Circle Skirt Dress for Barbie

Last Sunday, amidst all the rush to finish my Mother's Day projects (i.e. the Satin and Tulle flower for my mom's blouse, and the matching rosettes headbands for Andrea and me) before we had to leave the house, I decided to squeeze in a simple dress for Barbie. 

I used the leftover jersey fabric from my Kimono Dress that I turned into a skirt. I made a Circle Skirt from Dana's tutorial at Made. And then I made the top using Delia's tutorial for the Paper Bag Dress... only you know... I made it shorter because it will only be a top and I tapered toward the waist because I wanted the top part loose but not too loose. And then I attached the skirt to the top. I sewed this by hand... I have no idea how to sew something so small using my sewing machine.

After I sewed both halves together, I cut a slit at the back of the top so that Barbie can put it on and take it off easily. I sewed on a sort of flap on one side of the slit so I can attach the Velcro. But since the fabric is small and a little flimsy, things went haywire when I tried to sew it on using the sewing machine...

Please don't be jealous of my sewing skills.

I was in a hurry at the time so I didn't fix it... but I will *sigh*. The belt is actually a black piece of satin ribbon tied at the back. 

And we have a conservative dress for Barbie (why do all Barbie clothes sold at the mall have to be clingy and tight fitting???). I wanted to make the skirt a little longer but I didn't have enough scrap fabric.

Paired with a woven doll's bag I bought somewhere for around P40 (or around $0.50)

Linking up to the following link parties:

Sew Cute Tuesday at Creative Itch | Handmade Tuesdays at Ladybug Blessings | Show Me What Ya Got at Not JUST a Housewife | We Did It Wednesday at Sew Much Ado | Show & Tell at Blue Cricket Designs | Your Whims Wednesday at My Girlish Whims | Hoo's Got Talent? at Night Owl Crafting | Will See It Wednesday at Fabric Bows and More | 

Barbie's Tutu Skirt

Sometime last year, I planned on making doll dresses for Andrea's dolls. I made a couple for the smaller ones, but after that, I totally forgot about it.

Yesterday, during my usual blog hop, I came across Andrea's blog: Addicted to Tutes. She made clothes for her daughter's Barbie dolls and the tutu skirt caught my eye. It's pretty and yet so simple!

I planned to try it when I got home so...

STEP 1: Get Andrea (my daughter) to sleep early so mommy can get some sewing time.

STEP 2: Find some scrap lace wide enough to be a skirt for Barbie and some thin elastic.

I wanted to make the skirt a little less see through so I added 4 layers of cream tulle underneath.

I wanted to finish quickly so I didn't prepare a detailed tutorial, but if you want one, please leave a comment on this post and I will prepare one next time Andrea (again, my daughter) goes to sleep early.

Here's my finished skirt:

Head on over to Andrea's (the blogger, hehe) blog to check out her other Barbie clothes. I plan to make some other clothes for Barbie soon.

Click here to go to Andrea's blog: Addicted to Tutes.

"Bye! Hope you all have a great day!"

Great Weekend Finds: Doll Accessories

I just want to share some cute stuff I found at the grocery store last weekend.

Yep, you read that right... grocery store. See, the grocery store near our house has something like a general merchandise store on the 2nd floor. They carry stuff like clothes, shoes, bags, toys, scrap booking supplies, make-up, accessories, hardware items, school supplies, knick-knacks, kitchen items... you name it... they probably have it ;) So, when I do my grocery shopping on Saturday mornings, I usually browse around 2nd floor first. And last weekend... look what I found...

A pair of pink rubber shoes for Barbie for P25 (approx $0.50)

A small denim bag for P38 (approx $0.80)

A small body bag for P38 (approx $0.80)

I saw doll accessories being sold separately and they were cheap! The denim bag came in other colors: beige and olive green... but I only bought these 3. And there were other shoes that look like bulky rubber shoes which I don't really find pretty. I've been wanting to go back for the other bags though... maybe I will later. I've been collecting clothes for Andrea's dolls for a while now... waiting for the time that she will start appreciating them.

Inspired by my finds... I made a little something for Andrea that I know she will appreciate now...

 

 

Hmmm... does that backpack look familiar???

It's Dora's friend, "Backpack"!!!

More about "Backpack" on another post... this is just a preview :) Hope you all had a great weekend!

Doll Dresses

After I cleaned up the little girl dolls from Andrea's stash, I lost interest in the 2 Barbie dolls that came with it. Both Barbie dolls were in good condition but their hair were a little messy, their gowns a little dated, and they didn't have any shoes. At the time I was able to straighten their hair a little using hot water: pour hot (supposed to be boiling... but I was afraid of scalding my hands) water on the doll's hair, then comb (to straighten) or style and allow to dry (to set). I'm an amateur at this (and I didn't use boiling water as instructed), so it didn't turn out as neatly as I had hoped. I will probably try again.

Anyway, I have also been downloading doll dress patterns online and have been excited to make my own for a while. I was so inspired by the DIY doll dresses I saw online. Those people make it look so effortless! However, after I tried making a pair of pants and seeing the outcome... let's just say that's when I lost interest. I planned to just buy Barbie clothes at the mall but they were a little expensive so I put it off and told myself, I'll wait until Andrea and Helaena are old enough to appreciate the Barbie dolls before I spend money on it.
Last weekend however, while shopping at the mall, I saw a few dresses for a doll named "Haidee". I think it's made locally. The gowns are being sold for only P100 (around $2.50) each. The quality was not as good as the original clothes made by Mattel but some look good enough. I chose one and bought it to see if it will fit the doll:

It does!! And the dress is not bad either.

I'll buy more when I get the chance to go back to the mall.

More good news on the doll arena... last weekend, I also went to Divisoria (THE flea market of Manila). I saw doll dresses as well and they only sell for P40 (less than $1). I also bought one but it doesn't fit as well as the one I got at the mall. But they also sell doll shoes that fit Barbie dolls for only P25 (around $0.25) per pack! And each pack contains 3 pairs of shoes. I'll post pictures when I get around to taking proper photos.

One of a Kind Doll and Doll Outfits

I came upon this site while looking for resources for dolls:

http://www.molendrix.com/galerie1.html

You have to admire the patience with details!

This is my favorite:

Click photo to see dress details and patterns.

Detangling Doll Hair

I'm still on a roll so bear with me for a few more posts about dolls.

Anyway, yesterday, I posted about the hair detangler product from Barbie. I made up my mind to get one but the nearby toy store doesn't carry it and I won't be going to other toy stores soon. Last night, after Andrea went to sleep, I decided to work on one of her other dolls. This is another student doll from Teacher Barbie. This is how she looked like before I started working on her:

I don't know how she looked like originally, I haven't been able to find a photo of Teacher Barbie with a blonde girl student. Anyway, in this photo, I was already able to brush her bangs down. When we got her, I didn't realize she had bangs because they were brushed back and looked like part of her long hair in the pony tail. I only realized they were bangs when I shampooed her hair and saw shorter ones. When I blow dried her hair, I concentrated the heat in the bangs part for a while to get them to flatten down.
Going back to the detangler, since I didn't have Barbie's hair detangler, I tried to use what I had available: Vitress Cuticle Coat. It worked!

The hair was a bit sticky after but that was fine since I planned to wash it again after I get all the curls out. Anyway, here's the tricky part... I read in one website that you can iron doll hair directly... I must have done it wrong because a part of her hair almost melted. So I used a cloth over the hair before applying the hot iron. I didn't get it really, really straight but at least the hair is falling down the back already instead of sticking up. Then I had to trim her hair because the ends were already knotted. The hair was already thinning when we got her, I think it needs to be re-rooted but I have no idea where to get doll hair (if I'm able to get it, it might be the subject of a future blog entry). After trimming, I washed hair again using shampoo and blow dried. The result isn't as nice as I had hoped (maybe because the hair was thin?). But I think this is better than the curly-knotted-sticking up look she was sporting when we got her:


I also made the dress out of an old lace tank top. I would love to share how I did it but thing is... I don't use patterns. She's very small (around 3? 4? inches) so I would just wrap the fabric around her and mark the areas where I should sew. I got the idea from this site though, so you can check here instead. For the headband, I used one of Andrea's pink hair elastics... it's the perfect size. The headband covers some thinning/spots on her head.

Getting to know "Kelly"

I'm still obsessing about Andrea's dolls.

Yesterday, I accidentally* discovered the identities of her 3 "Kelly's". I initially called them all Kelly because I have yet to find out who (in Barbie's World of Pink) they were. Well, they turned out to be all Kelly :)
*I say accidentally because I was looking for something else when I saw their pictures online.

These are the 3 Kelly dolls I initially posted:

The one on the right and the one on the left are both Hearts and Kisses Kelly. Here's what they looked like originally:


The one in the middle is Cloud Princess Kelly (in Pink) from Barbie's The Magic of Pegasus series:


We also have the horse (minus the wings), but I gave it to Helaena (all horses and My Little Pony dolls went to Helaena's stash because she likes horses). Hmmm... maybe I can get it back... hehe. The hair on that horse is pretty tangled up though.

Aside from messy hair and missing footwear, I think the dolls we have are still in pretty good condition. About the hair, I've been frequenting the Barbie section of toy stores lately and I discovered that there is a hair detangler product for Barbie dolls!


There is a review and video of this product from the Toy Guy here. It's a bit expensive though: P899 (around $20) for the set. It might make the job of restoring the hair of our dolls easier though so I just might... (and MG might just kill me if he finds out I "wasted" money again).

Restoring Barbie's Little Friends

Andrea inherited a stash of small dolls from her cousin Ava. Though in good condition, they were what you would typically expect from a doll after a little girl has played with it for a few years: tangled hair, missing accessories. I thought they were cute and it would be nice if Andrea can play with little girl dolls in a few years instead of the big girl fashion dolls like Barbie.

I wanted to make sure they will be ready for Andrea so I tried to buy stuff for them at the mall. I initially thought they were Kelly dolls. I thought all little girl dolls associated with Barbie were Kelly's... how wrong I was! Anyway, the mall doesn't carry accessories for Kelly dolls according to the sales person I spoke to. I tried online and still... nada!

While searching online, I discovered that my favorite doll of the stash was not a Kelly but a nameless little girl doll who was a student of the Teacher Barbie doll. Our stash has 4 of those student dolls but the one with thick, long brown hair is my favorite.

I found a video of the commercial for Teacher Barbie online and this is what the doll originally looks like.

Since there were no clothes that can be bought for this doll, I tried to make one on my own. The material came from an old t-shirt. I can't hem, so I needed material that won't fray. I didn't use a pattern and this is my first attempt so the fit isn't that great. I also made underpants, though you can't see it from the photo.

To detangle her hair, I washed it first with shampoo and applied conditioner to smoothen. Then I read somewhere that to set the hair, use heat. So I used a blow drier with the heat set to high to flatten her bangs (which were all sticking up every which way when we got her). Then when her hair dried, I reset her pony tails using purple elastic to match her new dress.

This is another doll from the stash. From my research, this baby is the patient that came with Dr. Barbie (a very small baby doll!). She didn't have any clothes when we got her so I tried to make something for her out of the same old purple t-shirt.

It was actually fun restoring these dolls. This site helped me a lot when I was trying to identify my dolls: http://www.kattisdolls.net/. Here are other dolls I have yet to work on:

Until I figure out who they are, I'm calling them all "Kelly" for now.

50 Years of Barbie

I was at the mall last night with my husband, looking for again yet another toy for Andrea, when I saw this:


I had both when I was a kid!

I stared at the dolls for a long time reminiscing. I remember that the peaches and cream dress was the nicest dress I had for my dolls. The rocker doll was given to me by my Aunt Vivian and I never really appreciated that doll... the heavy eyeshadow scared me. And her super curly hair was difficult to comb and style. But I loved her clothes. I don't have my dolls anymore. We disposed of most of our old toys when my family sold our home in the province and moved back to the city.

I was contemplating buying both for Andrea so she can play with them when she's a little older. But the price tag put me off:

Wow... Barbie dolls weren't that expensive back then were they? Makes me think that maybe I should have taken better care of them and preserved them but who are we kidding right? I was about 6 or 7 when I had these. And I was allowed to play with them.

I still think it would be great if Andrea can have something similar to what I had before (I wonder if Barbie is still something little girls will like 5 years from now...).