Lil Cutesies Valentine Outfit

I decided to send Valentine's themed outfits for the Lil Cutesies 8.5" Baby Doll I gave as Christmas presents.

For the first dress I settled on a pattern from Char Patterns that you can purchase here.

The more I work with crochet thread and hooks the more I appreciate when people use mm measurements for hooks rather than sizes as I'm finding the number sizes vs mm sizes in thread hooks are not as consistant as the letter sizes in the larger sized hooks. This pattern calls for a size 5 thread crochet hook. I don't have one labeled 5 and from what I've checked online this translates to a 1.7 mm hook. I have a 1.75 mm hook and I found that worked well for the dress and panties. I plan on using a smaller hook for the hat and shoes when I make this for the St. Patrick's Day outfit. The shoes and hat would benefit from a smaller size.

I was very pleased that this was another stash project. In fact I played thread chicken as I had just enough thread to finish the last shoe before I finished off the thread container. I had another one but one of my goals has been to use up some of my thread supply. Over the years I get interested in thread projects, stock up, get distracted, and I have a substantial supply that needs finishing. This was a win on the war on fiber stash. It is nice though to be able to pick up a pattern and have the fiber on hand to make it.

Notes

I did not close the back with a tie as suggested. Once I finished the collar, I finished the back and made a button hole below the collar and sewed a button on the opposite side to close. You have to start the collar without following the tie suggestions.

Crochet Box of Chocolates

I alternated making chocolates with making crochet cookies and other projects. As I mentioned in the cookie project I did debate making the actual "box" of chocolates and decided against it. I wanted to make play food for Valentine's Day for little ones but the effort to make the box versus the time it would last didn't seem like a good use of my time. As I mentioned in the cookie post I found heart boxes at Hobby Lobby. You can find this box online here.

I didn't follow one pattern for the chocolates. In some cases I followed a pattern to completion. Others inspired me to create my own based on established designs. For my own records in case I decide to do this again and for those of you interested in making your own crocheted chocolates I'm going to do my best to document just what I did.

The round pink and yellow ones with the dark centers were called Licorice Allsorts. The Chocolate with a swirl is a Chocolate Bon Bon according to the designer. These are part of a free pattern found in a blog post labeled Crochet Candy found here.

For those of you interested in a free box pattern with chocolates Red Heart has a free pattern here. This pattern uses Luster Sheen which has been discontinued. Fortunately for me I had some brown I wanted to use up but for this project. There are other yarns which could substitute and work for making the box if you don't have Luster Sheen in your stash. From this pattern set I made the chocolate covered pretzel and I adapted the white chocolate striped chocolate. I alternated between Luster Sheen and Red Heart Sport yarn which I also believe has been discontinued. I'm determined to work my way through this old stash.

The last pattern set I used was an out of print Annie's Attic pattern Crochet Sweet Dreams 55X. This pattern also has a box with no cover I didn't follow any of these patterns for chocolates directly but I did use the pictures for ideas to finish off my box of chocolates. I made some circles and oval chocolates after looking at these patterns. If you are interested in play food and come across this set it is worth picking up as it has a variety of other play food patterns. If Annie publishes this as a digital pattern I will try to update this post.