Silken Flame

Vintage Barbie illustrations, built environment, clones and more

Sew-Free Fashion-Fun Kits (1965-1966)

Packaging illustration: a woman with red bubblecut hair style wears a crescent hat and sheath dress of white fabvric with black pin dots, along with beaded necklace, black belt, black jacket whose sleeves come to mid forearm, and long white gloves. In miniature, a woman with blonde bubblecut wears the same pindot fabric as a top with long black skirt, pindot bag, and black open toed shoes. Text on the box reads: "Contains everything you need to make your own Barbie Costume 3 Easy Steps! 1. Apply Matted Sew Free Strips TM 2. Cut Out 3. Press Together With Your Fingertips! A Whole New World Of Fashion Without A Stitch! Mattel, Inc. Toymakers" A metallic sticker at lower right reads: "GIANT VALUE KIT $2.00 Complete With - Printed Cloth - Sew Free Strips Includes One Or More Of The Following: - Sew-Free Zipper - Gloves - Shoes - Purse - Belt - Hat - Necklace, Earrings - Glitter Trim - Illustrated, Easy Instructions"
Packaging for Day ‘n’ Night, a Sew Free Fashion for Barbie. Source: Theriault’s

In the realm of vintage Barbie illustrations, the Sew-Free Fashion-Fun kits are a category all their own. The loose, markered style, supplemented with certain precise details like fabric patterns and fingered gloves, as above, lends the drawings drama, romance, and, of course, glamour. Were the fashions themselves elegant and appealing? We shall see. The illustrations certainly were.

Collage of elements from a 1965 catalog showing little girls assembling Sew Free Fashions with an American Girl Barbie before them. Seven additional dressed dolls are shown in an inset. Text reads: "YOU'RE THE DRESSMAKER. Now you can make fashion outfits for Barbie and Skipper with any sewing at all. Just cut out fabric patterns, press edges together, add trimmings..and garments are ready to wear Travel fun $1.87 Two Sew-Free sheaths with matching bags. Blue afternoon dress with jacket. Striped dress has short coat, scarf. Wt. 8 oz. Day-night $2.66 Daytime blue dress, white jacket, scarf, bag. Sateen evening skirt, stole, taffeta bodice. Gloves, shoes included. Wt. 8 oz. Gala ball $1.77 Floor-length evening skirt with sateen bodice. Matching coat and purse. Silver-glitter clear-plastic shoes, gloves. Wt. 5 oz. Coordinates $1.77 Dotted-taffeta outfits..evening skirt, blouse, black bag and jewelry. Dress, matching hat and bag, coat, gloves. Shipping weight 5 oz. Four Sew-Free sets above fit Barbie of Midge..dolls not included"
Digitally-altered 1965 Sears Christmas Catalog listing for Sew-Free Fashions

A 1965 Sears catalog listing lays out the premise: children can make their own Barbie fashions from the kits by cutting out pieces, attaching adhesive strips, and pressing tightly with their fingers. No sewing necessary! Interestingly, during these years the Christmas catalogs also advertised off-brand home sewing kits for 11.5″ dolls with no cutting necessary–just sew the pre-cut pieces!

Despite what Sears claims above, there were no such fashions sold for Skipper.

Sears had different names for the sets than did Mattel, and in some cases combined two sets into one. The Day ‘n’ Night fashion, illustration at the top of the post, really did contain two looks for Barbie. Sears renames this pair Coordinates, and advertises another set as Day-Night, combining Mattel’s Debutante Party and From Nine to Five sets.

Left: packaging shows bubble-cut redheaded figure with pearl earrings wearing a strapless gown with black bodice and long straight skirt, along with long black gloves and wrap. Skirt and wrap are white or off-white with black and gold details. Metallic sticker at bottom right reads: "DELUXE KIT $1.50 Complete With - Printed Cloth - Sew-Free Strips Includes One or More of the Following: - Sew-Free Zipper - Gloves - Shoes - Accessories - Illustrated, Easy Instructions" At right, a blonde bubbledcut doll is photographed wearing the dress, wrap and long gloves, along with black closed-toed shoes, black purse (maybe as in the accessory paks), and pearl necklace and earrings.
Debutante Party Sew-Free Fashion-Fun packaging (left) and dressed doll. Source: Theriault’s

Like Mattel’s fashion booklets of the time, the Sears catalog includes example photographs of the fashions under the best case scenario, assembled and styled by professionals. But the images are so small! Theriault’s, the doll auctioneers, have also professionally styled a few of the fashions assembled by hands unknown in the past.

Two kits are pictured. At left, Moonlight 'n' Roses is depicted on a model with black bubblecut hair, She wears a full-skirted evening dress with pink bodice and red or dark pink skirt and floor-length flared jacket with elbow-length sleeves, and a short red scarf tied at her neck. Jacket, skirt and scarf have light colored floral and rick-rack shaped accents. The woman carries a slim red purse. At right, a woman with blonde ponytail is illustrated wearing a blue kerchief tied under her chin, a blue sheath with tie belt, and a white vest. All have red trim. Kerchief and vest have brightly colored flower designs. She carries a blue handbag with red handles and trim, with yellow and green design on its surface--the design looks like shells or pictures of other purses but that is probably not correct.
Moonlight ‘n’ Roses (left) and From Nine To Five Sew-Free Fashion Fun packaging. Source: Theriault’s

Back in the world of Sears, the Moonlight ‘n’ Roses kit has been renamed Gala Ball. The Moonlight ‘n’ Roses packaging displayed above doesn’t include the helpful “Giant Value Kit” sticker that Day ‘n’ Night had at the top of the post, but its stock number ending in “-200” indicates that’s what it was. Sears listed both Giant Values at $1.77 apiece, 23¢ off the sticker price; while the Day-Night combo pack of two Deluxe Kits, listed at $2.66, represents 34¢ savings. Sears’ Travel Fun combines Mattel’s Sorority Tea and Pretty Traveler, two $1 Basic Kits, for $1.87–13¢ back in your pocket.

The two women illustrated on the two packages have poses that mirror each other: heads and bodies angled slightly to the right of the viewer, with the weight on the right leg and right hand on hip. The figure at left has left hand at her chin, while the figure at right has her left arm extending straight out. Both are drawn with red hair: a ponytail at left, an updo at right, both with bangs. They wear the two sheath and jacket combinations described under "Travel Fun" in the Sears catalog: Left, blue with short jacket that opens at the back and colorful accents; right, a pale color with pink, green and yellow accents plus a scarf at her neck. Both wear pearl earrings and carry large handbags matched to their outfits; both packages have a red sticker at bottom right reading, "BASIC KIT $1.00 Complete With - Printed Cloth - Sew-Free Strips - Buttons - Illustrated, Easy Instructions" The fashion at right is also modeled on a redheaded bubblecut doll. The jacket looks bulky, and bright green printed-on "topstitching" is a little too thick, out of scale with the proportions of the doll and fashion. What looks like a flap closure on the handbag is actually printed on, with the handbag open at the top. The doll wears her own pearl earrings and green open-toed shoes that were not included in the set. While the llustrated doll wears her jacket swept behind the hand held at her hip, 1965 Barbie could not hold her hand to her hip, and her jacket hangs straight down. Where the illustrated sleeve hole is not drawn with any peculiarities, the realized jacket's sleeve has a mysterious right angle in the printed-on top stitching right at chest level.
Sorority Tea Sew-Free Fashion-Fun packaging (left) and Pretty Traveler packaging and dressed doll. Sears dubbed this pair “Travel Fun.” Source: Theriault’s

While nowadays it goes without saying that Barbie’s playline fashions have details printed on, this was a Sew-Free innovation in 1965–Barbie’s usual finery had high quality, sewn-on embellishments. Both of the Sears Travel Fun fashions had printed designs, and the photographed example above right looks, in the context of Barbie’s typical 1965 attire, less than glamorous. The contrast top stitching must have been pretty and playful in the designer’s mind, but printed on that beige fabric it looks like nothing more than a sewing pattern waiting to be cut. And the way the sleeve hole seems to jut out straight into the doll’s bosom? Maybe the original owner had trouble constructing this one. Otherwise, the fetching article in the illustration just is not borne out in the finished piece. Too bad.

Illustrated is a woman with red flip hairdo wearing a light blue sheath with brown trim and belt. She carries a matching light blue purse and wears a beige jacket, also with brown trim and of the same length as her dress. She has pearl earrings. The package has the "Deluxe Kit" sticker at lower right. At right, an American Girl Barbie with dark brown hair models the look with black open-toed shoes. The jacket's trim looks like a blanket stitch over edging. If it is printed on, it was credibly done.
Left: Day In Town Sew-Free Fashion-Fun packaging. Source: Theriault’s. Right: Doll dressed in Day In Town from a 1966 Montgomery Ward catalog. Source: musetechnical.com

The 1966 Montgomery Ward catalog shows another dressed doll (above right) looking quite chic in her Sew-Free Fashion. This listing actually included the American Girl doll, with her original swimsuit and shoes, along with three Sew-Free fashions: Day In Town, plus the Basic Kits Hootenanny and Patio Party (below), all for $2.99.

Two packages depicting models in the same pose: left hip swung out, hand on the left hip and looking over her left shoulder so her face is in profile. The illustrated woman at left has her right hand also on her hip, while the illustrated woman at right is holding her jacket in her hand at about the same position. Both have a purse slung over the left wrist, but the purses are covered by the red "Basic Kit" stickers at lower right. They wear full-skirted dresses: at left, a sleeveless blue dress with pink trim and matching shawl; at right, a strapless, light-colored dress with red and pink butterflies printed on and a wide pink sash at waist. The jacket's shape is hard to ascertain but is the same color with same butterfly print. The woman at right is depicted with a blonde ponytail, while the woman at right has a brunette updo. Both have bangs and pearl earrings.
Hootenanny (left) and Patio Party Sew-Free Fashion Fun packages. Source: Theriault’s

These two kits each included a dress, a shawl or jacket, and a purse. All had printed details. The catalog included photographs of constructed examples, but not displayed on dolls. Many other examples of the assembled fashions, the packaging, and even the (illustrated) instructions exist here and there on the Web for the curious.

Mattel ad for Sew-Free Fashions showing black-and-white sketches of all the designs. Some of the sketches look almost identical, in model and pose, to the illustrations on the packaging. Some are different; for example, "Patio Party" is facing the other direction and holding her jacket up on a hanger. All of these illustrations show the models from head to toe while the full-color package illustrations very often do not. Text reads: "See the complete line of fabulous Sew-Free Fashion-Fun (TM) for Junior Designers! All of these exciting styles fit all barbie (R) and Midge (R) dolls" at the top of the image, with additional trademark and patent information at the bottom.

As the fashions themselves go, I believe these sets were more activity than style, but the packages sure are gorgeous.

Three more kits, these were not discussed in the article. At left, "Stardust" is a full-skirted floral sleeveless gown with matching wrap and thick white sash at waist, shown with white clutch and long white gloves. At center, "Sightseeing" is a full-skirted casual dress in light blue with a basket of flowers embellishment on the skirt (think Friday Night Date for the applique style). A dark blue belt, bolero-style jacket, kerchief, and white-framed sunglasses with blue lenses complete the look. Her hair is mostly covered but matches a blonde ponytail. The skirt hem, jacket and kerchief all appear to have dark blue stitching along the edges. The models at left and center have the same pose, leaning back with arms slightly akimbo, looking over the right shoulder. At right, "Golden Ball" is shown on a blonde bubblecut model illustration. The dress is long and trim with red accents and belt; over it, she wears a voluminous, red, floor-length coat, trimmed in possibly glittery accents, and she carries a red clutch. The packages at left and right bear the "Giant Value" sticker while the one at center has the "Deluxe Kit" sticker.
L-R: Stardust, Sightseeing, and Golden Ball Sew-Free Fashion-Fun packaging. Source: Theriault’s

Where to next? If you like these illustrations, you’ll probably also like gift set art; if crafting is more your bag, check out the sewing pattern illustrations; for a dusting of glamour, swing by Barbie’s Fashion Shop, then head over to the beauty parlors; or visit the table of contents to see more options.

sheathsensation

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4 responses to “Sew-Free Fashion-Fun Kits (1965-1966)”

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