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.