Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

Thank you to all who supported the doll donation project this year. Thanks to you many girls will be playing with dolls this morning who are well dressed and accessorized. This is only possible because you cared and gave what you could. Thank you and God Bless you on this holiday.

The mission isn't over. The 2019 doll and toy project has already begun. I've already finished a couple of outfits and dolls have been ordered.

American Girl Cinderella

Before my cold set in I did manage to finish one of the Princess gowns for the donation. These dresses are always popular and thankfully not as time consuming or challenging as they look. They consume a bit more yarn than most doll outfits which almost proved challenging as I thought I had more of the main color than I did. Thankfully, I found some hidden stash and it all worked out fine.

For those of you interested in the pattern it can be purchased here.

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 Ghost Costume

I try every year to get holiday outfits made for the donation, but don't always succeed. This year I did get some Halloween costumes made for the dolls. The first is a simple costume I remember from my own childhood when there wasn't always a great deal of money for costumes. What I remember as being challenging is my mother didn't buy white sheets. She complained they were too hard to keep clean so we rarely had the option for white ghosts or other costumes that required sheets.

The costume is available for purchase here, but it appears to be more expensive than when I received it as a gift several years back. For an experienced crocheter or someone who sews I suspect creating your own ghost costume for the 18" doll is not going to be all that challenging.

Mary Maxim American Girl Summertime Capri Set

This was the second outfit from the Mary Maxim Summertime 18 Inch Doll kit. There is a shrug and a purse I finished for this set, but somewhere on the way to the shoot for this blog, she seems to have lost them. Thankfully, I found them sitting on the couch and they've been bundled up in the package to go with the donation, but I didn't have time for a reshoot, so you'll have to imagine the rest. If you are interested in the kit you can find it at Mary Maxim here. To make it clear this was a birthday gift from DH and I have no association with Mary Maxim other than I am a customer. I am hopeful they make more 18 inch kits as having bought both their kits and Herschnerrs I tend to like the yarn and pattern directions in Mary Maxim's kits better than those I've bought from Herschnerrs. I will say Herschnerr's has had some adorable designs I've liked and bought, but I've not loved the yarn and I have several uncompleted kits because I found myself rewriting the directions as I went and it was frustrating when I had other patterns I could turn to and complete more quickly.

With that I turn to the second pattern from this kit and say honestly I was not as pleased with the second set as I was with the first. Other than the shoes I really liked the overall design of the first pattern. With the second, I LOVED the capris and will be using that pattern with worsted weight yarn so I don't have to increase the hook size to make the pants fit. The pants were adorable and I can see me making them with different tops. I didn't like the top. It was overally complicated to make for something I really didn't like when it was done. The shrug was a nice finish for the outfit. The purse was an easy to make accessory that I'd make again. The kerchief would have been better if there was an explanation about how it went together.

As with the previous outfit I opted out of the sandals. I found they didn't work well for me and instead made the shoes from another pattern I'd purchased here.

I am hopeful Mary Maxim will continue to make these kits as I do like their yarn and the price point is fair if you can get a deal on shipping. I would like to see some themed outfits in the way they've branched out with the 5" dolls.

American Girl Mickey Mouse Inspired Outfit

I'm always looking for something new and fun to try for my donation projects. It keeps the project engaging for me and I like to think it makes it fun for the kids to get something different, too. This was a gift from DH and you can purchase the pattern here.

The pattern worked up quickly and the directions were clear and easy to follow. I added button holders (chains stitches on the seems the buttons can be held by) rather than using the stitches in the white shirt as button holes. If you are an adult dressing the doll you likely aren't going to have trouble doing this or rip the shirt with repeated efforts to dress and undress the doll. However, when possible I try to think about little hands taking off the clothes and I either use snaps these days or use chains to hold the buttons as I find trying to get the buttons through my stitches can be challenging even with adult hands.

I had fun with the jacket pattern as I'd never done anything quite like that before. I also rather liked the pants pattern and think it could be useful for other projects. I thought the same about the boots. The hat was just adorable.

Mary Maxim American Girl Summertime Dress

Mary Maxim's Summer Time Doll Kit for the 18 inch dolls was one of my birthday presents this year. While I love Mary Maxim's yarn and their doll kits, I do find their shipping to be a bit pricey. So, I catch their free shipping when I can and gift giving times are a great time to ask for a gift from them.

As I was making this outfit I realized how much I do like their yarn for light weight projects and after a search was pleased to find you can get it at JoAnn's online. Since they have more frequent yarn sales and shipping offers I do think there may be more Mary Maxim yarn in my doll project futures.

This first pattern worked up very quickly. I did upsize to an H hook. I had no issue with the dress, hat, or poncho. I was not happy with the sandals. I just couldn't get them to fit. So instead of worrying about the sandals I went back to my fall back shoe pattern from a Sun Dress Pattern I purchased here.

This kit comes with 2 outfits so I hope to finish the second one soon.

Baby Doll Dress for 16 Inch Doll

While I enjoy playing with new patterns and learning new stitches I always appreciate simple easy to make patterns that can fill my donation bags for the dolls. I love it even better when I can take a pattern for one doll and adapt it to another. This baby doll dress is adapted from the free 18 inch free Flamenco Dress pattern found here.

The main changes I made to accommodate the body of the doll were an H hook for the top of the doll and an I hook for the skirt. It just made for a better fit. Using the I hook I needed to reduce the number of rows for the skirt section of the pattern.

I went through several versions of the 15" doll before moving on to the 16" doll as each version became unavailable. I like having model dolls to try the clothes on to make sure they will fit the new donation dolls so I try to keep up with dolls I can find for the next donation year. My current favorite doll is JC Toys La Baby 16-inch Washable Soft Body Purple Play Doll that I found when the last of the 15 inch dolls were no longer available. The features on this doll are a bit nicer and I'm finding with a little work many of the 15" patterns do adapt to the 16" doll.

This is Walmart's Mainstay Acrylic Yarn. I had never seen it before and there was only one skein. It just seemed like a fun silly color for a baby doll dress and I enjoyed both the softness of the yarn and the color as it worked up.

American Girl Little Bluebell Nightgown

As I mentioned last week I discovered a free 18 inch doll designer and I'm finding the patterns work for both the 18 inch doll and the 16 inch baby doll. I love when I find patterns that will work for both. You can find the pattern here.

This pattern works up quickly and I used Bernat Super Value Yarn. In order to make gauge I needed an H hook.

American Girl Sun Dress

Sweet Silver Creations has always been one of my favorite 18 inch doll designers. Over the years I've collected most of her 18 inch doll patterns. They've generally appear on my Christmas and birthday lists. I'm hoping some new ones will be coming out soon. This is my first attempt at making this one. You can find the pattern here.

I loved the dress and the shoes. I wasn't as happy with the hat.

Pattern notes:

I used worsted weight instead of sport weight yarn. The H hook worked with the worsted weight to make the outfit fit.

Crochet Tea Set

I started this tea set back in April and finally decided I needed to finish it off so it didn't become one of those unfinished projects at donation time. I was determined to add a tea set to the donation this year and I found this one worked out well for me. As I mentioned before this comes from one of my favorite out of print Amigurumi books Amigurumi Two!: Crocheted Toys for Me and You and Baby Too that I keep hoping will come back into print.

Once I had some time to focus, the set finished quickly. It is one of the easier patterns I've located.

Knit 18 Inch Doll Donations

I've been busy this summer and sadly fallen behind on my posting. Thankfully, the donation work continues and others continue the work too. These knit dresses were sent by my mom at the beginning of the month for the donation.

People often ask me if I mind getting stuff early. Absolutely not. It lets me know ahead of time what I have for the donation and it avoids complications we can all face in our lives where we think we'll have time to send stuff out and then it just doesn't happen.

I don't have the pattern information for these donations. However I suspect the coat at least is found in Fun Fashions: Contemporary Outfits to Knit for 18” Dolls

American Girl Dovetailed

Edited to add pattern link. Darski kindly hunted down the link for me on Crochetville. You can find the free pattern here.

I made this pattern 2 years ago for the donation. It is a one of Darski's free patterns from Crochetville, but sadly I believe the link has been lost. If at any time I find it I will of course add it. I pulled this pattern out because to my eye it looks complicated, but it always a confidence builder for me.

Notes for myself, don't forget to have elastic on hand. Easy to use once you have it, but a delay when you have to go find it. I used snaps this year. I seem to have a thing about buttons this year. I've been using more snaps. Other than that I followed the directions pretty much as written.

American Girl Swim Suit

Every year I promise myself next year for the donation I'll make this with worsted weight instead of cotton. I almost had to write this again this year. I started it in cotton, but I was finding the leg openings weren't a good fit and decided to frog it and start again with worsted weight yarn. I love this color blue for the suit.

I've been making this pattern for the donation for several years now. I pulled it out as part of my efforts to work on patterns I knew I could complete to build up my confidence and to get some outfits put away for the donation. You can purchase the pattern here.

There are many free and paid bathing suit patterns on the market for the 18" dolls. I return to this pattern for a couple of reasons. First the bathing suit works up quickly and easily. While I do have to watch my gauge to make sure the outfit isn't too tight, the pattern isn't difficult to follow.

The other reason I return to this pattern frequently is the accessories. While I don't love making the ducky floaty and I comment on it every time I write about it, I always find it cute when it's finished. With the blanket, beach pail, and beach ball it makes a complete set for a child receiving the donation. For my own sake, I try to make the bathing suit during the summer months as it brings back happy summer memories of times spent at the beach as a child. It never quite feels like summer until I've been to the beach.

American Girl Princess

As I mentioned in a previous post I've been looking for some outfits that are quick to make to fill my donation bags for my Christmas Toy donation. I'd had success with this free pattern found here previously so it seemed like a good choice to get another outfit completed.

I love the way this pattern creates an under and over skirt. When I first approached this pattern a few years ago I thought it might be more challenging. It actually is a pretty straight forward pattern and I love that it requires minimal sewing. I switched out buttons for snaps. For some projects I just find the easier for little hands. For the same reason I didn't use pearls. I don't particularly enjoy crocheting with beads, but they also aren't practical for little hands that tug and pull dresses to put them on and off. I look for durability when I make outfits to donate.

American Girl Ballet

I've had a busy year crocheting, but it is time to get back to my Christmas donation project. I decided to start up again with some projects that tend to have a higher success rate for me to get some put away before I tackle some of the more challenging projects.

This is one of my favorite projects to make every year because it works up quickly and it has a minimal amount of sewing, which I love. You can find the free pattern here.

I feel very blessed that a friend gifted me a doll to use as a model for my projects. Over the years she's been a huge supporter of this Christmas donation project and this year is no different. On top of being grateful for her donations to the kids, I'd just like to thank her for allowing me to have one of her dolls. The doll is beautiful and I am enjoying being able to use her to take my doll pictures with before packing off the clothes in the donation bags.

Project notes for myself:

This required an I hook with the exception of the shoes this year for the outfit to fit. The shoes were too large with an I and I had to reduce to a g hook to get them to fit. I like the solid color light pink with white trim rather than splitting the colors between top and bottom as I've done in previous years following the pattern.

Crochet Toy Sugar Bowl

I've been continuing on my donation tea set project. I finished up the sugar bowl from Amigurumi Two!: Crocheted Toys for Me and You and Baby Too but I made some adjustments. I find hollow toys tend to collapse which is why I stuffed and closed the tea pot.

However, I didn't want to close off the sugar bowl. Instead I crocheted a white circle and sewed it into the sugar bowl to hold in the stuffing and to create the illusion of sugar in the bowl. I've done this when making play toy drink cups for younger family members when they went through their toy food phases. It is an effective strategy for giving some strength to the item and providing a little extra imaginative fun with an inserted color for milk or juice. I like the way this worked out. I have the tea cups, saucers, cookie plates, and cookies still to make.

This set will be a fun addition to my annual toy donation.

Crochet Toy Tea Pot

I got inspired to add food and food related items to my toy donation and it sent me back into books, leaflets, and patterns I own to try to see what fun stuff I could add to my donation. This teapot comes from Amigurumi Two!: Crocheted Toys for Me and You and Baby Toowhich I was sad to find had gone out of print. I rather love her books and they are my favorite ami books on my shelf. I guess this means I will just have to take better care of them as it will be harder to replace them.

This was a great stash busting project as I finished off the last of a pink Caron Pounder that had been hanging on for some time. One challenge I have with making containers in crochet is I find without putting some kind of container or reinforcement inside it doesn't hold it shape unless it is stuffed. This pattern didn't call for either. I made the decision to stuff my tea pot and sew the cover on as I was concerned it would likely not stay on even if I crocheted a cover for the top of the pot to keep the stuffing inside.

I've started work on the sugar bowl and am thinking about experimenting with a plan that might allow me to stuff the container and still allow the cover to come on and off to allow maximum pretend play with the play spoons and the sugar bowl. I'll have to see what happens as I move forward.

Crochet Turkey Dinner

My Valentine's post mentioned I received this pattern from my wonderful DH for Valentine's and I've been trying to find a some free time in my crochet schedule to get it made. These are fairly small patterns that work up quickly and give you a fun little crochet meal for your little ones to play with anytime, but especially at a holiday meal when you need distractions. While this one is headed into my toy donation box, I do plan on making one to send with the Thanksgiving holiday box. As I said, play food is a great way to distract the children while the adults are busy actually making the edible stuff.

I'm pleased to say I'm adding veggies and full meals along with the fun desserts and junk food I plan on making for the donation project. There really are an increasing variety of toy food patterns out there.

You can purchase this pattern here. The pattern set includes the turkey, asparagus, sweet potato, cranberry sauce, and the salt and pepper shakers I didn't make for this set. I plan on making them when I make a set of condiments.

Now for my notes, the pattern called for an e-hook and since this was my first time trying this I decided I'd go with the suggestion. Next time I'd go with the more traditional g-hook for amigurumi. I think it would have made the overall assembly a bit easier. Don't overstuff, I think this will be less of an issue if I'd had used a larger hook. The pattern calls for red yarn, but the cranberry shade looks better. Maybe it is s a New England thing, but when I pulled the red out to use it I just couldn't do it.

Baby Doll Carrier

After taking a break to let my hands heal up I tackled and finished the second doll carrier for the donation last week. Thanks to a thoughtful Fairy Godmother from Crochetville, I don't need to crochet a blanket for this set as she sent me one as part of our wishlist there. I am grateful as this has let me move on to other projects.

The doll carrier is a free pattern and you can find it here.

Now for my project notes. I fell in love with the color of the Big Twist yarn while at JoAnn's and thought it would be a nice break from working with the Caron Pounders or Red Heart. The yarn is softer and I liked the pale pink color. The softer should have been a sign I'd made the wrong choice. Softer is wonderful for MANY projects, but not the doll carriers, which are trying to create an almost basket to carry the dolls in by using 3 strands of yarn crocheted together. The yarn broke more than once and I've never had this happen with any other brand of acrylic I've used making the doll carriers. That to put it mildly was frustrating. So while I will continue to by Big Twist for other projects, I'm making a note to remind myself that no matter how tempting the colors are I must never buy it again to make the doll carriers.

I am thrilled that the doll carriers are finished for the year. I love the way these come out and next year am planning on sending an additional one to a family member so that will be three in a year, but I never ever find myself sad when I'm done making them as they are extremely tough on the hands and wrists. Three strands is just nasty.