Lil Cutesies Overalls

This is another pattern I purchased here for the Lil Cutesies doll and never got around to making.

You may wonder why purchase and without a specific project in mind. Well the annual donation stays fresher when I rotate projects around keeping me from becoming bored.

I've also learned to buy before pattern designers disappear. If you find a designer that speaks your crochet language and designs for the dolls you need acquiring those patterns over time can be a great strategy for developing a rotation of outfits.

When you notice a designer start moving platforms you sometimes move them to the top of the aquisition pile even if you don't get to all the patterns at once. My hope is if the designer gets enough business perhaps they will keep designing.

My habit has been to buy a pattern from a designer and test the style to see if we speak the same crochet language. Some people find this odd but there are some designers I rarely have issues reading and understand what they are thinking when they write a pattern and others that I surrender and move on to something more productive. Now I do make changes that I document frequently. These are usually do to my own personal guage issues, available yarn, etc. However, I generally find myself looking at a shirt for instance at the end of a session making a shirt rather than a new piece of modern art.

I've chased a few designers across platforms to acquire their doll libraries as I don't have unlimited doll funds. While I'd love to acquire everything they've designed for the dolls I donate it can take time. However, when I do have the chance to stock up I do and then we have binders of doll patterns I dive into to find the neglected/lost patterns I've acquired. Some years I have more time than others for the hunt. This year has been a good year for the neglected pattern catalog.

Notes:

I always need to remind myself when starting these patterns that these are written in UK not US crochet terms. The first bootie could have fit on of the American Girl dolls. In my own defense I was highly distracted at the time and once the bottom of the foot was done realized my mistake.

I used a 2.5mm hook for the outfit.

The White Yarn is Bernat Big Ball Sport Baby. The purple is Lion Brand Baby Soft Dusty Lilac. The flower is a unknown baby yarn brand of purple. I've been trying to attack orphan skeins in my stash. Over the years I've picked up different brands of baby yarns for the donation when they've been on sale to try. It might just be a bad skein but this was was thready at times. It had a hard time holding it together. I'd been going to use my Bernat Baby lavender but wanted to see if I could use this one up.

Shirt:

I only needed 4 rows for the sleeves before it became too long.

For my own notes the pattern suggests closing the shirt with ties. I used a snap. I find the ties get caught.

Overalls:

I would work fewer rows prior to splitting for legs as the overalls are a little long.

The straps required 31 chains in order to make it easy for a child to slide the overalls on and off.

The suggestion is snaps covered by buttons but this seemed overally complicated to me.

There is no flower pattern. I just copied the one I used for the Red Dress I posted about earlier in the week.

Our Generation Boy Swim Trunks

These swim trunks are made using a pattern from from Pamela Yarborough's Swim Suit Set which can be purchased here. The set includes trunks for the boy and suits for the 18 and 14.5" dolls. This pattern can also be purchased alone here.

A note for myself is that all three patterns are stored together as they are printed double sided. I went looking for the boy's trunks and panicked when I couldn't find them. I'm going to make a note on top pattern that all three are located in one set as to not panic myself next year.

Notes:

I am determined to use up some of my project ends so some of you may recognize the green from previous projects. I do like the light blue I've used in previous years but I am need to eliminate some of my endless left over yarn balls and this was a good place to start.

An I hook is pretty standard for her patterns and it is no different for the swim trunks.

The Our Generation Boy requires a starting chain of 46 which makes the legs increase to 23.

The color change for the leg is marked for the 2nd leg not the first so the change is Row 11 stays main color, row 12 contrast, end with row 13 main. Thanks to last year's notes I didn't make the mistake of not counting for the changes.

However, having changed colors I did make the mistake of not starting with the contrast color and had to start the top of the trunks over having started with the main color not the contrast color.

The original pattern calls for a piece of yarn to be tied for the trunks as if it is a tie. I decided to crochet a tie and thread it through the fpdc as it seems each year the trunks are a little loose and it allows me to tighten them just a little with the pull ties.

With these swim trunks down I still need swimsuits for the female 18 inch dolls and the larger baby dolls.

I finally took the plunge and purchased Pamela Yarborough's flash drive of doll patterns. I have several I'm missing and decided I want to be able to easily retrieve patterns I misplace. I ordered it last Friday so we will see how it works when it arrives.

Our Generation Red Flower Dress

This has been the year to use neglected patterns. This is another one of Pamela Yarborough's patterns that can be purchased here. It's been in my binder of her patterns for a bit but I've never made it. I do think rotating the dolls weekly has opened more options than working on one doll for a period of time before moving on to another as something usually arises and shortens the time for one doll to be dressed. This way the rotation continues around time reductions.

Notes:

The yarn for this project is Red Heart. The red is Cherry and I'd like to see at some point if I could locate a brighter red. I thought that was Cherry but this is darker than I anticipated.

Dress:

I used an I hook for the dress.

After row 1, I sc in back stitch to allow myself to play with red trim that is added at end. What I forgot is it needs to be added now not at end to make this technique work. I've added a note to my pattern and here as a reminder for the next time I approach the project. I am not a fan of surface stitch and this is one way to avoid it if I do it correctly.

The flowers for the dress and headband were made with the suggested 3.0mm hook. I found they were smaller than I liked. I'd try them with either an E or F hook next time.

I found the length was fine as is with no additional length rows.

Shoes:

The Our Generation Doll was fine with a G hook and the directions as written.

Headband:

I used a G hook for the headband. I had to add rows to fit it around the Our Generation head. I wouldn't increase the hook size as the width would be too wide.