Lots to Love 14 Inch Baby Doll Baylee's Bikini

This is an Amy Caricco's Baby Doll Pattern for the Lots to Love 14 Inch Baby doll but I can't provide a link as her pattern store is once again not available. Should it return I will post a link. I tend to go on a buying spree when her pattern store is up and I think I have most of her patterns for the doll sizes I donate that she's made available in recent years. I know there are some that she's not posted in a while so I keep my eye out hoping that the ones I'm missing will reaapear and hoping for new patterns should she have time to resume her store.

With all that being said I went into this pattern with confidence as I've had great success with what I'd consider to be far more complicated of her doll patterns. This one was more challenging. I've had some issues with guage this year so I'm willing to accept that the challenge may be mine.

Notes:

The pattern called for baby sport yarn and an e hook. I ended up moving to Red Heart Super Saver and an I hook for the non trim items. I used a g hook for the triple crochets and trim.

I decreased sc 3 dc at the waist line and then a row of hdc to cover the doll diaper.

I ended up playing yarn chicken with my variegated yarn. It was an old skein and I thought I had more in reserve and found to my dismay I did not have enough to finish the project. As a result I used the contrast color to finish the hat and I did not make the beach towel for the outfit. I may try that for next year. I have some ideas to work around the challenges I had this year that I've used on other patterns.

Lots to Love 14 Inch Doll Sweetly Dress

I was blessed to receive a gift of Herrschners yarn from a member of Ravelry's Charity Knitting group and I've been targeting it ever since for my doll projects. I needed a middle weight yarn between sport and worsted to increase the size of the Sweetly free pattern found here to fit the Lots to Love 14" Baby Doll and the Herrschners worsted which is closer to a DK was a great fit for this project.

I used an I hook until I changed colors to Bernat Big Ball Baby Sport Yarn, Tiny Tulips when I began using a G hook. I switched to an F hook when I started on the skirt. The upper chest and arm holes required the larger hook even with the heavier yarn but once past the arms the dress became too large without decreasing hook size.

I didn't follow the panties pattern as I've discussed before I chain the distance around the doll waist and then begin alternating hdc and dc until I reach the crotch where I split for the legs. I'm still working on a hat pattern I like. The shoes are from the Amy Carrico's Baby Spring set that can be purchased here. I like the fit of these shoes and likely will be making more as I continue with clothes for this doll.

The trim for the arms is as written. I added a sc chain 1 trim to the bottom of the skirt.

Lots to Love 14 Inch Doll Dress Hat and Shoes

One of the advantages of donating multiple sizes of dolls is when you make a mistake you sometimes can recylce the project for use with another doll.

This was my second attempt this donation cycle at the free Linmary Knits crochet baby doll pattern found here for the JC Toys -16-inch Baby Doll but I had two issues. First I forgot to add the extra rows in the dress, which is in all fairness designed for a 14" doll. The extra rows make it a better fit for the 16' doll. The second issue was an experiment on the hat. I found the g hook for the hat was too large and the pattern calls for an e hook. The e hook fit the 14" doll well but was too small for the 16" doll. This made switching this outfit to the Lots to Love Babies 14" Doll a practical solution.

The shoes are part of a petite dolls 14" doll pattern set you can purchase here. The pattern calls for DK yarn and I was able to use up more of the Herrschner's worsted weight yarn I was given by a member of Ravelry's Charity Knitting Group. The rest of the outfit was made with baby sport yarn.

This of course means I will need to make one more outfit from this pattern to fill the baby donations. I'm also thinking about experimenting with it to see if it would fit the larger of the two rag dolls.

Just a note to myself for future projects. While this slides off easily on the 16" doll due to the soft shoulders it is a little harder to slide on and off the harder larger bodied 14" Lots to Love doll. It might be wiser not to join at the top but wait until the waist using a snap to close the next time I make the outfit for this size doll.