Stacie Sunday Best

I have a preposted donation list to help me track all the items made to keep me on track. I started it last year late in the year and this year I started it from the first project made and it has helped me to focus on dolls in need of dressing.

I started out well with Barbie's clan in January. Barbie and Chelsea have a good start. This is promising since last year poor Chelsea left with only one outfit. However, Stacie prior to this project had but one outfit and Ken and Skipper still have only the clothes they came in so I have some work to do not to have that what was I thinking moment in the fall when I realize I've forgotten to include enough outfits for a doll.

I started making Barbie clothes for my now adult nieces before moving on adding Barbies to the donation recently. During the years my nieces were younger I hunted the Internet searching for out of print leaflets and magazines devoted to crocheting for Barbie and her clan. While adjustments sometimes have to be made for the changes in doll sizes, available yarn/thread, and my own guage, I find I'm often able to make the patterns work for even the modern Barbie line.

This pattern comes Crochet World's Fashion Doll Showcase #1 published in 1988. It has a wide range of patterns from leisure to more formal outfits. I started with this one because I wanted something for Stacie and I thought it would give me an idea of what I was working with for guage.

The pattern calls for Knit-Cro-Sheen and a Size 1 steel crochet hook. I used Aunt Lydia's and Red Heart Thread and traded back between my Tulip thread hooks 1.8mm and 1.25mm.

The pattern shows the picture for the dress but not the coat. I shortened the coat because I found the longer coat didn't fit well over the dress. Without a picture to see how the designer intended it to fit it was hard to determine how it was supposed to fit but I liked the short sweater look for the outfit.