Last Monday I shared an old vintage Barbie pattern that I thought would be ideal for sewing a poodle skirt. But I mentioned that these older patterns are designed for vintage Barbie, and those older Barbies have a narrower waist than today’s Barbies.

So what pattern would be better for a modern Barbie?

Well before giving you my answer to that question, I wanted to try sewing the pattern I intended to recommend, to make sure it really would fit a modern Barbie, and guess what I discovered…

Whoops! The pattern didn’t fit my modern Barbie right. I had to extend the waistband beyond the edges of the skirt itself, and I added a zipper because it looked like this skirt wasn’t going to close properly at the back.

In the image below, you can see the extensions that I added to my skirt’s waistband:

It is possible (but unlikely) that I didn’t cut the waist part of the circle skirt pattern correctly, and I must also admit that I altered the pattern to some extent; it called for a ribbon waistband, and since I didn’t have any ribbon that matched my skirt fabric, I just cut the waistband out of fabric.

So maybe that’s why it didn’t fit.

In any case, I can’t suggest using McCall’s Crafts pattern #5462 for your next modern-Barbie poodle skirt project, even though I took this wonderful picture, thinking I would recommend it. But no.

The pattern is from the early 1990’s, and by that time, Barbie’s waist wasn’t as tiny as it had been back in the early days. That’s why I felt sure this pattern would fit a modern Barbie.

However I consider myself a fairly experienced seamstress, and although I did read the directions, I found them cumbersome at best.

If you look closely at that pattern, you’ll see that the designer doesn’t have a poodle on the doll’s skirt. Instead they’ve placed a little black button there. I’m not sure if they thought that would make the pattern less intimidating for the average sewist, but I can tell you this poodle skirt pattern isn’t ideal for beginners. Maybe poodle skirts, in general, aren’t for beginners, due to the very nature of the circle skirt style.

Here’s a close-up of the poodle skirt with the button on it:

I have some good news, though. After last Monday’s post on poodle skirts, I received the following message from Joan, one of my followers: “There are three patterns I have that are for Barbie poodle skirts. They are: McCall’s 7932, Simplicity 9334 and 9840.”

So even though I was a little disappointed in this pattern when I found this pattern didn’t fit my modern Barbie, there are other options out there. And this McCall’s Crafts pattern has a few other outfits I might like to try as well.

The little black dress in the upper left hand corner looks cute, and the gold gown is a timeless classic:

But what do you think of those parachute pants for Ken? LOL! Fashions certainly change over time, don’t they?

It seems odd that this very 80’s looking pattern (published in 1990) combines parachute pants and a Flashdance workout suit in the same pattern set with a 50’s style poodle skirt.

But hey, I guess the poodle skirt is always in style! (The poodle skirt is probably why I purchased this pattern, in fact.)

Comments? Feel free to say what you really think…

And if any of you are interested in buying this pattern on eBay, be sure to check out this blog post I wrote with advice for buying used patterns.