Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Crochet pattern - Barbie Garden Dress

My girls all got Barbies today, they bought them with Nanna's Christmas money and of course, they straight away ask if Mummy can make some clothes. Because really, thats what Barbie is all about. Dressing them up and creating elaborate scenes. I downright refuse to pay the outrageous amount the stores charge for one dress so I set about making some. I realised right away that there were 2 factors when it comes to dolls clothes for kids.

1. Sleeves suck. Kids get really grumpy really fast if they have to spend half an hour wrestling Barbie into her tinsy tiny outfit. You will be met with a never ending chorus of "Muuuuuuuum can you help?"

2. Tops without sleeves need a way to stay up. Preferably on their own as little fingers struggle with buttons and velcro + yarn can get messy.

I went with rubber bands. Yup, the secret to making a Barbie wardrobe any little girl will coo over is rubber bands. Hair elastics if you have them work too. They help dresses stay on, slide up and even the little little girls can drag an outfit on without getting frustrated at it. All you need to do is crochet the initial row around one!

Once you have the basics down you can go nuts with these dresses, trust me there's nothing to it. But for the people who need a pattern to follow, the next few weeks Ill be adding a bunch of fun dresses and variations. So grab some rubber bands, yarn and sparklie things and go forth and make the little princess in your life super happy!


This pattern is UNTESTED. Ive made it myself, but noone else has yet so please let me know if you get stuck. Id love to see what you made, so feel free to add project pages on Ravelry for this dress. Be sure to rate it too.  Ravelry page here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/garden-party-dress---barbie






Garden Party Dress

3.50mm Hook
DK weight yarn. I used Homemaker from Kmart
1 small button or bow or bead for the belt.
Scrap of alt colour for belt.
A rubber band that fits snug around your dolls bust. Mine was 1.5 inch, or 4cm in diameter. 

join yarn to rubber band with a sl st.

22sc around the rubber band, sl st to first to create a circle.

Ch2. hdc in each st around, join

ch2, hdc in each st around, join

ch2, hdc, hdc2tg, hdc x 3, hdc2tg, hdc x 3, hdc2tg, hdc x 3, hdc2tg, hdc to end. Join.

ch1, sc around (you can choose to join these rounds or use a stitch marker to continue until the sc rows end)

sc in ach st around

sc in each st around

ch2, *hdc, 2hd in next* Repeat from * to * around. Join 

ch2, hdc in each st around, join 

ch2, *hdc, 2hd in next* Repeat from * to * around. Join

ch2, hdc in each st around, join 

ch2, *hdc x 3, 2hdc in next* Repeat from * to * around. Join

ch3, dc in each st around, join

ch3, dc in each st around, join  Fasten of and weave in ends. 

Belt. 
Ch28, sc in 2nd ch from hook and each across. finish off leaving long tail.
Wrap belt around dress middle and sew ends together then stitch belt to dress, stitch loosely so belt slides easily over dolls hips. 

Credit where credit is due please. Make as many as you want but dont repost and dont claim its your own, thats just insulting. Linkback would be great too

5 comments:

  1. really cool, pretty. and you're so creative ^^

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  2. Thank you. It's lovely.

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  3. love the idea of the rubber band for the top no need for buttons or snaps. Cant wait to make this for my granddaughter Thank you


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  4. Thank you for sharing this pattern, I made it for one of my daughters Barbies... It ended up a bit short so my daughter decided to use it as a skirt, looks very cute, she loves it. Thanks again, I'll definitely be making lots of these in different colors.

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  5. Thanks! This looks great, but I agree with Gabby above that it ended up being too short; next time I'll do the last two rows in the pattern a few more times to try to get it at least knee length.

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