16 Inch Baby Doll Summer Dress 2

This is the second summer dress for the second 16 Inch Baby Doll

It is clear since I make it frequently that this is one of my favorite patterns for the 16 inch baby dolls. It works up fairly quickly and I like the way it looks, the ease of getting it on and off, and the ability to make it with different yarns.

This comes from an out of print House of White Birches newsprint leaflet Baby Doll Fashions to Crochet by Margaret Funk. I have noticed this newsprint leaflet and a couple of the fashion doll leaflets popping up for sale if you decide it is something you wish to seek out. I'm on my second copy of this one, although I preserved what I could of the first copy after my now 3 year old puppy decided newsprint made for a delightful chew when he was just a baby himself.

The dress is a 16 inch doll pattern from this book. The hat is adapted from the Bell hat pattern for a 13 inch doll also from this book. The shoes are my go to free shoe pattern from Darski's Peachy Keen pattern found here.

Notes:

This outfit was made with Lion Brand Ice Cream yarn Parafait.

To get this to fit the JC 16 Inch Baby Doll I started with an E hook and repeated row 5 once. Thus rows 3-6 follow the original directions for 3-5 moving each row directions down one. For the original row 6 now row 7 that starts the skirt I moved to a D hook to decrease the skirt size as it was too large with the e hook.

I started the directions for the 13 inch Baby Doll Bell hat using an e hook and increased the rows prior to creating the brim to account for the larger 16 inch baby doll head.

Using lighter yarn for the shoes requires a J hook to get them to fit.

Lots to Love 10 Inch Baby Doll Swimsuit

The Lots to Love 10 inch Baby Doll was next on my swimsuit list.>

This is a Baby Steps pattern that includes directions for the Lots to Love 10 inch Doll. You can purchase the pattern here.

The version I have has a cover picture of the Baby Steps doll not the Lots to Love doll. I always add this because I find myself thinking there must be another pattern in my binder for this project and there is not.

Notes:

At one of Knit Picks sales I found their Curio size 3 thread and added to my color options. The main color of the suit is size 3 Curio pistachio. The contrast color is Lizbeth size 3 Pastel Petals.

I really like the green for this project.

I used an f hook for everything but the shoes which required an e hook.

Lizbeth was used for all the trims.

A note for future projects I'd consider not doing the trim between the ties next year. I liked the solid green but had made it with the trim previously so decided to go forward. In the future I might drop that trim.

I did finish the legs this year.

Calico Critters Bay Creek Knits Mom Dress

I like working on these projects between other projects as they are quick to finish and add another item to a donation bag.

This is a free pattern found here.

Notes this is made with size 10 thread.

I used two different hooks this year as I found it slightly tight around the arms last year. The Tulip hooks give me a little more room to play with the Golilocks syndrome of being too big or too small. I started with my 2.5mm hook and then went back to my 2.2 after the armholes had been established. I had started with the 2.2 and it was too tight under the arms. However, I've found skirts can overwhelm the small toy so I went back to the 2.2 when working on the skirt.

These are my adapted previous notes on avoiding the surface crochet.

I have never been good with surface crochet so I did follow the directions after row 4 for moving the main color thread back into place to continue the project. However, before starting row 5 I did a row of ss into the front row othe stitch the starting row to avoid having to surface crochet later. I made row 5 by crocheting in the back loops behind ss.

I did not snap a picture of the back of the gown so this is last year's shot as a reminder.

Having used the same colors twice I'm thinking shades of green or blue next year might be nice.