A Friend For Barbara

“Knowledge has been a passion with me during my whole life, one which has not lost its charm to the present day.”~ Queen Lili’uokalani

My niece Lauren was having a birthday. She had loved the upcycled Barbie that I had given her for Christmas so much that I decided Barbara needed a friend. Lauren had named her Barbie “Barbara” because as Lauren said, “she’s a real Barbie”. In case you want to revisit that blog post the link is below.

A New Life For Barbie

For those of you who might not know, I have been buying Barbies from flea markets or second hand stores. I clean them up and fix their hair, and plan on giving them all a new life. I started doing this because of my sewing patterns. Older Barbie’s have the traditional body style, which these patterns are made for. New Barbie has a different shape. I’ve also discovered that they are not as well made as the old ones. The new ones have hollow legs, and boring faces. So I’ve really started picking them up whenever I see them. I have not paid more than $2 for one.

I wanted Barbara’s friend to look different than Barbara. I picked a Barbie that had long black hair. She was also a $2 doll. I picked out this pattern from 1972 and got to work!

I decided that the Barbie I had chosen this time would be themed. I decided that she was Polynesian. I picked out any fabric that had leaves or a tropical feel.

This dress had a bias tape neck.

Which didn’t quite get sewn in perfectly, but that’s ok.

I added a casing around the waist of the dress for elastic.

I ran the elastic through the casing and sewed up the sides.

Next I chose this fabric for a pair of wrap around pants. The name of the fabric is “Island Hopping”, I thought it went perfect with my theme.

I decided to use the fabric for the body suit as well.

Sewing those together.

Then I got the idea to make her a hula skirt. I had no pattern so I used some ribbon that was a little longer than her waist and sewed raffia to it.

I folded the raffia in half so the top would have a finished edge.

I was running out of fabrics that I thought looked Hawaiian. For Barbie clothes, they work best when the print of the fabric is smaller, so it looks more to scale. I had this fabric with succulents and decided to use it.

Doing all the little sewing for the dress darts and sleeves.

The pattern called for a little trim, so I found this little light pink lace of Grandma’s. It was wrapped up on this, a Dodge notebook from 1972! The same year as the pattern I was going to use it on! Coincidence, I think not!

I pinned the little lace trim into place.

Once it was sewn onto the neck I pinned it onto the waist and down the dress front.

I decided to make pajama’s out of this strawberry scrap. I was quickly running out of time! For Barbara I had made all of the pattern views that the pattern offered. I wasn’t going to have time for this one.

Since I had decided to give this Barbie a new persona I decided to give her a back story. I named her Kailani, (they can’t all be Barbie). She had a small imperfection on her back shoulder so I made up the story of her getting burned as a child.

Now, before anyone gets mad at me. I am not in anyway trying to exploit or appropriate the Polynesian culture or people. I am, whole heartedly trying to learn myself about their culture and respect it. While the clothes were made out of the scraps I had, and probably not culturally accurate, I did lots of research to be accurate about her backstory. I wanted to be as intentional as possible. I also want to bring accurate information about different cultures to my niece. So here’s what I came up with, printed and laminated for her.

On the back of the card I found the research that I had done on the doll. She was originally a “Western Fun Nia” from 1989. This took some time to find out too since when I found her she was naked, dirty, and had tangled hair. Such is the life of a flea market Barbie!

Now it’s your turn to meet Kailani! Her lei’s were made out of one I bought at the dollar store. Mia cut apart and made it smaller to fit her. Mia made her headdress to match the lei.

Mia also made little flower anklets for her!

Here is her body suit that she wears with her hula skirt. I also bought a washcloth pack at the dollar store, and cut this turquoise washcloth down, added ribbon ties, and made her beach blanket. As for the accessories, I’ve either found them second hand, or bought them at the dollar store.

Her wrap around pants look so good! I want this outfit in my size!

The green shoes she is wearing had lots of ankle straps that I didn’t like. I cut them off and used them to give her matching bracelets.

The succulent dress with the 1972 trim looks very chic! I pinned her hair with a bobby pin with some of the leftover lei flowers attached to it.

I have no pictures of me making this dress, surprise! Sometimes I get so caught up in a project that I don’t realize what I’ve taken pictures of and what I haven’t. This fabric was scrap from a dress I’m hoping to show you next week. The lace on it was scrap from an old project.

The pajamas also have the pink lace on them. Since I didn’t have any slippers for her, I cut little squares out of a white washcloth from the dollar pack, and sewed them into slippers. I cut out individual strawberries from the leftover fabric and used fabric glue to stick them to the slipper.

Here’s Lauren being very serious about getting this gift! Don’t let her face fool you, she doesn’t look excited but she was! Like I said, sometimes I’m bad at taking pictures!

Lauren immediately took her to meet Barbara in the dream house!

She began playing with her immediately! It was Barbara’s birthday too, and her friend Kailani from Hawaii was there to celebrate with her!

Lauren said that she had a beach house for Kailani to move into! What a step up from being in a bin at the flea market! Kailani cost $2, I had the scrap fabric, the closet her things hang in also came from the flea market for $3. The washcloths were $3. The dollar store shoes I already had from the Barbara sew. Total cost $8 for a real Barbie who quickly became friend for Barbara!

I kind of like this flea market, recycle toy thing! The older toys were much better quality, and much more fun! Plus, they still exist, why not breathe some life into them so they can keep making kids happy?

I also hope that Kailani inspires Lauren to learn more about the Polynesian culture, and other cultures as well!

As for me, onto the next!