You may remember seeing the pretty elastic-waist and elastic-neckline Barbie dress that I made, using McCall’s “Teen Doll” Barbie Clothes Sewing Pattern #3429, which was first published in the 1970’s. Here’s the link to that original blog post, if you’re curious, and here’s the doll dress I made, using that pattern:

Unfortunately, my McCall’s “Teen Doll” Barbie Clothes Sewing Pattern #3429 was missing its pinafore pattern.

Have a look at the McCall’s pattern 3429 below. In the lower right corner, you can see the elastic-waist dress I’ve made, and beside it, you can see that it’s meant to have a pinafore. On the McCall’s pattern, the pinafore is pictured in a blue plaid or blue gingham:

I bought the McCall’s pattern on eBay, knowing it was an incomplete pattern. The seller had circled the pattern pieces that would come with the pattern, and you can see the seller’s writing on the cover of the McCall’s pattern in that image above.

So she was an honest seller, and a good person! (If you’re wondering how to watch out for bad pattern sales on eBay, I recommend reading this article.)

But I knew that I also had my Butterick craft pattern #4687, which, as you can see below, actually came with a similar pinafore:

So I compromised. I purchased the incomplete McCall’s pattern and used the Butterick pattern’s pinafore piece to create the finished pioneer-style dress you see below:

I don’t think the Butterick pattern’s pinafore is quite as long as the McCall’s pinafore’s pattern, but if I wanted to create another one,  I could certainly lengthen the skirt of the pinafore as a simple alteration.

Instead, I just followed the Butterick pattern as-is, to see what it would look like. And truthfully, I really like it just the way it is!

I liked the way the Butterick pinafore tied in the back using fabric straps,  whereas (see image below), the McCall’s pinafore sealed with a snap in the back:

In the image below, you can really see the Buttrick pinafore from the back. Compare it to the McCall’s pinafore from the pattern instructions (above):

Now I’d like to hear from you, my followers. Do you like to mix-and-match your doll clothes patterns? Have you ever found problems with mixing and matching? And if so, how did you solve those problems?

Please share in the comments section below!

Note: today’s blog post is a re-post. I create my blog posts about two weeks in advance of when they actually post. Since I had company over to celebrate American Independence Day (a national/bank holiday here in the United States), I re-posted this older discussion as a way to allow me more time with my family.

But please, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments anyway… I always love to read them!