EASY Barbie Dress Tutorial

A few weeks ago, my daughter asked me to make Barbie clothes and I immediately said, "NO WAY!" All those tiny seams and closures....forget it!
Then my three year old had the genius suggestion of "just don't put on any straps". That got me thinking...tube dress...knit jersey....we have some reject shirts in the garage....I think I could put something together! And so I came up with this -

To start, you'll need an old T-shirt you don't want any more, or some jersey knit you've purchased. Then cut it up into the following pieces:

Bodice  4"X5"
Skirt 3 1/4" X 15"

You'll also need 1/4" elastic cut into 2 pieces.
One should be 4" and the other 3"

Step One:
Sew the 4" elastic along the long side of your bodice piece. Fold over the fabric edge onto the elastic and zigzag it stretching it just a tad as you sew.

Step Two:
Now take your 3" piece of elastic and sew it down the middle of your bodice piece. This time you will REALLY need to stretch the elastic as you sew so it is stitched all the way across your fabric. Zigzag once again.

 Step Three:
Take your long skirt piece and stitch across the long edge to gather.

Step Four:
Pull the gathers to fit along the bottom of your bodice. Sew the skirt onto the bodice trying to stitch directly on top of your gathering stitches. I zigzagged this as well.

Your dress so look something like this now:

Step Five:
Fold it in half with the right sides together and straight stitch a narrow seam down the back.

Step Six:
Flip it right side out and embellish with bows or whatever else your heart desires!

Maybe making Barbie clothes isn't so tricky after all!