I had looked around the 'net for anyone who might have written articles, with pictures, about the construction of the old Barbie clothes, the ones that were made before stretch knits and overlock machines became the primary mover and shaker of doll clothes. No luck. Though there were some intriguing hints on Andrea Schewe's blog post about her Barbies. (Andrea, incidentally, was a very good commercial pattern designer before Simplicity restructured a few years ago and more or less forced her into retirement. I met her when she was a guest of honor at Costume College, several years ago. I've sewn some of her patterns for me... and for Barbie.)
Failing to find the information I wanted, I turned to trying to acquire original samples so I could learn more about better techniques of doll clothes making. Sadly, I kept getting outbid! But finally I found a lot on eBay that were *ahem* gently used. Eight outfits, though, for the price I'd been seeing one for! I hit Buy Me Now.
The packet arrived yesterday, and I promptly photographed them then chucked them into a plastic shoebox filled with warm water and Retro Clean. (Retro Clean were guest speakers at the Orange County Quilters Guild when I still lived there, and I bought some of their product, which I still have. OxyClean has a large overlap of ingredients. Both work well for getting rid of age stains.)
Dress #1, Suburban Shopper, as it arrived. This was one of the better of the lot, with no damage, and really no visible staining. Nonetheless, into a cleaning bath it went.
The same dress, after several hours soaking, followed by a rinse, air-drying overnight on the top of a Diet Coke bottle to help keep the skirts spread, and a gentle ironing with the aid of a tailor's sleeve ham:
Here pictured on my Solo in the Spotlight reproduction Barbie. Because I was also getting outbid on any and all actual dolls with the Vintage body type, so I purchased a repro. Despite missing its accessories, the dress looks probably as pretty as the day it was first sold. It was made 1959-1964, so at a minimum, it's 58 years old!
Now we get down to the nuts and bolts. First, this dress doesn't have velcro, or even snaps. It has a real metal zipper, and fits like a glove.
And turning it inside out, we look first at the inside of the bodice:
The bodice is not lined, though it does have a self facing (which is not a sewn-on facing, it's the fabric folded over 1/2" then top-stitched down). The facing edge is not finished. The darts are clipped to the top and pressed open to minimize bulk. There are no side seams; all the shaping of the bodice is done by the two darts. The shoulder straps (1/4" wide) are folded over on both sides then top-stitched down on both sides. Raw edges everywhere. The 18" of skirt are tightly gathered onto the 4" waistband with a 1/4" seam.
The hem is 3/8" deep and feels like the edge of the fabric is folded over about 1/4" inside.
The center back seam is 7/16" deep and not finished in any way other than being pressed open, likely again to minimize bulk. The zipper, though it's hard to see (white thread on white material), is hand-sewn in.
So! My conclusion is that I've perhaps been overly neurotic about things like lining and seam finishes. Perhaps not a great surprise. I have definitely picked up a few techniques from this dress that I will start applying to my own sewing, such as cutting darts open and pressing them flat. Though I still would have pinked the center back skirt seam!
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