This is my second make from Kate Mitsubachi’s book, Stylebook of Doll’s Dress for Barbie. It’s called Soirée & Cape.

I love how glamourous and retro the fashions are in this book, and how lovingly they’re photographed. If you want to sew vintage for Barbie, this book is definitely worth a look.

Here’s the image of the dress from the photoshoot part of the book:

And here are the pattern instructions, just so you can see the mix. The instructions are all written in Japanese, but there are a lot of illustrations – if you know how to sew, it’s pretty easy to work out what to do.

That said, I’m finding that with each pattern, I have to make one to see where there need to be modifications. (This is actually true of all Barbie patterns so far. Every one of them seems to need a tweak. Part of that is the variation between different body sculpts, but the other part is construction choices.) This pattern shows a similar choice as that of other dress patterns for the girl – the bodice is lined, but the bodice and lining are sewn together at first, then treated as one piece after that. That leaves the raw edges of the big dart exposed on the inside of the bodice, and the seam allowance from the waist exposed, too. I don’t really see the point of lining the bodice if you’re not going to tuck all those seam allowances inside. (The point is that it’s easier to do it that way but the result still doesn’t give me joy.)

The first version of this dress I made in red crepe back satin. (Possibly a bad choice as that stuff is slippery!) It took me ages to figure out that pleat across the front, but now it seems so obvious. I then pleated the bodice lining, in reverse. I sewed the darts in the skirt at the waist, then pressed the pleats for that cluster of pleats. This was pretty easy – I laid the fabric on top of the pattern piece and folded it, one pleat at a time, then pressed the crease for that pleat before moving to the next one. This made it much simpler to gather those pleats together – because they radiate, they’re not all on the grainline. I sewed the bodice to the skirt waist, then sewed the bodice facing to the bodice. I hand-stitched the waist on the bodice facing, then added the “buttons” on the outside.

The tricky bit in my version is that the skirt waist extends beyond the CB of the bodice which leaves raw edge bits at the waist beyond the bodice. I finished the edge on those tabs, along with the CB edges of the skirt, then pressed the waist edge down. After sewing the CB seam, I top-stitched those waist edges and along the back opening of the skirt. I don’t love the back. 😦

I decided to hem the dress with self-bias, so cut 1″ wide bias from the fabric. I trimmed 1/4″ off the hem so the dress would finish to the same length as intended, then bound that edge. A pair of snaps on the back and it was done.

I’m only going to show you the front because the back still vexes me.

This is polyester crepe back satin, and those are seed beads on the bodice. I made the capelet of cotton velveteen lined with rayon Bemberg and used a small fancy button as a clasp. The gloves are made of that super-thin shiny knit from Fabricland that I mentioned previously—wow, does my sewing machine hate this stuff!—and she has another clasp purse from that McCalls pattern. It turns out I don’t love my hem solution. Mr. Math thinks the gloves make her look like she’s handling hazardous materials. I think the outfit looks Christmas-y.

The back remains vexing because 1/ those edges; 2/ the facing is bulky with the darts which means 3/ the fit is snug on vintage B—so skinnier Silkstone B wins this one. Here she is again with a “fur” cape that I knit for her:

Our model is Best in Black Silkstone B, (that’s an Amazon link since Mattel has taken the unavailable dolls off their site) who was divested of her crunchy black dress upon arrival. I took out the ponytail and just combed the hair over. I like her hair better loose although it is a bit wild.

The floor and wall are for my shop diorama but aren’t installed yet. I just propped them up on my sewing table to set the scene.

I had a think about the back of the ballgown and decided to try an alternate version with a simpler bodice facing. After pleating the bodice, I traced it on a piece of paper to make a pattern piece for the bodice lining. It’s a curve cut on the bias with no darts, and I cut it from Bemberg lining. I sewed the top seam of the bodice, attaching the lining, pressed the seam allowances toward the lining, then understitched that edge. It worked beautifully to make a nice edge at the top of the bodice. I sewed on two of the beads on the front to hold the pleat before sewing the bodice to the skirt, and also pressed up the waist edge of the lining. I also finished the CB seam allowances on the skirt.

After sewing the bodice to the skirt, I sewed the center back seams on the bodice. When piecing, I matched the cluster of pleats with the bottom of that front dart—that meant that one edge was even with the back of the bodice and the other extended 3/8″. The flush one was turned in 1/4″ and pressed, then top-stitched. I fused some knit interfacing to to the other edge to stabilize it at the waist, turned it in 1/8″ and top stitched across the extension at the waist, then down the CB seam. When I sewed the CB seam of the skirt, there was overlap in the skirt, instead of the dreaded butt opening – and all the edges are finished.

This makes me happy.

In fact, this version of the bodice gave me buckets of joy. It was simpler to constuct and the back is much neater. It also fits better – making this one a bit of a nipple-flasher for Silkstone B (if she had nipples, that is.)

This version is cut of black “Chinese brocade”, which is a very heavy polyester damask. Often these are multi-coloured but this one is just black. Our model is Dusk to Dawn Silkstone, a recent addition to my girls, and that’s another Amazon link. Her cape is knitted from a faux-fur yarn, closed with a hook-and-eye that has a sparkly.

Because of the thickness of the brocade, I knew I’d never manage a turned hem that was only 1/4″ wide in total. Instead, I fused knit interfacing to the wrong side to stabilize the edge, turned the hem 1/4″ and machine stitched it in place. Because it wanted to flip, even after pressing, I trimmed the seam allowance close to the stitching line.

I’m quite pleased with these and might manage to complete a few more in time for New Year’s Eve. Another completed mission in my Kate & Me challenge!

Next week, we’ll talk about stoles and capes, and making gloves.