Butterick 6668

So I picked up two more $.50 Barbies at the thrift store last week because they both had their jewelry sets intact.  Meet Ms. Blue and Ms. Diamond:

Ms. Blue is Cool Times Barbie, from 1988.  You can google for pictures - that is not her original outfit, and her hair did not originally have blue streaks in it, so someone has clearly taken a sharpie to her.  Ms. Diamond, sadly, I cannot track down.  She does have a slight discoloration over her left eyebrow, but scrubbing hasn't taken care of it, so I think it might be discoloration in the plastic.

I did actually like the blue in Ms. Blue's hair.  Unfortunately, it all came off at the "soap and water" stage of her salon treatment.

Here they are post-salon treatment:

The sundresses are temporary garb.  Ms. Diamond gets the green silk dress I made last week; I just need to figure out what to do about her hair.  Ms. Blue I'm not sure about yet.  I think she deserves something fun and jazzy, possibly something matching her earrings.  (I may have bookmarked a bunch of Barbie Jurassic World and Mario clothes on Amazon; I'm just not sure I can stomach paying ~$10/outfit.)

I kind of wish the chicken on the center front of the yellow dress wasn't upside down, but I was literally working from a scrap of fabric.  I pulled it from a $2 bag of fabric I'd gotten at the Port Orchard Quilt Guild a month or two ago.  I'd been mostly picking out fabrics I thought would be good to patch the vintage quilt top I'd made into my nap quilt, but it turns out a surprising number of them are small-scale enough to turn into Barbie clothes.

The dresses themselves are from this pattern:

Unfortunately, I doubt the dapper men's patterns in this one will fit my Ken.  He's one of the buff ones from the 1980s.  Himbo Ken!

Something I do really like on this sundress pattern, though, is the fastening:

It's a little tricky to see, but basically there's a button sewn on the shoulder back, and then you make a thread loop on the shoulder front.  It's been a long time since I've made any thread loops, and I'd forgotten how fun knotting the thread around itself is!  The pattern did call for finishing the neck and armhole seam allowances with bias tape, but I didn't have patience for that.  I debated lining the dresses, but in the end just went with Fray Check, turning the seam under, and top-stitching it down.  The patch pockets are fully lined and fully functional, though!

I've pulled another set of scraps and a fat quarter to make another outfit for Petite next (using Butterick 3419) and then plan to revisit Simplicity 8466, since Wil Wheaton (yes, the actor) retumbled a random picture from 1967 that made me put a fabric and a pattern together in my head.