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Vintage Barbie illustrations, built environment, clones and more

Vintage Sewing Patterns

Sevem loose, simple sketches of ponytail Barbies in 1960s fashions similar to those Mattel sold. Barbie wears sheaths, full-skirted sundresses, a cape, a dress with double-breasted jacket, a sleeveless shirt with culottes, and a long, full-skirted gown.
Collage of illustrations from Advance Barbie sewing patterns

In 1961 Barbie’s fashion horizons expanded in the form of Advance sewing patterns, whose illustrations fit the style of the era’s fashion booklets. Unlike the carrying case illustrations, they don’t seem to be traced; but the art styles are, to say the least, in harmony. Here are examples of early fashion booklet sketches that resonate with the pattern illustrations at the top:

Sketches from Mattel fashion booklets of ponytail and bubble cut Barbies wearing Sheath Sensation, Red Flare, Dinner at Eight, Sweater Girl (which is all black or dark grey for some reason), Career Girl, and Movie Date; plus Midge wearing Senior Prom. All the dolls portrayed have a white pallor, in contrast to the natural skin tone of the pattern illustrations.
Vintage Barbie fashion sketches that appeared in 1962 Mattel booklets. Composed of scans by TheVintageToyAdvertiser.

But fashion booklets are a story for another day. Here’s how those pattern illustrations looked on the products:

The seven illustrations at the top of the post are peppered through twelve illustrations across two pattern envelopes. Each sketch appears on a different-colored rectangle background. The envelopes read "a printed pattern by ADVANCE; Barbie (R) Mattel Teen Age Fashion Doll Patterns." The envelopes are numbered 9938 and 9939, and each says it cost 75 cents.
Two envelopes from Barbie Advance sewing patterns. Source: star7272 on eBay.

For the curious, you can find samples of some of these patterns online, for example, at sewingandpattern.com. Scroll down on that page and you’ll also see examples of the 1962 Advance Barbie patterns, which had photographed images of dressed dolls instead of fashion sketches. We won’t engage with those here, but in 1963 McCall’s picked up the pattern-sketching slack with a tighter illustration style:

Pattern sleeve with hand-drawn illustrations of ten dressed dolls, wearing several country looks, sportswear, sheaths for day, a reception line-type lace dress, a floor-length evening gown and one voluminous coat. The background for all ten looks is plain white. The pattern number is 7137.
Front and back of a 1963 McCall’s official Barbie Doll’s Instant Wardrobe pattern envelope. Source: thriftydollhunter on eBay.

I’m not sure if it’s the illustrations, the colorless backdrop or the fashions themselves, but somehow the McCall’s pattern sleeves just had a little less pizzazz.

Alongside the sewing patterns, the fashion booklets were evolving a more realistic style in this year, as well.

Similar to the earlier lineup of fashion sketches, but from 1963. Sheath Sensation and Dinner at Eight have been redrawn. Red Flare, Career Girl and Senior Prom are recolored and edited. Crisp n Cool and Country Fair replace the discontinued looks Sweater Girl and Movie Date. This year's illustrations have realistic skin tone and more detail in the hair and fabric texture.
Fashion sketches in 1963 Mattel fashion booklets. Composited from scans by TheVintageToyAdvertiser and from the author’s collection.

But we’re not here to talk about that! Ken, Skipper and Francie all had their own illustrated patterns in the 1960s.

McCall pattern sleeves #8351, "Francie Doll's Instant Wardrobe," and #7841, "Barbie's Little Sister Skipper Doll's Instant Fabric Wardrobe and Instructions for Knitting." Each sleeve showcases 8 looks that can be made from the pattern sets.
McCall’s pattern envelopes for Francie (left) and Skipper. These examples have both been digitally cleaned up by their owners, who sell reproductions. Sources: old-school-house on eBay, once-upon-a-time-patterns on eBay.

Like Barbie’s, the McCall’s Skipper and Francie pattern illustrations were also similar in style to the characters as they appeared in contemporaneous fashion booklets, on carrying cases, and as paper dolls.

There were more generic fashion doll patterns than licensed ones in the ’60s; many of these had their own charming illustrations.

Sleeves for Simplicity 4422 and McCall's 9605 and 9099. The Simplicity set says it is for "Doll; one size" and shows characters that look similar to Barbie (or Lilli!) and Ken. A dress similar to Orange Blossom dominates the space, while smaller insets show a Barbie type in a ruffled dress, a swing coat, and a shirt with capris, accompanied by a fellow. The McCall's fashions are from a later time period; the most eye-catching look is a pink mini, while others include a trench, a smock with pants, a wrap dress, a jacket and flared pants, a long skirt with vest, and a blouse with wrap mini skirt. The packaging read "Teen Fashion Dolls' Instant Wardrobe - one size - 11 1/2" doll; FITS--Barbie / Francie / Casey / Midge / Barbara Joe / Babs / Gina / Annette / Batgirl / Mera / Wonder Woman / Supergirl / Tammy and others." Whew!
Generic doll patterns of the 1960s. Source: patternperfect on eBay, gremmy1234 on eBay.

Where to next? This post is about vintage Barbie illustrations. Our most popular post in the category is on Mattel fashion booklets. The most recent post in the category is on Dell Barbie and Ken comics. Other popular posts on this site include the Many Abodes of Barbie series (currently covering 1962-1969) and our list of great books for vintage Barbie fans. Or just head up to the Table of Contents to see more options.

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  1. Hello world! – Silken Flame

    […] Sewing Patterns […]

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  2. Fashion Booklets – Silken Flame

    […] the fashion booklet. When we assess the drawings on items like carrying cases, doll packaging, and sewing patterns, our evaluations often center on similarities and differences from the booklet versions. Within the […]

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