How to make Barbie a swimsuit / bathing suit with McCall’s “Teen Fashion Doll” sewing pattern 3429 #SewingHacks #SummerSewing

The image is of a McCall's 3429 teen fashion doll sewing pattern from 1972. The sketches of dolls on the cover of this pattern are (top row left to right): a wedding dress, a yellow mini skirt dress with long sleeves, a red blouse with red and blue plaid trousers, a red-riding-hood cape, and (bottom row left to right) a blue body suit with purple wrap-around pants, a blue swimsuit (identical to the bodysuit), a red muumuu-like long dress, a green teddy style nightgown with bloomers, a red floral short sleeved blousy dress with a gathered waist, and a blue checkered pinafore (shown over the previously mentioned short-sleeved long dress with gathered waist). The pattern's package is yellowed with time and in very shabby condition, having torn edges and dogeared corners. — 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 state of Idaho, where I live, is in the northern hemisphere. That means it’s summertime here, so it makes sense to do a blog post on swimsuits!

Sorry for the terrible condition of my pattern in today’s blog post.

Not only is the envelope in bad physical condition, but when I purchased it, this pattern was also missing quite a few pieces. But it had the swimsuit/bodysuit pattern (which was what I wanted to sew), and it also had its instruction sheet — which is crucial, as you’ll see in today’s blog post.

I wanted to see how other people design swimsuits for dolls, so while taking a college course at Boise State University, I brought along a ready-to-sew swimsuit (view B in the McCall’s teen doll pattern number 3429 shown above) to work on while listening to lectures.

Here we see two swimsuit pieces cut from orange jersey fabric. Chelly has begun to sew one of the pieces around what looks like it may be a neckline (but it's hard to tell what's what). These garment pieces sort of look like a two dimensional front view of piglets with curly ears and stubby little legs. — 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.

Because the pattern was in such fragile condition, I did not bring along the written instructions on my first trip to the college campus. Rather, I just started to sew the hemlines around the neck, leg, and armholes.

This seemed like a good place to start, so I just went with my gut.

In the image below, the green arrow shows where I had started to sew the neckline. Pink arrows show where I had started to sew the armholes.

In this image, the garment piece lays flat on a white surface. The top of the garment has been hemmed, as have two side areas and what appears to be the leg opening. A green arrow points up to the sewn hemline that arcs like a neckline. Two pink arrows point at the sides of the garment where it has been sewn. — 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.

Except those were not a neckline and armholes at all. Oooops!

In the image below, I’ve flipped the whole swimsuit garment piece around, and the purple arrows point at the actual neckline, which would only appear after I had sewn the two garment pieces to one another. The blue arrow points at the armhole.

This coral orange garment piece is now flipped around so that the wider hemmed area is at the bottom now. A yellow arrow points at this wider hemline. The two sides, which have been hemmed now appear to be the waist area of the swimsuit garment. Orange arrows point at these, but they have been incorrectly hemmed. A blue arrow points up at a very narrow hemmed area, which we can now tell is actually an armhole opening. Purple arrows point at what will become a neckline, after the two garment pieces are sewn together. — 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 yellow arrow points at what I thought was the neckline, but it turns out this was a leg hole! Oh no!

And that means — yep! — the orange arrows point at the front and back seams of the swimsuit, which should have been sewn to the other garment piece, not hemmed.

Ugh!

So I tossed the coral-colored orange-ish swimsuit in the garbage and had to start over. So much for that.

In this image, a quilted frame surrounds a close-up of the swimsuit image from McCalls Teen doll fashion 3429 doll clothes pattern, but the swimsuit (which normally appears in blue) has been redesigned in a salmon or coral colored-shade of pink. It's very becoming on the strawberry blond haired doll drawn there as the model. — 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 seems McCall’s 3429’s swimsuit and/or bodysuit pattern would have to wait for another day.

But as I used to tell my students at the middle school where I worked as a school librarian before I retired, “When you fall off the bike, you don’t walk away. You brush the dust off, and you get back on the bike and ride.”

So I did tackle the problem another day, and the second time around, I learned from my mistakes and read the directions!

This is a three-part, segmented set of photos. In the upper left corner of the image, we read the instructions given on McCall's fashion doll clothes sewing pattern 3429, as follows: "One. Finishing armhole and leg edges. Stitch one fourth inch from raw arm-hole and leg edges. Clip curves, as illustrated. Turn on stitching lines, rolling machine-stitching to inside. Press. Stitch close to turned edges. Cut raw edges close to stitching." In the lower left, we see a garment piece that has been cut out and the neckline has been closely clipped. Then there's a larger image on the right. The word "bodysuit" spans the length of a drawing of a garment piece. At the top of this bodysuit, tiny clips have been cut in the a hemline, and the sewist has sewn very close to the edge of this hemline. This is also shown at the bottom of the garment, at the leg line. — 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.

To read about the second version of this swimsuit, click here.

As Alice says when she’s in Wonderland, “Read the directions, and directly you will be directed in the right direction!”

Visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Before I end this blog post, I want to be sure to mention that my website does offer free PDF sewing patterns for making Barbie a swimsuit/ bathing suit, and you can find those patterns on the gallery of free sewing patterns for Barbie dolls. (Please click the link, and it will take you there.)

And once again, today’s blog post was about the McCall’s teen doll pattern number 3429, which is usually pretty easy to find 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.

Today’s blog post is a re-post from 2022.

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.

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

For my free doll clothes sewing tutorial videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel, ChellyWood1.

Maybe you already own some great commercial patterns, but you really wish you could alter them to look just a little different. If so, my Creative Spark class, “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” may be just what you need to make your commercially designed patterns into the pattern you see in your imagination.

This informational image shows a woman who is working at a craft table, altering doll clothes pants patterns. The text above her head says, "How to alter doll clothes patterns" followed by the words "online course" and the following bulleted bits of information about the Creative Spark online course the Chelly Wood will be teaching: bullet point 1: 40 plus videos; bullet point 2: work at your own pace; bullet point 3: one fee (no subscription); bullet point 4: learn how to enlarge or reduce your patterns. Next is a textbox encouraging you to "register now" and under this it says, "Go to Creative Spark dot CT pub dot com" and "search for Chelly Wood." — Link to Chelly’s courses: https://creativespark.ctpub.com/pages/chelly-wood-instructor-page

Are you worried that you won’t have time to take a course in doll clothes pattern alteration? You’ll be happy to learn that, 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 please go have a look at my paid courses on Creative Spark, using this link.

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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.