Barbie Piano Dress

Bonjour,

As promised, here is the Barbie dress that I’ve been working on! (It could also act as a ‘cocktail dress’, if you don’t want your Barbie sporting a musical instrument.)

MATERIALS

Size 10 Crochet Thread

2.1 MM steel crochet hook

Colors I used: white, black, white/black variegated (hereinafter referred to as variegated)

PATTERN

Note #1: If you don’t want to do buttons on the front of the dress, eliminate the buttonholes, and sew the front together after you’ve finished the dress.

Note #2: In the pattern, ‘inc’ means ‘two single crochets in the same stitch’ unless otherwise indicated.

Using white,

R1: Ch 36 (33 if you don’t want buttonholes), sc in 5th ch from hk and in each ch across (2nd ch from hk for non-buttonhole version).

R2: Ch 1, turn.  *Inc in next 3 sts* at each end of the dress, so 6 increases total.

R 3-6: Ch 1, turn, sc in each st across.

R7: Ch 4, turn (forms buttonhole, for alternate version replace with ch 1 here and throughout.) Sc in each st across.

R 8-9: Ch 1, turn, sc in each st across.

R10: Ch 1, turn.  *Sc 1, sc2tog* two times, sc until there are only 6 sts left in row, *sc2tog, sc 1* two times. (This row reverses the increases you made in R2.)

Join with sl st to beg sc of row to begin working in rnd.  Sc up the non-buttonhole side.  (If you eliminated the buttonholes, you can do either side, it won’t matter.)

If you want to add a border like the one pictured, slip stitch around the edges, but not the last row that you made (R10), we’ll be working in those stitches now.  (For the non-buttoned version, you could take this opportunity to slip stitch the opening if you’d prefer not to sew it.)

Using white (again),

Note #3: All of the rounds are joined until you get to the linen stitch (sc, ch 1, sk 1; it’s explained in the pattern.)  This is not written in the pattern for the sake of saving space and typing time.  🙂

Join near the back of the dress (opening is in front).  Sc around, 36 stitches total.

Rnd 2: Make two decreases (sc2tog) in this round, putting them at the front of the dress.

Rnd 3: *Sc 3, inc* around.

Change to variegated.  (If you want to stick with the same color, keep right on going.)

Note #4: The rest of the skirt, except for the edging, is worked in linen stitch (also known as woven stitch.)  It’s really easy, don’t worry.  (You can find a tutorial HERE if my directions don’t make sense.)

Note #5: From now on we’ll be working in a spiral.  You’ll join one more time for the edging.

Beginning rnd: This is extremely hard to explain, but I’ll try.  Basically what we’ll be doing is working a ‘sc, ch 1, sk 1’ stitch, and working the scs in the ch-spaces.  But first we need to set it up by increasing a little bit in this stitch.

The round will go like this: Start by chaining 1, of course.  Then start in the same space.  *Sc, ch 1, sk 1.  Sc, ch 1, sk 1.  (Sc, ch 1, sc, ch 1, sk 1) all in same space* around.

Is that insanely confusing?  I’m afraid it might be.  Maybe explaining it differently might help.  Think of the increases as v-stitches, where you sc 2 in one stitch with a chain in between.  You’ll have a bunch of V-stitches with 2 regular linen stitch repeats in between.

Let me know if you have any questions on this, and I’ll do my best to help!

From here on out, it’s pretty approximate.  Depending on the skirt fullness desired, you’ll need to increase some more (increase = sc, ch 1, sc, sk 1, all in same stitch.)  I did about seven rounds and then put in some more increases.  I’m planning to make another one that’s more like a ball gown, and to do that it will have to be a lot wider, so that’ll involve more increases.

All this time you will be single crocheting in the chain spaces and chaining one in between.

When the skirt is the desired length, ch 1, sk 1, and sl st into the next ch-sp.

I wanted a black edging, but you can do whatever color you like, or even leave out the edging.  Into the back loops of the chains and single crochets, I crab-stitched or reverse-single-crocheted around.

FINISHING

Sew on two small buttons across from the buttonholes.  If you didn’t do buttonholes, and didn’t already slip stitch the opening together, then sew it now.  There are going to be a lot of ends to weave in if you didn’t crochet them in like I did.

I hope this pattern wasn’t too confusing!  Like I said, please comment if you have a question.  I love trying to help. 🙂

~ The Cogaroo ~