Can I mix the bodice and skirt patterns from two different pattern envelopes? YES! Here’s how… #Sewing #Barbie

On the left is an Advance Barbie pattern 9938 which features a gown, two party dresses, one bathrobe, one cape-like winter coat (swing coat style) and one tennis outfit with a shirt and shorts. On the right, this photo also features the Sew-Easy Advance Barbie wedding trousseau set from pattern number 2895, which includes a day dress with wide collar, a business suit, two evening gowns, a muumuu, and a wedding dress. — 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.

Have a look at the View 1 dress on pattern envelope Advance 9938. I really wanted to make that cute little Barbie dress, but unfortunately, it didn’t come with this used pattern that I bought on eBay.

However, as we saw at Christmas time, this Advance 9938 did have the view 3 bodice, which is similar. Furthermore, I had the lovely gathered skirt from view 3 in the Advance 2895 pattern envelope. So I decided to attach the view 3 bodice from Advance 9938 to the skirt from Advance 2895 and see what happened…

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This is a segmented image showing the Skirt from View 3 Advance 2895 and Christmas bodice from View 3 Advance 9938. Image one shows the skirt being cut on a red fabric that's printed with tiny yellow circles, inside of which are tulips. Image 2 shows all the pattern pieces for the View 3 bodice from Advance 9938 and beside each segmented pattern piece lies a fabric counterpart that was cut from that piece. In the third image, we see how each panel has been sewn together from Christmas fabric, with the first panel in white, the second in red, the third (center) panel in white, the fourth in red, and the fifth panel in white, offering a striped look to the bodice in this early stage before it is hemmed or attached to a 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.

In the image above, Figure 1 shows the April tulip printed fabric I’ve used for my mix-and-match shorter dress. The pattern lying on the tulip fabric is the View 3 dress’s skirt from Advance 2895.

Figures 2 and 3 are from the Christmas dress that I made at the end of 2024 (click here to read about the making of the View 3 maxi dress). It had a few issues which I took into account, when I started working with this mix-and-match-bodice-and-gathered-skirt project.

So let’s have a look at those issues…

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.

First, just look at the image of the View 3 dress from Advance 9938. That bodice is very long!

And yet, when I made it, I ignored the pattern’s instructions to just give the bodice a single-fold hem along the top, and instead, I did a double-fold hem along the top. I’m so glad I did!

I was determined to do this double-fold hem along the top again when combining the mix-and-match skirt and bodice, because if I didn’t, my Barbie would have a dress that was waaaay too long in the bodice!

Image 4 shows the quarter inch seam allowance guidelines on one of the panels from the bodice from View 3 of Advance 9938. Figure five shows the christmas dress with the paneled bodice, open at the back, exposing the Velcro that was sewn on at the back closure area. Figure six shows someone carefully comparing panels made from the red tulip fabric. And in figure seven, a vintage Barbie from the 1980s holds up her arms in the bent-arm formation (upright and to her sides), displaying the double-fold hem along the top of the bodice which is inside-out on the doll with straps pinned to the inside of the dress's 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.

So when I made the red tulip version of the dress (combining the skirt from Advance 2895 and the bodice from the View 3 dress from Advance 9938), I set basically two primary goals: a.) keep that double-fold hem along the bodice and b.) follow the quarter-inch seam allowances as carefully as possible.

In Figure 5 above, you can see that I had to add Velcro to the Christmas (longer) version of the dress, in order to make it close properly in back because I’m used to my own seam allowances which are a little smaller than a true quarter-inch. So during round two with this bodice, I kept checking the fit of the garment and making adjustments to each panel, as needed, to make sure my seams were always exactly one quarter inch wide.

Now you might wonder where I got the strap pattern. I have plenty of Barbie dress patterns right here on ChellyWood.com with straps! So I just used one of my own strap patterns to create those straps.

Figure eight shows the bodice from View 3 Advance 9938 with two red cotton straps pinned to it from the back. Figure nine shows the same straps being sewn to the front of the bodice. In both figures eight and nine, the doll wears the bodice inside-out while someone pins and sews the straps onto the bodice. In figure ten, the dress is shown from the wrong side with straps sewn on. Here we see that the bodice has been sewn to the gathered skirt from Advance 9895 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.

On the whole, the steps I took in making this dress made the whole thing fit better than the Christmas version of a similar dress from Advance 9938 — the longer version from View 3 of that pattern.

The skirt from View 3 of Advance 2895 was a simple little gathered number, so I was able to easily attach it to the bodice from the other Advance pattern, exactly like I’d attached the skirt for the longer dress.

And thankfully, following those quarter-inch wide seams very carefully helped fit the bodice more snugly to the Barbie’s body, although it still has a longer torso than what I really wanted.

A vintage brunette (brownette) bubble cut Barbie doll models a red cotton sundress printed with tiny yellow circles that enclose little yellow tulips. The dress has straps above an elongated bodice with a very full, gathered skirt that's hemmed just below the knee. This dress was made using the bodice from Advance 9938 (view 3) and the skirt from Advance 2895 (view 3) combined to make a sundress that looks like the one in View 1 of Advance 9938. — 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 really does look a lot like the View 1 dress though, don’t you think?

With close-up images from pattern envelopes belonging to Advance 9938 and Advance 2895, we can really see that the tulip dress looks a lot like the view one dress from Advance 9938 after adding the skirt from Advance 2895. — 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.

If I ever try making this project again, I think I’ll alter the bodice by shortening each panel by about a quarter of an inch, to bring that waist up to the natural waist, just a bit more. Still, it fit nicely in the back with just a row of snaps, instead of having to add a line of Velcro.

So I was pleased with that. Following the seam allowances more carefully was the key to making it fit well in back.

If you’d like to learn how to alter patterns, I do teach a paid course on that very topic. Scroll down to learn more!

This image shows the final dress in three sections. First, there's a close-up of the bodice and its waistline. Second, we see the bubble cut Barbie modeling the tulip dress from the side. Third, we see the vintage Barbie modeling her dress facing forward. Again, this is a dress made using the bodice from Advance 9938 View 3 and the skirt from Advance 2895 View 3, to create a dress like the one shown in Advance 9938 view 1. — 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.

Have you ever mixed and matched patterns? What went well and what were your challenges?

Please leave comments!

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