Barbie Barbecue

My hope was to have this done in time to post for the July 4th holiday but I have no regrets as much as I love this donation project living life is an equally important and worthy goal.

I find myself returning to projects I haven't made in a few years. I last crocheted this Joyce Bishop July Fourth Picnic outfit in 2021.

My copy comes from Crochet World 2005. However, back then I was able to add a link to Annie's Freepatterns.com site for the pattern but sadly it appears that site is no longer available.

So you'll have to hunt down a copy of the magazine to find the pattern. I believe mine came from one of the CD sets Annie's put out several years ago with copies of the magazine and one that specifically had doll patterns.

As I revisit these patterns one thing I'm trying to get better about doing is documentation because I find as I read old posts I tended to be some what lax in listing details about hook size, fiber, etc. Sometimes I can't get the same fiber, but it is a starting point when I come back to try a pattern again.

Pants:

While the pattern calls for size 10 thread I did note on my previous project this had been an issue so I decided to experiment with Size 3. I finished off a cone of Thread Art slate blue and thankfully had a second one to use to finish off the pants. I used a B hook for the pants with the larger thread.

The one challenge I had with the larger thread was the pant legs were huge. To fix this in row 8 of the legs I dc in first stitch dc2tog around reducing the total stitch count to 18. I also only needed 21 rows for the pant legs not 25.

Shirt:

I used Aunt Lydia's size 10 white for the shirt starting with a 1.8 mm hook to make the waist fit and moving to a 1.25 starting in row 5 to reduce for the chest. I may experiment with size 3 at another time as this still isn't quite right.

The directions call for this to be a one piece outfit. I resisted previously as I was making huge changes to the pants. Having struggled with the fit of the top twice now I'm tempted to make the top as written connecting it as a one piece next time to see if it would fit better around the waist without having an issue with the top of the shirt being large.

Apron:

I used a .75mm hook for the apron with Aunt Lydia's Red size 10. I followed the directions as written.

Hat:

The hat needs a 1.25mm hook with Aunt Lydia's White size 10. Mitt:

The pattern calls for 1 I make two as it just seems more even. They are both likely to be lost at some point so 2 keeps the odds one can be located more likely. I used a 1.25 mm hook. I followed the directions for the fake thumb.