Barbie Strapless Shell Dress and Cape

I mentioned in Friday's Ken post that I had stumbled upon a new to me out of print newsprint series of doll patterns published by Tower Press. This one is even more low tech than the House of White Birches one and the patterns reflect more of a 1970's feel, but again there are some here that will work for my donation and if I see others in this series I'd be more likely to pick them up.

One of the things I liked about this leaflet is like the House of White Birches on its focused only on fashion dolls. I have some other vintage titles that try to hit a variety of dolls, some even a variety of craft styles and often the patterns aren't as helpful. It would perhaps have been better if the editors had narrowed the topic and picked patterns people would make.

This is listed as p-810 by Lynn Vol 2. I'm interested to see if I come across more of these as they are designed to build a basic doll wardrobe.

I'm a big fan of quick projects. This was finished in a day and ready to go in Barbie's donation bag.

I ended up consulting with Crochetville board members on the meaning of sc behind the dc row. I tried a back post stitch and it was clear that the result was way to bulky for a doll dress. The quality of the black and white photo printed on newsprint combined with the section of the dress being covered by the cape made guessing more challenging. However, the suggestion to work in the blo for these rows worked out and solved my question on how to get the pattern to work. I was especially pleased since this direction shows up in several of the other patterns.

I would experiment with the reductions at the bodice when I make this the next time. I ended up fixing a gap when I finished the back prior to adding a snap for closing the dress. There does need to be a reduction but modern Barbies have larger waists I suspect than the older models and I'll need to account for this as I'm looking at the reductions.

I used the suggested e hook and switched to a sport weight 2 cotton yarn after trying a 3 weight baby yarn that was too heavy. I have no idea what brand this is but it is on my orphan yarns to use up list so while not finished it at least was usesd. The pattern suggests using a pearl button for the cape which I missed. Not sure I have one Barbie sized but I'd look before making this the next time.