Lots to Love 8 Inch Baby Doll Valentine's Outfit

As I mentioned when I made the Lil Cuties Valentine outfit, Char's pattern had adaptations for the hat to fit the Lots to Love 8 inch doll. The sizes of the two dolls are compatible enough that the adjustments I wrote about in the previous post worked for the smaller doll, too. You can purchase the pattern here.

Notes:

The pattern calls for a size 5 steel hook. I've never found the numbers to be helpful as the numbers vary by manufacturer so I try to stick to mm when recording so if I change hooks I have a better chance of matching mm than sizes. For this pattern I used my Tulip Etimo 1.75mm and 1.5mm hooks. For the dress I used the 1.75mm hook. Having finished off the pink yarn for the Lil Cutesies doll I dug into my stash of thread and located some new pink options for this dress as I wanted it to be different from the previous outfit.

I did not use a tie at the top and I finished the back with sc so I skipped the first stitch on both sides when working the collar. I didn't do this the first time and the collar didn't close correctly so I note it here for future projects.

The bottoms also used the 1.75 mm hook. I chose to finish the leg openings with a sc around the legs.

I used the 1.5mm hook for the shoes. I had previously made them with the larger hook and found them hard to keep on the feet. I found going down to a 1.25mm hook made the shoes too tight.

For the hat I also went down to a 1.5mm hook. I ran out of pink at the last row so I used a row of white at the end before the brim. The directions for the Lots to Love hat are slightly different than the Lil Cutesie directions as the heads are shaped differently.

Lots to Love 8 Inch Egg-cellent Romper

It's hard to believe it but I started this holiday doll project with Lots to Love Bunny Suit last year. For my second Easter doll, I turned to another Amy Carrico 5-inch doll pattern Egg-cellent Romper. I first came across this pattern as an April 2010 Crochet World bonus pattern. However, it is currently available for free here.

Notes:

In order to get the top of the outfit to fit I used light worsted weight 4 yarn. However once the arm holes were completed I switched to sport weight yarn as the worsted weight proved to be too heavy. I used an e hook with the worsted weight yarn and a D hook for all other items including the hat and booties.

Lots to Love 8 inch Doll Valentine Gent

I am very pleased to say my Valentine packaged arrived several days earlier than the post office predicted. For those of you who have been shipping things or waiting for packages to arrive you can appreciate what a blessing this was for the day.

With the Valentine package gone I've had a chance to make some decorations for myself before moving on to the St. Patrick's Day box. I started with the Valentine Gent and am currently working on the Valentine Gal.

As I mentioned when I wrote about the Thanksgiving doll this pattern is from an out of print House of White Birches leaflet Crochet Holiday Baby Dolls 101102. I was recently pleased to find the out of print companion leaflet Dress Up Baby Dolls from the same publisher and designer. That leaflet has non-holiday outfits and will be useful for the 8 inch Lots to Love Doll I'll be donating for the annual doll donation.

Notes:

This pattern set is designed for a 9 1/2 inch baby doll but height is often misleading when looking at patterns to adapt. I originally thought this series would be closer to the 10" doll but as I worked with the patterns I realized height isn't the only issue for these dolls. The Lots to Love dolls are chubbier but shorter. This has allowed me to fit these outfits to the 8 inch Lots to Love dolls where I think they'd be harder to fit to the 10 inch dolls. I may experiment more with the other leaflet as I can always use more donation patterns but I was only seeking one line of holiday dolls to decorate with and the 8 inch dolls are actually a better size for this purpose.

The shirt fit well without needing to adapt the pattern. I used worsted weight yarn instead of the suggested sport yarn and the suggested g hook. This helped deal with the more generous round Lots to Love tummy. I needed to make adjustments to make the pants fit. I originally followed the pattern and then realized this is where the height of the other doll was an issue. The Lots to Love doll has shorter legs. I joined the legs after row 2 and then moved on to the directions for row 5. Follow with one row of half double crochet. This makes legs a good length.

The cloth heart buttons came from Joann and I recently reordered them along with some Shamrock ones to use with St. Patrick's Day projects The rose in the doll's hand is also part of a Valentine themed button set. I'm afraid I don't remember where that set came from. It has already been split up as I've used different pieces of it on various projects. The rose seemed a perfect fit for this project.