Dollieh Sanctuary

Borrowed a book full of historical clothing patterns for 1/6 size dolls with the intention of making up some of the dresses for an upcoming craft show, and realized that the book was published in the 60s, and so all the patterns are designed for the classic Barbie body that was used up until the mid 2000s or so. I know the newer dolls are different proportioned, but how much? All my newer dolls are collector series ones so are all on the older classic body. If I make the outfits from this book, will they still fit on a newer doll, will they be too tight or too loose?

Mmmkay, having measured a zillion different Barbie bodies in general most can share clothes and patterns. The difference might just be in the darts in the bodice. Belly bodies have bigger hips, some jointed dolls have smaller busts.

Honestly make a sample outfit, a sheath dress and/or fitted top and pants out of scrap fabric. Do the darts so you can take them out and adjust them if you need to, mark any changes you make on the sample outfit and adjust the pattern.

I think it depends upon how old a pattern you're talking. The older twist and turns are considerably bigger in the bust and somewhat bigger sometimes in the hips unless you're talking about teen or active dolls. You know I often wonder if my repros are made to the exact proportions as the vintage dolls. I could swear my 3 ponytail Barbies are smaller in the bust than the real thing was, more like the newer body. The repro clothes seem to fit my FF girls pretty well while the few real retro fashions I have are always a bit big in the bust. My new repro Ken he's TINY and I don't recall the real Ken like him being quite that small. Then again I was 5 the last time I had my hands on one so it could be just my impression from a kid's viewpoint.

FYI, old Ken clothes, particularly the pants are big on the newest Kens and the feet are slightly smaller and longer too. Sometimes the older shoes fit, but sometimes they don't. I try to put older Ken gear on the new Fashionista Kens I have and it's sagging on them. I can still use the same shirts, and lot of the time the shoes depending upon how much toe room they have, but sometimes the old shoes are too wide now and/or the new shoes don't go on the old Kens because they are too tight and the newest Ken pants are definitely a different, smaller size now. They don't always fit on my 90's Kens now.

Dollykim, the problem with simply making a test piece for fitting is I have nothing to fit it to ^^; Like I said, I don't own any of the new 'belly' dolls, which seem to be what the majority of the playline dolls have. Trying to make everything fit the play dolls since the main crowd at this show is people Christmas shopping for their families.

Magkelly, the publication date is 1966, and all the dolls featured are original-run Barbie, Midge, and Ken, so these are actually pre-TnTs. The oldest dolls I have are a few girls on the TnT body, which does indeed seem bigger than the skinnier body they use on collector dolls now (I dug out the Irish Princess Barbie from a few years back, her body is marked 1991). It looks like the same body at first glance, but yeah they sized it down for some reason. And thanks for the tips on the Kens, the only ones I have are pre-2000 and seem identical to my old Mod Ken body wise.

Not all new Barbies are belly. I have a repro first run and I understand what you mean by her body being different. It's almost a bit more massive than what they use now.

I looked in my book, and seem to be missing vintage Barbie, but the belly's hips are 1/2 cm bigger than the regular and the regular body they use now bust is about 1/2 cm bigger than the belly. I think the vintage has a bigger waist. You should be okay to make a few pieces.

http://www.thevinylidol.com/barbie-iden ... ody-types/
There's a pretty good pictoral guide.

As for measurements... I can't find my measuring tape, but here's what Doll Shop Deluxe has for "Silkstone Barbie" and "Barbie." I'm not sure how the Silkstone body compares or which body they call "Barbie," so... this might not actually be that useful. XD''

I'm curious if Silkstone compares to other Barbies or the Integrity dolls.