It’s okay! You’re not seeing double! Or rather, you are, but it’s a fully intentional, taking-a-joke-too-far kind of double. It all started with a Christmas present….


Christmas day (well, a few days later) found me opening a bag and discovering this poor forlorn Barbie doll who, let’s be honest, had seen better days. Her hair is all knotted, she was in need of a bath and, bless her, she was as bare as the day she came off the production line.

The challenge set was to create a wonderful creation for her to wear to the birthday party of Jack’s aunt, with the promise of a “fabulous prize” for the winner (who still hasn’t been declared….).

I knew that not only did I want to make something fabulous for Barbie, I wanted to make something fabulous for myself that matched, and not only matched, but was scalable. The challenge was on.

What is it?

A gingham dress with a sweetheart neckline and circle skirt. In two sizes.

Is it blue?

Yes!

What’s the pattern?

I made a By Hand London Kim dress with a self-drafted circle skirt for myself. Barbie’s dress is a self-drafted pattern based on a combination of a tutorial I found (but sadly don’t remember where so can’t link to it) and a bit of bodging.

What’s the fabric and where’s it from?

Both dresses are made using cotton gingham from a stall in the indoor market at the rag market. Mine uses squares 1″ wide, whilst Barbie’s has significantly smaller squares.

What was good about making this?

As a concept, this was a lot of fun, both in terms of finding the fabric but also then giving us the same haircut (ish – I wasn’t brave enough to give her an undercut) and finding matching accessories (thank you Tatty Devine for making a bag that matches one of my most loved necklaces).

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that a dress I made very much for fancy dress is something I actually like and think I may end up wearing over the summer.

What was bad about making this?

Man, Barbie clothes are small and fiddly. So fiddly. I got a bit annoyed with it when I was trying to replica pre-existing patterns, but once I realised I had to make it much simpler everything went swimmingly.

Would you make it again?

The Kim? Probably yes, although I’m still not quite happy with where the neckline sits. Barbie clothes? Probably not. I might just leave that to ebay….

x