Lots to Love 14 Inch Baby Doll Spring Dress and Jacket

I'm returning to Amy Carrico's Spring Dress and Jacket pattern for the Lots to Love 14 inch baby doll that can be purchased here. It was in the 2024 donation but somehow missed the 2025 donation.

Notes:

This is made with Bernat Big Ball Baby Sport yarn. The yellow striped is getting harder to find but it does make a nice contrast with the regular yellow baby yarn. It's nice to try something other than pink or lavender for this outfit.

The pattern calls for an e hook but I need to start the first two rows of the dress and the jacket with a g hook before finishing with an e hook.

The panties need to be worked to 32 stitches to fit this doll. Depending on the year I sometimes need to add additional rows and then decrease a little to make them fit. I also finish around the legs.

The shoes fit as written and this year using yellow I have more variety of shoe colors for this doll.

I finished under the arms. My note from my previous project suggested finishing the top as well and I'd do that next time.

The dress is closed with a snap and the jacket with a button.

Barbie Pilgrim

Over the years I've acquired quite the doll library but only in the last few years have I truly commited to seeing what actually can be utilized for this donation.

This pattern comes from Crochet World's 1984 Special Issue No.2 Crochet Wardrobe for 11 1/2 Inch Fashion Dolls. What intrigued me when I saw this on a used pattern site was the mention of the Pilgrim outfits. Ken's is designed for display. However, when I saw Barbie's I had hopes this might work.

Notes:

The pattern calls for sport yarn. This is one of those terms that can make you crazy in old patterns for a number of reasons. Even in 1984 there were a number of references to sport yarn that meant different things. However, today we have so many different types of yarn referrred to as sport that the word is sometimes less than helpful.

The outfit shown in the picture looked like the yarn was lighter so I started with heavier thread, moved on to fingering and found myself at DK. Even then while the dress was a bit bulky, the way the waist was formed made the dress too small for my current model. To manage this I decided to fall back to crocheting over an elastic for the waist ensuring that the waist would fit.

As a note for future projects I'd start with the elastic waist and fingering yarn. The Premier Basix DK was bulkier than I liked but it was the only yarn that was even close to fitting at the waist.

The suggested D hook worked for the yarn portion of the project. I used a 1.8 mm thread hook for the thread sections with the exception of the bonnet which I used a 2.0mm.

I changed the cuffs by joining and then sc to the dress.

Bonnet needed added neck rows to get it to fit this Barbie's hair so I continued to crochet until it fit the face of the doll. The bonnet is supposed to have 3 rows bend back over the bonnet. I sc first row into back rows and sc next two rows as written. This just makes it easier to get the thread to fold evenly. I added ties to the bonnet with I believe 30 chains. If this was being displayed the like of ties would likely not be an issue but since it is designed for play it needs to be tied down.

I have a third Pilgrim pattern for Barbie from Shady Line that I last made before this donation started. I may pull that out and see which pieces work best. I do like the bonnet and apron from this pattern. The collars would have worked better if the dress worked better.

Our Generation Boy Prince

I made this in 2024 for the donation but while I added some new items to his wardrobe last year this one fell out of the rotation. I wanted to get it back in for 2026.

This is part of Pamela Yarborough's Snow White three pattern set. However, you can buy just the Prince outfit here.

I've been assembling the pieces of this outfit between other doll outfits over the course of the last two weeks. I find it easier to handle these projects with multiple pieces tackling them between other projects.

Notes:

The outfit is made primarily with Red Heart Super Saver. I knew from last year I needed a lighter yarn for the yellow trim so I went with Herrschner's DK yarn that was in my stash using a G hook. This was a much neater look than using worsted 4 for the trim.

I use an I hook for the one piece pants and shirt. After reading last year's notes I added three rows to the pant legs as I do not connect the boots to the pants. This makes it much easier for little hands to get the outfit on and off. If this was going to be a make and display I'd consider doing as written but tucking the pants into the boots works fine and means a child can put the clothes on and off.

As my guage can vary I make the boots first using a g hook. This allows me to test the length of the pants to make sure they are long enough to tuck the boots into the pants. The added row I suggested from last year worked well.

Two other changes relating to the boots were that I changed all brown yarn to black in this pattern. To allow the pants to tuck into the boot tops I crochet the first round of the cuff in back loops so it will bend over top of the boot.

The belt was also changed from the pattern to make it easier to get on and off the doll. I used a K hook and chained 50. I chose not to join but use a snap to close in the back as sliding it on and off over multiple layers is more challenging. If it was a one time display situation it wouldn't be much of an issue but if a doll is going to be changing than simple is better.

I needed a K hook for the Tunic and as mentioned above used DK yarn and a G hook to finish around the edges.

Having just resupplied my red I decided to go with red for his cape using a K hook. I would stick with that next time. I liked the look. Just a note for future projects the chains reattach to the sides of the cape. The directions are there but for some reason this puzzled me this time. My previous notes suggested using a G hook for the black sections of the cape I would suggest doing that next time as well.

If you want the crown pattern you will need to buy the Snow White set here. The crown pattern comes from the Evil Queen's pattern. I've been using it for the Prince as I've yet to get to the Evil Queen.

I used an M hook to get the crown to fit over the rather puffy hair of the Our Generation Boy. I did not use the suggested red trim.

One more personal note because this always panics me my copy is the complete set double sided so the Prince pattern is tucked in with Snow White and the Queen and can not be separated out like I've done with some of my other sets. When I look for this pattern again look for the set not a single pattern.