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How not knowing the Winter Holiday outfit makes you a rookie

You maybe know the say “unexpectedly comes often” and so it was with this outfit. Last week I saw it and bought it. I had seen it in a video before and liked it. It was not a long time ago. My outfit is not complete here. It’s just a part of the whole outfit. The handbag, the jacket and the shoes are still missing but I like the hoodie and the pants. I was surprised how the hoodie was cut. The idea with the little zipper is just great. In general I think I have told you about the quality of early Barbie doll fashion.  It’s very good in comparison to what is sold nowadays in toy stores.

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Is it warm enough for a Winter Holiday?
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Or is Barbie freezing in these pants?
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Anyway, let’s hope the best.
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The only 7 Barbie resources you will ever need

When you’re looking for suitable books I can recommend you these books:

  • The Collectible Barbie Doll: An Illustrated Guide to Her Dreamy World, by Janine Fennick (1996)

  • Barbie Doll Around the World 1964-2007: Identification & Values by Michael Augustyniak (2007)

  • The Ultimate Barbie Doll Book by Marcie Mellilo (1996)

  • Barbie Fashion Vol. I – III by Sarah Sink Eames (1990)

  • Skipper Barbie doll’s little sister, second edition by Cottingham, Arend and Hemingway (2011)

  • The story of Barbie by Kitturah Westenhouser (1994)
  • It’s All About the Accessories for the World?s Most Fashionable Dolls 1959-1972 by Hillary Shilkitus James (2017)
    Use only the bestresources

And when you’re looking online for information:

  • e-book: Barbie® Talks!: An Unauthorized Exposé of the First Talking Barbie® Doll: An Expose’ of the First Talking Barbie Doll. The Humorous and Poignant Adventures of Two Former Mattel Toy Designers (2001)
  • https://barbieinthehouse.com/2017 (for Vintage and MOD Barbie dolls)
  • http://papusilemele.com/en/  (when you search for information about the latest Barbie collector dolls)
  • http://www.sewingandpattern.com/all-barbie-patterns/ ( Source for free patterns)
  • https://plus.google.com/photos/115834299775567346266/albums/5279686365593771025 ( free sewing patterns)
  • https://www.dollreference.com/barbie_vintage_fashions1959-1963.html ( Page for Vintage Barbie dolls and clothes)
  • http://www.fashionave.info/ (Page with all Fashion Avenue fashions from 1990s – 2000s)
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13 insane (but true) things about Barbies from 1966

As a collector you often learn this:

  • a person without any knowledge about Barbie dolls offer you a Barbie from 1966
  • inside your brain ( as a collector) “Great, another fool” pops up
  • Why?
  • Well, the 1966 mark on the back does not describe anything but the year of the patenting
  • The patent was used for more than 40 years and
  • there are very much Barbie dolls with the 1966 on their butt or backIMG 4862
  • how can you see if it’s really an old doll or just one from the year 2000 or later?
  • Early Barbie dolls have the mark on their butt

  • Later ones from the 1970s until 2000 have them on their lower back
  • Another important hint is the form of the face
  • Early dolls have this faceIMG 4854(this one is from 1964)
  • the dolls have painted fingernails and toenails (sometimes the colour has changed to a light peachy tone)
  • the colour has changed like the one you see in the pic with my 1964 Barbie
  • the you can twist and turn the waist but early ones are at an angle (I’m going to show this in a later article)
  • they have real eyelashes

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After Five! Really after five?

It is said that in the time when this dress was made you dressed in a dress you wore after five when it was over five o’clock. Really? Sometimes I wonder how often the dressed and undressed themselves in the time. I know that I don’t have the time to dress and undress all the time because I’m at work usually and come home around 5 p.m. Anyway, I liked the Vintage After Five ensemble ever since I found out that it was made. Recently I got a my version but it’s not in the best condition. A button is missing and there are some holes in the dress but I’don’t want to complain. It has less holes than the Enchanted Evening I showed you last week. I plan to do my own copy this summer … I know a long time but I have another sewing project coming up but I’m still waiting for the fabric. So here’s the real After Five and stay tuned in for some new project in the future.

 

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5 reasons you should be talking about the Enchanted Evening dress

The other day I bought a Vintage Barbie outfit named Enchanted Evening and was very disappointed when it arrived here. The condition was so bad that I gave it back. I had no chance to use it for display. The only thing I could have done was using it as a pattern for sewing but that was not the intention I had.  The fabric is very delicate. I don’t know exactly the fabric maybe some kind of satin and I saw no chance to repair it with my abilities. Here’s a pic of the back.

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I even had problems to put the body into the dress because of it’s tightness. I didn’t want to destroy it and I thought this might happen by the next time I dress or undress the body.

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So my advice before buying the dress from anyone selling online is

  • let them send you a pic from front and back
  • let them send you detail pics from the seams so that you can check before buying
  • try to read as much as possible about the fabric
  • ask someone who has the dress to tell you about the color
  • get yourself a reference book about the dress

 

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The only Vintage Kens resources you will ever need

When I started to collect Vintage Barbies I had no idea how to distinguish all the different Ken dolls. Now I have one from each year (1961- 1964). When you have a look at the pics you can see differences. The make up differs each year. These pics show only the straight leg Kens.

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When the Barbie clothes had own names

A long time ago Barbie clothes had names. The era started in 1959 and ended in the early 1970s. Until then every clothing ensemble had its own name. The names were sometimes funny, partially inspired by Hollywood and had a very high quality… a kind of Haute Couture in miniature. Today I’d like to show you two of my early (Vintage) outfits. The first one is a dark gray suit with a white shirt called Saturday Date. The red socks came in an extra Accessory Pak along with the red tie. Hey, we can be creative in this point. We can combine what we like. Why not a red tie and red socks for a date on Saturday in 1961? Have you noticed the tiny zipper on the pants?

Ken's Saturday Date

The next outfit is for Skipper.  It’s called Sunny Pastels and was produced in  1965 for Skipper (Barbie’s younger sister, also available since 1965). The dress is made of cotton and has a very high quality too. Although the outfit is 52 years old the colors are still vibrant. By the way it’s one of my personal favorite outfits.

Skipper's Sunny Pastels

 

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A look into my workshop

Behind the scenes I try to figure out how Vintage Barbie clothes (Vintage era from 1959 – 1966) were made. I’m especially interested the patterns for the fabric. How can I turn a piece of fabric into a piece of clothing. I want to design own clothes in the Vintage style later but at first I have to understand how the patterns are made and the result I get when I follow sewing instructions.

It’s not as easy as you might imagine. I have to deal with many different problems. Especially the body forms of early Barbie dolls seem to be one of my main problems. At first I thought they were all the same size but they aren’t. Although they seem to be the same size they aren’t and that’s a big problem when you don’t know it. Then you can’t adjust the pattern to the body. For example that’s my result when I tried to sew a blouse.Barbie Blouse

 

Vintage Barbie blouse

As you can see here the blouse seems to be to tight for the Midge/Bubblecut body I used here. Obviously the breasts are larger than it seems. I haven’t really measured until now but fellow collectors told me that the first Ponytail Barbie bodies are smaller/ the measures are different. That’s very interesting and a good thing to know. By the way it’s no problem that the blouse is to tight. I thought that I might get problems like these. I made it just for reasons of learning.

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Differences in the Movie Date dress (Mattel) and Cream Puff dress (Fab Lu), a good copy of the Movie Date

Last week I found a Vintage Movie Date dress. Barbie Movie Date dress

It might not sound very special but here’s the story why I write about the dress. In summer 2017 I got a Vintage dress (Barbie Vintage era 1959 – 1966). I thought I had bought the Movie Date dress but in reality I hadn’t. I needed several months to find out that my dress without any label was made by Fab Lu. It got the name Cream Puff. The design of the Cream Puff is very similar to the Movie Date. The only difference is in the processing of the seams, the wideness of the stripes and the colour of the stripes.

Cream Puff looks like this…

Fab Lu Cream Puff

and here you can see the difference of the seams… the Fab Lu seam is normal, not special but in comparison to this seam the Movie Date seam is very different but very Mattel-like. I have seen the Mattel seams in very different outfits but all in the same way done.

Fab Lu Cream Puff seam

Vintage Movie Date dress

At first sight and without both dresses it’s very hard to see the difference. That was my problem too. I hope I can help you with my information.

 

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Let’s dance … a new dress

Last year I wanted to buy a Let’s dance Vintage Barbie dress but most of the sellers refused to ship to Europe. So what kind of idea came into my mind? If I can’t buy one, why not do my own copy? I found a seller who recreated the pattern and bought it.

Two weeks ago I was able to start my work and within a few days I had my own version. It’s very similar in comparison to the real Let’s dance Vintage dress. Here are some pics of my version…

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Finally I found the real Let’s Dance. Another collector from Europe had one left over.

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