A Halloween outfit for Francie?

Recently we had Halloween and I thought for a long time about doing an outfit for our little Francie doll or not. You know I’m not the biggest fan of Halloween and it’s not really celebrated here.

We rather celebrate St. Martin and do our own lanterns here in Europe and go to a lantern procession when we are little and come from the German speaking areas of Europe but hey, I try to satisfy all my viewers here. That’s where the idea with the outfit for Francie came from.

1/4 of the pattern for the Halloween skirt for Francie in a short version

As you all know I love sewing for little 15 year Francie doll, cousin of Barbie. She’s so cute and mine has only a few clothes I made for her. That’s why I do my own outfits, sew and improve my designing skills in pattern making.

In this case my idea was clear. A simple skirt and a easy but stylish top. Nothing complicated since a lot of you don’t have the biggest experience in sewing. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. That’s why you only get a twp piece outfit here. You only need one calculation and one drawing to do it. I think doing it easier is almost impossible. I imagined something like a witch skirt when doing it. I have a similar dress that I wore to the ball after graduation of High School. I love to be creative and that’s how the idea came into my mind. Don’t worry it’s still very easy.

1/4 of the pattern for the Halloween skirt for Francie in full length

You only need to measure once round her waist and then use the formula for the circumstance to get our radius. That’s the same thing you would do when designing a circle skirt but this skirt here had rectangles, almost a kind of square but with the waist part that we need cut out. That’s very easy, isn’t it?

After sewing all four parts together you already have the skirt. The amount of time you need to sew this is very limited. You can do it within one hour.

Francie doll, francie barbie doll, barbie cousin
Francie in Halloween outfit

You could also use it for Christmas when you do it in another color like red or green to make it very festive. You know I’m very flexible with my designs. Why not using them for another occasion?

Francie, the cousin of Barbie

Today I’m going to present you Francie. She’s the first and only cousin of Barbie. She was released in 1965 and was produced for approx. 10 years. She disappeared around 1975. When she was available she was popular among young girls. At first she was only available as Straight Leg doll (without knee joints) but in 1967 a Bend Leg version was available too. Francie has a different body than Barbie and she is smaller. She was originally called Francine Fairchild but she was sold under the name of “Francie” and was thought to be a 14 year old.

The Francie dolls are popular among the collectors too. She was available in a wide variety of dolls like the two one I have in my collections. The “No Bangs” Francie is the most expensive doll. She has no bangs and giant hair do. I don’t have one yet in my collection but I really like her. She so late 1960s – stylish. Her wardrobe is very beautiful. Exiting outfits from the Mod-era (Mod-era 1966 – 1975) contribute to her popularity. The Growing Hair Francie was the only mechanism Francie doll.  I was glad to get one last week.

1970 Growing Hair Francie

1970 Growing Hair Francie

1967 Bend Leg Francie

1967 Bend Leg Francie