My Life Fruity Stripes Dress

I'm always looking for new patterns to try for the 18 inch dolls. You can find this free pattern here.

This pattern required a little adaptation as I really try to make my donation clothes as child friendly as possible. The pattern calls for joining the dress after round 4 and I found this made the dress next to impossible to get on and off easily. There just wasn't the room to get the arms in the arm holes. To fix this I continued to crochet in rows using the mirrow stitch suggested for round 3 until I was closer to the waist line and then I joined and continued in rows. This makes the dress easier to put on and take off. Others may not consider this to be a challenge but I figure if I have trouble getting the clothing on and off I don't want a child to become frustrated with the effort.

The top of the dress starts in a unique way and it makes for an interesting top patterns. I ended up adding finishing stitches for the back as I left more of it open. I also did sc stitches around the sleeves to finish them off as well.

These are the shoes I make most often for the 18" dolls and it comes from a Sweet Silver Creations pattern Sailor Dress you can purchase here. Just a note to myself the H hook is the correct hook for these shoes. The dress pattern called for an I hook and for some reason I forgot to change hooks when I made the shoes. They are a slight bit larger than needed.

The pattern doesn't have a catchy title so I went with the Red Heart Stripy yarn color. I do enjoy working with bright colors on grey days. It cheers me up a bit.

18 Inch Doll Cable Link Sweater and Skirt

I am pleased that I'm making progress on my efforts to create separates and non-costumed outfits this year. While I love making the doll themed outfits and already have a few lined up on my to do list there is more to outfiting a doll than themed costumes. Having the basics is important too. However, I sometimes neglect making those in favor of the themed costumes for the dolls. This year I am trying to do better.

This is actually my second try at the skirt from the free pattern Dovetailed found here. I'll be posting about the finished project I made for the Our Generation doll next week. I thought I had enough yarn to make a second outfit for the My Life Doll using the blue yarn but I clearly underestimated how much yarn I had on hand. I had enough for a skirt but not enough to complete the outfit. Just a note for myself, the skirt fits the My Life Doll better with a g hook if you don't use elastic.

Now I needed a top so I turned to my out of print Sweater Trio pattern published by Fibre Craft in 1999 FCM494 for those who might want to search for it. I've made this pattern for several years but it has always felt a bit bulky to me.

I've tried making it with an e hook and that helped a little but it still had that feel of wearing an bigger sister's wardrobe. This year I decided to go back to that purple baby yarn you may have seen across several projects now that I've been trying to use up. I swear it multiplies at night. I used the required f hook instead of going down to the e as I had before, but with the lighter 3 yarn it fit better.

While you can't see it in this picture the sweater pattern includes a headband pattern that also uses the cable loops which for some reason I find to be fun to put together. It is not something I get to do frequently in crochet, but it is a fun little exercise when making this project.

18 Inch Doll Dress with Hat

It is time to return to one of my simple but classic 18 inch doll patterns. I love working on this pattern because it calls for the bright Fruity Stripe Red Heart yarn and right now I could use a little color and brightness in my life. I also like it because it works up quickly and was a great project to make in between the Moses basket and trying to finish up the picnic set for the Lil Cutesie doll.

I also chose this pattern as it was a great way to work through some of the yarn I have on hand. I almost had enough left on one skein to finish the project but when I added the hat I had to dig into a second skein I had on hand to finish it off. This is what happens when you work with partial skeins. It's always hard to tell exactly how much yarn you have to work with on a project.

You can find the free pattern for the dress here. In previous years I've made the top smaller using a g hook. However, this year I used an H hook through out and the top fit fine. I'm currently working on using up some neon stripe yarn to make this dress for the Our Generation Doll. I'll post the notes about making it for the slightly larger doll when I finish it. There is no pattern for a hat. I played with the yarn left over from the first skein and added some from the second skein to complete the hat. I wanted something to finish off the outfit.

To close the back of this dress I chose a snap over a button. It was a quick and easy solution to my problem. I may have to think about ordering snaps soon if stores don't open soon. I did order ami eyes online recently as my 6mm supply is almost out.