For your free patterns and additional tutorial videos, please scroll down to the second set of bullets.

Yesterday I posted about my new-used “lucky find” at the Goodwill: a Judy Littlechap doll. Well another recent Goodwill discovery was this vintage Skipper from the 1980’s.

However, she didn’t arrive in nearly as good of condition as Judy did. In fact, even after cleaning her up and giving her a significant hair makeover, she will never fully recover from the damage that has been done to her in the care of her previous owner. I’m not sure how this happened to her little legs, but my heart went out to her when I saw this:

The poor thing!

That’s not all. Look closely at the dimple on her left cheek…

Yep. That’s an ink smudge I couldn’t get rid of. Probably permanent marker.

But her hair, which was a virtual rat’s nest when I bought her, is as soft as down now that I’ve given it a wash and a conditioning. (I really should do a how-to video on doll makeovers, but it seems like YouTube has enough of those these days…)

I couldn’t be more pleased with how Skipper‘s lovely hair turned out. It’s perfect for brushing and styling. And she looks absolutely gorgeous in this little springtime yellow sundress that I originally designed for my Disney’s Moana doll.

I’ve been trying clothes on her, to see what she can fit into, and yes, she can fit into regular modern Skipper clothes for the most part. But as you can see in the image below, she’s a tad bit smaller than today’s Skipper dolls.

Some time in the future, I’d like to post a “Tape Measure Tuesday,” to adequately compare these two dolls, and in the coming weeks, I’d like to post a few more outfits for this little lady.

Clearly she has been through a lot! She needs to be spotlighted! So…

If you’d like to make this flared-skirt sundress for your vintage 1980’s Skipper dolls, you’ll need some cotton fabric and a few Dritz snaps. This dress will look good in both printed fabrics and solid cotton fabrics.

And it would make an absolutely stunning Easter dress, don’t you think?

Today’s patterns will fit these dolls*:

• Creatable World dolls
• DC Superhero Girls*
• Disney fairy 9 inch dolls (like the little Tinkerbell dolls)
• Disney Princess 10 inch dolls
• Disney’s 10 inch Moana dolls
• Ideal’s vintage Pepper dolls
• Momoko dolls
• Petite Barbie dolls
• Project MC Squared dolls
• Rainbow High 10 and a half inch dolls
• Skipper dolls (modern)
• Spin Master Liv dolls
• Vintage 1960’s to 1970’s Skipper dolls
• Vintage 1980’s Skipper dolls
• Vintage Francie dolls
• vintage Sunshine Family adult female dolls

*Note: the dress is very short on the DC Superhero Girls. I would recommend using the longer skirt pattern that also comes with this bodice pattern, rather than the shorter skirt pattern for them.

Here are your free, printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making the dress shown in the video at the top of this page:

• Free printable PDF sewing pattern for a 9 or 10 inch fashion doll sun dress with straps
• Tutorial video showing how to make the dress (Moana is shown in the video, but as I’ve said, these two dolls can swap clothes)
• How to do a whipstitch
• How to sew snaps on fabric
• How to do a backstitch
• How to gather fabric
• How to press seams

If you’ve ever had a dress turn out too tight for your doll after you’ve sewn it, then my Creative Spark class, “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” on the Creative Spark platform could help you.

AND I now have a NEW CLASS on the Creative Spark online learning platform: “Design Your Own Doll Pants” which includes OVERALLS, leggings, and fly-front pants! Please take a moment to go check it out!

 

Once you sign up for one of my courses on Creative Spark, the class’s videos will remain open for you to view over and over again. There’s no specific time limit to your course. You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you.

If you enjoy my free patterns and tutorial videos, please help spread the word! Feel free to pin, like, or tweet about my free patterns and tutorials. Here’s an image you’re welcome to share on social media:

Disclaimer/Credit/Affiliate Marketing Links:

*ChellyWood.com earns money by linking to Amazon, eBay, Michaels, 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.

To honor the trademark rights of the doll companies mentioned in this blog post, I am including links to their websites here. Please feel free to visit their website and consider purchasing one or more of the dolls mentioned, but the links below do not necessarily help support this website (whereas the links in the bulleted list at the top DO support this website, as the top links are affiliate marketing links).

Skipper, Petite Barbie dolls, Creatable World, vintage Francie, DC Superhero Girls, vintage Skipper, and vintage Sunshine Family dolls are products offered by Mattel, which holds the registered trademark for them (™). Please visit the Mattel Toys website to learn more about their company and its trademarked toys.

Rainbow High dolls are products offered by MGA Entertainment, which holds the trademark for them (™). Please visit the Rainbow High website to learn more about their company and its trademarked toys.

Momoko dolls are products offered by Petworks, which holds the trademark for them (™). Please visit the Momoko Dolls website to learn more about their company and its trademarked toys.

Disney Princess, Moana, and Disney fairy dolls are products offered by the Disney corporation, which holds the trademark for them (™). Please visit the Disney Toys website to learn more about their company and its trademarked toys.

Project MC Squared dolls and Rainbow High dolls are products offered by MGA Entertainment, which holds the trademark for them (™). Please visit the Project MC Squared website or the Rainbow High website to learn more about their company and its trademarked toys.

According to Wikipedia, “Ideal Toy Company was an American toy company founded by Morris Michtom and his wife, Rose. During the post–World War II baby boom era, Ideal became the largest doll-making company in the United States.” They produced the Tammy family line of dolls, including Ideal Pepper dolls, but eventually the Tammy line of dolls went out of production (with the exception of the Sindy doll — the UK version — which has had a recent revival). There have been a complicated series of sales of rights for Ideal toys since then, and you can read about it on Wikipedia, if you’re interested. But at the time of this blog post, the trademark name “Tammy” for these dolls was abandoned and has remained “dead” (according to the US Trademark database) since 2004.