There has been a lot of wedding talk* around here lately, and Myra was already a bit obsessed with brides, so she's been
bugging me very interested lately in when I am going to sew her Barbie the promised wedding dress. Well, I don't really want to commit to the time I suspect it will take to make the Princess Katherine recreation right now (I do have a REAL wedding dress I'm working on!), so I decided to try out a different, but still fancy dress for Barbie's first wedding dress.
The pattern I used was part of my recent
thrifting haul. It is
Simplicity 8333, published in 1987. Although this isn't the "wedding" dress included with the pattern, I like it's lines much better than the fluffy, ruffly 80s wedding dress that is included. This dress is a simple wrap dress with a large collar. The skirt is full and gathered and it closes with a single snap at the waist. I used some scraps of taffeta left over from a previous wedding project and added a lace overlay to the collar, made of a swatch of Giselle stretch lace from fabric.com.
The bodice is actually pretty interesting. For Barbie clothes, it is extremely unfitted. In fact, the only seams are at the shoulders, so there is no shaping in the body at all. The wrap gives it some waist definition. The armholes are actually cut out of the bodice, clipped and turned under. All of the edge finishing is a simple 1/4 inch hem.
The veil is a large circle of organza, bound with satin binding and gathered at one edge. I topped it with some ribbon bows I had lying around and sewed on an alligator clip to affix it to Barbie's head. The clip is actually much too large and a bit unsightly, but it is easy for Myra to manage on her own, and I didn't want to spend all day fixing Barbie's veil.
Myra is thrilled with her new Barbie bride. She's always an appreciative child, but she was literally speechless when I showed her this. Myra's generally not one to cart toys around with her, but Barbie went everywhere with us.
* For those that may be curious, work on the wedding dress is proceeding well. We checked the fit on the lining this weekend, and only a minor tweak is needed, so I'm putting the bodice together now and we'll recheck the fit before I cut and assemble the lace overlay, There'll be a lot of precise work on the lace to do, and no chance to make fit changes at that stage, so I want it to be perfect before we proceed.
