Rose Trimmed Ensemble - 1991

This week we have a new Barbie model. Susan, who modeled the two previous projects, is 12 inches tall instead of 11.5 inches. 11.5 inches is the more common size for the dolls and the patterns. That explains why the first week's dress was a little shorter on her than I expected. To make sure I had a doll that would fit the patterns I went to the local Unique Thrift store where they had multiple 3-packs of Barbie and Ken. I ended up coming home with one that had two Barbies and a Ken, all from the Fashionista line in the 2015-2018 era. One stereotypical Barbie, one black Barbie with an athletic body type and a 2016 You Can Be Anything Ken Lifeguard. All of three of them have flat feet.

Today's Barbie is a Fashionista Barbie from 2015 and she will be modeling my finished version of the Rose Trimmed Ensemble from the Crochet World Fall Special 1991.  

Here's the magazine photo. It is definitely trimmed with roses... 

This pattern is a jacket and a simple sheath dress. The materials list includes, crochet cotton thread, steel crochet hook size 7, 8 red silk ribbon roses and a hot-glue gun.

The pattern gives a gauge that I matched with size 10 cotton thread and the size 7 hook. The stitch pattern for the dress and jacket is a single crochet in the back loop, single crochet in the front loop.

The dress is done in the round and was pretty simple to do. It was a just a tube until the last few rounds where the neckline starts and the straps will go.  The jacket is worked in one piece, folded in half and the side seams and sleeve seams are sewn together. Having minimal increases and decreases made it pretty easy to follow the back loop, front loop stitch pattern but this still took about three times as long as the suit I shared last week. The last step in the jacket pattern had you prepare the roses by clipping off the stem and putting a drop of hot glue on the end so the ribbon doesn't unravel. Then you mark where you want the roses and sew them on.  You can probably guess where I wanted the roses...

Here is the finished Rose Ensemble:​

I made it rose colored instead of rose trimmed and used variegated pink thread for the dress and a solid pink for the jacket. It's definitely a Barbie color. The variegated thread made the dress a little more interesting to do. This dress did not fit Susan and even though the gauge matches it seems a little tighter than the photo and the sleeve length is a bit shorter than the photo.

Now for the rating:
Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes
If there is a gauge, could I match it? Yes
Does it look like the photo? Sort of.
Did it fit 11.5" Barbie? Yes but it was a tight fit.
Did I enjoy making it? Yes

I'm giving this one a 4 out of 5 because it was a little smaller than the version in the photo even though I had the gauge right.  I could block it and make it a little bigger if I needed to but it's fine the way it is.

 Any suggestions on what I should name this Barbie?


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