My Life Chevron Skirt and Summer Blouse

This was a unique fiber challenge for me. Both projects suggested using size 10 crochet thread for their respective patterns. In the case of one I ended up using the smaller size 20 crochet thread. In the other I was able to meet a goal of using up some Spud and Chloe sock yarn I'd won as a door prize from a fiber event years ago and have been slowly targeting for doll projects.

I purchased the Chevron skirt pattern from e-pattern central during one of their many sales. When I checked back today the pattern was no longer available. However if you are interested the designer still is selling it at Ravelry here.

I tried making the skirt with size 10 cotton thread and went down to my smallest steel hooks with no luck. This could be my issue as it looks like at least one other person has completed it on Ravelry with size 10 thread. However, I decided to try an experiment and started the skirt with size 20 thread I had left over from a Barbie project and used my Tulip Rose Steel Crochet Hook-Size 4/1.25mm. The skirt quickly showed signs of fitting better but I had to order more size 20 thread from Creative Yarn source so I put off finishing the skirt until my thread arrived.

With the right hook and thread this was actually a fairly easy pattern to follow and I like the look of the finished skirt.

While I like sending separates because the child gets to mix and match outfits to create a fashion pleasing to the child it creates a need to find more patterns. I turned to ABC Knitting's Doll Crochet section for the Elgegant Summer Blouse. You can find the free pattern here.

As I mentioned earlier this pattern also called for size 10 cotton but when I'd tried it earlier it had been too small. I remembered the sock yarn and decided it was worth a try. I used a size B hook with the sock yarn and am pleased with the fit. This might not be a bad way to use up more of the yarn and give myself tops to use with skirts and pants.

American Girl Bathrobe

I bought the Crochet World DVD collections and printed a number of the patterns a few years ago. This year one of my goals with the doll donation and even the Big Sister project was to try some of these patterns I've printed over the years and never made. For those of you interested in this pattern it was originally published in Crochet World October 2010 as Dolly's Bathrobe by Kathleen Stuart.

I again pulled from a Sweet Creations pattern, School Uniform purchased here to make the slippers to go with the bathrobe.

American Girl Grey Lady

I didn't get to this pattern last year, but it is one of my favorites. It works up quickly and has some cute accessories. The skirt and top are connected to form a single dress piece. The stitches used in the top create a lovely textured sweater look and the skirt is pleated. The link to purchase it at has switched since I posted about this pattern last. You can now buy it here.

Some notes for myself Bernat Super Value is my favorite grey. It isn't the cheapest worsted, but for what ever reason I love their grey. I love their other colors too, but I just prefer their grey above all others and can deal with Red Heart or Caron Pounders for everything else. I went on a purge to finish off all the grey in the house this year, so by next year I may need more, thus the note to self.

For my crazy gauge I need to use a G hook for the skirt and an H for the top. The panels for the poncho are sewn to each other. This should be obvious but I got distracted this year and sewed the big panel together thinking the other was joined at the end of that joining. No clear idea why this would be a thing and ended up making a new large panel. The big panel is sewed directly to the small panel. Sometimes I have to spell things out directly for myself.

18 Inch Doll Donation

I think this was the area that disappointed me the most this year. I started on a high note working on a holiday theme and then life got in the way and my donations were not nearly as good as they should have been. However, instead of beating up on myself I'm going to celebrate what was accomplished. My Mom felt up to sending me knitted donations and those are included here as well. This is the first time in a few years she's been able to send me stuff so I guess you have to take what you can and realize it is more than what would have been accomplished without trying at all.

Thanks to Mom for these,

Doll Carriers

I've done a lousy job of tracking my progress this year, but one of my reasons for blogging is to have a record of what I did to help me decide what to keep doing. So there is nothing wrong with going back to document. I dropped off this year's doll donation and while smaller, it did have some interesting additions this year I want to track and remember to see if I can in fact build on for next year.

First up are the doll carriers. I used the last of the Mary Maxim 15" baby dolls up this year and had to move on to JC Toys, La Baby 16-inch Washable Soft Body Purple Play Doll - For Children 2 Years Or Older, Designed by Berenguer which is actually a nicer doll. It has required adjusting a few of the patterns to fit the slightly larger body, but overall I like the look better.

As for the carriers, these are much nicer than the doll baskets I'd made in previous years using the pattern from Dressing Up Dolly, Leisure Arts 2725. An added advantage to my readers is the carrier pattern is free and available on Ravelry here. These carriers are much more stable and user friendly for little hands. Just a note on what I did for myself and others. I used worsted weight yarn and I didn't make a mattress. The dolls fit fine. I did use the blanket pattern from the Dressing up Dolly booklet, but there are plenty of doll blanket patterns out there to use.

Aztec Wishes Donation 2016

For the first time ever I went with DH to drop off the Aztec Wishes donation at the local tech high school this morning. The coordinator of the toy drive had mentioned she'd like to meet in person, so DH and I scheduled a drop off time. I have no idea where the time has gone this holiday season. I was on track until Thanksgiving and then time seems to have just disappeared. We normally drop off right after Thanksgiving, but this year one thing or another kept coming up and we were literally up against the drop off deadline this morning and we scooted in with drop offs from our Crochetville friends Tampa Doll and Darski.

DH and I were debating if this was equal or larger than last year's donation. With different box sizes it really is hard to compare. However, I will say thanks to Darski and Tampa Doll and all those who answered my wish list requests, it is a sizeable donation to help kids have dolls to play with this Christmas season.

We had 4 18" dolls, 1 8" Baby Doll, 1 12" Baby Doll, and 1 15" Baby doll. All the dolls have clothing, most have blankets, and two of the baby dolls have carriers. We had so many 18" doll clothes they bought more 18" dolls to accommodate our offerings. I normally just send 2, but AC Moore oddly let me use a 55% coupon on a Springfield doll, which I haven't been able to do for years, so a 3rd doll suddenly became doable.

I still have 2 more of my projects to post as it's been a crazy year and Blogging has not been as consistent as I'd like. I will get to posting them though because having a written record helps me remember what I've done and gives me some clues about what to try and what to avoid the next time I pursue the project. I some how seem not to have posted Darski and Tampa Doll's contributions although I did post them on Crochetville. I'm going to include them here again to have a complete record of what has been done to keep this project going.

Tampa Doll sent the Clown doll dressed and the other two outfits as her donation this year. Her work is always so detailed. I especially loved the Dorothy dress done in thread. As someone who always struggles with my thread work, her work always amazes me.

These are Darski's donations which included an 8" baby doll and so many beautiful 18" doll outfits that it is just beyond words to describe.

As always Donna was thrilled with our donations. There was only one student there when we arrived, but on seeing all the boxes he quickly recruited other students in the program to help him bring all the donations back to the room where they are being sorted for distribution.

American Girl Day at the Beach

It seems funny to be posting this after Labor Day, but I really did work it up in the heat of the summer, I just never got to posting it, until DH finally took some pictures for me.

I love the idea that this is a set and not just the bathing suit. I makes it fun and a little bit of a challenge each year as I struggle to get Mr. Ducky float to cooperate inc finally coming together. You can purchase the pattern here. I keep hoping she'll design some new patterns, but I haven't seen any new doll stuff in some time from her.

Oddly enough for the first time in years I had to buy cotton to make the bathing suit. I'd forgot my suggestion to make it in worsted and realized I needed enough cotton to complete the outfit. For years I've had big balls of cotton to use, but the only colors I had left didn't seem like they'd work for a bathing set.

I will say this is one of the biggest doll donations I've done in years. I'm not sure how it happened, but my big Christmas bag is overflowing with 18" doll clothes. I've had to remove the dolls from the bag to make room for all the clothes I've made. It could be the bulk of the princess dresses that is causing the issue. They are more full than most of the outfits I've made in the past.

American Girl Little Spring Dress

I know I said I hit a snag on making American Girl clothes and I did. This was actually destined to be an outfit for the 15" inch baby doll. I received the pattern as a gift from a Crochetville Fairy Godmother. The pattern is available for purchase here.

When I started the dress it was too tight for the 15" baby doll's stomach. This is not an uncommon occurrence when I make outfits for the doll. Its tummy is a bit larger than many other dolls in the size range. I added some stitches to give it space and before I knew it the outfit was too large. Before frogging it, I decided to try it on the 18" doll to see if there was any saving it because I liked the look and the colors. I thought it made for a cute summer dress for the 18" doll and so we have another outfit to add to the donation pile.

As an added benefit, more of my friend's seemingly endless supply of off white yarn was used for this project. She really has been a huge part of this year's donation.

American Girl's Frozen's Elsa

Sadly, I got behind in my posting again. I finished this well before Easter, not too long after the Anna outfit. However, with the craziness of lots of things going on getting pictures taken never happened and then when they did, I never got them posted.

I made this outfit for the first time last year. This year, I've become more accepting of needing a larger hook to deal with tighter stitches. I'm still not crazy about the way the shoulder's fit, but short of redesigning the top, I'm stuck with that.

I got Tara Cousin's Elsa pattern as part of a package, but you can find the single outfit here.

American Girl Nurse

This donation project is dedicated to my Aunt, a most remarkable and generous hearted woman, whom I miss very much.
My Aunt, who passed away a few years ago taught me to crochet and the little basics I understand of knitting. She became a nurse when they still wore the caps and the uniform. This was my attempt to honor her memory. It was fun to realize the memories others have of that period in nursing. I volunteer with a retired nurse and she was giving me hints about the style of uniforms and how they differed by schools as I told her about the outfit I was attempting to make. She was thrilled when she found out the pattern had the cape.

I decided to tackle this project while I was waiting on the yarn to make the Red Cross historical nurse. I attempted Darski's nurse pattern (Ode to Florence and the Ode to Florence Cape) one more time although I still didn't do it justice. I didn't get the dress quite the way I wanted it, but I'm happy with the cape and the nurse's cap. You can find the free pattern here.

I'm waiting on the yarn to make the Red Cross historical nurse. I know the historical outfits are often popular so I thought I'd try making it. At the moment I'm working another doll pattern, Dorothy of Oz, that I got as a Valentine's present. It is a simplified single color pattern rather than the blue checks, but it's cute. I found the shoes on clearance after Christmas and thought it would be fun to try an outfit. I'm thinking of trying the Toto that came in an ami kit rather than the one that came with the doll pattern. We'll see what happens.

American Girl Grey Lady

My husband bought me this pattern as one of my Valentine's gifts two years ago. You can purchase the pattern here.

I love this pattern. It always makes me think of an old fashioned governess outfit. The texture of the top of the dress is delightful. I think I might actually wear a sweater if it was that soft. I was able to use Bernat and Red Heart yarn I had on hand, so it contributed greatly to my stash busting project.

I used the suggested g hook on the skirt, the h hook actually made the skirt portion of the dress too large. In order to make the upper portion of the dress fit I used an H hook and it fit comfortably getting the dress on and off. It wasn't too loose as the skirt had been when made with the larger hook. Using the H hook I was able to use snaps as suggested since the top had the room. Previously when I made this I had to change to buttons because the top was too tight.

The one addition I made this year was embroidering a design on the purse. It seemed kind of plain and I wanted to add something simple. It is not a talent of mine, but I thought it came out OK.

I have several more outfits to post this week. I'm currently working on a dress with an underskirt. I've never tried anything quiet like this before. It reminds me a little bit of trying to put clothes on an ami working in front and back loops. I'm hoping it all works out and I can post about it next week.

American Girl Mrs. Claus

It seems to me Mrs. Claus gets included every other year in the donation. I'm not sure what happens, but it seems if I don't get her finished right before Christmas of the year prior to donation, she doesn't make the cut for the year. I just looked back at my previous blog entries and sure enough the last Mrs. Claus outfit was completed in December of 2013 for the 2014 donation. Last Christmas was crazy and I never got the dress done, thus no Mrs. Claus outfit for the 2015 donation. Well 2016's donation is secure. I sewed the buttons on Saturday night.

The dress is adapted from Darski's Pilgrim dress found here. The hat is a free American Girl Santa hat found here. While updating some old links, I found the designers new website and updated the link to her new website.

I'm working on a sweater using up the yarn left to me by a friend. I'll make a skirt to go with that and another outfit will be finished. I still need to get Yoda's jacket completed before Christmas Eve. It has been a bit stubborn. The force is clearly not with his clothing.

In other good news I got an email from AC Moore with an advertisement for a sale on the Springfield dolls for $9.99 good until Christmas. DH went out Saturday getting me the two dolls I need for next year's donation. This is a huge step forward for getting ready for 2016's donation. Now I just need to get the clothes made.

American Girl Pilgrim

There are some outfits I try to include every year in my donation and others that rotate around as I get new patterns and have to decide what to include and what I don't have time to make. I try to include as many of the holiday outfits as I can each year. When possible I try to get them done before Christmas or right after as they seem not to get finished if I wait until Spring.

This year I dived into the Pilgrim outfit shortly after finishing my Christmas scarf presents. This is an adaption of Darski's We Gather Together pattern found here. Every year I promise myself I will write down the changes I've made and then I remember it doesn't work out that easily. I took pictures and I work through the pictures slightly differently each year.

The sticking point this year was buttons. I just don't enjoy sewing buttons. I put it off for several days and finally finished sewing them on on Tuesday. It isn't a complicated process, just not the part I enjoy. I've started on the Mrs. Claus outfit. The hat is almost finished. Then I'll adapt this same pattern to make Mrs. Claus' dress. Hopefully I'll have that finished so I can get the Christmas party dress completed before Christmas.

Another change I made this year to the Pilgrim outfit was using off white for the hat, apron, and trim. A friend's sister passed away and he offered me the yarn she left behind. Most of it is off white in various brands. It's good quality acrylic and I'm determined to honor her by finding ways to use it in my donation project this year. Next up I'm thinking of using it in a doll sweater I make every year. I've got quite a bit of it, so you'll see it popping up. I think it is a great way to honor her memory.

18 Inch Doll Afghan

As I mentioned in a previous post, one of my charity goals for the year was to get afghans done for both of the 18 inch doll donations. This is the second afghan.

This pattern comes from Crochet 2015 Day-to-Day Calendar and it works up very quickly. I'm considering using it for the baby doll's as I think it would work up easily with lighter yarn and a smaller hook.

The next project I didn't finish last year that I'd like to get done for this year is the diaper bags for the baby dolls. I have the one for the 15 inch doll started. Hopefully I'll be able to post it soon.

Easy Peasy Doll Afghan

My DH gave me the Crochet 2015 Day-to-Day Calendar for Christmas and I cracked it open and started searching through the patterns right away. By Christmas Night I decided to try the afghan pattern for the 18 inch dolls to see if it would work for my donation.

This is my favorite doll afghan pattern I've tried. I adapted it by using worsted weight yarn and an I hook, but the rest of the pattern made for a great afghan for the doll.

Every year I can almost guarantee I don't get to something I'd like to make for the dolls. Last year it was afghans for the 18 inch dolls. All the baby dolls had afghans and one kind Crochetville friend donated one, but I didn't have a chance to make any. This year, both 18 inch dolls will have blankets when they leave at Christmas.

Aztec Wishes Donation Delivered

I was so excited knowing my DH was dropping off my doll donations to the school this morning. The business students at the local Tech High School run a toy donation program every year and I donate mostly dressed dolls. A few years I add some extras but for the most part dressing dolls has been my contribution.

This year I started the project right after the donations left the house after Thanksgiving in November of 2013. There was an early deadline last year and I got to work on the holiday outfits finishing most of them before Christmas. It was a wise choice because once I stopped in the spring I had family commitments that kept me from getting back to the doll project. However, because I was so busy in the cold winter months, my donation didn't suffer because I couldn't get back to it in the summer.

This year I donated two 18" dolls, a 15" baby doll, a 12" baby doll, a 5" baby doll, and a bunny cradle purse. It was so much fun seeing the projects grow. I still have a couple of projects to post that I finished and never got posted.

My Mom had an injury that kept her from knitting much of the year. When she got back to it, her focus was on finishing her family projects. She hopes to be back to knitting for the donation next year. I would like to thank friends from Crochetville who sent me items during the year for the project and answered my wishes for new patterns to try. The children greatly appreciate the items for their dolls.