Chelsea Variegated Dress

I mentioned after fininishing Rebeckah's Treasures free Simply Bluetiful pattern for the Chelsea donation I was going to try to adapt it to expand my wardrobe donations for this doll for 2022. You can find the free pattern I used as the basis for this project here.

While working on the original dress I had thought the dress would also be cute at a shorter length. I'm continuing to work from my stash and I thought a variegated look would be fun for this dress so I chose Aunt Lydia's Crochet Thread Size 10-Monet for this project.

As with my previous use of this pattern I used a 1.8mm hook to make the dress fit and did not decrease the stitch count as this Chelsea is slightly larger than the previous doll this pattern was written to fit.

I finished the back closing and used a snap to close the dress. I'm hoping to make a romper splitting the dress into short legs. I'm also considering a shorts and top outfit from this pattern as well. I struggled mightly to find something easy that fit Chelsea last year so I'm going to stretch this as far as I can take it so she leaves for the donation with a decent wardrobe.

Chelsea Simply Bluetiful Dress

Last week I mentioned that I was determined to send Chelsea off with a wardrobe this year after such a sad showing with the 2021 donation. I found a great free pattern here that required just a little adapting as it is designed for a slightly smaller Chelsea doll.

I stuck with the size 10 Crochet thread. The pattern calls for a 1.65mm or 1.75mm crochet hook I used a 1.8mm to make guage and I found the fit worked well for the doll. Row 7 decreases the stitch count from the previous row and I won't give away the designer's secrets but I found this was too small for the Chelsea I'm working with so I kept with the previous rounds stitch count and joined the row with a ss and continued on with the directions.

I like the look of this style and the way the dress comes together. I'm thinking of making another dress shorter without the finishing at the bottom. I'm also thinking about splitting the skirt for shorts and making this into a romper style outfit for Chelsea. The more outfits the better. I prefer a style that goes together quickly and easily.

I have never tried making shoes for fashion dolls before. However the website also has a free shoe pattern for Chelsea here. Not sure I'm a fan yet but at least she has shoes. I used the 1.8mm for the shoes as well.

Chelsea Dress

I mentioned in the previous Stacie post that I was trying to use an old free Fibre Craft Cindy pattern, found here, to make a dress for Barbie's Chelsea Can Be Builder Doll . Clearly since I made a Stacie post out of my first attempt I had to make a second try to get it to fit .

I'd purchased a selection of size 20 thread from Creative Yarn Source last year for making Barbie clothes. It proved the right choice for making this outfit work for Chelsea. I needed my .4mm thread hook to get the size right for Chelsea. I also added two rows of purple prior to changing to yellow to give the dress the length it lacked likely from the smaller thread size and the smaller hook size. I chose not to use the collar or the buttons suggested for the Cindy doll. I tried the collar on the Stacie outfit and found it was too large. The Cindy doll has a slightly larger rounder head and the collar fits better on her.

I will be keeping this pattern for both Stacie and Chelsea. I have my notes on my blog and the printed copy of the pattern for both dolls so I should be able to find them again and repeat for future donation projects. I'm working on hunting down more easy to make Chelsea patterns as I did feel bad she left with only one dress last year.

Along with getting a dress made earlier in the donation cycle I'm also pleased to say I found some Mattel branded Barbie items specific to Chelsea at the Dollar Tree that will be headed out with the donation as well. I've had luck there for Barbie with shoes and other various Mattel specific accessories but this January was the first time I'd seen stuff targeted to Chelsea so I stocked up for this year and to have stuff for future donations in case this was a one time only situation.