My Life Dress Hat and Shoes

This pattern appears yearly for a reason it works up quickly and it adapts to most of the larger sized dolls without much effort.

The dress pattern is a free pattern found here. The shoes are part of a paid Sailor Dress pattern, found here, that has become my go to shoe pattern for the 18 inch dolls as they work up easily and they stay on the doll. Every year I experiment with creating a hat pattern I'd want to keep and record the pattern for future purposes but I've yet to discover my final hat so I keep playing around with my options.

This year I restocked my striped/variageted yarn collection and picked the Tuity Fruity Red Heart Stripes yarn the pattern suggests. I'll use other colors for the remainder of the dolls this pattern fits but I do like the original when I can get the yarn.

I used an H hook for all items.

My Life Dress, Hat, and Shoes

As I mentioned in a previous post as we move into fall you will see patterns repeated as I move to get the outfit count up by repeating patterns with a quick finish, high success level to get the donation levels up. You can find the free dress pattern here. The shoes are part of a paid set I've used forever you can purchase here. There is no pattern for the hat as I'm still working out the details before recording it.

This dress is made with Red Heart Stripes Retro again pulled from my stash. I've run out of the yarn suggested for the pattern and I'm stubborn enough not to buy more before reducing my stash on hand.

My Life Doll Dress, Hat, and Shoes

This has long been one of my favorite 18" doll patterns. It works up easily and requires only one button or in my case I use a snap to close it in the back. This pattern uses the Red Heart Fruity Stipe yarn but I've made it with a variety of colors. I even use this pattern for the 16" baby dolls as it easily adapts to their needs as well. You can find the free pattern here.

I've used the Bates Bamboo hooks for years, but recently I've been having some hand issues so I'd ordered a couple of the Bates Ergonomic soft handled hooks to use in making the doll carriers as those are the most taxing projects on my hands every year. I decided to test out the Susan Bates Ergonomic Crochet Hook 5.5"-size H8/5mmfor this project. It has a slightly different feel but I've been using the same set of hooks for years so I wasn't surprised. I did like the feel on my hands. These hooks are longer than my Bates Bamboo. I still like my Bamboo best which is good as the Bates Ergonomic seem to be disappearing like my Bates Bamboo. I don't think it hurts to switch up once and a while and work the muscles a little differently. I'm looking forward to seeing how they work on the carriers.

Back to this project the hat was just a throw together. The shoes are one of my favorite shoe patterns part of a paid pattern set that can be found here.

While I already have the Our Generation dolls purchased for the 2021 doll donation, the My Life dolls have proved to be more elusive. I was able to get a great deal on the Our Generation dolls around Thanksgiving, but not only have there been no deals on the My Life dolls they've just been sold out at the low price end that I buy for the donation. Not a huge issue as I have until next fall to get the two I need but I like to get them early. I ordered the 10 inch Lots to Love doll and an extra for next year from Walmart and was also able to buy the Lots to Love 14 inches Baby Doll around Thanksgiving so that is also ready to go.

I still need to get two small baby dolls and one "toddler" doll. The toddler and the one of the baby dolls are on back order. I was hoping the last baby doll might go on sale as well. I'll be watching the post Christmas sales to see. I have the 16" dolls after stocking up last year. However, if they drop in price I'll be putting away a few of those as well.