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.

Edwardian 18 Inch Crochet Outfit

I fell in love with this outfit a while back and it has been on my list of outfits to try for a while. My hands had been tight after working on a series of amis so I decided it was time to get to work on the 2019 doll project. You can find Elseth's free pattern here.

This was a fun choice for my first pattern of the year. I loved the color and the textures. I find the end of the old year and the beginning of the New Year are some of my most productive times to finish doll donations so I'm hoping this is a good sign.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

Thank you to all who supported the doll donation project this year. Thanks to you many girls will be playing with dolls this morning who are well dressed and accessorized. This is only possible because you cared and gave what you could. Thank you and God Bless you on this holiday.

The mission isn't over. The 2019 doll and toy project has already begun. I've already finished a couple of outfits and dolls have been ordered.

American Girl Craft Sale Finds

Merry Christmas Eve to all. This is the day my family gathers together to celebrate Christmas. From the first year we were married I got DH's family to join us in the holiday fun and good wishes. I feel very blessed this year that do to the generosity of friends local and online and family that this was one of the largest donations we've ever been blessed to make to Aztec wishes. Hopefully we will be able to make more children happen next year as well.

Earlier this month at a Church Christmas sale I found a booth with hand sewn American Girl clothes. This is not unusual and while I enjoying looking at the clothes I tend to spend my donation dollars on new patterns, yarn, and other items I need to create the doll and toys I donate. I rarely buy stuff from vendors to donate.

This booth was unique in several ways. The prices were unusually low. When I inquired I discovered the grandmother had created the project to teach her granddaughters how to sew and they wanted to sell some items to make some Christmas money. As I looked the outfits over I realized while they were simple they were well made. If I'd had a doll on hand to try them on I'd probably have bought more clothes. However, for the very reasonable prices they were asking I was more than willing to risk buying a few and bringing them home. As I mentioned my plan to donate the clothes with my regular donations in 2019 for Aztec wishes the grandmother was thrilled as she mentioned she was a retired employee of the school. I will be checking back next year to see if the girls are back with their clothes.

Farm Cilo Bag

I made a farm bag for a summer birthday present and decided to add the cilo for Christmas along with some additional farm animals for Christmas this year. You can find the free bag pattern along with the farmer and the included animals here.

I sewed snaps on to the cover of the cilo to make it easier to store the toys. The directions don't indicate that the cover should be attached. In the past I've sewn half the cover on so it wouldn't get lost. I decided to experiment with the snaps and I liked the way it worked.

The farmer is included with the free pattern but I found the wife pattern in a pattern called Wash Days in Annie's Crochet Newsletter July-August 1992. The cilo pattern includes a pattern for an additional cow and pig. Since my time was limited and I'd made a cow for the original farm bag I chose not to make another cow. When I wanted to add a few animals I turned to planet June for her pig and her collie to act as farm dog.. You can purchase the pig pattern here. The collie dog is available here.

I try to include books with toys to encourage kids to read.

My time was limited on this project, but I hope to add more farm animals.

Pocket Dinosaur

I've collected old crochet magazines for years, especially the Annie's series. This little dinosaur is from the Annie's Pattern Club Oct-Nov 1989 edition. After I finished both baby blankets I wanted a simple dino ami as my hands needed a break and I wasn't ready to tackle something more complicated. This pattern was simple and worked up quickly.

Ankylosaurus Amigurumi

I had hoped to create more dinosaurs to go with the baby package but life sometimes gets in the way of our plan. I love Planet June's patterns and originally had thought I'd get through more of her patterns. Hopefully I'll have the chance to add to his set in the future.

You can purchase the pattern here.

Dinosaur Lovey

I love sending the little lovey blankets along with baby gifts. I found the Triceratops pattern to purchase here.

The pattern directions were very clear, especially as to where to attach pieces, etc. I've gotten used to adapting and rewriting patterns were I need to over the years, but I do think it is important to acknowledge when someone writes directions that are clear to me. I say this because I find directions don't speak to all of us. I find some doll dress patterns that are easy for me are challenging for others and others I just can't wrap my brain around are written exactly the way others think when they crochet. This pattern had great pictures to illustrate where the pieces went and I found that quite useful.

Dinosaur Baby Blanket

This was a much more difficult project than it should have been. I remember now why I prefer blankets that are made as one and not ones that need to be sewn together, but I really couldn't resist the idea of making a dino blanket to match a dino themed nursery. The challenge for me as always was getting the squares all to be the same size. With the added challenge of charted color changes this seemed to be more of an issue than I'd anticipated and I made several squares more than once until I got them to be the size needed.

I would have preferred a lighter weight yarn, but the original yarn was not available any longer and the bright colors were more challenging to find than I'd anticipated. All and all I'm pleased with this project. It went out last week and I hope it is one of those blankets that gets dragged around for years.

For those of you interested in the pattern you can purchase it here.