American Girl Happy Birthday Dr. Suess

We always used to have big celebrations when I was teaching on or around Dr. Suess' birthday which is March 2. The Cat in the Hat was always the symbol for the day. I had seen adult and kid sized hat patterns, even a Barbie pattern, but until last year I'd never seen one for the 18 inch doll.

I found this free hat pattern for a Cat in the Hat pattern to fit an 18 inch doll here and decided this year I'd include an outfit to celebrate the date. I also figured I'd publish it early so anyone else interested in making one would know where to find the pattern. I love seeing the beautiful outfits people make, but I also love knowing where I can find the patterns to make them, too.

The rest of the outfit is from one of my favorite patterns, the Abby, Annie, and Allie pattern I make each year from Maggie's Crochet. I end up making several outfits from this pattern every year for the donation You can purchase the pattern here.

Every year I say I'm going to attack the stash of yarn in my spare room. This year I've been targeting it. Instead of buying the Lion Brand Hometown Yarn required for the hat pattern I crocheted with two strands of Caron Pounders. I'm sure the Homespun would be wonderful, but it is a bit more pricey than I wanted to pay for a doll hat. I also kept to my goal of using up yarn I had on hand rather than ordering more yarn. I'm experimenting more with trying to use yarn on hand where I can. I still have certain projects that I want to make this year where I'll need to order yarn. I also am running low on certain core colors. Light pink is starting to be an issue. So, I'll be buying yarn. My hope is to use up some of the yarn I have on hand to justify buying more.

Also, I promised myself I'm going to start documenting hook sizes and changes I make so I remember what I did in future years. This may not help anyone else as my gauge has been all over the place, but the notes I made last year have been very helpful for this year. So, other than changing the yarn I used the listed hook for the hat. The rest of the clothing I was able to make using the suggested hook, which has been unheard of for me this year. However, when I attempted the pants with a larger hook they were way to baggy.