Lots to Love 8 Inch Doll Candie Corn Halloween Costume

I'm continuing my tradition of making costumes for the Lots to Love 8 Inch dolls to decorate for the holidays. I made a Pumpkin Kitty last year and this year I decided to adapt a pattern from an old Crochet Calendar for the 5 inch baby dolls from Michelle Crean called Candie Corn Doll.

I always separate out the patterns into my category binders so I don't know what year of the Daily Crochet calendar this was from but it was the October 24th and 25th entry for year. I've checked Michelle Crean's website and this is not one of the patterns she lists for sale. If I do find it I will add the link for those who might be interested in the pattern.

To make this fit the 8 inch Lots to Love doll instead of the 5 inch doll I used a g hook and I Love this Yarn Sport Weight Yarn in Orange and White along with a discontinued yellow from Red Heart Sport.

Note to myself the booties fit really well and could easily be adapted for another pattern that comes without shoes.

Lots to Love 8 Inch Doll Leprechaun

I started this Holiday Doll Project back last Easter as kind of a way to cheer myself up and bring a new holiday tradition to my life during COVID. I'm almost back to the beginning as I started with Easter last year. I have a 5" pattern I'm going to try to adapt for this year's Easter Doll.

The Leprachaun is an adaptation of several patterns from the out of print House of White Birches leaflet Crochet Holiday Baby Dolls 101102. The hat and coat are from the St. Patrick's Day pattern. The shirt and a longer version of the pants are from the Valentine's Day pattern. The shoes are from the Thanksgiving Day pattern. The buttons I used to decorate the outfit I purchased at Factory Direct. I've been picking up more decorative holiday buttons there lately.

As I've mentioned in previous posts the dolls these patterns were designed for are technically larger in some areas but adaptable because body size differs and even outs some of the challenges. The pattern calls for sport weight yarn but I used worsted weight yarn and a g hook for all the clothing. The trim is Knit Picks Brava Sport Yarn using an e hook. The worsted was just too heavy for the coat trim.

I made this note previously but I will add it to here as well to make the pants fit I followed the first 2 rows joined and skipped to row 5. I continued with the leg pattern until I felt it was long enough that it wouldn't interfere with the higher boots. I had to fiddle with the hat pattern but I was pleased with the outcome. I followed to pot pattern but added rows and then did a row of back loop half double crochets to give the pot and edge. To make the pile of gold I started on the remaining loops and sc around. I then began a pattern of decreases and stuffed before closing.

Lots to Love 8 Inch Pilgrim Boy

While I've primarily been working on Thanksgiving projects to mail out, I have made a few items for my own house.

This is the fourth doll I've completed for my holiday Lots to Love 8 Inch dolls.

This time I used an out of print House of White Birches leaflet Holiday Baby Dolls pattern number 101102. Sadly this one hasn't been made available as a digital pattern yet in any location I could find.

As they published more patterns for these dolls I am hoping at some point they are released as I'd love to have copies of them.

While they are designed for a specific 9 1/2 inch baby doll with work this outfit fit the Lots to Love 8 inch doll. The Lots to Love have a generous stomach and when working with patterns one has to work around that.

For this outfit that meant using worsted weight yarn for the pants and the jacket. I added chains until the chain reached around the baby's waist. The original pattern was not large enough to accomadate the wider stomach of the Lots to Love doll even though the doll in the pattern is technically a larger doll. Measurements are everything. The body of the jacket fit well using worsted weight acrylic yarn, but I had to shorten the sleeves only doing the first 2 rows of the sleeve before doing the reducing rows.

The collar, sleeve cuffs and belt required a lighter yarn, so I used Omega Sinfonia cotton sport yarn for those items. They were too heavy made in acrylic. I knew going in I was going to use sport yarn for the collar and the cuffs. I tried the belt with worsted acrylic and determined it was too bulky for the doll.

I love these shoes. Each of these dolls has slightly different shaped feet so you never quite know how the shoes will fit. This is probably the most pointy toed doll I've worked with to date and the shoes fit perfectly. Unlike the hat which was constantly falling off while I was working on the doll, I was pleasantly surprised with how well the shoes stayed on the doll even when moving it around.

This holiday doll project has been fun and one I plan on continuing into next year. Time to order more dolls!!!