Anatomy of an Outfit: Picnic Set

So!  Today in vintage Barbie clothes, we have... half an outfit.  The Picnic Set from 1961!

The bundle of clothes I purchased did not include the jeans.  (Nor, for any of the outfits, the accessories.)  But I had another pair of Barbie jeans to hand, so this is my approximation.  All that I got was the blouse:

Which, for the record, isn't actually a blouse!  I'm not sure exactly what one should call this, in fact.  A leotard?  A bodysuit?  Overall, it really is an excellent way of making sure a doll's blouse stays tucked in, so I'm going to have to see if any of my patterns has something similar that I can adapt for non-knit fabrics.

It has some gathering into the two-piece yoke on the back.  The folded-over collar is a separate finished piece.

And a snap hidden under that single button on the front.  As you can see, only one side of it is actually bodysuit-ish.  The front facings are simply folded over and their interior edges finished by topstitching.

The interior of the yoke.  The facing is free-floating, and folds down like so:

And, finally, the hem is simply folded over and topstitched down, as are the armholes.  The side seam is unfinished.

Simplicity 5785

Another day, another doll dress.  I'm not too happy with this one.

Pictured here on Morticia, my Model Muse body type.  Because she was one of only two dolls this would fit, the other being Petite.  And the bodice was too big on Petite - the neckline hunched up toward her chin.  So this dress is Morticia's, I guess.

(She's named Morticia because she was wearing a Halloween dress when I bought her, and because between her expression and blood-red lips and nails, I'm 100% sure she's killed someone.)

This dress is pattern E, illustrated up in the upper left corner of the pattern cover.  (This pattern is still available, apparently, and still under the same pattern number)  I opted not to do the "belt" on it simply because I didn't have any black ribbon to hand.

Fitting-wise, the problem is that the dress simply won't close on any of my other dolls.  They're either too broad around the waist (Vintage and Bellybutton bodies) or around the ribcage (Twist'N'Turn bodies).  And the problem with it on Morticia, actually, is that it's loose in the bust.  So this pattern manages to fit precisely none of my Barbies well.

Construction-wise, I do not like the armscye.  It's very shallow; the side seam meets a "V" rather than a "U" shape.

Things I do like, however, very much include the skirt!  It is actually a true circle skirt, and does fit with the bodice like hand in glove.  No finagling or finessing of seam lengths; they're a perfect match.

If I make this dress again, I will be narrowing the shoulders, to try to make them proper sundress straps, and altering the armscye to make it less, hmm, argumentative to deal with.

Anatomy of a Dress: Garden Party

This one arrived as a mess.  Garden Party was the first garment that really needed stain remediation.

There was a huge blotch of... mildew? something?... right on the edge of the lace panel.  I soaked the dress in Retro Clean for a day, which got rid of the worst of it, followed by a spray of OxyClean Max Force and a vigorous hand washing in the sink with dish soap.  The stain isn't 100% gone... but maybe 90%?

It looks much better now, certainly!  (Also, weep for me: my stand has broken, making these pictures trickier because Barbies were not made to balance standing.)

And the back view.  This dress fastens with two snaps, one at the top of the overlap, the other at the waist.

Inside the gown, we see that the entire bodice is lined with a single piece of netting, including the darts, which are clipped open and pressed flat.

The skirt is narrower than the others we've seen, measuring 16.5" at the hem.

The five tiers of lace are sewn onto a backing of white muslin, which is hemmed just slightly wider than 1/8".  There are two lines of stitching down either side of the panel.  The first, presumably, was to catch down the lace edges so they didn't go all cattywampus during the second set of stitches, which attached the lace panel to the dress fabric.  Please note the rest of the skirt was hemmed later, and wider: the hem is 1/2" deep, with the foldover inside about 3/8" deep.  The edges of the lace panel are hidden inside the skirt hem.

The center back skirt seam is 1/2" wide, and the foldover-and-stitch-down hemming goes to just below where the tag is sewn on and the seam opens.  As you can see by the couple loose threads, the center back seam has started coming loose, so I'm going to take a needle and some white thread right now, and mend that.

Anatomy of a Dress: Swingin' Easy

Another dress from my little bundle!  This one is Swingin' Easy from 1963!

The dress arrived a bit crumpled and smashed flat, as one might expect from a squishy packet sent through the USPS.  But a quick wash and press later, and she looks like this:

Quite lovely, no?  But equally nice is the back view:

I love that open back.  It's daring without being risque.

But now let us delve into the nitty-gritty.  First we'll take a look inside the bodice.

Unlike the Suburban Shopper dress, this one has a bodice made in four pieces: the bodice and sleeve fronts, two bodice and sleeve backs, and the cummerbund.  Yes, that means that there is a seam going down the top of each sleeve as well as one along the underarm!  And this time the bodice does have an obvious facing.  But, surprise, it's made of netting!  Which means it's practically invisible as well as adding no weight.  The netting is all one piece, and varies from 3/8" to 1/2" deep.  It's topstitched down, and beneath it the fold over of the fashion fabric is a mere 1/8".  Two small darts above the cummerbund give bust shaping; the seam allowance is 3/16", except at center front, where it's almost nothing, so I'll have to keep an eye on that; if anything's going to give way, it's going to be there.  A snap on the cummerbund fastens the garment closed.  The skirt is a full 20.5" gathered, again, onto a 4" waist.  The ribbon ties are 3/16" wide and 6" long.

Looking at the sleeve cuff, it looks like the top sleeve seam was sewn first, then the sleeve cuff, then the underarm seam.

This time, the hem was finished with an overlock stitch and possibly sewn to the dress at the same time?  I'm not as familiar with overlock machine capacity as I could be.  On the right side of the skirt, the seam shows as a line of prick stitches.

What I find curious is that on the upper part of the skirt seam, the seam allowance is 5/8" wide, folded under 1/4" and top-stitched down to finish it.  Then it simply cuts in to 1/4" wide and raw edged.  While I can understand finishing the part where the skirt is open and being handled, why not just simply do that for the whole length of the seam?  It seems like it would save time.  Though, I guess, it would add bulk at the hem....

Anatomy of a Dress: Suburban Shopper

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!

Success!

I finished the second iteration of the 1967 dress, and it works a LOT better than the first.

There's a lot more fullness in the Barbie version, of course, but to a certain extent that can't be helped, given the relative stiffness of fabric on a 1/6th scale.  I suppose if I was working with a rayon fabric, that might have been drapier, but I'm making doll clothes with the material I already have, not going out to buy more.  (I have too much already.)  And the fabric goes wonderfully with Ms. Blue's jewelry!  So I suppose I should earmark the rest of that fat quarter for other clothes for her.

I am slightly annoyed to discover one of the pairs of boots is cracked.  But given they're ~35 year old plastic, I suppose such things are to be expected.

Rather than wrestling with the bias tape to finish the neckline, I did the Fray Check fold and stitch down method, then sewed a hook and eye at the center back.  The slightly longer slit in the back aided greatly in the ease of getting this on and off, even over Ms. Blue's voluminous hair.  Simplicity 8466 for the win!

I See London, I See France

I got a vote each for two of the fabrics for the 1967 dress.  So I decided to do both!  Today I cut and stitched up the first of them.

I get that miniskirts are a thing, Women's Sexual Liberation and all that.  But.  Um.  If it weren't for the rick-rack I added, I think Ms. Blue would be having a bit of a modesty problem. ^_^;;;

So!  For attempt #2, trying to get a bit closer to the inspiration image, I'll be adding about an inch and a half of length!

Pattern notes: there is a slit-fold-back-and-stitch-down in the center back, which is exactly the right length for me to wriggle this "gown" onto Ms. Blue.  A little bit too exactly the right length, in fact; it was a tough sell.  I think I need to move the end point of the slit down about a quarter inch.  The neckline is enclosed in 1/4" bias tape, with 4 1/2" of it hanging free on either side and tying into the bow you can just see by Blue's ear on the right.  Between the length and the tying it on, this almost feels like a painter's smock. :)  Maybe I should make one in white and "decorate" it.

What's Wrong With Pink?

I've been doing a deep dive into Barbie history and lore.  And storage cases.  I have opinions about those now!  But most of my ire is reserved for the article I read on CNN the other day talking about "Barbiecore."  Which as a fashion trend pretty much seems to be "wear hot pink."  Which irks me, because if you want the pink end of things, the movie Legally Blonde did it so much better.  And also because Barbie hasn't always been heavily identified with pink!  That started in the 1980s, when everything started to get Needlessly Gendered.  And the color of pink associated with Barbie has only gotten brighter and brighter as time goes on.  I predict that within my lifetime, only shrimp will be able to see the shade that Mattel uses to market their golden girl.

Nonetheless, I finally had enough energy the other day to sew up those three pairs of trousers.

The pink-leaf blouse, alas, turned out a smidge too big for Petite, so her sister gets it instead.  And since I experimented with fully lining it, here's a shot of how that ended up:

It's quite nice, but the plain muslin does add a bit of bulk.  I'm trying to get ahold of a vintage Barbie dress or two to study the seam finishes and see what was used for lining back then, but I keep getting outbid.

Meanwhile!  My next project is inspired by this photo:

The text that goes with the photo says "Hippies dance at a psychedelic rock concert at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, California, early summer, 1967".  And I think this pattern will get me pretty close:

Assuming the illustration is accurate, I might lengthen the pattern just a little bit?  So I looked through my scraps of fabric and found these:

The one on the right would be ideal, but there isn't enough of it.  So maybe the one on the left?  Or, then I found these two:

What do y'all think?  Any opinions?