Ken' Swim Trunks

I've made a point of focusing on celebrations rather than worries for this year's donations and Ken's swim trunks bring us to another celebration. His are the last of the fashion doll bathing suits I need for the 2023 donations!! I still need more swim suits to finish off my yearly challenge but one set of dolls is done and that is worthy of celebration.

This pattern comes from the June 2009 Crochet World. The pattern is called Fun in the Sun and includes swim wear for Ken and Barbie along with beach accessories. I've made some of the accessories in the past but the last time I got caught up in making the accesories some of the dolls left without suits so I'm thinking suits first and I can always go back and make the accessories if I have the desire to come back later.

The pattern calls for a 1.9 mm hook with size 10 crochet cotton. For my last two attempts I've used size 10 cotton with a .6 mm Tulip Etimo steel crochet hook. Having done this twice now I've found the .6mm hook is splitting the thread and since I've increased my supply of size 20 thread I'm making a note here for next attempt to try the size 20 thread with a larger hook to avoid the thread splitting and make this a more pleasurable project.

Barbie Beach Accessories

When possible I try to add accessories as well as clothing to the doll donations. I think it just adds some fun to the doll experience. Giving Barbie and Ken beach bags and a beach ball seemed like a great idea to add to their swim suits.

The pattern for the beach bags, towel, and beach ball are found in the same Summertime Blues Fashion Doll pattern set designed by Lori Zeller and found in Crochet World June 2009 that I used for Ken and Barbie's bathing suits.

The added white stripes in the beach ball made it easier to join the pieces together. I tried another beach ball from Annie's Fashion Doll His and Hers and without the additional seems mine didn't end up round and I decided to frog it and move on to other projects. Ken, Barbie and the rest of the family will have to share. I'm still hoping to get the rest of the siblings into bathing suits before the donation deadline.

Barbie Bathing Suit

I started working through the Summertime Blues Fashion Doll pattern set designed by Lori Zeller and found in Crochet World June 2009 when I made Ken's swim trunks. Summertime Blues which includes Ken's swim trunks and beach accessories is found on Dolls, Doll Clothes and Accessories, an Annie's CD Rom, it is also on the Crochet World Collection 2001-2010 DVD computer disk if you happen to own those.

I've been using these smaller projects between other projects I'm working on. Along with Barbie's swim suit I'm also working on the beach accessories to add to the donation as well. I plan on posting them as a set when they are finished.

While I had to use a considerably smaller hook to fit Ken I returned to my Tulip Etimo Steel Hook-Size 4/1.25mm for Barbie's outfit. I decided on Aunt Lydia Crochet Thread Size 10, Maize because I've almost finished off this cone and I hate having left over fiber. These small projects are a great way to use up the thread so it doesn't end up getting lost in the stash and wasted.

I've been hunting out of print books and leaflets recently. I was thrilled when my second hand copy of Bathtime Buddies arrived in the mail today. I've been searching for weeks for an affordable copy in good condition and I found one in great condition that wasn't a library discard. It took forever to ship but I can now return my library copy! I had a back up PDF copy which I plan to print the patterns to cut out the cloth sections of the animals but I really didn't want to print the books or work from a computer screen. This solves that problem. I also got a copy of an out of print Annie's Fashion Doll book that I'd been hunting for a while this week. I'm pleased with my finds.