Old Patterns from Chelly's Collection, Tips for Beginners

Transforming regular doll pants into pocketed cargo pants with vintage Simplicity 8466 #BarbiePatterns

In this photograph, we see the Chelly Wood doll (a repainted Spin Master Liv doll that looks like the real doll clothing designer Chelly Wood) holding up vintage Simplicity doll clothes pattern number 8466, which was published in 1969. The pattern offers the following outfits to fit Barbie sized fashion dolls of the time: View 1: a sleeveless dress with high lace collar and a ruffle; view 2: a sleeveless dress with fringe at the bottom in imitation of a Native American style mini skirt; view 3: a bell sleeved mini skirt dress; view 4: a ball gown with empire waist and straps; view 5 a short sleeved turtle neck shirt with mini skirt and vest; view 6: the same mini skirt and short sleeved turtle neck are shown with a blue cape over the top; view 7: bell bottom pants with an elastic waist and a sleeveless shirt that has a buckle style open back.
*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.

I love my Simplicity 8466 Barbie doll clothes sewing pattern from 1969, but of course the outfits offered in this set of patterns (while vintage-adorable) are a little outdated for today’s children.

But pants are pants, right? Wrong.

Here we see a close-up of the wine-colored dress with braided trim, as it appeared on the Simpicity 8466 sewing pattern envelope. This drawn doll appears to have the beau font hairstyle that's more akin to Francie, and her chest seems less busty than the vintage Barbie from the related photographs. However the dress itself is surprisingly identical in nearly every way to the handmade wine-colored dress with gold braided trim. The trim at the bottom of the doll's dress on the envelope, however, seems to be more of a gold rickrack, in that it zig-zags just a bit around the very base of the dress. This is "view 4" on the envelope. Beside this doll is a dress in a yellow mini-skirt dress (left) and a doll in a bell-bottom pair of blue floral pants with an oddly square, open-backed long tunic (also made of pale blue floral fabric).
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.

The pair of pants in View 7 are sort of short with a bell bottom feature, that just doesn’t appeal to todays kids… UNLESS…

Unless you add a side pocket and make them into cargo pants.

A pair of Barbie doll sized cargo pants with an elastic waist and side pockets lays on a pristine white surface. The pants have a bell bottom and elastic waist, but the side pockets, which have been hand stitched, seem to sit just below the crotch of these handmade denim-look cotton pants. The Chelly Wood dot com logo appears at the bottom of the image. Visit ChellyWood.com to learn more.
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 how is that done?” you may ask.

Here, let me show you:

The image shows Figure A where the sewist has cut out the jeans with a slight alteration, and she has also cut out two rectangular-shaped pockets. In Figure B, she lays the tissue paper pattern directly against the doll's body to estimate the fit. In figure C, she folds one of the rectangles in half. In figure D, we see that she has sewn stitches along two edges of the pocket to form an L shape. In Figure E, she has inverted the sewn pocket. In figure F, she has turned the raw edges of the pocket's fabric inside the pocket itself.
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.

It should be noted that in the photo I’ve labeled “A” above, I’ve made a slight alteration to the original pants pattern for Simplicity 8466. Look closely. I’ve cut the waistline taller than the pattern itself.

When I make a casing, I prefer to create a double-fold, to prevent fray. If you’re not sure what I mean by this, you might want to watch my casing video:

 

In image B, I’m looking to see how big the casing needs to be, and if you take a look back at image A, you’ll see that I’ve extended the waistline to include a deeper casing. This is what I mean by “a slight alteration.”

And if you want to know more about altering doll clothes patterns, I do have a class about that. Go to my creator’s page on the C&T Publishing website to learn more. I’ve got some additional information at the bottom of today’s blog post as well.

Okay, but let’s go on to see how I created a cargo-pants-style pocket for these jeans…

In this dual image (top and bottom), the top image, Figure G shows a woman's fingers whipstitching to seal a pocket closed. The lower image, Figure H, shows her finished whipstitch. The text reads, "Seal your pocket up and whipstitch it shut."
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.

Now comes the attachment to the pants themselves.

It’s funny because the instruction booklet for Simplicity 8466 assumes you’re pretty familiar with sewing pants, and their first instruction shows all the pant legs already sewn together. Hmmm…

Yeah, I never assume that. So here’s how you put the pants together…

The image shows in figure I, a woman laying a pant front leg cotton garment piece on top of a pant back leg garment piece. In Figure J, we see that she has sewn the pant legs along the outseam, and beside these, we see the two pockets she has created. Then in figure K, she uses a tiny iron and ironing board to press the seam, opening each pant leg along the outseam. In Figure L, she uses a ruler to measure and mark the pants with a fabric pencil or chalk. And in the final image, Figure M, there's a close-up of her laying the pocket, folded side up, next to the chalk mark she made. The text reads, "Sew, press, measure, and mark the pants."
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.

For Figure I, you want to make sure you’re laying a pants FRONT over the top of the pants BACK. For figure J, sew these two together along the outseam (the seam that’s going to run from the waist, over the hip, down the leg, to the ankle).

Then you press the seam open before marking your pocket alignment with a fabric pencil. I marked mine at 12 cm, but if you’re using a different Barbie pants pattern, or a pattern for a different doll, I recommend aligning the top of the pocket just a hair below the crotch seam (see figure M).

The last phase is pretty straightforward…

In the top image, Figure N, the pants on the left are pressed open and left sitting on a table top with the right side up. The image on the top left shows straight pins inserted to hold the pocket in place near the fabric pencil mark. The pant on the right, also right side up, shows that we've sewn a stitch running vertically along the left side of the pocket, another stitch running horizontally along the bottom of the pocket, and a third stitch running vertically along the right side of the pocket. The top of the pocket is left open to allow access to the pocket. On the bottom half of the image (Figure O) we see the pants almost complete, with seams showing (wrong side). Beside this image, the text reads, "Pin the pockets, stitch them on three sides, and finish the pants by following directions."
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.

All that’s left to do is turn them right-side-out, and voilà! You have converted a regular pair of doll pants into cargo pants!

Now if you need further instructions, you might take a look at this video, which I posted on my YouTube channel for Halloween in 2023:

 

Now the pants in the video above are made from a single panel, but the basic idea is the same.

Hopefully this helps you expand your way of thinking about pants.

Also, if you’re looking for an easy pattern for a fashion-doll-sized pocket, this free pattern from my Barbie Gallery of free patterns may help. I just cut mine out of small scraps that I had, though, so your pockets may come out looking a little smaller than mine did.

If you need a pocket pattern for bigger (13 to 16 inch) dolls, try this free pocket pattern.

A pair of Barbie doll sized cargo pants with an elastic waist and side pockets lays on a pristine white surface. The pants have a bell bottom and elastic waist, but the side pockets, which have been hand stitched, seem to sit just below the crotch of these handmade denim-look cotton pants. The Chelly Wood dot com logo appears at the bottom of the image. Visit ChellyWood.com to learn more.
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.

This image of a turquoise blue sewing needle pulling purple thread away from a line of cross-stitching is used as a divider between sections of a blog post.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.

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.

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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