American Girl Belle First Attempt

One of my goals every year is to downsize my yarn room by using up the yarn I have on hand to make as many of the donation doll clothes as I can. Some require unique or specific yarn I have to buy, but I'm always surprised at how many outfits I can make just using my stash on hand. The key is to make sure you do have the stash on hand before starting the project.

That was the story behind this dress. I thought I had multiple skeins of this blue when I started and while not the suggested color for the Belle pattern, found here, I liked it. The pattern was easy to follow and I thought I was starting to get my groove back when I went to search for the second ball of yarn. Much to my surprise what I thought was a matching skein turned out to be a slightly different shade of blue.

At that point I decided it still made a cute outfit and decided instead of abandoning it to finish it off and restart the Belle outfit again, this time making sure I had the two skeins I needed.

American Girl Grey Lady

My husband bought me this pattern as one of my Valentine's gifts two years ago. You can purchase the pattern here.

I love this pattern. It always makes me think of an old fashioned governess outfit. The texture of the top of the dress is delightful. I think I might actually wear a sweater if it was that soft. I was able to use Bernat and Red Heart yarn I had on hand, so it contributed greatly to my stash busting project.

I used the suggested g hook on the skirt, the h hook actually made the skirt portion of the dress too large. In order to make the upper portion of the dress fit I used an H hook and it fit comfortably getting the dress on and off. It wasn't too loose as the skirt had been when made with the larger hook. Using the H hook I was able to use snaps as suggested since the top had the room. Previously when I made this I had to change to buttons because the top was too tight.

The one addition I made this year was embroidering a design on the purse. It seemed kind of plain and I wanted to add something simple. It is not a talent of mine, but I thought it came out OK.

I have several more outfits to post this week. I'm currently working on a dress with an underskirt. I've never tried anything quiet like this before. It reminds me a little bit of trying to put clothes on an ami working in front and back loops. I'm hoping it all works out and I can post about it next week.

American Girl Dress, Poncho and Hat

My DH bought me this pattern as one of my Valentine's day gifts. It is called Gray & Burgundy, Hat, Poncho & Shoes and you can find it here.

The picture doesn't do it justice. This was one of the best patterns I've worked on in a while. My guage matched perfectly. The only challenge I had was I used a lighter Lion Brand yarn for the red dress portion so I needed to add a little to the closing in the back. For this reason I chose to use buttons instead of snaps. I'm also running low on snaps and have a healthy supply of red buttons, so it also worked out well as a trade off. It's not clear in this shot, but the bows are great accessories for this outfit. This will be on my list of outfits to repeat.

The shoes and socks pattern is one of the best fitting I've made to date. I had to make no adjustments to get it to fit the doll. I love the way the socks look with the black shoes.

I'm currently working on ami's and some dishcloths for swaps. Then I have to get busy on my Easter and birthday projects. I hope to get back on track with my doll projects after that. I found the 12" doll I was looking for, so I may even have a shot at including that in this year's donation.

Barbie and American Girl Doll Free Patterns are listed on my blog at these locations:

Barbie Crochet and Sewing Page

Barbie Knitting Page

Ken Page

Kelly/Skipper Page

American Girl Doll Crochet and Sewing

American Girl Doll Knitting

Doll Blankets and Pillow Patterns

Baby Doll Patterns:

Baby Doll and Cabbage Patch

Additional Doll Patterns also Available on the Holiday Blogs:

Christmas

Valentines

Easter

Graduation

Patriotic

Halloween Page

Thanksgiving