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.

My Life Claret Dress

This is the second outfit from Darski's free Harriet pattern found here. This may in fact be the last of the donation outfits for 2021 as I've begun work on my Christmas gifts and I want to make a box of Barbie clothes for a family member which will probably be a post Christmas gift for her granddaughters. When those projects are done it will be time to start the 2022 doll donation work.

This used up the end of a skein that's been in a misc yarn pile for a bit now. It was nice to see it gone. I did end up using an old skein of Red Heart sport to trim the bottom as I didn't have quite enough to finish the dress. The colors were a match and the change in weight was not relevent in the trim.

I used an I hook for the dress to get the fit right.

My Life Raincoat

I have a binder that I've been filling with outfits from Adorable Dolls for the 18-inch dolls. Her patterns are quite affordable, easy to follow, use available yarns or yarns easy to substitute from my stash and I generally can follow them to completion.

The one challenge I do find with her patterns sometimes is the formating. She has interesting ways of creating the shaping in her patterns so the stitch counts can be long in each row but I sometimes end up making notes as they can be challenging to follow as printed. The directions are clear and once I've written them out I never have trouble following them but formating them a little more clearly would make this situation ideal.

This pattern was worked from my Joann's Big Twist Stash. While a slightly lighter worsted I love the color selection and especially when on sale the price is very attractive, especially for my donation projects where spending less means I can do more.

You can purchase the pattern here.

My Life Howdy Neighbor Tunic

This is the last pattern found in Darski's free Howdy Neighbor pattern set found here.

I followed the directions as written for the tunic. I went up a hook size on the hat and added a row of reverse sc on the open top to finish it off. I made my pants top down splitting for the crotch but not adding chains as I've done in the past. I used the spike stich suggested for the shirt on the leg bottoms.

The shoes once again are from Sweet Creations School Girl Pattern that can be purchased here. I added some spike stitches as an extra decorative row just for fun.

My Life Sailor Dress

While I've used the shoe pattern from this outfit for many years I haven't made the sailor outfit for some time. This year I've been revisiting neglected patterns in my doll binders and it seemed a good time to add the sailor dress to the donation. Sadly for those of you looking to purchase the pattern it is no longer listed in Sweet Silver Crochet's Etsy store. Should the pattern show up again I will try to add a new link for the pattern.

When I made this outfit previously I used Caron One Pound Yarn, White for the entire white section of the outfit. This time I only used that for the hat and used Bernat Super Value Yarn, Navy for the trim and the shoes as it was the only worsted Navy I had in my stash. I used an I hook for both the hat and the shoes.

For the dress I started with the heavier Caron but it wasn't working and I frogged it and restarted with Bernat Big Ball Baby Yarn White using no longer available Red Heart Sport Navy yarn and Red Heart Comfort Sport in Red for trim and detail work.

I started with an I hook found myself switching to an H hook and then finished after the 3rd row with the g hook. I did add some additional rows to the top as I found the dress was hard to get on and off if I joined it to start the skirt as suggested. It is a much easier outfit to dress when the torso is a little longer.

Update November 3, 2021

Pattern has been relisted for purchase here.

My Life Cobblestones Sweater Dress

I picked this pattern up on e-pattern central a while back and it got lost in my 18 inch doll binder. I was looking for something different to try this year and decided this was the year to attempt this pattern. While no longer available where I purchased the pattern does still look to be available at Ravelry here for purchase.

I substituted Knit Picks Palette for the no longer available suggested yarns. This was a great project to attack my stash of this yarn. While I will likely need more for doll projects at some point my current stash has out lived its tenancy and needs to be used.

Notes: The e hook was correct for guage. Not all rows have a stitch count and I made the mistake of conforming to the previous rows stitch count in certain places where I would let play out the next time I made this. I also didn't get quite the texture I was going for on the dress section but I did figure it out for the arms. If I make this again I'll have a better idea on how to get the desired effect.

Regarding the arms they are a little long and I would shorten to 14 rows before adding the ridge rows.

The pants are based loosely based on Maggie's Crochet's pants pattern found in her Abby, Allie, and Annie pattern you can purchase here. I've been making them so long now that I've adapted them and use them for all the dolls but I suggest them as an easy starting place if you are looking for a pattern that works waist down rather than one that has you make both legs and then join them. I just prefer this method and don't see it used as often.

The shoes are another standard pattern but I've been making so many baby doll clothes I'd forgotten which pattern set they came from and had to look it up so I could make shoes for this set. The shoes are part of Sweet Silver Creation's Sailor Doll pattern available for purchase here.