I have a dislike-hate relationship with Barbie. I had sworn to myself that my girls would get Barbies. However, I neglected to have the grandparents swear that same oath... And soon, after Christmas and birthdays, Barbies filled our house - all in various states of undress (because who wants to keep Barbies looking neat and tidy? It is best to take out their nice hairdos, lose their shoes and take off all their clothes).
Because of my dislike of them, I never made a big deal over how poorly they were treated. You want to practice cutting hair on your Barbie? Sure, go ahead!
Without really realizing it, the Barbie phase passed. It has really been over a year since I've seen my girls play with their Barbies. They are still here - at the bottom of toychests and drawers.
And it was just the other day that one of those undressed Barbies made an appearance... quite by luck, for her.
I was working on a set of cloth hankies with some nice flannel fabric when my middle child asked if she could have a scrap - to make a dress for her American Girl doll. After two attempts at drawing the dress pattern on her scrap of fabric, and two reminders from me that fabric isn't quite like paper and we should be a bit more careful when using it, she drew a dress on a scrap of fabric that she wanted to direct me to sew.
Now, from the drawing on the fabric, I KNEW it would not fit her American Girl doll. But I kept my mouth shut. I wanted to see if and when she would recognize that fact. She asked me to cut it out, and told me exactly how to sew it shut (seams on the outside, stitch up the side and around the puff sleeves, leaving openings for the arms and head - though I did have to ask how the arms would get out the sleeves before she remembered about the arm holes!).
As it was, the realization of the size discrepancy didn't happen until I had unsuccessfully tried to pull the dress up over one of the doll's legs (it wouldn't even fit over a leg!). I had to cut a slit down the back of the dress to try to make it fit... then enlarge the slit to try it make it fit again. When my daughter still didn't grasp that it won't fit her American Girl doll, I showed her how it was too tiny to fit and suggested she find one of her Barbies - because I thought it would fit a Barbie better.
After some prolonged digging and searching, a Barbie was found. We discovered that we had to cut the slit even further to fit over those large hips of hers - and even then, it wouldn't close over her bottom! A bit of ribbon around the waist to keep it in place, and it actually wasn't too bad of a dress (for being designed by a 5-year-old).
Looking back at the experience, I'm glad I held my tongue as I did. It gave her the freedom to experiment and learn from the process herself rather than having me direct the project towards my own goals of perfection. And I ended up being surprised by how well it turned out and because she was in charge of it, she stuck with the project until it was completed.
