Rag Doll Hookfully Dress

I mentioned when I made the Lots to Love 14 Inch Baby Doll Outfit that I was interested in seeing if it could be adapted for the Rag Doll as well. I tried it on the doll and while a little long that was easily dealt with by reducing the total rows.

I donate one of these Rag Dolls that can be purchased from Factory Direct each year. I post the information because I often see cute items that have generic names like Rag Doll rather than a brand name that is easy to search online. So I like to tell people where I find the odder items if they are available so they can decide if it works for them.

There are no specific crochet patterns for this doll so I work on adapting patterns for other dolls that seem like they'd be a good fit. When I finish an outfit and it looks like it might fit or be adapted to fit the Rag Doll I put the pattern aside for future use for the Rag doll.

This is a free baby doll pattern found here.

I followed the notes from the previous outfit I made with some basic changes:

Notes:

I used the suggested G hook for this outfit.

The pattern worked for me through row 7 as written.

Row 8: With row 7 established I worked a row of hdc even.

Row 9: Repeat row 8 joining at the end of the row.

After finishing row 9 I returned to the directions row 9 continuing without changing colors as I was using striping yarn. I wanted this dress to be shorter than the baby doll dress so I measured it against the doll as I worked it.

To finish off the bottom of the dress I did a sc skip 1 followed by a 5dc shell around joining at the end.

The dress was a bit tighter so it required more finishing rows in the back prior to adding a button hole. Using an H hook might be an option for the Rag Doll next year.

I finished the arms with a sc chain3 sc around the arms.

I used Lion Brand's Lemon Meringue Ice Cream Yarn for this project. I'm finding this brand to be rather helpful with the larger baby doll and Rag Doll projects.

Rag Doll Watermelon Summer Dress

While I've never found any patterns specific for this doll I have found many of the dress patterns that will fit the Lots to Love 14 Inch Baby Doll and the JC 16 Inch Baby doll can be adapted to fit the Rag doll as well.

The dress pattern come from a 1981 House of White Birches newsprint leaflet Baby Doll Fashions to Crochet by Margaret Funk. I used this previously to make 2 dresses for the 16 inch baby doll donation. It required a few additional adaptations for the Rag doll.

Notes:

This outfit was made with Lion Brand Ice Cream Yarn Watermelon. I have a bunch of Ice Cream yarn in my stash for doll blankets and I've been using some for the larger doll projects. I wasn't sure at first how the colors would work with watermelon as the previous Ice Cream Yarn I used for the other dolls had different kinds of contrasts. However, I really do love the look of this for the Rag Doll and would use it again.

As with the 16 Inch Baby Doll I started with an E hook and repeated row 5 once. Thus rows 3-6 follow the original directions for 3-5 moving each row directions down one. For the original row 6 now row 7 that starts the skirt I moved to a D hook to decrease the skirt size as it was too large with the e hook.

The body is a little smaller than the 16 inch Baby doll and thus a few reductions had to be made. I did this by adding a row to the top of the dress and decreasing around the arms. I did the same around the arms, using sc for both tasks. This decreased the open areas of the dress which were a little too big for the Rag Doll.

Rag Doll Dress

This is Petite Creative Designs pattern that I recently made for the Lots to Love 14 inch doll that you can purchase here. I tried it last year and it was a good match. I put this year's outfit on when I was done with the baby doll outfit and it was a good fit. I decided to move forward with the Rag Doll outfit.

Notes:

I used a G hook for this pattern.

The yarn is Baby Bernat Big Ball Sport Pink and Lion Brand Baby Soft Mint.

Rag Doll Swim Suit

In my quest to send out as many of the donation dolls with bathing suits last year I discovered that Darski's free Dora the Explorer Oceanside pattern, found here, would fit the Rag Doll with a few minor adjustments.

I need a J hook for the outfit and and I for the trim. I had more Wildflower Red Heart left over from last year's project so I continued with it for this year's suit as well. I figured out how to add the white trim to the top for this year's version and I like the look.

Rag Doll Dress

After finishing Petite Doll Baby Dress pattern available for purchase here, I tried it on the Rag Doll to see if it might be possible to adapt it for another outfit. It was a remarkably good fit for a pattern not designed for the doll so I decided to proceed on with making it for the Rag Doll.

I used an I hook and 2 types of baby yarn to complete this project.

Rag Doll Dress

I made a promise to myself that I'd get back to the dolls I'd neglected and try to get them more outfits made before the deadline. With some dolls that presents more of a challenge than others as I don't have specific patterns designed for them. As I was working on the free Linmary baby doll pattern found here it occured to me the dress portion of the pattern might work for the at least one of the rag dolls. I'd need to work adjust fiber and hook size but it was worth a try.

I started with Knit Picks Palette yarn from my stash and a D hook. That hook size was too small to fit around either doll so I increased to an e hook and after reaching the arm hole determined that this dress fit both dolls but was a better fit for the 13 3/4" CR Craft Doll rather than the 15" Factory Direct Rag Doll. I'm trying this pattern again for the 15" doll with different yarn and a different hook to see if I can get a better fit for the larger doll.

I stayed with the original chain length. I stuck with the top pattern until I reached the dolls waist at which point I switched to the skirt pattern. I then proceeded with that pattern until I reached the desired length. While I alternated color for the top and added the trim for the top of the dress I chose not to trim the arms or add the contrasting color to the bottom as I had done with the baby doll dresses. I liked the way the blue stood out alone. However, the top was the starting chain and it did need to be trimmed to finish the outfit. I chose to do that with the contrasting color as suggested by the pattern.