Lil Cutesies Dress, Hat and Shoes

Until recently I'd only heard mention of the smaller Lil Cutesies dolls. Generally I'd seen the 5 dolls from various vendors in more of the Lots to Love styles. I ran into the smaller Lil Cutesies at a craft store but I'd never seen outfits designed specifically for them. They are generally geared towards the other brands of 5 inch dolls.

I've had to be more careful lately as I've searched for new patterns for the larger Lil Cutesies dolls because while I do check size for the Lots to Love 8 inch dolls to make sure it isn't for the smaller dolls until recently it hadn't been an issue for the Lil Cutesies.

To be clear the Lil Cutesies items you will see here are for the larger 8.5 inch doll not the smaller one. Years ago I surrendered my dream of crocheting outfits for the small 5 inch dolls to decorate the house with for the holidays. I have decorated a few of the Lots to Love 8 inch dolls. The longer arms, legs, and torso make fitting the outfits easier and for the most part I can work with baby yarn and only occasionally need to dive into my crochet thread.

You can purchase the pattern for this outfit here. The vendor appears to have moved off of Etsy and I could only find it on Ravelry. That is why the link is different from the one I listed for the pattern last year.

Notes:

I used a B hook for the top and a D hook for the skirt. I chose to close the back rather than use a tie. It is loose enough to slide on and off without needing to leave an opening and adding a tie.

This was made with Bernat Baby Pink, White, and Bernat Baby Soft Dusty Lilac.

I left off a row of the knickers which I then replaced when I added the bodice. This let me use the actual first row of the bodice to crochet the row in back loops to allow me to use the front loops later for my my skirt row. Others may not find this necessary but I found it was much easier to get an even starter row for the skirt all around.

I wrote a note last year and even read it to remind myself that the first skirt row and the remiaing skirt rows are different. I had worked on the undergarment trying to make it less bulky this year and while not completely there it is improved. I should have taken the win and waited until morning to continue but I thought why not keep going and get a start on the skirt and completely forgot my warning about the skirt. Unlike last year when I caught my mistake this year I'd finished the skirt before I noticed it and decided to add it as and additional outfit and go back and make a second one with the correct skirt. I ended up doing this with one of the outfits for the Lots to Love 8 inch dolls. It's not a huge issue. It will give a child another outfit for the doll.

With that in mind I decided to play with a hat for the doll and use the headband for the second dress. With the pointed bow attached to the doll's head hats are challenging. This one wasn't too bad.

I also found myself making a change to the shoes. Not sure if I did before and didn't record or if this is just one of those "special" years when things just aren't fitting like they used to and I'm making adjustments on the fly. For the strap row I did 6 stitches chained 10 skipped to last 6 stitches and stitched to the end.