My Life Artist Print Dress

This is another one of Michelle Ratman's designs that can be purchased here. Just for my reference this is the Military Dress pattern 1101.

Notes:

Generally I love when I don't have to add buttons or snaps because the outfit can slide on and off the doll but after having made another one of her patterns for the Our Generation doll and finding it some what challenging to remove and put and not being able to get it on the My Life doll I decided I needed to redesign so I could add a back opening to make it easier to slide on and off the doll. My first priority is making it easy for a child to use, even though I really do love simplicity for myself. It is a waste if the child doesn't end up using it because it is too hard to dress the doll.

I used an f hook and chose Red Heart Super Saver Artist Print for this outfit. The pattern calls for sport weight 3 cotton yarn but the only place I found was loose after going down to the f hook was the shoulders which I tightened by finishing the back and the top at the end.

I followed the directions for the first 8 rows with the exception of not joining until I completed the 8th row. This created a back opening which made the dress easier to slip on and off. I joined after completing row 8 and continued with the directions as written.

When I finished the dress I finished the back and dealt with a slightly looser top when I reached the top by sc in 3 decreasing in the next across. This gave the top a better fit through the chest and shoulders.

My Life Christmas Elves

After having success with the Thanksgiving outfits I decided to make a couple of elf outfits for a friend's children's dolls for a Christmas party we are attending. I have a variety of Christmas patterns but this seemed doable since I had kind of forgotten the project and needed something that would work up quickly for two dolls. You can purchase Adoring Doll's Elf pattern here.

The picture of her finished outfit has it stopping above the knee with the boots coming up and it looks great. When I followed the pattern as written mine was incredibly short. My first effort was the striped hat and I ended up adding more to the white underskirt to make it longer. It worked better with the second attempt when I went with the lengthening the green and leaving the white with the suggested rows. It's all in what you wish to have for the doll. The picture makes it look longer than it is. The dress hits just at the knee which is what I was hoping it would do with the high boots. The green looks better however with a shorter underskirt.

I attempted the french knots she suggests for the green skirt area and mine just looked terrible so I decided to leave them off. It would have been a nice addition if I could have pulled it off but I prefer it without them if they aren't neat.

The solid red hat was a fee pattern Adoring Dolls offered a while back. I didn't check both patterns against each other to see how they are different but I did find the red hat worked up better. I also used a larger hook and I'd do that with the striped hat if I was to make it again.

Notes:

I used an I hook for the dress and the hat.

The boots were made with an H hook.

The boots fit well and could easily be made with other colors for other outfits.

I am not great with pom pom's so this pom pom is a crocheted version from a now out of print santa hat I've been making for years.

My Life Flamenco Dress, Hat, and Shoes

This is a one of those free patterns I return to year after year. You can find it here. It adapts not only across all the 18 inch dolls but I also use it for the Rag doll and the JC 16 Inch baby dolls. It works up quickly and it adds to my stash without a huge effort.

Notes:

I used an I hook for the dress this year.

I've been challenging myself to try patterns that have been gathering dust in my binder so the hat was in a daily crochet calendar that they sadly no longer publish. Michelle Crean submitted the Vanilla Ice Sunhat. She suggests a lighter yarn and a smaller hook. I was trying to continue with the yarn I had used for the dress. I'd follow her directions next time as the brim is too heavy for the hat.

I seem to have misplaced my favorite shoe pattern Sweet Silver Creations Sailor pattern which I'm going to have to locate soon. However, I did dig out Sweet Silver Creation's Sundress pattern, available for purchase here, which I believe is the same or almost the same as the sailor shoes. I'm continuing to search through my unfiled patterns as I'd hoped to make the sailor outfit again and I do like the shoes. She no longer offers the sailor outfit so I can't replace it either. Therefore I have even more incentive to find my copy of the pattern.

My Life Mermaid

I'm down to my last two posts for the projects for the 2023 donation. I'm actually in the process of sorting stuff and packing it as I write this up and prepost it. I have a delivery date and while it seems impossible it soon will be time to begin work on 2024's donations.

After starting on the Mary Maxim kit I was pretty sure I had another Mermaid pattern. Before I discovered Adoring Doll's 18 inch patterns, Sweet Silver Crochet patterns was one of the places I got many of my themed outfits for the dolls. Sure enough I had picked up her Mermaid pattern and never made it. I seemed 2023 was the year of the Mermaid. You can purchase her pattern here. Notes: I used Red Heart Super Saver Wild Flower and Turqa. Peacock would likely work for the tail as well. The suggested yarn is Crafter's Secret but I didn't have any and Red Heart worked for the project.

I did not record the hook size but I'm thinking I had to go up to an I to get the waist section of the tail to fit. It might have been an H for the fin.

This should become part of my princess rotation. I pulled the patterns late in the year but the thing about an on going project is nothing stops you from continuing it into the next year and I hope to add more princess dresses to next year's donation.

My Life Swim Suit Doll 2

Swim suits or bathing suits are one of the more common 18 inch doll patterns and I have acquired quite a few patterns over the years which allows me to rotate them around and not have to do the same ones each year. This one was one of my firsts and sadly is no longer available. Along with the suit, hat, and towel seen here the pattern also has a beach ball and rubby ducky floaty which with time constraints I chose not to make this year. The pattern was created by Stepahine Dygert and if it becomes available again, I'll add the link.

My gauge has been odd this fall. I needed a J hook to get this to slide over the doll. I went back to an f hook for the accessories and the hat fit the head fine. The other items were less sized based so the f hook was fine. I might consider an e hook if I make the pail again with acrylic rather than cotton yarn.

I did try this on the JC 16 Inch Baby doll and the fit is good so this might also be the second baby doll swim suit as well. It works up quickly and it keeps the sorting a little easier when the clothes aren't identical in the donation bags.

My Life Valentine Outfit

Valentine's Day kind of crept on me this year and while I can add holiday outfits at any time of the year since the donation doesn't go out until November there is something about making the outfits around the holiday as a way to celebrate that appeals to me. I finished Darski's pattern and decided to continue on with Adoring Doll's pattern that you can purchase here.

Pattern Notes:

I used an I hook for most of this pattern.

In order to get the slip stitches in I added them slightly differently than the designer. After row 1 I went back to the start of row 1 and did a row of pink slip stitches ended and finished off pink and continued on with white and row 2.

After row 2 I repeated this for second set of ss.

At the end of row 9 I repeated this for ss that heart will sit on.

Hat and shoes were made with I hook.

Sweater:

I hook

I added 2 sc rows to arms and finished them with a sc chain 3 skip on around

I finished complete edge of sweater in process of making suggested button hole I just preffered a finished look.

While I love the sailor shoes I have to remember to use this shoe pattern more frequently as I really like them!

My Life Dress and Hat Set

Having finished the baby blanket it was time to get back to the doll donation project. It was also time to dig into my left over balls of yarn to see if I could finish off any yarn in the ever growing bags of project left overs. I was able to finish off one ball of pink with this project and make a sizeable dent in a second so this was a great destashing project.

For those of you interested this is one of Petite Creative Designs patterns found here.

This pattern uses UK terms and while I had been able to translate them as I go, it had been a while and I ended up writing the American terms on top of the UK terms in order to avoid mistakes. The pattern calls for DK yarn I used worsted weight acrylic and went up to an I hook. My guage has been odd lately so I've been finding myself with larger hooks. I'd thought with the increase in yarn size I might not need the larger hook but it was not meant to be I guess.

My Life Doll Romper

I've been rotating through dolls hoping they all end up with a decent wardrobe when it comes time to drop them off for the toy drive. This is another Adoring Doll Clothes pattern that can be purchased here.

I used an I hook for the Romper and I found I got a better fit. I used an H hook for the shoes and added an extra row after row 3 for as I found them a bit shallow and even with the straps they were hard to get on and keep them on. With the extra row I found them easier to use. For the rest of the accessories I used the suggested hooks and required no changes.

This was a great pattern to attack my yarn ball stash. I didn't finish off anything but I made a dent and that is progress.