American Girl Pumpkin

As I mentioned in my Ghost posting I like to make holiday outfits for the donation project when I can get to them. This year I also made the Pumpkin costume. For those of you interested this costume is made from two free patterns. You can find the pumpkin body here and the hat here.

I would like to take a moment and thank this designer and all those who donate their designs for the rest of us to use freely. It makes my donations go further. I regularly buy and request as gifts patterns to help with my donation. I recognize people's right and need to make money with their talents to support their own families. However, it is important to let people know that their donation of patterns is part of a larger donation that gets to people in need.

This is a fun quick pattern to make up to give a doll a Halloween costume. Pumpkins were a theme with me this year and this one just seemed a part of it all.

American Girl Crochet Ghost

I love finding new Halloween patterns for the dolls. This one was a birthday present from DH and you can purchase it here.

The only thing I'd change next time is I'd sew the eyes on a bit lower. Other than that I was quite pleased with the outfit. It was quick and easy to make and it makes a fun holiday outfit.

American Girl Pumpkin Costume

I am so grateful for the people who design and offer their patterns for free. This allows me to stretch my donation dollars so much farther.

As I mentioned before I like making holiday costumes for my doll donation project. This outfit was published as two patterns. The dress can be found here. The hat can be found here.

If you are comfortable working in back and front posts this is a fun pattern to work up for the 18-inch dolls. I made my dress slightly longer than the pattern called for as it was rather short in my estimation. I also played a bit with the top of the hat.

American Girl Witch

I have completed the first four donation outfits and they are all holiday related. Last year I put off doing the holiday outfits and I never got them done. This year I thought that by starting with them I would be more motivated to work on other types of outfits during the year.

The dress is a modified version of Darski's free Pilgrim dress found here. I shortened the dress, added a few extra stitches to make the skirt wider and did sc ch2 sc borders to give it a different look. The hat comes from Bizzy Crochet's Witch outfit. She has a whole outfit you can make, but this is easier for me. You can find her free pattern here.

One of the things I love about this dress is you can really do so many different things with it by changing the skirt, the color, and adding little things to it. It works up quickly and it is easy to make.

Now starts my annual sale hunt for the Springfield dolls. AC Moore often has the 50% off coupons, but they often put the dolls on sale the same week at less than the sale coupon. They don't allow you to use the coupon on sale items. If I'm patient I can sometimes find the dolls and the coupons that match up so I do get two dolls for the price of one. When I start hunting in January, my odds are better.

I want to try the soft bodied 15 inch baby dolls from Mary Maxim this year. I suspect the best discount I'm going to find on those is shipping. This year I'm going to need one as a model and one to donate. Since I'm working on some 5 inch dolls to donate I think that will be a nice balance. It all depends on how many baby doll items I finish. It would be nice to work up to two next year.