Old Patterns from Chelly's Collection, Vintage Skipper

Stitching up a retro-style dress for Skipper that’s versatile enough for two amazing looks! #SewingAlterations #SewingInspiration

This vintage Skipper doll clothes pattern includes (view 1) a red jumper-dress with a dropped-waist that's belted, under which is worn a red and white striped collared shirt with 3/4 length sleeves; (views 2 and 3) a black and white gingham check dress with a circle skirt (that's primarily view 3) over which is worn a red bolero with 3/4 length sleeves (view 2); a yellow V-neck shirt worn over a green pleated mini-skirt worn just above the knee (view 3); a pair of yellow ankle pants with a 3/4 length collarless floral print shirt that has buttons running down the front (view 4); a blue winter coat with a scarf (view 5); and a red and white ball gown with ribbon trim, having a red bodice and white cotton extra long skirt (view 6).
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

*Please note: when you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include Amazon, JoAnn Fabric, Etsy, and the eBay Partner Network. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. To learn more about how my website uses affiliate marketing, please visit the website’s Privacy Policy page.

Well, it’s the start of a new year, and I hope everyone’s enjoying the celebrations!

Alright everybody… I’m 56 years old. Do you see all the grey hair in my Chelly head?

This is a photo of a Spin Master Liv Doll that has been re-painted and re-wigged to look like the real doll clothing designer, Chelly Wood. She has long grey hair without bangs, and she wears no makeup. She wears a white cotton long-sleeved shirt with tiny grey flowers printed in criss-crossed random lines across the white cotton fabric. She wears a pair of jet black pants. She also wears tiny white plastic Mary Jane shoes. she stands on a white floor in a room with a blue mottled background. The Chelly Wood dot com logo appears in one corner of the photo.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

What I tell the students in my library is “That hair turned grey because it sucked all the ‘grey matter’ out of my brain-ola, which is why I can’t remember anything. Ever.”

And now, I can’t remember if I ever wrote a blog post about how I designed these two outfits from the same Simplicity 5861 doll clothes sewing pattern!

A vintage skipper doll models a red cotton bolero over a black and white gingham sleeveless dress with a circle skirt that's knee-height. Beside this doll, a vintage Skipper models a pink felt bolero with green rickrack trim over a similar dress, but this dress is made of green cotton with tiny white and pink roses, and it's a calf-length circle skirt. The text for this thumbnail says "same pattern -- two looks!"
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

I’ve searched my website for “Simplicity 5861” and “vintage Skipper,” but I haven’t been able to find that blog post, so… I guess I’m either writing the post I intended to write long ago, or I’m re-writing the exact same blog post.

I just can’t remember! 😳

Simplicity 5861 vintage doll clothes patterns for 9 inch Skipper from the 1960's is shown along with some of the patterns contained inside the pattern envelope.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

See the Simplicity 5861 pattern above? Gosh I love this pattern! I LOVE IT!

The original patterns are still in tact on the sheet of tissue paper, because I used a lightbox to trace my own versions of each pattern. And as of today, I’ve literally created every single outfit you see on the cover art. Every single one!

The only thing I have left to complete are the green socks in view 3. (FYI, the pattern doesn’t come with a socks pattern, but I’m really loving the challenge of making the exact same outfits, using as-close-to-identical fabrics as possible.)

Here we see a close-up of the Bolero that Chelly Wood made, using Simplicity 5861. The pink felt bolero is held together with a tiny snap at the top, over which, she has sewn a very tiny green button, to match the green rickrack at the edges of the sleeves and the very bottom of the bolero coat. The red bolero jacket is made of cotton or a cotton polyester blend, and it's also secured at the top with a snap, but over the snap, she has sewn a very small black ribbon, tied in a bow.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

But that wasn’t enough. While I was working to re-create all the outfits exactly as shown on the cover art of Simplicity 5861, I found that I enjoyed making them so much, that I started to adventure into exploring other fabrics, altering the original patterns, and trying new looks with the same basic patterns.

So as you can see in the image above, I made the red bolero out of a cotton-polyester blend fabric with a black Offray ribbon bow, whereas the pink version is made with a pink felt outer layer, a green and pink floral cotton lining, green 1/8 inch rickrack trim, and a teeny tiny green button.

Both use the bolero pattern from Simplicity 5861, but the pink version adds embellishments that aren’t part of the instructions that this pattern comes with. And that’s okay.

on the left, a long-ish sleeveless dress with a full skirt and a sleeveless bodice has been paired with a pink felt bolero jacket that's trimmed in green miniature rickrack trim. Peeking out from under the bolero jacket, we can see the same light green fabric dotted with pink and white roses that the dress is made from.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Furthermore, the green floral version of the dress uses a much longer skirt than the black and white gingham version of the dress. For this, I had to make adjustments to the original skirt’s hemline and take measurements of my vintage Skipper doll to make sure the new alteration to the skirt wouldn’t be too long.

I really like how it fit my vintage Skipper though. I mean, heck yeah! How cute is this?

A vintage Skipper doll models a handmade pink felt bolero jacket with green rickrack trim over a green and pink floral dress that's long enough to be called calf-length.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Compare it to the shorter version, which follows the Simplicity 5861 circle skirt pattern for the dress in view 2 exactly as it’s printed on the tissue paper:

A vintage Skipper doll models a handmade circle skirt dress with sleeveless bodice. She wears a pair of red shoes, while the dress is made of black and white gingham checks. The doll appears to have her hair pulled back in a pony tail, and the dress's skirt flares as she walks. She side glances to the left of the viewer but appears to be walking toward the right of the viewer.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Okay, now I know I talk about alterations all the time on this website, and it’s a great segue for me to plug my online course which teaches people to alter their own doll clothes sewing patterns, but seriously…

How cool is it to be able to take the pattern you’re given and get creative with it?

The Chelly Wood doll (a Spin Master Liv doll repainted and re-wigged to look like the real doll clothing designer, Chelly Wood) and a vintage Skipper doll, stand on either side of a vintage Simplicity 5861 doll clothes sewing pattern. The pattern includes (view 1) a red jumper-dress with a dropped-waist that's belted, under which is worn a collared shirt with 3/4 length sleeves; (views 2 and 3) a black and white gingham check dress with a circle skirt (that's primarily view 3) over which is worn a red bolero with 3/4 length sleeves (view 2); a yellow V-neck shirt worn over a green pleated mini-skirt worn just above the knee (view 3); a pair of ankle pants with a 3/4 length collarless shirt that has buttons running down the front (view 4); a blue winter coat with a scarf (view 5); and a red and white ball gown with ribbon trim (view 6).
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

So I’m still playing around with the various patterns in my Simplicity 5861 vintage pattern for Skipper dolls, and you can expect to see some of the other fun alterations I’ve been making, some time later this year. Because, as I said in the intro to today’s blog post… I just LOVE this pattern!

For anyone who would like to expand their dolls’ wardrobes, you should really check out my “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” course and my “Design Your Own Doll Pants Patterns from Scratch” classes on the Creative Spark online learning platform. Here’s my bio page on their website, where you can learn more.

This image shows four rows of artist's renderings of doll clothing items. The top row shows four different styles of pants. The second row shows four different styles of shirts. The third row shows four different styles of skirts. The fourth row shows four different styles of dresses, with skirts in long, short, and mid-length styles. The text reads at the top, "Classes in Doll Clothing Design" followed by this paragraph: "Have you ever wished you could create patterns of your own? Click on the links to Chelly's online courses below, to learn more about her paid courses in doll clothing pattern design techniques."

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 go check out my paid courses on Creative Spark, using this link.

As always, feel free to pin, like, or tweet about my free patterns and tutorials.

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

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.

For more of my free tutorials, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel, ChellyWood1.

If you would like to make a donation to this free doll clothes pattern website, please click here. There’s also a “Donate” button in the main menu.

Disclaimer/Credit/Affiliate Marketing Link:

*Please note: when you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include Amazon, JoAnn Fabric, Etsy, and the eBay Partner Network. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. To learn more about how my website uses affiliate marketing, please visit the website’s 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.

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