Vintage Barbie doll clothes patterns with underpants pattern — try McCall’s Pattern #6420 #VintageBarbie #VintageSewing

This is a close-up image of a McCall's Barbie doll clothes pattern (number 6420, which has the copyright 1962 on the envelope. The patterns shown include a black tux with bow tie for Ken, a wedding dress with hat and veil for Barbie, a ballet or ice skating dress for Barbie (with a cone shaped hat), a pajama with bloomers for Baribe, a dress with 3/4 length sleeves and a turtle neck for Barbie, and a cape with hat for Barbie. You can learn more about this vintage Barbie pattern from McCall's by visiting ChellyWood.com and clicking on the category "Old Patterns from Chelly's Collection" in the list of categories on the side margin.

If you’ve been sewing for dolls for very long, you’re probably aware that doll underpants patterns are hard to come by. Of course, I have free underpants patterns on this website, and my patterns will fit lots of dolls, including the 6 inch American Girl dolls, Skipper, Barbie, and many Barbie-sized dolls, in addition to my baby doll bloomers and 18″ doll underpants pattern. (Click on those links to find them.)

But today I’m showing you a vintage Barbie pattern that has a bunch of accessories, including a pattern for underpants, hat patterns, a swimsuit pattern, and the biggest surprise of all: a pattern for a pair of shoes for Ken!

The underpants double as bloomers for the nightgown shown on the front of the McCall’s doll clothes pattern #6420, as you can see here:

Here we see the Chelly Wood doll (she's actually a Liv doll that has had a make-over so it looks like the real person, Chelly Wood) holding up McCall's vintage Barbie pattern #6420 which has images of Barbie wearing six different outfits. The pattern's container is very worn but the images are colorful and sharp. This pattern was marked with a copyright of 1962.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

What’s really surprising about this old pattern, which is marked with a copyright for 1962, is the fact that it contains not just patterns for making the six outfits shown on the front, but also the six outfits shown on the back too!

The image shows a close up of the back side of McCall's craft pattern #6420 which was printed in 1962. There are six outfits pictured here, including a white jacket tuxedo with cummerbund, pants, and felt shoes for Ken, a fairly simple dress with clutch purse for Barbie, a pair of ankle pants with a sweater that has a collar for Barbie, an evening gown with a short skirt that has a ruffle for Barbie (and includes a pair of underpants), a 1960's style swimsuit for Barbie, and a swimsuit cover-up for Barbie. To learn more about this pattern, please go to ChellyWood.com and use the search tool for Pattern #6420
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Normally, the flip side of a pattern will come with instructions for making the outfits, like what type of fabric is suggested and how many yards of fabric (or ribbon or lace or whatever) you’ll need to make the outfits.

Here’s an example of what I mean… The pattern back below belongs to the Mattel Pattern #2896 that I posted images of some time ago. Click here to look back at that post.

The image shows the back of Mattel Barbie pattern #2896. In the blog post which includes this image, we're learning about how a used pattern isn't always "what you see is what you get" and specifically, the pattern we're talking about in this blog post is an antique pattern for sewing Barbie doll clothes for Mattel's vintage Barbie from 1962 or earlier. With this image, we're comparing the instructions on the back of Mattel Pattern #2896 to the back of McCall's Pattern number 6420.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Granted, that was also a vintage pattern, so there aren’t a lot of details given on the back of that doll clothes pattern either, but at least they tell us we’ll need 1/4 yard of fabric for most of the outfits.

I love the wording there, too: “Barbie has an outfit for every occasion: work or play, night or day.” How cute is that?

I just found it interesting that the McCall’s 6420 pattern didn’t have any guidelines on the package itself. In fact, it says, “For materials required, see enclosed easy sewing guide.” So you would have had to purchase the pattern first, open it up, and then go shopping for your fabric and notions. It seems a little awkward at best, but I wasn’t even born yet in 1962, so maybe shopping for sewing materials and patterns worked differently back then.

Finally, I’d like to conclude with the statement that although this set of patterns is packed with great accessories, it doesn’t come with a pattern for the clutch purse shown in view G:

The image shows a close up of the back side of McCall's craft pattern #6420 which was printed in 1962. There are six outfits pictured here, including a white jacket tuxedo with cummerbund, pants, and felt shoes for Ken, a fairly simple dress with clutch purse for Barbie, a pair of ankle pants with a sweater that has a collar for Barbie, an evening gown with a short skirt that has a ruffle for Barbie (and includes a pair of underpants), a 1960's style swimsuit for Barbie, and a swimsuit cover-up for Barbie. To learn more about this pattern, please go to ChellyWood.com and use the search tool for Pattern #6420
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

I’m finding this to be true time and time again with doll clothes patterns. They will often display a purse that isn’t part of the pattern set. I have several doll clothes patterns that do this.

But thankfully, you can always make a clutch purse with the pattern found in the Barbie gallery, right here on ChellyWood.com!

The image shows a close-up of a Made to Move Barbie's hand holding a handmade clutch purse. It's made of turquoise colored fabric with a matching ribbon strap. The clutch purse closes with a little black snap at the end of a pointed flap closure.
Visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes for dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Do any of you own doll clothes patterns that have a lot of great accessories, like shoes, hats, purses, bow ties, socks or stockings, and underwear? Feel free to let us know which ones in the comments.

And if any of you are wondering how to safely purchase the vintage McCall’s Pattern #6420 that I’m showing in this blog post, please look back at an earlier post about “Buying Used Patterns.

Today’s blog post is a re-post. To understand why Chelly Wood is taking some time off, reposting older blog topics, revisit the end-of-March blog post entitled, “There’s a cat in my sewing room!

2 thoughts on “Vintage Barbie doll clothes patterns with underpants pattern — try McCall’s Pattern #6420 #VintageBarbie #VintageSewing

  1. I think back then most would have just used scraps left from sewing other family outfits so knowing the fabric/notion info ahead of time wasn’t that important. I never bought new fabric for doll clothes It was either scraps or an old garment cut up to use the fabric that was still good.

    1. I still use old garments that I’ve cut up and scraps that were given to me by sewists who had created clothes for themselves or other people. I’d guess half of my fabric collection — if not more — fall into this category.

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