How to sew Barbie clothes the lazy bum way!

(Your five-year-old will be delighted)

This pattern is for the new bellybutton Barbie body, which has smaller breasts and larger waist and hips than the traditional Barbie shape. My daughter has nine Barbies and four of them are the new shape, but the only clothes available are "trendy" ones, hip-huggers such as that shape was designed to wear, and my daughter wants Princess gowns!  When there were no commercial patterns available for the new body shape, I had to make my own. Here's the results.

Bear in mind that these pictures were taken with one of the rough draft versions of my homemade pattern, so some of the shapes are a little different :-)

First the dart seams and shoulder seams

On the ends of the sleeves, and the back where you're going to put snaps or velcro, fold over a tiny bit then a wider bit, and sew a straight seam along there.  Much easier to do that while it's flat. 

Pin the sleeves into the armholes, making tiny tucks to take up the fullness, and sew along there. 

Fold over the sleeve, wrong sides together, and sew along the sleeve and down the side seam.

For the neck, just zigzag the rough edge, then fold it inside a little and straight stitch over the top of it.

Fold both ends over on the skirt piece, first a little, then a little more, and straight stitch along there. Then line it up with the waist on the dress, and sew them together.

Hem? You've got to be kidding. I don't hem curved surfaces, and it's not like Barbie WEARS these things, she only models them! In case she gets her new dress muddy (as I've seen her do) and you want to put it in the washer, you can zigzag this edge before SEWING LACE OVER IT! That's the total lazy bum way.

Then you got to sew snaps or Velcro along the back. And voila, you're done, in such short time that the little girl standing by your hip all this time hasn't lost interest!

SECOND DRAFT BODICE

This one's more fitted. Barbie can't breathe. Luckily Barbie doesn't need to! 

Let's get official and put a facing into it. Whoa... getting real now. But still not exactly difficult. Just sew the shoulder seams, lay it flat, right side up, lay the facing over it and stitch around there. Then you clip the edge, flip the facing to the inside and press with your fingers to make it flat, and topstitch. 

Sew up the darts, then the sides. Finish the edges like the first model...

Lace instead of sleeves. I am so lazy.

And you'll notice that since the first batch of pictures were taken, my five-year-old confiscated Sleeping Beauty Barbie and left me with Bad Hair Day Barbie.

Your skirt isn't going to have a seam in the front. I was still working on the prototype here.

STRAPLESS DRESS

Strapless. Simplicity itself. You don't even have to put boning or a hidden bra into it, since Barbie is self-supporting!  Just hem along the top, then sew the darts up.

Gather the skirt, or do it the lazy bum way as shown here, four little pleats.

Fold over the back side edges twice and stitch up for the hem.

Sew snaps on it, et voila!  Finished!  The skirt's a little too narrow though, so I added some width into the next one.

Maybe add a couple pieces of ribbon for straps...