It’s been a bit crazy around here lately. I apologize for the silence here on the blog. I have a number of posts queued up that need pictures. Today, I’ll make a start on finishing them up to be shared.
First up, I finally got back to Kate Mitsubachi’s books, Barbie Mode. Previously, I made the Double-Breasted Suit and the Soirée evening gown from Kate’s other pattern book, Stylebook for Dolls. I had an idea when I first got these that I’d make every garment for the girls, but life happened and I was distracted by other projects. In December, I dug back in.
Both books are in Japanese, but the instructions have illustrations and are easy to follow. I have a print copies of the books, but you can buy scans of them on Etsy.
The third garment featured in Barbie Mode is a two-piece suit called Danielle, which is shown in red and black. At left is the picture from the book.
I made mine in a linen and cotton blend, because it looked to me as if the sleeves would hang better in a lighter weight of fabric. I lined mine with white voile, and it came out pretty well. I haven’t made the hat and am not sure I will.
Here’s mine:
I like the seed beads on the front of this one. I think the belt in the book is made of satin ribbon, but I made this one of belting that’s available for dolls. I thought the sleeves might be softer in such a fine fabric, but they’re still a bit structural.
One change I made was to add some top-stitching to the jacket. I find that princess seams on a jacket lie flatter in doll-size if they’re sewn down. I pressed the seam allowances away from the centre, and trimmed one to 1/8″ inch before pressing then top-stitched on the outside of the seam, catching the seam allowances underneath. It would have been tidier if I’d sewn a little more of the jacket hem before turning it and handstitching the rest, but overall I’m pleased with the result.
I’m ready for a break from pink, though.
Alive & Knitting 
Hi! I am curious how you go about making your pattern pieces. Do you just sketch it onto paper based on the layout shown and the fabric size noted? Thank you for sharing your process and other hints you may have for making the patterns. Your work is lovely 😍.
Hi Marlene –
Thanks for your kind words. The blog, btw, is set up so that comments from people who haven’t commented before are flagged for moderation. That way, I have to manually approve them, but it means less spam on the site. Thanks for your patience with that.
In this case, the patterns are provided in the book. I had to scale them with a photocopier, but that gave me a copy to cut without cutting up the book. This book is available as a digital download from various vendors on Etsy, as well as the author’s other doll pattern book, but I found it very hard to scale the patterns correctly. There weren’t any indications on the version I bought, which meant a lot of trial and error, and frustration. In the end, I hunted down a print copy of the book and bought it instead. The instructions are in Japanese in both books, but there are illustrations and if you sew at all, it’s pretty easy to figure out. I think they are particularly lovely designs and need to make more of them.
Thanks for commenting!
Deborah