August 12 - Jen's Barbie Doll Vest by Ruth

Tatted Vest for Barbie, Teddy Bear, child, or adult
Copyright Ruth Perry 1978 - 2007



This is a fairly complex piece to tat. I originally made it for my daughter, Jennifer's, Barbie doll when she was in first or second grade. The first one was tatted in size 80 tatting thread, in a variegated pink and blue. It fit Barbie just fine.

I drew out the pattern on a piece of paper in case I ever wanted to make one again... HA! Pen and marker by hand on paper. I kept the piece of paper safely filed away all these years. Jennifer's son, Thomas, will turn 18 in November. He enjoys going with me to demonstrate tatting, and yes he can tat! Even with the drawing I made all those years ago, this was challenging for me to recreate. I tatted one in size 20 flora thread, and it fits the adorable wooden teddy bear that I got as a gift in Hector this year. I'll get his photo in it sometime this week.

You may want to save the diagram on your computer and enlarge it a little so it's easier to see. If you need to have the printed instructions to see it better, I may have them available sometime this fall. Write me and I'll try and let you know when.

Two shuttles: S1 is shown in black, S2 is shown in red

- picot
+ join

The stitch counts are fairly easy. Rings are all 20 ds, but since these are 5 petal flowers, they join around the middle of each flower, so
Top left RingA ( 3 - 7 - 7 - 3 )
RingB ( 3 + 7 - 7 - 3 )
RingC ( 3 + 7 - 7 - 3 )
RingD ( 3 + 7 - 7 - 3 )
Split Ring E ( 3 + 7 / 3 + 7 )

First flower completed.

Follow the diagram for flowers A B C D E along the top ( front and neckline ) of the vest.

Tomorrow we'll do the tricky middle of the back. If you are clever, you should be able to tat this without any more assistance. Joining the fronts to the lower back at the gray ABCD as shown.

If you are fairly new to doing split rings, we'll go through this slowly over several days with more detail.