Barbie Peach Gown

I often tell people if you see a pattern, download it, save it, and print a copy because sites disappear or people remove patterns. This pattern was available as a Ravelry download here but is currently unavailable. I list the link because it could go live again. If I find the pattern I will add a link for my own records and to share with others.

For this pattern I started with Bernat Baby Big Ball Sport Yarn, Peach Blossom but I needed a heavier weight yarn for the project. I had a free shipping coupon for Herrschners a while back and after discovering that the yarn works well for the smaller dolls I picked up a supply in various sizes. I wanted to stay with peach and decided to try out the Herrschners Baby Yarn that is a 3 weight. This proved to be a better fit.

Since the Barbie Farmer doll was no longer available to purchase I moved to the Barbie Pet Vet for this year's donation and am finding like last year the doll is a different size to fit than my old doll.

As with all Barbie/fashion doll patterns you need to fit the pattern to the doll. You can never make the outfit thinking it will fit. I also made some changes do to how I prefer to construct outfits.

I used an e hook for this project. To make this outfit fit this particular Barbie I kept the stitch count for the bodice at 22 and did not do the decreases from rows 8-12. When I tried the decreases the dress was too small. I continued on with the increases as written. For my own preferences I joined the dress after the first 4 rows and worked the dress in the round not joining with slip stitches as I didn't like the line the ss left on the dress. I used a snap to close the top of the dress.

Ken Ski Outfit

It's supposed to be in the 80's this week so what better time to think cold and create winter wear for Ken. I've also been flipping through my collection of Barbie patterns trying to find casual wear for Ken to crochet. I'm amazed at how many patterns for wedding and swim attire there are for Ken, but I'm looking to expand his options for dress up play.

One of the leaflets I came across from my decade ago pattern buying spree was a House of White Birches newsprint set with black and white pictures and typesetting I haven't seen in years. The patterns however are quite good for my purposes of creating clothing for kids to play with the dolls rather than display, although I suspect there are a few outfits that might work for that as well.

The leaflet is called Crochet Wardrobe for 11 1/2" Fashion Dolls(Including a complete Wedding Ensemble and Trousseau.)It was published in 1982. If you are interested in finding it I've seen it listed quite a bit recently as I've looked for other out of print fashion doll patterns. Despite the age it is out there.

I didn't recognize the yarn listed in the pattern, which is not unusual these days in modern patterns let alone those dating back to the 1980's. When I looked it up on yarn sub it appeared to be a fingering yarn. Since this Ken doll is a fairly small doll I originally started with thread thinking the pants would be too large. I had tried another pattern in the book that called for bedspread yarn and a size 7 hook. After getting down to a size .4mm hook I ordered some size 20 yarn to experiment with later and moved on to the ski outfit.

The thread proved to be too small and I moved on to a stash of Knit Picks Palette yarn which is a wool fingering yarn that I'd had from previous doll projects. While the pattern called for an e hook I found a C hook was the adjustment required to make the outfit fit the smaller Ken doll.

The one increase in size I needed to make on the pattern to get it to fit was the hat. I found the hat was too small to fit over this Ken's molded hair. I just added and increase row and the hat fit.