Baby Doll Day of Play

I'm always looking for patterns that can be adapted to fit the baby doll. I came across this pattern here and thought perhaps I could make it fit the baby doll. I've used some of her patterns in the past with some success.

I believe it would have fit if I'd stuck with worsted weight 4 yarn, but I've been determined to finish off this purple yarn which is more of a 3 weight. So while the top section fit well with the prescribed hook size E, even moving up to an I hook for the skirt, the body was just too tight for this doll. I may try it again at some point with a heavier weight yarn as I do like the pattern of the skirt.

Having put the time and effort into making the top section I pulled out the project to top length where it was loose fitting and finished it off. After putting all the effort into it I wanted to explore a way to finish this off and use it as another outfit for the doll donation. I decided to add the short pants to it to finish it off.

I like to give attribution when I adapt patterns. The pants were inspired by the Santa Baby pattern that can be purchased here. That being said if you've ever made doll pants they aren't hard to figure out if you are just looking for a simple pair. Once you've made a few it isn't too hard to make another pair.

I added variegated trim to the outfit as my purpose is different than that of the original designer of the outfit. I was looking for a fun doll outfit for a child to dress a doll. Her purpose is more serious.

As a note to myself I used a snap as a closure at the top and a tie in the middle of the back to close the top. If I had made the complete dress I'd likely have sewed the seem and closed with snaps.

The shoes may be familiar if you have been reading this blog they come from the free Peachy Keen pattern found here.

This project finished this skein of purple but I believe sadly I unearthed another skein when I found the big ball of yellow baby yarn. I have no idea how I ended up with so much of this yarn but I hope that it will soon be gone. I do feel good about targeting yarn I don't plan on replacing. In the past I've used up yarn true, but it has primarily been colors I'll be buying again as they are primary colors for my projects. I'm hoping to make real progress with destashing this year on yarn that won't be replaced and restocked. I could really use the space.

Baby Nicole

Another outfit from operation Big Sister. This one is from the Mary Maxim pattern Baby Nicole that can be purchased here.

Mary Maxim has been releasing more of their kit patterns as digital patterns. They regularly are on sale for $.99 so I generally wait for the sale to stock up on any new releases I don't currently own. I believe I originally picked this up as a kit when I first started doing the doll donations. I got a doll and an outfit to make and it worked out for me. I later moved on to the soft baby dolls and later the doll moved up in size when the 15 inch soft dolls were no longer available.

However as I've mentioned in previous posts, most patterns adapt and as long as you keep trying the outfits on for fit you can usually make things work as long as the change isn't too great.

While I've had some success with the 18 inch dolls and crocheted shoes the baby doll has been a bit more stubborn about shoes. I don't know if it is the shape of the feet but I find most of the doll bootie patterns seem just to fall off which is why the doll is constantly bare foot in most pictures.