Old Patterns from Chelly's Collection

What to do with a pattern that’s missing pieces… #VintageSewing #VintagePatterns

The image shows Simplicity doll clothes pattern 4510. We see the cover of the pattern here with full-color images of the doll clothes patterns inside: a wedding dress with veil (looks to be the style of the early 1960's or late 1950's); a business suit with half sleeves on the jacket and a matching skit; a plaid dress with V-shaped front; an evening gown with straps and lace bodice; a shorter evening gown with an off-the-shoulder bodice; a swimsuit and striped swimsuit cover-up which looks like a boxy dress with mini-skirt-length ruffle. To join the discussion about this pattern, please visit ChellyWood.com

Some time ago, I found this vintage Simplicity 4510 Barbie sewing pattern at a second hand store. It cost me only 50 cents (American), but it was missing all of the pattern pieces except three skirts.

So why did I buy it?

There’s a lot more to a commercial pattern than just the pattern pieces!

For example, take a look at the drawn images of the doll clothes, shown below:

This is an open "page" from the instruction sheet for Simplicity doll clothes pattern number 4510, and it includes images of dolls modeling the whole wardrobe, plus a line drawing of each clothing item you can make using this pattern.

This Simplicity 4510 wardrobe, in and of itself, can inspire ideas for creating a mix-and-match wardrobe of your own. We crafters tend to buy craft magazines for a lot more than 50 cents, for exactly the same purpose: inspiration!

But this pattern has a number of pieces that look familiar too. Look at the line-drawing of a doll dress below (View 3 from above):

The image shows a line drawing of the off-the-shoulder dress concept from Simplicity doll clothes sewing pattern 4510.

On my website, I have a pencil skirt pattern that’s very similar to the pieces needed to make this pattern’s view 3 pencil skirt:

The image shows a red cotton pencil-skirt dress with an opaque ribbon tied around the waist. The ribbon is also red with white polka dots. The straps on this pencil-skirt dress's bodice match the polka-dot ribbon tied around the dress's waist.

My website also offers free patterns for the overskirt version as well. Just have a look:

The image shows a Queens of Africa doll wearing a Valentine's Day dress. Her strapless dress fits 11-inch or 11.5-inch fashion dolls. The dress has a pencil skirt topped with a flouncy skirt. The fabric is pink with multi-colored hearts splattered across the fabric in random patterns. The watermark on this image tells you that ChellyWood.com offers free printable PDF sewing patterns and free tutorial videos.

Now what if we combined my one-shoulder bridal bodice with these skirts? Here’s my one-shoulder bridal bodice, just in case you’d forgotten:

Image shows a made-to-move Barbie from Mattel wearing a handmade wedding gown. The bodice of the gown, which is made of felt, covers one of the doll's shoulders, leaving the other exposed. The bodice is spotted with silver polka dots. The skirt is pure white and gathered, with a silvery rick-rack decorating the bottom of the skirting. Her tiny white flat shoes peek out from under the long wedding gown. She stands before a purple wall that has two simple windows looking out at a cloudy sky. The doll's hair is blond with curls, and the overlay says, "ChellyWood.com: FREE printable sewing patterns and more."

Are you starting to get the picture? So a person can purchase a vintage Barbie wardrobe without a single pattern inside it, but use the images on the cover and in the instructional pages to piece together their own version of the doll clothes that the vintage pattern once contained.

A person can also use the instruction booklet to help them formulate a new design concept. Just look at the images I’ve circled below:

Here we see each of the doll clothing items found in Simplicity doll clothes sewing pattern #4510 from the early 1960's. This vintage pattern includes a wedding dress with a train and veil, a half-sleeve jacket, a business skirt, and off-the-shoulder evening gown with short pencil skirt, an overskirt pattern which ties in the back, a day dress, a pair of underpants and bra (or 1950's style bikini), a super short swimsuit coverup with ruffle, and an evening gown with straps and lace bodice. The eye is drawn toward two doll clothing pieces: a hand drawing of a Barbie doll wearing the swimsuit coverup with ruffle and the item line drawing of the same garment.

For Christmas one year, I designed a pattern that was inspired by the swimsuit cover-up featured in this vintage Barbie pattern from Simplicity. But as you can see by the preview image below, my garment isn’t a swimsuit cover-up; it’s a short-skirted dress, and it’s not for Barbie dolls, but for Monster high or Ever After High dolls:

The image shows Monster High's Draculaura (doll) modeling a pretty dress in white cotton with red pinstripes and thicker red stripes running top-to-bottom across the majority of the dress, imitative of a peppermint candy with its stripes. The doll dress's sleeves are red and there's a flared ruffle-skirt at the bottom of this dress which comes to just above the doll's pretty pink knees. Her shoes match, and if you follow this website, the patterns and tutorial video for making the shoes was actually posted on ChellyWood.com last week. They are a red and white pair of Mary Jane style shoes with an elastic strap. They match the dress wonderfully!

In the image below, you can see how the line drawing of the swimsuit cover-up really inspired my holiday Monster High dress pattern. I called this my “Peppermint Candy Dress”!

This image shows a close-up drawing of a doll wearing the swimsuit coverup found in Simplicity vintage Barbie doll clothes pattern #4510.

I made a few deliberate changes though. The original swimsuit cover-up had darts, but I knew that if I gave the dress darts, it wouldn’t look as good on a Mattel Stacie doll because these “little girl” dolls don’t have a bosom.

So here’s the dress on Stacie, to show you what I mean:

This photo shows Mattel's 9 inch Stacie doll wearing a handmade dress, designed and sewn by Chelly Wood, the doll clothing designer, YouTuber, and writer. The dress itself looks a lot like a peppermint candy, with red and white stripes running vertically. There's a solid red skirt at the bottom of the dress, and this skirt forms a ruffle that goes from the dress's dropped waist to just above Stacie's knee. There are also solid red cap sleeves. The doll wears tiny plastic white flat shoes. Her hair is drawn back in a barrette. She looks to her right slightly, and the background is a splotchy turquoise blue which contrasts nicely with the red and white of the handmade dress. For the free printable sewing patterns and tutorial videos to make this dress, please go to ChellyWood.com

Furthermore, I didn’t use the actual pattern shape shown in the pattern layout guide in this Simplicity doll clothes pattern 4510. Instead, I took a look at the layout guide shown below and used this image to help me decide which of the patterns that I already owned (and that I knew would fit these dolls) was closest to the shape of this layout’s template:

Today’s blog post offers an inside look at how I alter my patterns to create new patterns, and how I resize and reshape patterns belonging to one doll (like Barbie), so they will fit a different doll (like Stacie or Monster High).

This is called “pattern alteration.” And for my regular readers, I’m sure you know where I’m going with this…

Yes, I teach an online course in pattern alteration. Please scroll down below this picture, to learn more about that class.

Here we see the Chelly Wood doll (a Spin Master Liv doll that has been re-made to look like the doll clothing designer, YouTuber, and writer, Chelly Wood) holding up Simplicity doll clothes pattern 4510.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns and tutorial videos showing how to make doll clothes for 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.

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.

If you enjoyed this blog post, and you’d like to see my videos, you might want to navigate over to my YouTube channel, ChellyWood1 to look through my playlists.

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 any of the doll or toy companies mentioned in this blog post, but Chelly enjoys designing her doll clothes to fit a variety of dolls. To learn more about the doll companies mentioned in today’s post, please visit the doll or toy company’s website.

4 thoughts on “What to do with a pattern that’s missing pieces… #VintageSewing #VintagePatterns”

  1. There were so many Barbie patterns issued, it is sometimes easy to find replacement pieces from the other patterns. Every pattern came with a wedding gown. How many gowns does a girl need lol?

    Reply

    1. I’ve thought about that too–the wedding gown thing. But some of the wedding gown patterns from the 1960’s are so unique! And you can always make them from other colors of fabric, rather than white, to just turn them into a ball gown.

      Reply

  2. This pattern’s lovely wedding dress can be an inspiration as well. Something on its bodice reminds me of the dress Givenchy drawn for Audrey Hepburn on Funny Face, if we just use a shorter skirt with tulle overlay, like your “bridesmaid/quiceañera” dress. I wish I was better at sewing so I could sew something like that, but I need more practice

    Reply

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