Welcome to Cyber Week at Lee & Pearl™!

Today we are thrilled to introduce Pattern 1984: Retro '80s Romper with Shaped Belt, Shoulder Pads and Heat Shrink Buckle Craft for 18" Dolls — our new FREE pattern, exclusively for L&P mailing list subscribers!

CLICK HERE to join the Lee & Pearl mailing list for your FREE copy of Pattern 1984: Retro '80s Romper!

We started planning this pattern almost a year ago. We knew that we wanted our next flagship subscriber pattern to be a youthful but iconic '80s outfit — inspired by rumors of an upcoming 1980s American Girl® historical doll (now a reality, as Courtney Moore™) and by our love for the Netflix series Stranger Things.

Our love for the '80s was also inspired by our own lives.

Both "Lee" and "Pearl" were D&D-playing, New Wave music-loving, giant plastic earring-wearing teens back in the '80s!

We were also girls who could sew and who used sewing to help define our fashion personalities and tastes. And boy, were there a lot of fashion personalities and tastes on offer in that fun and colorful decade.

Pattern maker Pearl still has all her beloved '80s patterns, many of which she made. And when the opportunity came last year to purchase an estate collection of several thousand more, we leapt at the chance!

Looking through those patterns and the fashions worn by the girls on Stranger Things, we were struck by the array of interesting collars, front openings and yokes on otherwise simply-constructed '80s garments. After numerous sketches and muslins, Pearl struck gold with our own interesting collar, front-opening and yoke arrangement: a faux-button front and geometrically-turned lapel collar with bodice fullness gathered into a wide, curved yoke — perfect for color-blocking or setting off striped fabrics.

That wide curved yoke, extending slightly into cap sleeves, is such an iconic '80s look that we had to include a pattern and directions to make your doll her own itty bitty SHOULDER PADS as well.

Tuck the pads inside the yoke for a proper power-shoulder look, or leave them off for a more casual appearance.

With the bodice design locked in, we turned our attention to the bottom half of the garment — skirt or shorts, skirt or shorts?

Then Stranger Things' Eleven took her first trip to the mall and came home with the cutest little romper ever and we knew we had to follow suit. There's nothing more fun and youthful than a WIDE-LEGGED '80s ROMPER, is there?

Of course, our romper shorts have deep working pockets, because at Lee & Pearl we know that dolls have hands, and hands need pockets.

In the '80s this garment would have been a pull-on with a button front and elastic-gathered waist. But as the dolls have great big heads, we added a center back opening. That allowed us to turn the button front into an easy-to-make faux-front and eliminate the elastic in the waistline for a neatly stitched-down fit that requires no fussing.

Of course, we couldn't do an '80s outfit without an awesome '80s belt. Our slightly curved SHAPED BELT can be made out of a wide variety of materials, from ordinary cottons to faux-suede and vinyl.

And as the perfect finishing touch, we've included four buckle patterns in three sizes each and a six-page craft tutorial to make your own brightly colored BIG '80s PLASTIC BUCKLES using heat shrink plastic — or as it was known back in the '80s: Shrinky Dinks!

If you haven't played with Shrinky Dinks since the '80s, you may be surprised at the modern cutting, coloring and finishing techniques that have taken heat shrink plastic beyond charms and into serious jewelry-making and art applications. We found it to be a revelation for doll crafts like our buckles and we hope that you enjoy working with it as much as we do.

Have fun making the buckles — then use the scraps of heat shrink plastic to make your dolls some Big '80s jewelry as well.

Brightly colored plastic dangles, faux animal prints and geometric shapes like our Ivy's lightning bolt New Wave rocker earrings were huge trends for stylish '80s gals!

CLICK HERE to join the Lee & Pearl mailing list for your FREE copy of Pattern 1984: Retro '80s Romper!

We still have one more day and one more newsletter in this year's Cyber Week spectacular — and tomorrow will feature another long-awaited release.

Be sure to check your emails as we launch the 2020 edition of our always popular fabric Mystery Bags on Friday, December 4.

This year our bags will include generous cuts of beautiful silk dupioni that we found in a storage liquidation sale at a luxury interior fabric store in Dallas. You won't want to miss out on these lovely fabrics!

See you next time!