Lots to Love 8 Inch Doll Bathing Suit

After making Char's bathing suit pattern, available for purchase here, for the Lil Cutesies Doll I tried in on the Lots to Love 8 Inch doll. The pattern directions have adjustments for the slightly smaller 8 inch doll but I found the fit to be good and decided while the pattern was still fresh in my mind it would be a good project to get finished for the donation.

I've mentioned this before but I realized I failed to note either on the pattern or my blog notes that the hook size called for is a thread hook 5. My hooks are labeled in mm not starndard numbers so looking this up several times now I've come to make peace with the closest I have is a 1.75mm though technically I believe it is supposed to be a 1.7mm. The .05mm doesn't seem to cause a huge issue with the fit of the doll outfits.

This pattern uses size 10 thread in 3 colors. The light pink is a color is still holding out although you can see the cardboard on all sides of the cone holder. I keep thinking each project will finish it off but this was not the project. I've been shopping out of my stash for projects when possible so the darker pink seemed like a great choice for this bathing suit.

The Lots to Love 8 inch dolls are interesting in that the feet and facial expressions are different on each doll. Shoes that fit one are harder to fit on the next. I've found the Lil Cutesies dolls to be a little more standard. As a result I will say I think the shoes fit the Lil Cutesies a bit better. However, considering the challenge of fitting shoes to the feet of these dolls I was rather pleased with the outcome.

Lil Cutesies Sweater Set

This was actually intended to be an outfit for the Lots to Love 8 inch baby doll. I was adapting the sweater set from the free Berenguer Baby Layette pattern for the Lots to Love 10 inch doll found here using sport yarn but it was too big for the 8inch doll but thankfully not too large for the Lil Cutesies Baby Doll . I was planning on making one for that doll later so it all worked out.

For my own records this was made with the no longer available Red Heart Sport Comfort yarn and an E hook. The shoes are from a Shady Lane Pattern set for the Lil Cutesie dolls that can be purchased here. While I adapted the booties for the 8 inch doll I know these shoes fit the Lil Cutesie dolls really well so I went with what works.

The bonnet was too large for the head even with the lighter yarn and smaller hook size. I stopped working in the round when the back of the head was covered and began working in rows to keep the bonnet from becoming overally large. I used chain 3 trim on the arms.

I made simple pants for under the sweater by crocheting over a pony tail band until I got to the crotch and splitting at that point for the legs. The legs have a chain 3 crochet trim around each leg.

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.

Lots to Love 14 Inch Doll Hoodie and Pants

After I made the last outfit for the Lots to Love Babies 14" Dolland I couldn't find the pattern online I did more digging and found the designer had a limited presence on Etsy. I proceeded to buy the patterns that would work for the donation dolls. She has a few bed dolls that while pretty aren't right for this donation project. I left her a message asking if she will be offering any of her other doll patterns as I would love to buy them. The two I've made so far have me hooked on her style. You can purchase the Hoodie Short set pattern here.

I used Bernat Baby Big Ball Sport Yarn in Baby Blue and the variegated Baby Baby for this outfit. The suggested e hook worked for the entire outfit.

Notes:

I did add some extra rows to the top of the pants. This doll comes wearing a diaper and with that on the pants are too short at the top but fit fine for the rest of the doll. I would consider using a smaller hook for the hood next time as I did find it was a little larger than I'd expected. I accidently shifted from hdc to sc while making the first leg so I continued this pattern into the second leg and they were even. I'd already finished off the ends with trim so frogging seemed a waste when the pants fit.

After I took the first found of pictures something struck me as being off about the finished outfit and sure enough in my rush to finish I'd forgotten to make the booties. That would have been a shame because these really are a perfect shoe for this doll. They work up quickly and they fit really well. Doll shoes are always a challenge and when you find a pair that fits the doll it is a great blessing. I left this pattern in my working binder as I may be back to use the shoes again for patterns that either don't include shoes or have shoes that don't fit well.

I have to decide what outfit to experiment with to fit the rag doll as that is the only donation doll I haven't any specific patterns set up to make. It will be an interesting experiment for this year's donation. I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

Baby Isabella

I'm always looking for doll crochet patterns that can be adapted to fit theJC Toys, La Baby 16-inch Pink Doll to give me more variety in the donations I can make.

I purchased the Baby Isabella pattern at Mary Maxim here. Lots to Love Babies 14 inch Baby Dollis the doll used in the original pattern but I thought I'd give it a try.

Notes:

The pattern calls for baby yarn I used worsted weight and increased from a D to an H hook. I think if I try this pattern again I'd try a lighter yarn with a larger hook to make it fit. The worsted yarn is a little bulky for this pattern. I switched from an H to a G hook for the skirt which helped but it was still bulky.

The bonnet actually fit using a g hook and the pattern as described with the worsted weight yarn.

I did not use the shoe pattern as this doll's feet are hard to fit so I went back to Peechy Keen for the shoes a free pattern that can be found here. Not sure what was up with my gauge when I was making these but I had to go up to a J hook to make them fit. I note this because yesterday I want looking to see if I had any notes on hook size regarding these and couldn't find any, so now I know at least at one point I did need to go up from an I to a J.

I love the texture of this pattern. It is a unique stitch style I hadn't tried before and I like the outcome. I'd like to experiment with it again.

Green Variegated Dress for 15 Inch Baby Doll

This dress was a bit of an experiment and a hybrid of two patterns I was exploring. I discovered a free baby doll dress here that I tried several times to complete unsuccessfully. There were parts that appealed so I decided I'd combine it with the 14" Baby doll dress I'd previously had success with found here. I changed the hat using front and back post stitches to make it a little different. It was actually fun to make something for the doll in non-traditional baby colors.

Watermelon 12" Baby Doll Dress

One of the things I've enjoyed this year is trying to adapt patterns, yarns and hooks to get one pattern to fit both baby doll sizes. This is an adaptation of a free 14" baby doll pattern found here. The yarn was a lighter weight kind of coarser yarn I inherited when a friend passed away. I had used up most of the yarn on another project but thought I'd have enough to finish the outfit for Melissa & Doug 12 Inch Baby Doll. I underestimated the amount of yarn I needed, but got to thinking about color combos I'd seen for a child's dress and decided to experiment with some Red Heart Lime colored yarn. It worked, creating my Watermelon Outfit.



This encourages me because in years gone by, I've stuck to experimenting with outfits for the 15" doll, but been far more hesitant to play with stuff for the smaller doll, meaning that she always goes off with a smaller bag of clothing for the donation. This will be the largest donation that goes off with her to date.

It has also been great to use up more of the donated yarn in my friend's memory. I need the room and it makes me feel good to know her legacy is one that will make little ones happy.

Baby Doll Bib with Pocket

As I mentioned before I'm getting quite a bit of use out of the out of print copy I have of Dressing Up Dolly, Leisure Arts 2725. This works well in worsted weight for the 15" doll and I suspect if I change to sports yarn I can also make one for the 12" doll, too. I like the simple stuff that expands the wardrobes for the donation project. While it is fun to try some challenging projects now and again, the easy ones fill the bags and that is one of the goals I have to keep in mind as I work through the year. Sometimes the simple items are just as much fun to play with as the ones I spend days working my way through to complete.