American Girl St. Patrick's Day

I love doing holiday outfits for my donation project. I've had this one on my list of projects to make for years and just never gotten there. This year seemed to be the year to attempt it.

Darski's free pattern can be found here.

This was a fun project and it again allowed me to use up some of the yarn I inherited from a friend who passed away. The pants have a very interesting construction method. I had to pull the hat out as I misread the directions and it wasn't forming at all as the picture showed.

One of the things I've been most excited about this year's projects is I'm taking the time to pull stuff out and redo them. Many times in the past I'd have abandoned a project and moved on to something I could finish faster and felt more productive. This time I slowed down a bit and figured it out. I'm still not a fan of the reverse SC.

American Girl Emerald Isle

I have been working on holiday outfits in between some practical basics and I finally finished an outfit a very kind Crochetville Fairy Godmother gifted me last year. I thought the Emerald Isle would be a good choice for my St. Patrick’s Day outfit. The pattern can be purchased here.

The directions were somewhat challenging because they were more general than specific. In the skirt, it wasn't as much of a problem because the location of the increases was not as important to the outcome of the outfit. I had some challenges with the shirt because the increases for the front part of the shirt needed to be specific to have the shirt sit correctly, but were listed as add evenly. This created a shirt that didn't fit quite as well as I would have wished. I had a similar issue with the hat where the increases really need to be on the side of the hat to create the brim. However, the directions just mention to increase evenly. When I did that, the hat came out round instead of the hat in the picture. I made a second one after realizing my mistake and after playing with it, I got a hat I liked.

I like this designer and made her doctor outfit for last year's donation. I just wish this one had been more detailed. She is very generous with her free patterns and she sells her doll patterns for very reasonable prices, which I appreciate when I'm trying to acquire a library to make my donations from each year.

My soft-bodied 15 inch Mary Maxim baby dolls arrived. I finished my first dress and I'll be posting about that tomorrow. The soft-bodied dolls are a little larger in the body than the plastic ones I donated last year and so far, I'm finding I have to work around that to get the clothes to fit. However, from a toy perspective, the soft-bodied dolls are nicer than the hard ones. I have one hard-bodied doll left over from last year, so I may work up some outfits for that doll and donate it with the other items I'm putting together.

Barbie and American Girl Doll Free Patterns are listed on my blog at these locations:

Barbie Crochet and Sewing Page

Barbie Knitting Page

Ken Page

Kelly/Skipper Page

American Girl Doll Crochet and Sewing

American Girl Doll Knitting

Doll Blankets and Pillow Patterns

Baby Doll Patterns:

Baby Doll and Cabbage Patch

Additional Doll Patterns also Available on the Holiday Blogs:

Christmas

Valentines

Easter

Graduation

Patriotic

Halloween Page

Thanksgiving

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