16 Inch Coral Baby Doll Sundress

While I have enough 18 inch doll patterns to rotate patterns in and out each year I don't have the same luxury with the JC Toys 16-inch Baby Dolls since I donate 2 and I have limited pattern choices even though I've adapted many doll patterns not specifically designed for this doll. As a result I generally have to repeat patterns to get enough outfits for each doll. In generally try to change colors to keep the process more interesting.

I periodically buy Joann's Big Twist yarn when it is on sale and I have a shipping coupon. These days most of my yarn comes by mail so shipping offers are always important. As I went looking for yarn for the dress I discovered the coral Big Twist and I'm quite pleased with the outcome.

Both patterns used in this outfit are free patterns. You can find the dress through the Wayback machine here. The shoes are part of the Peachy Keen set and you can find that pattern here.

Notes:

I use a K hook with the dress, an I hook for the shoes and an H hook for the hat

Baby Doll Lula Gown

I discussed this pattern previously in the Baby Doll Day of Play post. I adapted a premi pattern that can be found here.

My first attempt at this project didn't work with a lighter weight yarn. It was just too tight for the baby doll. I have written quite a bit about my mission to attack my orphan stash yarns and this project fit right into that mission. While looking through my stash for an orphan yarn to use for this project I came across a single skein of Herrschnerrs Bulky 5 weight yarn. I went to look it up but they don't actually carry this yarn any longer. While it is a 5 weight it isn't your typical bulky yarn. While slightly heavier than a 4 it is no where near what I normally think of as a 5 weight. It worked out well for this project.

I used an f hook for the top of the dress and an I hook for the bottom. I sewed the seem up the back of the dress leaving an opening that was closed with a snap at the top. I made a chain 3 trim at the top and bottom of the dress with variegated yarn to add a little color.

There wasn't enough yarn to make the shoes so I grabbed another orphan yarn ball of purple to make shoes. The pattern is the Peachy Keen one you see often sighted here on this blog here.

I had a little bulky yarn left over and I was determined to use it up so I started a hat and finished it off with the orphan yarn I used for the shoes. I don't have a pattern for the hat. I've been making them for a while and it was primarily an increasing circle with a shell pattern brim. I increased the hat until it was big enough for the head and then made rows of alternating sc and hdc until the hat was long enough. Then I used shell patterns to make the brim.