Holiday Crafts, Old Patterns from Chelly's Collection, Vintage Barbie

Have you ever made a Barbie dress with panels? #HolidaySewing for #Barbie

In this image, we see the top half of the Barbie Advance 9938 doll clothes sewing pattern. View 1 shows a typical just-below-the-knee strappy sun dress in yellow fabric. View 2 shows an Asian-style sheath dress with side buttons that run from the Mandarin collar across the bust, to the underarm. This View 2 dress is in solid blue. There's an arrow pointing to the View 3 dress, which is made with a pink bodice and a white floor length full skirt that's dotted with tiny pink flowers. This is a strapless party gown, and the doll wearing it is a cartoon-ish blond ponytail Barbie with a pink ribbon in her hair. The text which has an arrow pointing to the View 3 dress says "Advance 9938 View 3."
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.

My Advance 9938 sewing pattern for Barbie comes from the early 1960’s, and it has some really fun patterns to try. I’ve truly enjoyed making a Christmas dress, using the strapless gown in the View 3 image from this vintage doll clothes pattern.

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the upper left image shows that holly-printed red fabric rectangles have been sewn on either side of a red cotton rectangle of fabric that's decorated with tiny white Christmas trees. Two white arrows point from this section of panels to the right, where another red Christmas tree panel of fabric has been sewn to another panel of the holly printed cotton. Then a yellow arrow points down to the bodice after all 5 panels have been sewn to each other, with the holly panel on the far left, the red panel next, then another holly panel, then red, then a final holly panel to bring up the far right side of the paneled bodice, which doesn't lay flat, but instead, is well-shaped for the bust of a traditional vintage Barbie doll.
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 been sewing doll clothes for more than 50 years, so I’ve probably made a paneled bodice before, but I can’t remember ever having made one. In any case, even though the envelope shows the dress as having a pink bodice and a floral print skirt, I decided to mix mine up, so that all of you could easily see the panels in the bodice.

I didn’t have much of that red fabric that’s printed with tiny Christmas trees, after having made the View 5 dress from Simplicity 4510. (Click that link to see that dress.)

But luckily I did have just enough of the red Christmas tree fabric to make two bodice panels.

In this close-up, we see that the bodice's back closure and upper section are being folded with a double-fold hem and whipstitched to hem around the multi-panel garment piece.
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 usually prefer to line my dress bodices, but I kind of wanted to try to follow the Advance 9938 pattern‘s actual instructions for this dress before I experimented with alterations.

I must admit, though, that I created a double-fold hem rather than the single-fold hem that’s suggested in the instructions.

The finished multi-panel bodice from Advance 9938 (view 3) is shown hovering over the gathered skirt, on a cutting mat. This shows how we would attach the bodice to the skirt's gathered edge.
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.

Once I got the paneled bodice attached, I was surprised to discover that it was really roomy in the back.

It overlapped so much, that I chose to use Velcro instead of snaps for the back closure, to make sure it would stay up on Barbie’s chest instead of falling down.

A brunette bubble cut Barbie models a handmade dress that was made using Advance 9938's View 3 dress patterns. In the photo on the far left, white cotton ivy-printed fabric forms the bodice's front, but its sides are red. In the center view, the bubble cut Barbie models the side panel of the bodice, which is red, but has tiny white Christmas trees printed on it. The skirt is made of the same white cotton that's dotted with very tiny holly leaves, just as the center panel of the bodice is made from the same material. On the far right, the doll models the floor-length strapless evening gown with paneled bodice.
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.

In the end, I’m glad I did the double-fold hem around the edges of the bodice because if I’d only done the single-fold hem, I don’t think it would have fit the doll quite as nicely as it does here, even with the Velcro closure in back.

I also think the red and green printed fabrics compliment each other nicely.

Perhaps it would’ve looked better with solid green side panels, but I have no regrets for these color choices. This view 3 dress from Advance 9938 reminds me a little of a Christmas quilt!

Here we see a beautiful bubble cut brunette Barbie modeling a handmade ball gown which has a bodice made from red and holly-printed cotton fabric. The dress is floor-length and strapless with a very full skirt.
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 fits my vintage Bubble Cut Barbie very well, with the addition of the Velcro at the back. However it’s a little too roomy in the bust for my modern Barbie dolls.

So keep that in mind if you’re thinking about buying Advance 9938 for a modern Barbie. I don’t think this particular dress will work for your modern Barbies without significant adjustments. (Scroll down to learn about my pattern alteration class if you’re interested in making those adjustments.)

What are your thoughts on the patterned fabric combination? Would you have chosen a solid fabric for the red panels? Would you have made the whole bodice solid, with a holly print skirt? Feel free to leave your opinion in the comments section below.

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.

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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.

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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.

6 thoughts on “Have you ever made a Barbie dress with panels? #HolidaySewing for #Barbie”

  1. Dear Chelly,

    I made a few Barbie dresses with panels from the Simplicity Sewing Doll Clothes for Dummies pattern which fit my vintage Barbie dolls made until 1999. I used solid colors for some of these outfits while others had prints.

    Reply

  2. Hope you doing well. That dress is gorgeous. That style would also make great wedding dresses with a layer of light lace over the skirt portion.

    Reply

    1. It occurred to me that this would be a lovely wedding dress. I’d like to make the strapless bodice with another overlaid bodice that has sleeves, but is made of gauzy, see-through material. How pretty would that be for a Barbie wedding dress?

      Reply

  3. Hi, I did this same dress and I made it as yours. I usually make “festive” dresses using this kind of patterns, even for smaller dolls.
    I think that a small detail made from special fabric is way better than a dress made all from the same fabric.

    Reply

    1. You said, “I think that a small detail made from special fabric is way better than a dress made all from the same fabric.”

      I might have forgotten to mention in my blog post that the red fabric with tiny white Christmas trees on it is a vintage fabric from my mother-in-law’s collection. I’m not sure how old it is, but some of her fabrics date back to the 1940’s! That makes it really fun…

      The white and green holly fabric was bought at an “antique” store, but I’m not sure how “vintage” it actually is. It might be from the 1970’s or 1980’s. But it might not be.

      Reply

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