American Girl Nightgown

This is the second year I've made the American Girl Little Bluebell Nightgown with the free pattern found here. The only pattern I haven't tried from this designer yet is the sweater and I'm hoping to get to that this year. Her patterns are quick to make and I like the look of them when finished.

One of the things I love about this project is it allows me to use up yarn I have on hand. The last two years I've used blue because I had it left over from other projects but this would work up nicely in a variety of shades.

Now for my project notes, I used an H hook for this project. This project works well with heavier worsted weight yarn. I haven't tried it with my lighter worsted yarns to check for gauge. I used snaps to close the opening in the back.

American Girl Little Flamenco Dress

Happy New Year's Eve everyone. Hope all of you have a fun and happy night to ring in the New Year.

I finally located some Red Heart Fruity striped yarn so I could complete this outfit. While not a traditional Flamenco dress I do love the colors and the style of this dress. As an added bonus this is a quick and easy dress to make. You can find the free pattern here.

Winter is often my best time for filling up my donation bags and it fills good to be completing some outfits for the donation.

Now for my pattern notes. I used a G hook for the top of the dress and a H hook for the bottom of the dress. I also added some rows to the bottom of the dress to make it a little longer. Red Heart Fruity Stripes is the yarn that I prefer for this pattern as it gets the color blend I prefer. I use snaps instead of buttons to close the back of the dress. I find them easier for little hands to open and close.

American Girl Skirt and Top

I mentioned in a previous post that I try to pack away finished doll projects as soon as I drop off the donations to Aztec wishes. It helps to have them put away when distractions come up in the spring and summer months and I know I can look in the bags and see I am can no longer see the bottom of the bag. I thought I'd start with an easy project I finished last year.

I pulled out a dress pattern that I love because it works up quickly and I thought I'd have a dress to add to the pile quickly. As you may have noticed from the post title this is not a dress. The dress is made with Red Heart striped yarn fruity stripe colored yarn. I have no idea what the original designer used as it isn't mentioned but I found this was the closest cheapest way to match it. However, I forgot to write down what color I used and I had a couple of unlabeled striped yarns left over from projects and I thought the one that became this top just might be the one. It clearly was not, as I quickly discovered. However, I hate to waste the effort so I made it into a top following the basic pattern for the top of the dress.

Having finished the top I needed a bottom. I turned to a simple free skirt pattern found here. A note for my records I added rows to the top of the skirt before I did the increases to make the waste longer. I also added rows to the skirt to make it extend below the knee. I find it so useful to be able to refer back to what I did previously because from year to year I may remember making the outfit, I can't always remember the changes I made. I will sometimes record them on the pattern, but I am not always consistent about that either.

Now that I have the fruity striped yarn, I've begun making that dress, too. As I said I really want to cover the bottom of that bag while the winds of winter blow.