I see that NOW they've come out with a pattern for the Barbie new body. But for a while there, they didn't. So I designed a pattern for it. Here it is as a .jpg.
Make sure it prints so that the little rectangle is four inches long.
And here's the instructions I wrote for it...
How
to sew Barbie clothes the total lazy bum way!
(Your
five-year-old will be delighted)
This
pattern is for the new bellybutton Barbie body, which has smaller
breasts and larger waist and hips than the traditional Barbie shape.
My daughter has nine
Barbies and four of them are the new shape, but the only clothes
available are "trendy" ones, hip-huggers such as that
shape was designed to wear, and my daughter wants Princess gowns!
There are apparently no commercial patterns available yet for the
new body shape. So I made up my own. Here's the results.
Bear in mind
that these pictures were taken with one of the rough draft
versions of my homemade pattern, so some of the shapes are a
little different :-)
First the
dart seams and shoulder seams
On
the ends of the sleeves, and the back where you're going to put
snaps or velcro, fold over a tiny bit then a wider bit, and sew a
straight seam along there.
Pin
the sleeves into the armholes, making a couple of tucks to take up
the fullness.
Fold over
the sleeve, wrong sides together, and sew along the sleeve and
down the side seam.
For
the neck, zigzag the edge, then fold it inside a little and
straight stitch over the top of it.
Fold both
ends over on the skirt pattern, first a little, then a little
more, and straight stitch along there. Then you're going to
line it up with the waist on the dress, and sew them together.
Hem?
You've got to be kidding. I don't hem curved surfaces, and it's not
like Barbie WEARS these things, she only models them! In case she gets her
new dress muddy (as I've seen her do) and you want to put it in the washer, you
might want to zigzag this edge first before SEWING LACE OVER IT! That's
the total lazy bum way. Then you got to sew snaps or Velcro along the
back. And voila, you're done, in such short time that the five-year-old
standing by your hip all this time hasn't lost interest!
This one's
more fitted. Barbie can't breathe. How lucky that
Barbie doesn't need to!!!
Let's get
official and put a facing into it. Whoa... getting real now.
But still not exactly difficult. Just sew the shoulder
seams, lay it flat, put the facing, stitch around there.
Then you reverse it and press with your fingers to make it flat,
and topstitch.
Then the
darts, then the sides. Finish the edges like the first
model...
Lace instead
of sleeves. I'm so lazy.
And you'll
notice that since the first batch of pictures were taken, my
five-year-old confiscated Sleeping Beauty Barbie and left me with
Bad Hair Day Barbie.
Your skirt
isn't going to have a seam in the front. I was still working
on the prototype here.
Strapless.
Simplicity itself. You don't even have to put boning into
it, or a hidden bra! Just hem along the top, then sew the
darts up.
Gather the
skirt a little bit, or do it the lazy bum way as shown here, four
little pleats.
Fold over
edges twice and stitch up for the hem.
Sew snaps on
it! Voila! Finished!
The skirt's
a little too narrow though, so I added some width.
You could add a couple pieces of ribbon for straps.