Baby Doll Easter Bunny

January definitely was the month for holiday baby doll clothing. I actually finished this outfit before the Leprechaun but seasonally it seemed better for it to go after the Leprechaun.

There was a time when the local craft stores used to sell craft bears that were a little over a foot long and people would buy them and dress them. I've run across various patterns in old crochet magazines I collect and I've put aside ones that I thought might at some point prove useful.

For the most part due to the size differences and shape of the bears most would have been better suited to the days when I dressed the 12" baby dolls. However, every so often you find something you can't resist trying to adapt.

I came across a pattern in my binder from the Mar/April 1993 issue of Hooked on Crochet titled Playing Dress Up. The pattern was designed for a 13" Teddy Bear like the ones I'd seen in craft stores years ago. Looking at it I could see the possibilities for adapting this to the larger 16" doll as there were no clothes to be fitted. The challenge would be to get the hat and shoes to fit. The bib was easy enough to make.

The original pattern called for an H hook I had to use a K to get the hat large enough to fit. I used an I for the pink trim or it was way to bulky. The ears were also done with an I hook or the chenille stems would have poked right through.

The feet proved to be more tricky. Bear feet are large so I needed to go down to a D hook to get them to fit and then play with the rows to get the fit I wanted. I used sport weight yarn for the paw pads or the pads wouldn't have fitted on to the smaller feet.

While I loved the overall look of the outfit I wasn't a fan of the carrot when I started crocheting it. I dug into my button collection for a carrot for the bib.

Leprechaun Baby Doll

In January I kind of got in the mood to make holiday outfits to send out as part of my holiday packages. If you read the blog you know I sent a Big Sister baby doll out to a family member when she was getting a baby sister and I've been crocheting holiday outfits ever since as part of the holiday packages I've been mailing out since she was a baby.

Making baby doll outfits can be challenging because as I've mentioned in previous posts you rarely are using patterns designed for the doll you are working to cloth. It generally requires you to adapt patterns from different kinds of dolls to get what you want. This project was a meld of several patterns.

The first pattern you may recognize if you read some of the holiday posts. The dress was adapted from the Santa Baby pattern which can be purchased on Etsy here. For my own notes I went down to a E hook size this time. I might consider sport yarn if I had it on hand for another try. It still is a bit bulky. Perhaps a lighter worsted? That being said this was another great stash busting project. I was able to use up yarn left off on some bobbins from an afghan project. Everything used on this project came from my stash. It feels good to be using up yarn and not needing to purchase yarn to complete a project.

The hat comes from a book I bought for the 18 Inch Dolls Amigurumi Holiday Hats for 18-Inch Dolls I reduced the hook to a G and the hat fit fine. I generally find I have to increase the suggested H hook size to get the hats to fit the 18 inch dolls which is why I only went down one hook size.

The shoes have become one of got to baby doll patterns. It is part of the free pattern Peach Keen found here. These work up quickly and best of all I find they stay on pretty well, which is one of the bigger challenges with making baby doll shoes. The first is getting them to fit because unlike the 18 inch dolls that have flat feet baby doll feet tend to have curled toes or other odd shaping which can make them tough to fit. This then adds to the general problem of making doll shoes in general, keeping them on the doll feet.

In the past I've tended not to make baby doll shoes but recently I've been pushing myself to add them as it makes a more finished look to the outfits.

Be Mine Baby Doll Valentine Outfit

I've had the Be Mine pattern in my binder for a while and while considering what to put in the Valentine's package this year, it seemed like a good time to pull it add and add another holiday outfit to the Big Sister doll. You can purchase the pattern here.

A few notes to myself should I try to complete this again in the future, I didn't have sport weight (3) yarn in red so I decided to see if I could make gauge by using a smaller hook and worsted weight (4) yarn. I had to go to a size D hook, but it worked. If I do make this again, I think I would choose to go with a lighter weight yarn for the shirt as it was a little bulky under the heart jumper. However, the dress was fine with the heavier yarn.

I played with the arms as I found the pattern made the arm holes too tight for my doll. While the arms are designed to be fitted, they also need to be able to be taken off by little hands.

The snaps for the straps worked out well. I also chose snaps for the shirt.

This pattern does not include a pattern for shoes. The shoes come from a free pattern found here. This is actually one of the reasons I've tried to be more careful about documenting what patterns I use for which items. It can help you the reader, but it also helps me. I knew there were a couple of baby doll shoe patterns that fit this doll but I'd forgotten which pattern sets they came from. By reading the posts I quickly located the one I wanted and this outfit has shoes.

Baby Doll Pilgrim

The Big Sister Doll Project was sent out in the middle of October shortly before the litle girl became a big sister. I loved this project. It got me crocheting again and I had a wonderful time exploring baby doll outfits.

It got me motivated to complete more 18" doll outfits to send off to the donation project. After I'm done posting about the baby doll project I'll hopefully get those posted.

The down side was I haven't posted anything from the project. So it is time to get caught up. Since November has arrived I thought I'd start with a Thanksgiving theme. I've been making this outfit for the 18" doll for years. I'm hoping I can make a holiday outfit for each of the holiday's and get it sent off for the baby doll. In this first batch I sent off the Halloween costume and the Thanksgiving Pilgrim outfit. I recently finished off the Christmas outfit. I'm not sure if I'll have time for a traditional holiday dress. We will see.

On to this outfit however. I've been using Darski's We Gather Together free pattern found here for years to make my 18 inch doll Thanksgiving outfit. I've made my own bonnet for years but never written a pattern. For this project adapting the dress pattern wasn't too difficult as I use a 16 inch baby doll so it required just a little adaptation to change it from an 18 inch doll pattern to a baby doll outfit. The biggest challenge was making sure the outfit wasn't too large, the arms too wide or too long. The apron had to be adjusted to the size of the doll.

When it came time to make the bonnet for the baby doll however I was able to borrow from another Darski free pattern. I used the bonnet for the Christening gown found in her Sweet Baby Mine pattern set found here. Again these patterns weren't written for 16 inch baby dolls but for 14 inch baby dolls. However when you've been making doll clothes for a bit you learn to adapt, especially with baby dolls. Rarely do you find someone who had the exact same doll as you. You crochet for a bit try it on and see how it fits. In this case I changed the bonnet edging.

I love this pattern set and you will see more from it later. The blanket from this set has become a travel project or my I'm just to tired to think project at night. When I finish it that will go into the holiday donation drive. The extra doll blankets get distributed to dolls and stuffed animals that come into the donation without their own blankets. We make sure all the dolls we donate go out with their own hand made blanket thanks mostly to the hard work of friends at Crochetville.