Lots to Love 10 Inch Baby Doll Summer Dress

I discovered this pattern last year and it was a great outfit for the Lots to Love 10 Inch Baby doll. You can purchase the pattern here.

I've been fortunate to catch some shipping coupons from Herrschners as they sell some of my favorite yarns for the smaller baby dolls.

This outfit is made using their worsted 8 yarn. I've also bought their Worsted Baby, Baby, and Afghan yarn for my doll projects when I can get it on sale with a shipping coupon. It isn't my favorite for human projects but it works up well for doll projects. I can often find colors, especially in baby, that I can't get in traditional brands.

Notes:

I used an H hook for this project with the exception of the shoes where I used the suggested G hook.

In the future I would use the H for the Dress and panties and the G for the Hat and shoes.

I've been doing this more with patterns but when I started the skirt row, I marked the chain spaces. This just made finding them in the next row much easier for me. Also the shells alternate in row 5. I believe I missed this when I made the pattern previously. It didn't change the outfit in a big way but something to note for accuracy. I believe this is the only row I need to note for my next project.

I tend to finish the neck and back unless there is a reason not to regarless of pattern directions. Reminder to myself that this pattern has very good directions for finishing the neck on final page of dress directions. I almost missed them. I finished back on my own.

I made this with pink and yellow last year which I really liked. However, I've always had a fondness for the summer watermelon colors of pink and green. Both stick to the summer theme of the outfit. While I often reuse patterns from year to year it is fun to change it up a bit with color.

Lots to Love 10 Inch Baby Doll Top with Leggings

To keep the donation project engaging and interesting each year I try to add new projects that are patterns I haven't tried before. Sometimes these become new favorites and sometimes not as they can be far more complicated or time consuming than I normally delegate for a donation project. However, each is a chance to try something new and I am always grateful for the opportunity.

This in one of Linmary's free doll patterns found here. As with many baby doll patterns it wasn't designed specifically for this doll so I had expectations I'd need to make adjustments.

A 10 inch baby doll isn't always the 10 inch baby doll you happen to be working on at home. The first sign I had of this was checking the gauge. The gauge I found for the suggested hook with the yarn I indicated the hook size would be too large. Going down a size got me closer. However, as it turned out the suggested hook size with the actual doll I had was correct because a 10 inch doll is not always the same size as another 10 inch doll.

I knew from the beginning the pants would be more challenging because the doll in the picture had longer straighter legs than the chubby Lots to Love doll. This meant I'd need to reduce the rows for the legs. I tend to make my pants from the top down joining and splitting as I go.

There are lots of patterns that make them flat and join but these are not my favorite as it is hard to tell how they will fit until after you've finished the "outline" prior to sewing them together. I found that to be the challenge with this pattern and I likely won't use this pant set again for that reason. I found it was time consuming to put the pants together after making sure I'd make the corrections to make the pants short enough to fit the Lots to Love doll. I was glad I accepted the challenge and completed it but it just isn't a practical use of my time when the other method is quicker for me and I can move on to other projects more quickly. I may even be able to reproduce the texture and have a better fit because I would know exactly when to stop before adding the trim.

This has given me an idea to try something like this for next year. It would be easy enough to make these pants top down and I have several "top" patterns for this doll that fit better than this one that would give the doll a top and leggings outfit.