Lots to Love 10 Inch Baby Doll Dress with Full Skirt

I made this last year with Herrschners worsted 4 yarn with an H hook for the dress and a G hook for the accessories because I didn't have any Caron Simply Soft on hand which the pattern suggests.

I had Caron this year and found even increasing the hook size it wasn't coming out right so I switched to Red Heart Super Saver. I often have issues with gauge from year to year so this note is for me because I likely will wonder when I try to make this again why I switched.

You can purchase Char Patterns design for the Lots to Love 10 Inch Doll here.

Notes:

I used Red Heart Super Saver Wildflower, Turquoise, and White.

Despite the slightly heavier yarn I stuck with the H hook for the dress and the G for the accessories and everything fit well.

I left off the ties and the caps for the sleeves. I didn't like the sleeve caps last year but didn't want to ruin the sleeve pulling them out. I don't remember how I felt about the ties last year but they were too heavy with the Super Saver yarn so I made the dress without them and it worked out fine.

If this doll was going to be a display doll rather than for a child I'd consider making the ties but they were rather impractical for a doll that will be played with rather than one that will be a shelf sitter.

Important reminder to myself, MARK the chain spaces with saftey pins after second skirt row. I struggle to notice the difference between the chain one spaces and the natural gaps between stitches and this completely throws off where to place the next row. Once the shell pattern is established the pins or stitch markers are not required but I found it much easier to mark the chain 1 spaces to get the second row placed correctly.

I finish off the leg holes of the panties with a sc around the edges. I find this leaves a cleaner edge.

Lots to Love 10 Inch Baby Doll Dress with Full Skirt

I'm starting to build quite the wardrobe for the Lots to Love 10 inch baby doll donation. Thanks to a coupon from an Etsy vendor I picked up several new crochet patterns for the doll. You can purchase this one here.

These patterns have been a wonderful addition to my doll pattern library as they work up quickly and haven't required many adaptations to get them to fit. This is a major time savor as I'm often adapting as I go with patterns.

Notes:

I used an H hook for the dress portions and the suggested G hook for all other parts of the outfit. I found after making some of her other outfits this was a good match.

The pattern calls for Caron Simply Soft, I substituted Herrschners worsted from my stash. I don't currently have variagated so I chose a solid blue green for the skirt instead of the Robins Egg Caron suggested but I liked the outcome. I'm looking into ordering some variagated for future doll projects as this yarn just works up better without splitting and piling I've had issue with from the Simply Soft.

Lots to Love 10 Inch Baby Doll Summer Dress

I haven't seen many patterns over the years for the 10 inch Lots to Love Baby dolls. I have a an older leaflet from Annie Potter but it just isn't as common a doll so fewer patterns seemed to be out there.

Recently after getting a coupon from an Etsy vendor I started searching her patterns and discovered a selection of patterns for this doll I hadn't found on previous trips. I likely just missed them but I decided to grab them as previous experiences have taught me that Etsy vendors come and go so if a pattern designer makes doll patterns that work up quickly and easily, I tend to stock up now as I find them. You can purchase this pattern here.

Notes:

I mentioned on the previous post that I'm not a huge fan of Caron Simply Soft. I just find it splits and then it tends to pile. These are not my favorite attributes for doll clothes.

A while back I had purchased some Herrschners house brand yarns in baby and worsted weights. While I'm not a fan of the yarn for afghans and human wearables as I've had issues with it, I do find it is great for doll clothes. With inflation the cost has risen dramatically but my stash was created when the yarn was far cheaper than most "brand" yarns. I find it to be lighter than traditional worsted weight which again often makes it a great fit for some of my doll projects like this one which are between sport weight and worsted weight yarn. Where possible I will be substituting Herrschners for Caron in these patterns.

I started with a G hook for the top but switched to a H hook for the bottom. In the future I might actually use an H hook for the dress in full. The g hook worked well for all the accessories.

The panties fit well and would work well for an outfit that lacked them.

Reminder for the skirt mark the chain spaces with markers in the first row of skirt. It took me a couple of trys to get this to work out for some reason and once I marked the spaces I had no further trouble. I sometimes come back to a pattern a year later and wonder why it possibly made sense then and not now. It is because I forget to write stuff like this down.