American Girl Dovetailed

Edited to add pattern link. Darski kindly hunted down the link for me on Crochetville. You can find the free pattern here.

I made this pattern 2 years ago for the donation. It is a one of Darski's free patterns from Crochetville, but sadly I believe the link has been lost. If at any time I find it I will of course add it. I pulled this pattern out because to my eye it looks complicated, but it always a confidence builder for me.

Notes for myself, don't forget to have elastic on hand. Easy to use once you have it, but a delay when you have to go find it. I used snaps this year. I seem to have a thing about buttons this year. I've been using more snaps. Other than that I followed the directions pretty much as written.

American Girl Swim Suit

Every year I promise myself next year for the donation I'll make this with worsted weight instead of cotton. I almost had to write this again this year. I started it in cotton, but I was finding the leg openings weren't a good fit and decided to frog it and start again with worsted weight yarn. I love this color blue for the suit.

I've been making this pattern for the donation for several years now. I pulled it out as part of my efforts to work on patterns I knew I could complete to build up my confidence and to get some outfits put away for the donation. You can purchase the pattern here.

There are many free and paid bathing suit patterns on the market for the 18" dolls. I return to this pattern for a couple of reasons. First the bathing suit works up quickly and easily. While I do have to watch my gauge to make sure the outfit isn't too tight, the pattern isn't difficult to follow.

The other reason I return to this pattern frequently is the accessories. While I don't love making the ducky floaty and I comment on it every time I write about it, I always find it cute when it's finished. With the blanket, beach pail, and beach ball it makes a complete set for a child receiving the donation. For my own sake, I try to make the bathing suit during the summer months as it brings back happy summer memories of times spent at the beach as a child. It never quite feels like summer until I've been to the beach.

American Girl Princess

As I mentioned in a previous post I've been looking for some outfits that are quick to make to fill my donation bags for my Christmas Toy donation. I'd had success with this free pattern found here previously so it seemed like a good choice to get another outfit completed.

I love the way this pattern creates an under and over skirt. When I first approached this pattern a few years ago I thought it might be more challenging. It actually is a pretty straight forward pattern and I love that it requires minimal sewing. I switched out buttons for snaps. For some projects I just find the easier for little hands. For the same reason I didn't use pearls. I don't particularly enjoy crocheting with beads, but they also aren't practical for little hands that tug and pull dresses to put them on and off. I look for durability when I make outfits to donate.

American Girl Ballet

I've had a busy year crocheting, but it is time to get back to my Christmas donation project. I decided to start up again with some projects that tend to have a higher success rate for me to get some put away before I tackle some of the more challenging projects.

This is one of my favorite projects to make every year because it works up quickly and it has a minimal amount of sewing, which I love. You can find the free pattern here.

I feel very blessed that a friend gifted me a doll to use as a model for my projects. Over the years she's been a huge supporter of this Christmas donation project and this year is no different. On top of being grateful for her donations to the kids, I'd just like to thank her for allowing me to have one of her dolls. The doll is beautiful and I am enjoying being able to use her to take my doll pictures with before packing off the clothes in the donation bags.

Project notes for myself:

This required an I hook with the exception of the shoes this year for the outfit to fit. The shoes were too large with an I and I had to reduce to a g hook to get them to fit. I like the solid color light pink with white trim rather than splitting the colors between top and bottom as I've done in previous years following the pattern.

Graduation Afghan

Two Christmas present making journeys ago I created mostly scrap afghans for all of one of my niece's four children. They were fun to make. At Thanksgiving I was working on sewing the ends in for the oldest girl's afghan when another family member noticed the afghan and wondered if she too could have one. After having just finished four large afghans I was a bit burned out and I knew even delaying until this Christmas wouldn't happen. It was a good choice as with weddings and babies it would never have gotten completed in time for Christmas. However delaying until graduation made it possible to complete it as promised.

This is a granny ripple pattern. The one I used for this is Rustic Retreat and it comes from Herrrschner's Worsted 8 Throws Volume 3. Mine is made with a variety of acrylic worsted weight yarns some I had on hand and the crazier colors I bought to liven up the afghan as with the first one it is designed to be bright. This one will be clearly identifiable in a college laundry room.