Lil Cutesies Sweetly Dress with Shoes

It was time to alter the free Sweetly pattern found here to fit the Lil Cutesies Doll as I keep looking for ways to increase the wardrobes of all the donation dolls.

This outfit was made with Herrschners Peach Baby yarn and Bernat Big Ball Baby Sport Yarn, Tiny Tulips.

The dress was made with an E hook using a D for the arm trim. I added a shell trim to the bottom with the E hook.

The shoes were made from the Gingham Tote Tykes pattern which can be purchased as a digital pattern here or a print pattern here. There are 3 different shoe patterns to go with each of the outfits included in the pattern set but I like these shoes the best. They fit well and are fairly easy to make for the doll.

I chose the Herrchners yarn as I'm trying to finish it off but it is a slightly heavier baby yarn. When I make this again I'd likely stick with Bernat Baby Big Ball Sport Yarn, Peach Blossom the color isn't as dark as the Herrschners but it is a lighter weight which is better suited to the smaller dolls.

Lil Cutesies Romper with Tam

When I started making the romper from the free Berenguer Baby Layette found here I wasn't sure if it would be for the Lil Cutesies Doll or the Lots to Love 8 inch doll. I was targeting the fingering weight acrylic yarn that was left over from the Spring Dress I'd made for the 15 inch Rag doll as I was determined to finish off the skein of yarn. The question was which doll would fit the outfit the best?

I orginally thought it would be the Lots to Love Doll but having tried the outfit on the Lil Cutesie doll I decided to make a second outfit using the Knit Picks Palette yarn for the Lots to Love doll.

While I had enough yarn to finish the romper the hat ended up being a combination of yarn ends from previous projects with a finish of some additional mint green baby yarn. The center was the same baby yarn I'd begun the project with and then I moved on to a small ball of the Lion Brand Yarn Ice Cream Yarn, Tutti Frutti left over from the Moses basket blanket.

As with the 10 inch doll I used a slightly different method for the legs of the doll. The pattern calls for elastics for the legs I chose instead just to split the legs once the body of the romper was long enough to do so and used a chain 4 for the crotch area. I added a sc a row for each leg and then did a sc ch 3 finish for each leg. I did not make the booties for this outfit.

Lil Cutesies Moses Basket

Thankfully this is the last of the Moses baskets I need from Annie Potter's Sweet Baby Doll Layette which you can purchase here. I used an I hook for the JC Toys Lil Cutesies Doll Moses basket as the other baskets had been smaller and required more rows. I still added more rows but it worked up quicker with the larger hook and I will plan on doing this for next year's donations.

I've run out of multiple colored compatible skeins of yarns so I purchased 2 skeins of Red Heart Super Saver, Pretty n Pink for this project. I'm currently using the left overs for another doll project.

The blanket is from a free pattern set you can find here. It was a great chance to use up some left over Lion Brand Ice Cream Yarn, Tutti Frutti I had from a previous blanket project.

I now just have one more doll carrier to make for the JC Toys -16-inch Baby Doll and I will be done with doll carriers until next year's doll donation project begins!!! Not that its that far away but one must celebrate the wins.

Lil Cutesies Sweater Set

This was actually intended to be an outfit for the Lots to Love 8 inch baby doll. I was adapting the sweater set from the free Berenguer Baby Layette pattern for the Lots to Love 10 inch doll found here using sport yarn but it was too big for the 8inch doll but thankfully not too large for the Lil Cutesies Baby Doll . I was planning on making one for that doll later so it all worked out.

For my own records this was made with the no longer available Red Heart Sport Comfort yarn and an E hook. The shoes are from a Shady Lane Pattern set for the Lil Cutesie dolls that can be purchased here. While I adapted the booties for the 8 inch doll I know these shoes fit the Lil Cutesie dolls really well so I went with what works.

The bonnet was too large for the head even with the lighter yarn and smaller hook size. I stopped working in the round when the back of the head was covered and began working in rows to keep the bonnet from becoming overally large. I used chain 3 trim on the arms.

I made simple pants for under the sweater by crocheting over a pony tail band until I got to the crotch and splitting at that point for the legs. The legs have a chain 3 crochet trim around each leg.

Lil Cutesies Striped Set

This is the final outfit for the JC Toys Lil Cutesies 8.5" All Vinyl Baby Doll from Shady Lane's Gingham Tote Tykes Pattern set 411. For those of you interested you can purchase a digital pattern here or a printed leaflet here. While I'm done with the outfits I'm still contemplating making the tote for the donation.

I used Bernat Baby Big Ball Sport Yarn, Peach Blossomand now unavailable AC Moore sport yarn for the darker peach yarn as I didn't have any darker colored peach baby yarn on hand. If I do this next year I would go with contrasting baby yarns rather than focusing on the peach as the thickness and textures of the yarns work better together. This year I wanted peach and I used what I had on hand.

This dress had some unique construction elements I hadn't used before. For my own records I liked the format and fit of the previous shoes better for the dolls if I'm looking to find a shoe pattern that fits the dolls for an outfit without shoes.

Lil Cutesies Variegated Set

I made a second outfit for the JC Toys Lil Cutesies 8.5" Baby Doll using Shady Lane's Crochet Gingham Tote Tykes Pattern set 411. You can purchase a digital copy here or a printed copy at the website here.

I used Bernat Baby Sport Yarn, Ombres, Baby Baby and Bernat Baby Sport Yarn, Baby Pink with an f hook to complete this outfit.

Lil Cutesies Bathing Suit

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I started making Petite Designs Lil Cutesies Baby Doll dress pattern following the directions as written. For those of you interested you can purchase the pattern here, When I got to adding the skirt I wasn't happy with the method for adding the skirt. I found the first round of the skirt alternated up and down a portion of a stitch as I tried to work the pattern as written. I wasn't happy with the look. If you read yesterday's post you can see my notes on how I resovled the situation here..

This left me with a decision on what to do with my first effort. Sometimes I just toss the first effort as there really isn't enough yarn to frog it to reuse the yarn. However, when possible I try to recycle and reuse an item if possible. Looking at this on the doll it just seemed like it would make a cute swim suit. I added a beach blanket and the set was ready for the doll donation.

Lil Cutesies Dress Set

I've been looking to add patterns for the Lil Cutesies 8.5" Baby Doll and a kind friend from Crochetville gifted me this pattern from Ravelry. You can purchase the pattern here.

It's always fun to try out patterns from designers you haven't used before and I had looked at this designer's patterns frequently for the smaller sized dolls. She just never made it to the top of my purchase list.

The patterns are written in UK crochet terms but the designer kindly includes a chart that lists the US and UK equivelent terms. I still end up writing the US terms on top of the UK terms on the patterns because when I don't I do find myself making a dc when it should be a sc.

This is an adorable pattern and it works up quickly. I did make a couple of changes and one change resulted in my first attempt becoming a different project I hope to blog about later.

Notes:

I did not use the tie suggested in the back. Instead I joined the back together. The back is wide enough that you can easily slide the doll in and out of the dress without needing to add a tie. It is just makes it easier for a child to dress the doll.

The biggest change I made was preparing for the skirt. One technique I've picked up this year for adding both skirts and trims which I've really liked is crocheting in the back loops of the row you later will add a skirt or trim. This technique was not used for this pattern and I didn't like the way my skirt looked using the method suggested. This resulted in my using my original attempt for a differnt proect and restarting and rethinking how to create this outfit which would allow for a row with backloops to add the skirt.

I left off a row of the knickers which I then replaced when I added the bodice. This let me use the actual first row of the bodice to crochet the row in back loops to allow me to use the front loops later for my my skirt row. Others may not find this necessary but I found it was much easier to get an even starter row for the skirt all around.

I'm also adding a note to remind myself that the first skirt row and the remiaing skirt rows are different. This doesn't give away the design notes but I didn't read the directions carefully and wondered why my skirt did not look like the one in the picture. Once I followed the directions I got the fuller look I wanted.

I used Bernat Baby Big Ball Sport Yarn and Red Hear Sport for this pattern. I used pale pink instead of white as I had pale pink on hand and I liked the contrast with the dusty pink.

Lil Cutesies Yellow Romper

I was so excited to get Shady Lane's Crochet Gingham Toye Tykes pattern 411 for the JC Toys Lil Cutesies dolls in the mail. I don't purchase patterns much by mail these days but it has 14 pages and I knew I wanted to make all the patterns so getting the printed copy rather than printing it all seemed worth the wait. You can purchase the digital copy here. You can get the printed copy at the website here.

The leaflet has patterns for 3 doll dresses made from baby size 3 yarn and trimmed with size 10 crochet thread. It also includes the pattern for the title of the leaflet the Gingham Tote.

I stated with the yellow romper pattern because I had the yellow baby yarn so I didn't need to buy yarn to complete the pattern. The pattern calls for purple thread but I went with dark blue. The picture shows dark purple and the dark blue seemed a reasonable substitute. I like the contrast between the yellow and the blue.

Shoes are always a concern of mine. These fit really well. I would make the headband with a smaller hook next time. This headband was a little larger than needed.

I used a white flat button rather than a yellow because it was all I found locally. I wasn't going to search to far for a head band button for a doll. If I come across some other colors I may put them away for future projects but I am ok with how this one looks.

One subject this project did bring up is that I have holes in my steel thread crochet supply. Since my Bates Bamboo sterelite are not available any longer I've started researching new options for steel hooks with handles rather than the traditional steel hooks. I've never been able to hold the traditional hooks but the Bates Bamboo sterelite made thread work possible. As I try new hooks I'll keep you updated on how well the new hooks work.