Dancing Skeletons!

Yard sales are great for finding bargains.  At the same yard sale where I got a Gazelle  (not the animal, the exercise thing) I found a shirt with this pattern.  There was no way the shirt would fit me, but one thing I keep an eye out for is holiday stuff for my dolls.  I figured the sleeves would make tube dresses for my Pocahontas Twins, if nothing else.

Seriously, how could I not bring these guys home?  My favorites are the ones playing Leap Frog.  Backwards, even.  They just look so happy.  We living could learn from them.  

I got out my sewing kit and my handy-dandy pattern (bastardized from My Froggy Stuff) and got to sewing!  I'm no seamstress.  I can make it strong or I can make it attractive.  Sometimes when I watch her DIY videos, I yell at Froggy.  "How do you do that, woman?!  I'd be blind and cross-eyed!"  

The pattern is a tank top.  The hole in the center is the neck.  This way I avoid sleeves and my seams are usually hidden.  Luckily, this material isn't the fraying type, so I didn't need my April Lilly lace trick.  Thanks, Froggy and April, for having ideas I can steal!  

I started with the biggest project.  Rusty has a Halloween shirt, but her britches/skirt supply is lacking.  I basically just wrapped a piece of appropriate size around her, put elastic through the pre-existing hem (bottom of the original shirt), and sewed the back shut.  Since my BOUSs are just for display, no one is likely to see the hideous seam.  

The tube dresses looked horrible.  The cuff at the wrist was the bodice and instead of looking empire waisted, it looked like a maternity dress.  I sacrificed some length, removed the cuffs, and used my pattern.  On these, instead of the sides being sewn, the tops of the shoulders are.  The seams actually turned out okay.  One is also sewn down a side - I did not center the pattern on the "tube" and it ended up lop-sided.  I had to take it in.  It's still full enough to effectively hide the seam, though.  The belts are pony-tail holders.

I vary from the pattern a bit.  The guys are all modeling the standard cut, of various length.  Since my dudes are of varying size, I make them a little large.  Or try to.  My first attempt was skin-tight on Joe and almost reached his belly button!

I was running out of large enough sections to fit the adults.  No problem, I just down-sized the pattern!  Nikki is modeling a square-cut shirt.  Maybe I should call it a smock?  Stacie has a cute little sundress.  Have I mentioned those bent arms really annoy me?  

Tris has a skirt with a wonky waist line - to accommodate larger waistlines on her friends.  

Remember my first attempt?  Tris wears it well.

When Barbie was created, the fashions were extremely detailed.  Home workers hand sewed them.  Perfectly.  Props to them - I spent a few hours, off and on, doing a poor job with little detail, and I'm ready for a hot soak in the tub, some "headache pills", and maybe even some muscle rub.  

My dolls better appreciate this.