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.

Happy 4th of July!!

Hope all of you have a wonderful holiday. Just a walk through some of my own holiday themed projects.

Crochet Parade Car

I love the Fourth of July Parade that takes place in my hometown. I still drag my husband and anyone else who is around to sit and watch the parade with me every year. We stake out a great place early on and enjoy the day while we wait for the parade to start.


While I was making toys to send for the holiday, I came across a pattern in an Annie's Crochet Newsletter for a Fun Mobile for a car and what looked like Weebles. It made me think of the old cars that were entered in the parade and I decided to make that the third item in the package. For those who are interested the pattern was found in the Nov-Dec 1988 Annie's Crochet Newsletter.

I would check the gauge on the main part of the car as the hood came out longer than it should have been and that made it challenging to sew together. I would also stick with sports yarn for the dolls. If the dolls did not need to fit in the car the size would have been less of an issue. Even on the second doll, I still did not have sports yarn for the face.




Despite the challenges, what kept me going was seeing the taillights on the car. That convinced me that despite the challenges, the project was going to be adorable when complete. I had never done anything with that kind of detail.




I am enjoying branching out into other types of toys. Hopefully, next week I will have the blogs ready on the Crochet World Train pattern I am working on. I have one more car to complete the set and then will need to get the pictures taken and loaded in order to have the posts ready.

If you arrived here looking for free car patterns there are some on the Free Toy Pattern Page. If you are looking for amigurumi dolls to crochet check out the Free Knit and Crochet Doll Pattern Page.

This pattern was challenging. I was trying to use up yarn and not buy more yarn. The dolls called for sports yarn and I have been trying to save my sports yarn for dolls clothes. So I tried to work the first doll to make it fit the car. The second doll benefited from changing the colors and using up some left over sports yarn.

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