Experimenting with vintage McCall’s doll wardrobe pattern 9449 and Baby Alive for #MLKday #DollClothesPatterns

The Chelly Wood doll holds up a vintage McCall's 9449 doll wardrobe pattern, which says near the top of the envelope, "Wardrobe for chubby baby and toddler dolls" and is also noted as being for the smaller size of dolls, which is indicated to be 12 inches to 16 inches tall. The patterns shown are as follows: view A = a red long-sleeved dress with cuffs overlaid by an orange jumper (in the American understanding of this word) with a V-shaped yoke; View B = a dress with long sleeves that end in ruffle cuffs and have a ruffle cuff neckline along with a squared yoke bodice; View C = a white pinafore over blue long-sleeved dress with ruffle collar and ruffle cuffs (identical to the long-sleeved dress shown in view B; View D = a long bathrobe with ribbon tie; View E = a sleeveless nightgown that is floor-length, shown in white with red trim to match the red check bathrobe; View F = a beret and matching blue coat that has pockets in front; view G = a long-sleeved red dress with a white collar trimmed in lace (also having the ruffle sleeves but these ruffle cuffs are also trimmed in white lace).
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

I think it was last year, for Martin Luther King Day — or perhaps it was for Black History Month — I talked about how rare it is to find vintage patterns with representation of African American dolls on the envelope’s cover art. Click here to go back and read that article.

This year, as a follow-up to that blog post, I decided to actually sew one of these lovely vintage doll clothes patterns, in celebration of Martin Luther King Day.

Unfortunately, after I got the pattern in View A sewn, I realized I don’t own any African American dolls that will fit this pattern, but to my surprise, I discovered that Baby Alive dolls will fit in this doll wardrobe.

Three photos are shown. Figure 1 is a close-up of the view A image from the McCalls 9449 doll wardrobe pattern. The "jumper" style dress is shown in orange with a V-shaped front yoke. By "jumper," this is the American version of the word. Figure 2 shows the jumper dress on a Baby Alive. The V-shaped yoke was sewn using a teal blue printed cotton fabric that has tiny polka dots in the colors navy, turquoise blue, yellow, and lime green. The bottom half of the dress, under the yoke, is made of a textured polyester fabric in navy blue. The bloomers are made of fabric that matches the yoke. The third photo shows the Baby Alive doll from the back, wearing the jumper. In back, it appears to be all navy blue, without a yoke. The dress overlaps quite a bit in back.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

You’ll notice that in Figure 3 above, the back of the dress had a significant amount of overlap. So I’m not going to lie to you. This pattern fits my Baby Alive quite loosely.

In fact, there’s a lot of gap in the arm hole, which you can see below:

The image shows a Baby Alive 12 inch doll modeling a handmade dress from McCall's 9449 vintage doll wardrobe pattern (view A), but in the photo, we can clearly see the bloomers showing underneath the jumper-style dress through the armhole.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

However my followers are often requesting doll clothes patterns to fit Baby Alive, so I thought I’d let you know that the McCalls 9449 “Wardrobe for Chubby Baby and Toddler Dolls” might be a good option.

If you do decide to buy one, though, please note that it comes in three sizes. (Look at the top of the envelope’s cover art below — sorry the small size measurements got cut off in my picture.)

The image shows a close up of the McCall's 9449 small baby and toddler doll pattern published in 1968. This image was part of a vintage pattern discussion on the ChellyWood.com website on Martin Luther King Day, in January of 2023. The patterns were shown to fit modern-day baby alive dolls.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Mine has been stamped with the word “small,” which, according to the pattern, will fit baby and toddler dolls in the 12 inch to 16 inch size range.

And since my Baby Alive is at the lower end of that size range, I chose to use Velcro instead of snaps to create my back closure. That helped make up for the overlap in the back.

The graphic image shows two photos. The top photo shows a Velcro back closure, which is partly open, to expose that beneath the navy blue fabric, the lining of this dress is a teal blue cotton fabric with polka dots in the colors navy blue, turquoise blue, yellow, and lime green. Then, in the bottom photo, we see that Chelly Wood, who sewed these doll clothes, made the bloomers to match the dress's lining, using the teal blue (with polka dots) cotton fabric. The bloomers have white lace trim at the leg hole areas.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

It also comes with an adorable pattern for bloomers, which I thought were super easy to make! Just look how cute those turned out!

So I’m going to issue a challenge for Martin Luther King Day…

Even if you don’t own an African American doll, choose a doll clothes pattern that does offer a representative picture of an African American person on the cover art, for your doll clothes sewing projects this week. If you don’t own any commercial patterns with African American dolls on the cover, consider downloading one of my free patterns from right here at ChellyWood.com!

I have LOTS of dolls that represent African Americans, and each of these patterns is free to download, right here on my website!

Most of the commercial patterns I display and talk about here on ChellyWood.com are also available for sale on eBay. However, if you’ve never purchased a pattern on eBay before, it’s a good idea to read the article I wrote called, “Tips for Buying Used Doll Clothes Patterns on eBay.” It will save you time, money, and will likely prevent buyer’s remorse.

And by the way, if you use the links I’ve provided to make your eBay purchase, this website will receive a small commission, which helps fund the ChellyWood.com website, so I can continue to provide you with all the free patterns and tutorial videos offered here.

To read more about my free sewing patterns and tutorials, please visit the “Helpful Tips” page.

For my free doll clothes sewing tutorial videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel, ChellyWood1.

Maybe you already own some great commercial patterns, but you really wish you could alter them to look just a little different. If so, my Creative Spark class, “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” may be just what you need to make your commercially designed patterns into the pattern you see in your imagination.

Are you worried that you won’t have time to take a course in doll clothes pattern alteration? You’ll be happy to learn that, for any class on Creative Spark, you don’t have to follow a schedule. Just sign up when you’re ready.

It’s a one-time fee for the course, and there’s no specific time limit to finish your course. You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you. So please go have a look at my paid courses on Creative Spark, using this link.

Disclaimer/Credit/Affiliate Marketing Link:

*ChellyWood.com earns money by linking to JoAnn Fabrics, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and other online affiliate programs. Links provided above may be affiliate links. For a full list of my affiliate programs, and to understand how cookies are used to help this website earn money, please see my “Privacy Policy” page.

Chelly Wood and the ChellyWood.com website are not affiliated with the pattern company or companies mentioned in this blog post, but Chelly finds inspiration in the doll clothes designed by these pattern companies. To purchase patterns from Simplicity, McCall’s, Butterick, Vogue, or other pattern companies shown and discussed in this blog post, please click on the links provided here. These links below the “Disclaimer” section do not help raise money for this free pattern website; they are only offered to give credit to the company that made these patterns.

5 thoughts on “Experimenting with vintage McCall’s doll wardrobe pattern 9449 and Baby Alive for #MLKday #DollClothesPatterns

  1. Hi Chelly. I have a Simplicity doll clothes pattern #4702 for Barbie dolls with the belly button body, and there is an African American doll modeling View C. I’m glad I read your blog on the diversity of all kinds of dolls on the pattern envelopes. Happy Martin Luther King Day to you.

      1. I love the drawstring halter dress too, along with the different pants patterns and the short skirt.

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