Chelsea Swim Suit

The weather this spring has been rather wet and cold. When it does warm up its been humid. What better way to change the attitude than to think of swim suit weather and so I begin my annual swim suit doll donation project.

Notes:

This is one of Char's patterns that can be purchased here.

With some adjustments this pattern will also fit Stacie so I hope to get her swim suit completed for this year as well.

I used size 20 Creative Yarn Resources I believe bright yellow and Lizbeth Tropical Punch for this project. I decided it was time to change up the colors I used for this project.

For my own records the Lizbeth came from Handy Hands as my variegated supply is getting low and I'm going to need to restock in the not too distant future.

This outfit was made using a 1.25mm thread crochet hook.

A note for future projects, I need to reduce the initial stiches for the crotch as it does not sit well between Chelsea's legs at the current width.

Chelsea Block Dress

A while back I started picking up 6 inch doll patterns from Petite Doll Designs for the Chelsea Doll. It wasn't until someone posted about the patterns in an American Girl Doll forum I asked if these would fit Chelsea not making the connection since the designer's name hadn't been posted. Sure enough I never realized I'd been buying American Girl mini patterns not actual Chelsea patterns but they work.

With some adaptations I can also get them to work for Stacie which is awesome since I have so few patterns to fit her. I discovered that when I made the coat following the directions as written and Stacie had a coat and I never got back to making one for Chelsea. Learning from that mistake I started with the adaptations I learned from previous mistakes and not only finished this outfit but have started on Stacie's outfit for next week.

You can purchase the pattern for this project here.

Notes:

I used size 20 crochet thread and a 1.25 mm hook for this project.

Since I didn't understand the directions for the armholes I chained 1 skipped 10 stitches for each armhole and continued the directions as written. I had to fudge the skipped and continued stitches on the pattern to come out even but it worked since I was not clear on how the arms were supposed to be created as written.

I sc around the armholes to finish when the dress was done to make them cleaner using decreases to fix some areas that were in need of shaping after the pattern change.

I changed the last row to follow the pattern of 4 rather than increasing. I tried the increase but it made the dress too bulky for Chelsea. In the future I might just try the 4 rows it is a bit longer than I had hoped.

The directions call for a close tie but I used the directions to finish the back and neck and used a snap to close the top of the outfit.

I followed the hat pattern as written.

I tried the shoes but opted not to make as they were just too big and bulky even with the smaller thread. I've found crochet fashion doll shoes a tough task.

Chelsea Drop Waist Dress with Flared Skirt

This is on of Char's Pattern for Chelsea that can be purchased here.

I made this one two years ago with Creative Yarn Source solid colors as I didn't have any Lizbeth size 20 on hand. I couldn't find Watermelon when I did finally order but I did get a variety of variegated colors.

Oddly when I searched for Lizbeth 20 this year it isn't really available. I don't know if it has been discontinued or if it is a supply issue but it is kind of sad. While Creative Yarn Source has lots of amazing solid colors the don't the same mix of colors in their striped thread. Their stripes tend to have limited colors for size 20. Not exactly what I want for these projects. The fashion doll projects don't take much thread so I'm hopeful my size 20 Lizbeth supply will hold out for a bit.

When I made this last time it was a bit larger than I wanted. This year I opted for a .9mm Tulip Etimo Thread Crochet Hook. I've made a habit of recording the mm of the hook for the thread hooks rather than the size as I find the thread hooks vary far more between brands for the thread hooks than they do for the larger yarn hooks.

Notes:

When I made this previously I made it with all solid colors from Creative Yarn Source. This time I mixed Lizbeth and Creative Yarn Source. I found when I went to add white trim with the Creative Yarn Source size 20 yarn it seemed bulkier than the Lizbeth and I pulled it out as it looked fine without the arm trim.

The pattern includes a dress, hat, panties, and shoes. Last year I made the hat, but this year I just found it was akward trying to get it fit over Chelsea's hair and opted to frog it and not include it with the donation. The outfit is cute without it.

Chelsea Mint Dress

I mentioned in last week's post that I was experimenting with the pattern I used to make Chelsea's Valentine Dress. I haven't had the outcome I wanted but no loss as Chelsea now has more outfits for her donation bag.

You can purchase the pattern for the dress here.

Notes:

As I mentioned in the St. Patrick's Day post I moved to using Thread Art's size 3 crochet thread rather than 2 strands of size 10 crochet thread together for these last two dresses. Just for the record while I called this a mint dress, when I checked the color on the website it is Aqua.

After making the St. Patrick's Day dress changing the stitches I decided to go back and try a single colored outfit using size 3 crochet thread rather than 2 strands of size 10 thread together. I have never achieved the texture shown in the picture for the pattern, but I've liked the look of the dresses for Chelsea and they have the benefit of being easy to play around with and quick to finish to add more outfits to her donation bag.

Skipper Dress

After making this dress for Barbie and liking how it came out I decided to see if it could be adapted for Skipper.

Going down in hook size was not an option with Sinfonia Cotton yarn I had used as a substitute for the Grace Patons the pattern suggested for the outfit. I tried using a smaller hook for Skipper but it was bulky and large.

Thankfully over time I've acquired a large selection of sport cotton yarns for making amigurumi's so I decided to try Schachemayer Cantania for Skipper and once I got done to a D hook the dress fit her.

You can purchase the pattern here.