Wednesday, January 21, 2015

SUPER SIZE BARBIE

In my non-blogging life I am a professional dressmaker and sewing teacher.  Dolls and making clothes for them are my hobbies.  But sometimes, just sometimes, my job and my hobbies come together.  I have recently had a client bring me this doll and ask me to make her a dress.


As you can see she is very tall - that is a 1 metre (40") ruler I am holding next to her.  All I know about her is that she is a 'My Size Barbie'  and she was made by Mattel.  She has a copyright symbol with '1992 Mattel, Inc. China" on her lower back but I haven't been able to find out very much more about her.  I've never seen one before and I suspect very few were sold here in Australia.  This one was bought on ebay and is to be a present for the client's granddaughter.

Can anyone tell me anything about these Barbies.  Did they come dressed?  Could you buy other clothes for them?  Can anyone identify when she was made as I know they were made over a number of years and all were slightly different.

She has a very pretty face


and is a very good model.

Over the past few weeks I have made her a basic bodice block and tested it in calico (US - muslin).


This calico was nearly right but still a bit loose in the bust .  It only needed a little tweaking to get it  right.


And I made her a skirt block as well:


although in the end I've decided not to use it.  But I've got the patterns so I can make more clothes if needed.

Also does anyone know what her original hairstyle was like?  At the moment, without her hair tied back she rather resembles Cousin It from 'The Addams Family'.


I'll show you her finished clothes in a later post.


11 comments:

  1. Hello from Spain: I knew this giant Barbie. I like the face. You are doing a great job of clothes. I look forward to more. Keep in touch

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    Replies
    1. Hi Marta, thank you for your compliment. She certainly is a giant Barbie and I had never seen her before.

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  2. I know these Barbies came in different outfits, mostly princess-like dresses. There is also a "dancing" version if I'm not mistaken, but I don't know how they work :-). Here is a link to a cool make-over from a My Size Barbie into a vintage looking ponytail Barbie:
    http://pinkbubblesdollspa.com/2013/08/17/attack-of-the-50-foot-barbie/

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    Replies
    1. Princess dresses - that's what I was thinking and the client obviously too as she gave Barbie-pink satin to work with. Thanks for the link, really interesting and I love the title.

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  3. Wow, she has a newer Barbie face mold; the last My Size Barbies I saw had the SuperStar-type face. I don't have any this size, but I saw this page about them.

    Your "mock-up(?)", trial pattern looks as good as a regular dress ;-)

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    1. Thank you for the compliment and also for the information. Reading through the article and with your comment about the face, my guess is she is one of the later Barbies but I'm still not sure which one. She doesn't have bangs (now I know what they are) as all her hair seems to be the same length and she's obviously never had painted shoes as she has toes so she doesn't seem to be any of the ones of the list but, of course, the list may not include every My Size Barbie.

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  4. She's huge! But nope, I don't know anything about them.

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    1. She is huge. I think she would be taller than a lot of young children so I'm not sure how easy she would be to play with. She can stand on her own though.

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  5. Mine came with the loose hair bound in a hair net but no defined hairstyle as such.
    The first ones came out when I was a teenager and cost several hundred dollars at Toy World. Most never made it to Australian shores. Recently, I got several Rozelle princess dolls from Target with cloth shoes and then a few more dressed in pink with painted shoes from Big W. Unfortunately Mattel have ceased production. There are several sellers who are asking extortionate amounts for the ones I bought under $50, the ones on ebay can sometimes be purchased for more reasonable prices but the postage to Australia will set you back around a hundred dollars.

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    1. I don't know what my clients paid for this doll but I'm assuming it was already in Australia as I doubt they would have paid that amount of postage. Thank you for the information about the hair, that probably was the way this doll's hair was originally..

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  6. Barbie My Size Fairy Doll BARBIE WRÓŻKA BARBIE MY SIZE MATTEL BARDZO BYŁY DROGIE UNAS W POLSCE TO W SKLEPIE WIDZIAŁAM ZA 1500ZŁOTYCH DZIADEK DO ORZECHÓW KLARA TO BYŁA SERIA LIMITOWANA PRINCESS BARBIE Z FILMÓW O BARBIE 1 MY SIZE PRINCESSBarbie In The Nutcracker My Size Sugarplum Princess DRUGA PRINCESS SVAN LAKE ŁABĘDZIA KSIĘŻNICZKA ODETTA RAPUNZEL ANNA LUISE KSIĘŻNICZKA I ŻEBRACZKA LIANA DIAMAND CASTYLE ROSELLA PRINCESS Z WYSPY BARBIE GENIEVIE 12 KSIĘŻNICZEK DANCE SUKIENKI TYCH LALEK MOGĄ UBIERAĆ DZIEWCZYNKI UWAGA NA NOGI LALEK TYCH SA DELIKATNE PO STUKNIECIU CZĘSTO PĘKAJĄ TO CO PAN MA TO PIĘKNA LALKA MY SIZE 91MC WRÓŻKA FAIRY TEGO TYPU MARIPOSSA LUB ELINA

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