Long Sleeve Barbie Sweater Pattern-Knit in One Piece

This Long Sleeve Barbie Sweater is a fun easy project that can be completed in a few hours. It's knit in one piece with a hole in the middle for her head to fit through, then you just sew up the sides. While I used a nice thin yarn I purposely made this a bulky, oversized sweater. Kind of a cozy, cuddly weekend sweater:@) I also think it would be a cute tunic, just make the body longer.

  

There's room to adjust here folks, you can easily reduce it by 2 to 4 stitches in both width and sleeve length. And if you have the patience for poking those pointy little fingers through you can make the sleeves a little tighter too. The contrasting stitch work around the waist was, honestly, just me not paying attention to what I was doing and then trying to make it work instead of ripping it out...

I suggest sticking to yarns that are one color or have a very short, tight variegation for small garments like this. This yarn has extremely long color blocks and the other side of the sweater ended up a cream color.

My best advice is to have a doll handy. All yarns and knitters are different, cast on and after a couple rows hold it up to her and see how it will fit. Add or subtract as needed. Stitch until it reaches under her arms, then cast on for the sleeves (long or short sleeve, your choice). Bind off 8 for neck, you might be able to do 6 but I haven't tried it.

Basic Guideline Instructions: Adapted from an ornament by justcraftyenough

Needles size 8, thin baby weight yarn, whole sweater is worked in stockinette stitch.

• Cast on 18
• Stockinette stitch (knit one row, purl the next, repeat) until it reaches under her arms (approx 14-16 rows).
• Cast on 16 stitches (arm).
• At end of next row cast on 16 more stitches (second arm)
• Work another 4-6 rows for half of sleeve, when it's just about wide enough:
• 21 stitches, bind off 8, finish row.
• 21 stitches, cast on 8, finish row.
• Add another 4-6 rows for other half of sleeve. 
• Note: one sleeve will have one extra row, that's the one you'll want to bind off first.
• When sleeves are wide enough bind off 16 from the wider sleeve and stitch across.
• Bind off 16 from second sleeve and stitch across.
• Finish the body of the sweater, bind off, cut yarn and knot.
• With right sides touching, sew sides together. Sew in tails and turn right side out.

How about adding a cute shirt extender by using a little ruffle under the sweater-cute! My ruffle was approximately 2 1/4" wide, and I only needed about 4" in length. The back can be secured with a tab of velcro, a snap, or simply use a little tape that will get covered by the shirt. And of course you could sew any fabric you'd like into a 'slip' with elastic at the waist. These extenders can be cut to size for standard or curvy Barbie, simply wrap around the doll's waist for fit.

The white cotton ruffle is more solid,

the black one is lacier and lighter.

These shirt extenders work well with less bulky pants, 

luckily there seems to be no shortage of yoga pants or leggins for Barbie these days...

✂Make something just for fun and have a happy day:@)