I learned to sew when I was very young (at age 3 I sewed a simple purse), but I credit the Butterick’s Personality Doll Wardrobe #6664 with teaching me how to alter my doll clothes patterns.

I had a Marie Osmond Barbie doll, and I loved to sew for her, but for whatever reason, this particular pattern offered doll clothes that were slightly too big for my Barbie dolls. The pant legs were a little too long; the shirt sleeves were a little too long, and the skirt for the long caftan dress was just a bit too long.

In the image below, I’ve actually hemmed it with a third fold, to make it the right length for a modern Barbie:

In retrospect, I thought maybe I hadn’t followed the seam allowance guidelines very well, since I was in my teens when I first bought this pattern, back in the early 1980’s. However I recently re-purchased an uncut version of the Butterick 6664 and discovered it was still true, even after all these years.

The patterns seemed just a wee bit too big for Barbie.

So perhaps the Marie Osmond Barbie doll was slightly bigger than most Barbies. I no longer have a Marie Osmond Barbie in my collection, so I can’t be sure. But I’d love to hear from anyone reading this who may own one. Is the Marie Osmond Barbie a little bigger than other vintage Barbie dolls?

Back in the 1980’s, I lived in a teeny-tiny town in Idaho — smaller than the one I live in now — and our so-called “fabric store” was more of a country mercantile, where you could buy paperback novels, school supplies, motor oil, and yes, fabric. (They had a drug store in there too!)

So I was just thrilled when they got new doll clothes patterns, and that’s where I bought my Butterick 6664 (the original one that I had.)

But the mercantile didn’t have any white fabric with tiny multi-colored polka dots, like the fabric shown on the pattern’s envelope. So now that I live near a bigger city in Idaho, I was able to find the perfect fabric for making the exact same caftan dress. I focused on trying to imitate the image on the pattern to the best of my ability, and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out:

You’ll notice that I used elastic at the waist and at the sleeve cuffs. Back in the 1980’s, when I made this caftan dress for children in my local area, the kids who received the dress found it difficult to tie the little ribbon ties at the bottom of the sleeves.

So once again, I found myself making the same alteration: changing the ribbon ties to elastic cuffs.

This year at Christmas, I gave my caftan dress, as part of an ensemble of doll clothes for Barbies, to a family that has three young girls. Because one of the girls was only three, I also altered the pattern so that it used Velcro in the back instead of snaps.

And one last thing that might surprise you about the Butterick Personality Doll Wardrobe 6664… It includes patterns for the 30 inch tall Marie Osmond “modeling doll.” How cool is that?!!

Eventually I’d like to see if my Butterick 6664 BIG doll patterns will fit a 28 inch modern Barbie, but that discussion will have to wait for another day because I haven’t had a chance to test it out yet on this lovely lady…

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.

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*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.