American Girl Sock Yarn Dress and Shawl

Several years ago while at a LYS store the owner was very confused when I told her I was looking for fingering yarn. She became some what less friendly when I told her I was making doll's clothes. Finally, she told me she knew nothing about fingering yarn, but was convinced sock yarn was what I needed.

Well sock yarn was not what I needed and online I eventually discovered Knit Picks for an affordable alternative for my lighter weight yarn needs. However, that sock yarn has been taking up space for years. As someone who is supposed to be working on bringing down my yarn stash it seemed like a message when I found a free pattern for a 18 inch doll shawl that called for sock yarn.

You can find the Granny Shawl free pattern here. The rest of the outfit was an experiment. I wanted to finish off the yarn, so I decided on a skirt, but there was still more yarn. I tried a tube top, but they didn't match up right together as separates. However, sewed together they made a cute dress. I still had more sock yarn. Then I decided on a hat and the yarn was depleted.

Doll Basket for 15 Inch Doll

The doll baskets and blankets are finished for the year. Last year I only managed to get one done, so it feels like progress. This one was a little bit larger than I would have liked. It's hard when you are adapting a pattern to fit a larger doll to make sure you don't over compensate and make it too large.

The doll basket pattern came from Dressing Up Dolly, Leisure Arts 2725. The blanket came from the 2015 Crochet Calendar. The pillow was just something I played with until I found something that worked. I found the babies fit better in the baskets with a pillow.

18 Inch Doll Cape, Skirt, and Sweater

One of the example pictures for this pattern shows the cape made in pink camo yarn. I picked up some worsted camo to make a scrubbie and it seemed like a great idea to try out the cape pattern in the camo. I had just enough left over to make the skirt. I would like to have made the skirt a bit longer but the store only had one skein of pink camo and with the Blizzard of 2015 raging it seemed like a good idea to finish the project while I was motivated and move on to something new. It is all to easy to have unfinished projects that never seem to linger on with hopes that I'll get back to them.

The skirt is adapted from Maggie's Crochet Crochet Pattern Abby, Allie & Annie PA972-R pants pattern. The cape pattern can be purchased here. I made the sweater using an out of print Springfield Collection Sweater Trio from Fibre Craft FCM494.

Baby Doll Bib with Pocket

As I mentioned before I'm getting quite a bit of use out of the out of print copy I have of Dressing Up Dolly, Leisure Arts 2725. This works well in worsted weight for the 15" doll and I suspect if I change to sports yarn I can also make one for the 12" doll, too. I like the simple stuff that expands the wardrobes for the donation project. While it is fun to try some challenging projects now and again, the easy ones fill the bags and that is one of the goals I have to keep in mind as I work through the year. Sometimes the simple items are just as much fun to play with as the ones I spend days working my way through to complete.

Baby Doll Hooded Towel and Washcloth

Every so often, you find a pattern that may not seem like much at first, but turns into a gold mine. That is what the out of print leaflet Dressing Up Dolly, Leisure Arts 2725 has been like for me this year. I started hunting for it when I wanted to make the doll baskets and then started experimenting with patterns I hadn't played with before. While designed for the smaller 12" dolls with adjustments I've found I can make some of the patterns work for the 15" soft bodied Mary Maxim doll.

I had made a different hooded towel for the 12" doll a few years ago, but after finishing this one, I'll be digging out my sports yarn to make this in a smaller size for the Baby Jenna doll. The pattern is easy to follow and was much easier to assemble than the one I made previously.