16 Inch Baby Doll Dress for Fall

As the November deadline looms ever closer for the doll donation, I'm trying to make sure I have a good selection of outfits for all the dolls. Since I donate two of the JC Toys - La Baby 16-inch Baby Dolls it generally means I need to make duplicates of everything I donate or have at least an equal number of outfits per doll to make the donations similar.

While I often use the same patterns for both dolls I do like to change up the colors and this fall set was a fun take on Darski's free Dora pattern a Dress for February found here.

To get the dress to fit the 16 inch baby doll I use a K hook and worsted weight yarn for the top of the dress and an I hook for the skirt. The shoes are made with another of Darski's free pattern sets that I hope to be making for the second 16 inch doll soon Peachy Keen found here.

I completed the outfit for the first doll back in February and it is time to finish the second. The shoes are the ones that seem to fit this baby doll the best so I'm constantly going back to this pattern to add it to other doll outfits as I know they will stay on the doll's feet.

I don't have a pattern for the hat it was just something I played with as I sat watching TV. I hope to get one more of these done in different colors for the other 16 inch doll prior to the deadline. It works up quick and makes for a nice addition to the wardrobe.

16 Inch Baby Doll Sweater and Skirt

I mentioned when I wrote the post about the Rag doll outfit this week that I had an abandoned skirt I hoped to convert into an outfit for the JC Toys - 16-inch Soft Body Baby Doll with the assistance of additional doll patterns. I did that this week using Darski's free B and B 16 inch doll set you can find here. I lengthened the skirt but the original pattern is from Annie's soft sculpture doll Debbie Ann's Sweater Set 87F43. This pattern is currently out of print but has been available previously on Annie's as a digital patterns so it could appear again.

I didn't do justice to the sweater and it came out more as a wrap cardigan I have another pattern for than the cute baby sweater Darski created but for the moment it will do to add another outfit to the donation pile. I love the shoes from this pattern. They work up quickly and the fit perfectly.

Little Red Riding Hood Baby Doll

I've always been a fan of combining play with children's books. This year's theme for the older child I was making gifts ford was Little Red Riding Hood. I found different versions of the story and worked on ways to bring the story to life. One was to give her baby doll a Little Red outfit of its own.

If you ever explore the world of baby doll crochet patterns you will discover you can't always find exactly what you want for patterns. You often have to do quite a bit of adaptation. Even if you find the right theme it may not be the right size. 18 inch dolls have had a broader appeal for designers and you often see more themed patterns for outfits. I've used some of these from time to time to help me reconstruct items for the baby dolls, too.

This outfit was made from a combination of patterns. I chose an 18 inch doll pattern that can be purchased here for the cape. This is an easy cape pattern to work up and when I purchased it I had the Red Riding Hood theme in mind. I needed a dress for Baby Hood to wear. I had recently come across a free pattern I hadn't tried out yet that was done in turquoise with white trim. I decided to make white my primary color and pick up the red from the cape. You can find that free pattern here. Lastly while Baby Hood may not be walking she wasn't going off into the woods without shoes. This was accomplished with another free pattern, one of the few that fit her feet, found here.

Just a note on the dress the free pattern is written in UK terms. I ended up crossing out the UK terms and writing in the US terms as I've learned from pervious experiences while I tell myself I'll remember to translate my brain doesn't. As it was I had to pull out the contrasting color as I'd made it in dc instead of sc as I noticed I didn't cross out all the UK references as I thought. This is just a note to myself in case I reprint the pattern at some point. As much as I think I can mentally translate and remember, I tend to forget.