Leprechaun Baby Doll

In January I kind of got in the mood to make holiday outfits to send out as part of my holiday packages. If you read the blog you know I sent a Big Sister baby doll out to a family member when she was getting a baby sister and I've been crocheting holiday outfits ever since as part of the holiday packages I've been mailing out since she was a baby.

Making baby doll outfits can be challenging because as I've mentioned in previous posts you rarely are using patterns designed for the doll you are working to cloth. It generally requires you to adapt patterns from different kinds of dolls to get what you want. This project was a meld of several patterns.

The first pattern you may recognize if you read some of the holiday posts. The dress was adapted from the Santa Baby pattern which can be purchased on Etsy here. For my own notes I went down to a E hook size this time. I might consider sport yarn if I had it on hand for another try. It still is a bit bulky. Perhaps a lighter worsted? That being said this was another great stash busting project. I was able to use up yarn left off on some bobbins from an afghan project. Everything used on this project came from my stash. It feels good to be using up yarn and not needing to purchase yarn to complete a project.

The hat comes from a book I bought for the 18 Inch Dolls Amigurumi Holiday Hats for 18-Inch Dolls I reduced the hook to a G and the hat fit fine. I generally find I have to increase the suggested H hook size to get the hats to fit the 18 inch dolls which is why I only went down one hook size.

The shoes have become one of got to baby doll patterns. It is part of the free pattern Peach Keen found here. These work up quickly and best of all I find they stay on pretty well, which is one of the bigger challenges with making baby doll shoes. The first is getting them to fit because unlike the 18 inch dolls that have flat feet baby doll feet tend to have curled toes or other odd shaping which can make them tough to fit. This then adds to the general problem of making doll shoes in general, keeping them on the doll feet.

In the past I've tended not to make baby doll shoes but recently I've been pushing myself to add them as it makes a more finished look to the outfits.