Every single day on Prince Edward Island the world of high fashion plays out.
In the basement of one Mount Stewart house, two little girls — Cassidy, 10, and five-year-old Hailey Affleck — have extravagant Barbie runway sessions featuring pieces fashioned by their mini-clothes fashionista mom, Julie Affleck.
“My two girls like to dress Barbies, they like different outfits and they love to put on little fashion shows,” says Affleck, who has taken her interest in compact clothing to new heights lately by offering them for sale at a few Island craft fairs and online at a free classified site.
This busy mother of four — she and her husband Robbie are also parents to Alex, 14 and Jarod, 11 — grew up in a family of 10 children, so a big batch of Barbies was definitely not the norm for her.
“If we had two Barbies at one time that was a lot. So I used to go over to a friend’s house and she would have the Barbies. She would have the Barbie house. She would have the Barbie camper. That was my dream, so that’s what my girls get,” she laughs.
However, with outfits going sometimes for $10 or $20 apiece and a hamper-load of Barbies to clothe, it only made good dollar sense to try to make some fun fashion items at home.
And so she purchased a sewing machine and started to sew with some guidance from a seamstress friend, all the while stockpiling small pieces of material that caught her eye in the fabric stores.
“My first (attempts) to what I do now, there’s a big difference,” laughs Affleck, who uses standard patterns that she alters to suit her own creative tastes and to ensure that little child hands can easily slip them on and off their dolls without requiring parental help at every costume change.
“Boy (Ken-doll-type) clothes you can’t even find, so I have little gym suits and stuff for them (too).”
With those small-scale sewing skills under her belt, she decided to try her hand at actual children’s clothing and later progressed to making things for her daughters that matched their baby dolls and Barbie outfits.
“The Barbie clothes came first. Everyone said I started with the hardest, which was good, so when I started with the bigger stuff it was a little easier,” Affleck says.
Various dolls have come into the playtime mix for her daughters over the years — most recently Monster High characters — but Barbie reigns supreme over all.
“They have some, but they go back to playing with the Barbies. It’s always the Barbies,” Affleck says.
“You get to dress up and be whoever you want to be. I remember (saying) ‘When I grow up I’m going to be this Barbie. I’m going to be the fancy dress Barbie’ and that’s the way I find my daughters play. They like the new Barbies, the career Barbies. And each Barbie has her own different personality when they’re playing.”
For Affleck, creating mini-size fashions has become an enjoyable pastime that also allows her to reconnect with her play-filled past.
“They’re just so fun. I just absolutely love it.”
