Happy Birthday Barbie!

I had grand plans for this post! But as usual I thought way too long about it and ran out of time to actually create the outfit I wanted to make.

When I was a kid I would make Barbie clothes for my and my sister’s Barbies. I think I sewed them outfits off and on from age 9 until 12. I shared a pic of me holding a Barbie in a dress I made sometime when I was about 11 or 12 years old on Instagram recently as part of a collage. Yup that’s me.

Here’s my day late #sewingstory I first learned to sew when I was 7 or 8 when my mum taught me the basics. I handsewed that kind of hard to see pink cat pillow in the top right. As I got older I sewed a little here there, on the left is me at 11 or 12 showing off a Barbie dress I sewed. (Yep I played with Barbies for ages, I have a younger sister, ha). I sewed a little through my teens and early 20s. Stopped when I was maybe 22 and didn’t start again until SillyBean was a year old (so roughly 11 years later). (She’s 18 months old in the bottom right in the dress I made her for my wedding). Although sewing didn’t become a daily obsession until I was pregnant with Miss V. @harts_fabric . . #sewnwithhart #tbt #sewingblogger

A post shared by Ula (@luluandceleste) on Feb 2, 2017 at 11:38am PST

I wanted to share a tutorial for a Barbie dress, but I’m still working on getting the look I wanted. I was thinking of something classic 60’s Barbie but for that I might just look for a pattern instead.

In the meantime here are few free Barbie tutorials/patterns that I’ve found:

Janel Was Here has four different Barbie patterns PLUS a guide on how to tell the different Barbie doll bodies apart.

Craftiness is Not Optional has a classic style dress tutorial.

and Sewing and Pattern has tons of scanned vintage Barbie patterns on her site.

And if you’re as fascinated with the idea of repainting a Barbie’s face as I am there is a tutorial here which explains what you need.