My First Barbie and Monster High Sewing Outfits!

So I have decided for my nieces birthday to sew her up a wardrobe for her Barbies and Monster High dolls.


The last time I saw them, they were sadly wearing scrappy outfits from our Barbies circa 1980-1990! 


I don't think her Monster High Dolls have any new outfits.


So, I ordered a Monster High and Barbie doll from Amazon.  My, the quality on the lesser pricd ones is definitely subpar compared to mine - at least the dog could take my Barbie without fear that her arm would go missing! These ones are made from a hollow plastic vs the dense rubber weapons they were back in my day.


I totally just said, 'back in my day."


I'm officially old.


Ok, so the first item I made was a Free T Shirt I found on Pixie Faire.

If you haven't sewn before, the instructions may be missing a few steps for seing the hems, but they are straight forward and easy otherwise.


Sewing Barbie clothes might *NOT* be advisable for beginners though, as those darn hems take time to get right.


For the collar, I deviated from the pattern, and made a band (like I would for my own clothes) by measuring the neckline, cutting a small 1/2" wide piece of stretch fabric, folding in half wrong sides together, and placing right sides together along the neckline.


I then topstitched once I flipped the binding upwards to keep it from folding forward and for a more professional look.

For the back, it calls for Velcro.


I cut a piece of velcro in half lengthwise for a smaller width, and sewed on as per directions.


I then added some rickrack to give it a neater look.

Not bad for my first Babie clothing item in 25+ years...


For my next clothing item, I opted to see if I could downsize the Rebecca Page Cora Cocoon Cardigan I made for myself.


I mean, there's an 18" doll pattern, I just had to amend it to a smaller height.


I kind of goofed with thinking for some reason the Monster High Doll would be 14" (she's about the same height as Barbie, at 11.5"), so I set my printer to 77% to shrink the Doll Cocoon pattern pieces to the "proper" size, however, it turned out a bit bigger than anticipated.


Calculating 11.5" by 18" should actually be printed at about 65% to the pattern sizing.


I finished my first one last night in a nice light stretch Cotton Lycra, and although a bit big, it was simple to make.

I cut an inch off the perimeter of the Cardigan portion of the pattern piece, and 2" from the band piece this morning. I was honestly too lazy to go down 3 flights of stairs to reprint the pattern at 65% of the original pattern piece.


And I wanted to sew one more up this morning as we're heading to the camp tonight right after work.


And I started at 6:36am and finished sewing by 6:51am, giving me enough time to snuggle with my ailing Husband (just a minor injury) before heading downstairs to my office.


The second one is from a lightweight knit that has minimal stretch either way, but still works on a looser knit pattern.

This one fit much better - although I'll just reprint the pattern now as the arms are still a tad bit long.


Kids don't care though, and I have 3 nieces to makes Barbie and Monster High clothes for now.


Because I didn't have enough hobbies or sewing projects to work on apparently.


*sigh*


Sew On!


and stay tuned for more Monster High and Barbie clothing - definitely great scrapbusters and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you!