16 Inch Baby Doll Sweater and Skirt

I mentioned when I wrote the post about the Rag doll outfit this week that I had an abandoned skirt I hoped to convert into an outfit for the JC Toys - 16-inch Soft Body Baby Doll with the assistance of additional doll patterns. I did that this week using Darski's free B and B 16 inch doll set you can find here. I lengthened the skirt but the original pattern is from Annie's soft sculpture doll Debbie Ann's Sweater Set 87F43. This pattern is currently out of print but has been available previously on Annie's as a digital patterns so it could appear again.

I didn't do justice to the sweater and it came out more as a wrap cardigan I have another pattern for than the cute baby sweater Darski created but for the moment it will do to add another outfit to the donation pile. I love the shoes from this pattern. They work up quickly and the fit perfectly.

16 Inch Baby Doll Sundress

This is always one of the first doll patterns I turn to every year because it is simple and adds a finished doll outfit to the donation bags quickly. The pattern is still available through the Wayback machine here but that can change at any time so if you want the pattern I suggest you download it right away.

In order to get this pattern to fit the JC Toys 16-inch Baby Doll I use a K hook and worsted weight yarn. I join after the first row to avoid having to sew the dress together at the end. The trim on the hat and the bottom of the dress are added. I use a sc chain 3. I used an H hook for the hat and added a few rounds to the brim to make it fit.

Last year I started adding shoes from the free Peachy Keen pattern and I decided it was time this outfit got shoes, too. The free pattern is a complete set I hope to make later but I constantly add the shoes to other patterns as it is one of the few shoe patterns I can find that fits this doll's feet. You can find the pattern here.

Drop Waist Baby Doll Gown

I didn't precisely set out to change this pattern into a drop waist dress, but I did want the top of the dress to be longer before I started the skirt based on my experience from making the first dress. I actually kind of like the look of this dress. When I attempt this again I might make the top a little shorter but I'd still stick with the dropped waist. I rather like how it looks.

For those of you interested in making doll clothes you can find a free pattern for the dress and hat here. The shoes are from another free pattern set Peachy Keen found here. Since they fit the JC Toys, La Baby 16-inch Pink Dollwith minimal challenges it has become my pattern of choice. I use an I hook to get the shoes to fit and I add a couple of chains to the strap and the shoes fit easily. I've tried several other patterns with varied success. I also find the strap helps keep the shoes on. Even when I can find a pattern that fits, the shoes still don't always stay on the feet.

This project helped me with my mission to wipe out the orphan yarn in my stash. This is another ball of sport baby yarn that thankfully is much smaller than the yellow ball. I've used it on several other projects over the years, but it takes a while to finish one off. I think I still at least one more doll project left before I can declare this ball finished.

Some notes for myself I used an I hook with the sport yarn to make the outfit fit the doll. I used a snap as a closure the fist time I made this outfit this year. This time I made the dress in the round allowing it to be slid on and off and it works fine. I would do that in the future as it is simple to make and for the child to dress the doll.

I write this during the last days of January and I can see my stash of baby doll clothes growing for the doll donation. I'm hopeful in February to have enough of a supply that I can start to turn to the 18 inch dolls and continue on my holiday boxes going out to family.

Baby Doll Day of Play

I'm always looking for patterns that can be adapted to fit the baby doll. I came across this pattern here and thought perhaps I could make it fit the baby doll. I've used some of her patterns in the past with some success.

I believe it would have fit if I'd stuck with worsted weight 4 yarn, but I've been determined to finish off this purple yarn which is more of a 3 weight. So while the top section fit well with the prescribed hook size E, even moving up to an I hook for the skirt, the body was just too tight for this doll. I may try it again at some point with a heavier weight yarn as I do like the pattern of the skirt.

Having put the time and effort into making the top section I pulled out the project to top length where it was loose fitting and finished it off. After putting all the effort into it I wanted to explore a way to finish this off and use it as another outfit for the doll donation. I decided to add the short pants to it to finish it off.

I like to give attribution when I adapt patterns. The pants were inspired by the Santa Baby pattern that can be purchased here. That being said if you've ever made doll pants they aren't hard to figure out if you are just looking for a simple pair. Once you've made a few it isn't too hard to make another pair.

I added variegated trim to the outfit as my purpose is different than that of the original designer of the outfit. I was looking for a fun doll outfit for a child to dress a doll. Her purpose is more serious.

As a note to myself I used a snap as a closure at the top and a tie in the middle of the back to close the top. If I had made the complete dress I'd likely have sewed the seem and closed with snaps.

The shoes may be familiar if you have been reading this blog they come from the free Peachy Keen pattern found here.

This project finished this skein of purple but I believe sadly I unearthed another skein when I found the big ball of yellow baby yarn. I have no idea how I ended up with so much of this yarn but I hope that it will soon be gone. I do feel good about targeting yarn I don't plan on replacing. In the past I've used up yarn true, but it has primarily been colors I'll be buying again as they are primary colors for my projects. I'm hoping to make real progress with destashing this year on yarn that won't be replaced and restocked. I could really use the space.

Little Red Riding Hood Baby Doll

I've always been a fan of combining play with children's books. This year's theme for the older child I was making gifts ford was Little Red Riding Hood. I found different versions of the story and worked on ways to bring the story to life. One was to give her baby doll a Little Red outfit of its own.

If you ever explore the world of baby doll crochet patterns you will discover you can't always find exactly what you want for patterns. You often have to do quite a bit of adaptation. Even if you find the right theme it may not be the right size. 18 inch dolls have had a broader appeal for designers and you often see more themed patterns for outfits. I've used some of these from time to time to help me reconstruct items for the baby dolls, too.

This outfit was made from a combination of patterns. I chose an 18 inch doll pattern that can be purchased here for the cape. This is an easy cape pattern to work up and when I purchased it I had the Red Riding Hood theme in mind. I needed a dress for Baby Hood to wear. I had recently come across a free pattern I hadn't tried out yet that was done in turquoise with white trim. I decided to make white my primary color and pick up the red from the cape. You can find that free pattern here. Lastly while Baby Hood may not be walking she wasn't going off into the woods without shoes. This was accomplished with another free pattern, one of the few that fit her feet, found here.

Just a note on the dress the free pattern is written in UK terms. I ended up crossing out the UK terms and writing in the US terms as I've learned from pervious experiences while I tell myself I'll remember to translate my brain doesn't. As it was I had to pull out the contrasting color as I'd made it in dc instead of sc as I noticed I didn't cross out all the UK references as I thought. This is just a note to myself in case I reprint the pattern at some point. As much as I think I can mentally translate and remember, I tend to forget.