Lil Cutesies Picnic

A funny thing happened while I was working on my Christmas presents. I started Mary Maxim's Teddy Bear picnic pattern for the Lil Cutesies Baby Doll. You can purchase the pattern here.

It soon became clear there was no way I'd finish two before my deadline. One of the benefits of doing the doll donation is there is always room for doll clothes. So instead of this becoming part of my Christmas project it is now the first finished item for my 2022 doll donation.

I used Herrschners Worsted and Baby Ombre yarn for trim. I use an H hook for this pattern.

The blanket for this pattern is a C2C pattern I've been using a seed stitch pattern for years. The picnic basket was made with brown sport weight acrylic yarn.

While I hadn't intended this to me my first donation project of the year it is good to have one finished and ready to go for 2022.

Lil Cutesies Picnic

I'm finally getting to make the first outfit of the year for Lil Cutesies Doll.I love to make play sets when I can to add a little something to the dolls and this picnic set meets that goal. You can purchase the pattern at Mary Maxim here.

The theme for this set is a teddy bear picnic and I did make the bears last year. While I love a play set I spent a good bit of time working on the bears last year and it just didn't seem like a great investment of time. I suspect the child who receives the doll will find other characters to invite to her doll's picnic if so desired.

This again was a good chance to target some yarn I've uncovered when I was sorting through and putting my yarn into crates. I'd bought what I could of AC Moore's house brand Nicole's Stitch Studio Storybook Fanfare sport yarn before they closed. Then it got buried in my stash for a bit and when I was cleaning I realized I needed to target it on doll projects this year and bid it a fond farewell. This yarn has the feel of Caron Simply Soft which has its pros and cons. What I will miss most about this yarn is it was a cheap locally available sport yarn. I didn't have to order it online. That being said since COVID hit I've ordered everything online, but in the old days it was nice being able to find what I wanted locally.

In case I do have any left over when I approach this project again I required an H hook to make the dress fit. The pattern calls for an F hook and Mary Maxim's Baby's Best yarn which is a 2 fine weight but with my f hook and 3 sport weight I found the dress was tight in the back and wouldn't close so I frogged and moved up to an H. I used a different yarn from last year so those notes weren't as helpful. These will give me a starting point for comparison next year

Another note for myself that I didn't make last year is that I didn't follow the blanket pattern. Mine is a simple seed stitch blanket. The blanket pattern here I believe is a Corner to Corner which I have yet to master. It is on my to do but not something worth not finishing a doll project over when the seed picnic blanket works just as niceley. For my own notes the edging is a sc chain 3 for with a sc chain 3 sc in each corner. The second row of the edging is dc chain 2 dc in corner, chain 1 dc 2 in each chain space. I ended up trying to recreate this so this time I'm documenting it for future reference.

Lil Cutesies Teddy Bear Picnic

It was actually this pattern which can be purchased at Mary Maxim here that made me decide to donate a JC Toys Lil Cutesies Doll Baby Doll as part of this donation. I just loved the pattern, the theme and the look of the doll. It is a slightly larger and different shaped doll than the 8 inch Lots to Love doll so I decided to buy the doll the pattern was made for and see if I could get the set made for the donation.

Interestingly enough it took me a while to get the doll. I had no idea these things would sell out so quickly. I did manage to get two, one as a model to fit the clothes and one to donate. The one I bought is still sold out though the other two models seem to be available for purchase. I have some 9 inch doll patterns I'm thinking of trying on this doll or perhaps playing with some of the 8 inch patterns I have for the Lots of Love dolls to make sure she leaves with a wardrobe at least as nice as the other dolls.

Just a note about the pattern. For a long time Mary Maxim used to sell kits like this one and then you had to find the patterns in secondary markets if you didn't buy the kits. A few years back they decided they should get into the market and started selling some of their kit patterns after the kits sold out as digital patterns. If you decide to buy look for their sales. The patterns frequently go on sale for $1.99 or less.

As for my pattern notes the blanket, the bears, and the trim for the doll's outfit are all from the AC Moore Nicole sport which sadly is no longer available. I'm slowly working my way through my supply. I love the color of this yarn and decided to make the bears with it rather than changing colors as the pattern called for and I liked the outcome. I also used 6mm safety eyes for the eyes and the noses. The first bear I made using an e hook and it was huge so other than the head I redesigned the pattern to make him a reasonable height vs the doll. Clearly the yarn used in the pattern must be a lighter weight. For the second bear I used the same yarn but a c hook and for the most part followed the directions. I made the feet slightly smaller. I loved this basket pattern and could see using it for other projects. The design is adorable.