. It fits the vintage dolls better.

 The coat to Easter Parade  thrilled me. I found vintage taffeta, and only had to do two trials.

I began with waxed paper, a photograph and a doll. If I had a commercial pattern that approximated the look, I'd cut it in waxed paper and pin it to the doll. The next step was unbleached muslin or any quilting calico. The final step was to find fabrics as close to the originals as possible. To find the right fabrics, I haunted thrift stores, snapping up remnants and pouncing on size 4/0 snaps. Mattel used smaller 5/0 snaps at first.