16 Inch Baby Doll Shell Stitch Dress, Cap and Shoes

This is the Shell Stitch dress for the second of the JC 16 inch baby dolls to be donated this year.

Notes:

This is the Shell Stitch Dress and the Cap pattern from House of White Birches black and white newsprint leaflet Baby Doll Fashions to Crochet. It was published in 1981 for anyone who might wish to find a copy. The shoes are my favorite free doll pattern found here.

Dress:

I used the suggested D hook for this project with Bernat Baby Sport Baby Baby yarn.

Rows 2-4 teach you a pattern for increases for this outfit. The original pattern keeps this going through row 8 I need to go to row 10 before doing the original row 9 to create the arms to have enough length in the bodice.

The shell pattern for this dress is 2dc ch1 2dc. I tried this and the dress was huge. Not at all as pictured. I pulled it out and tried a shell dc ch1 dc and had a better fit.

To cover the white onesie this doll is constructed with I needed to add rows to the skirt. The skirt ends at row 23. I went to row 29 which when you change the row counts becomes row 30 for the whole pattern.

I finished the back up to the neck before doing the trim this allowed for a cleaner back and made putting the snaps on easier. I also did the trim for the arms.

The original dress has a higher waist which I tried when making this outfit for this doll but I found it was harder to fit with the doll's construction so I lengthened the bodice. It is a different look than the original but I rather like it for this doll.

Cap:

The cap is another pattern in this book that I decided needed a rework if I wanted it to fit this doll. The original has dc increases around twice and I found the hat was unshapable afterwards. For my own records this is the cap pattern on page 46. There are directions for multiple dolls.

I used a G hook and used a magic circle and 12 DC. From there I increased by an additional stitch each row until row 9. Row 9 I did a DC 1 decrease 1 around to make a tight fit. Row 10 I turned and dc in the back loops so cap would turn upwards and did one more dc row in this direction and finished off.

Shoes:

I've been trying the shoes with lighter yarn this year and it seems to be working out OK. They still look better with the worsted 4 yarn but they look odd when the shoes tend not to match. I need a J hook with the lighter yarn to get them to fit.

Rag Doll Swim Suit

I've been trying to work through the bathing suit challenge for the donation on a weekly basis as time allows. This is a free Dora the Explorer pattern, Oceanside, found here that I've adapted for the Rag Doll.

Notes:

I used a J hook for the suit and this year went with a g hook for the skirt as I find it gets a bit big. I chose not to add an additional row. Not sure if I will go back to the double row next year. I kind of like both.

I continue to add the backside picture to remind myself this pattern doesn't join right away but it still works out fine. The first few times I made this it had been a year and I'd forgotten. I'm sure the first time I don't add this note I won't remember.

Glitter Girl Emry Dress

As I was looking the link up for this pattern I just discovered it exists for the 18 inch doll so I have to check my pattern list because I'd like to have both. You can purchase the Wellie Wisher pattern that fits the Glitter Girl doll here.

I am going to try to make this pattern twice. I liked this pattern a little longer without the skirt but I'd also like to try it with the skirt in a different color to add to my donation supply for this doll.

Notes:

I used Knit Picks Pallete and an E hook for this dress.

To get the shirt dress look I added an additional 2 sets of the 2 row repeat pattern. This required 5 matching colored buttons and fudging a little as to where the button holes fit.

I marked all chains for this patterns as I found them harder to find when I went back to crochet into them the following row. I also did this with the button holes until I added the buttons as I wanted to make sure the button holes lined up. Once the button holes were attached they seem easier to find. However, prior to that I was losing them.