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.

My Life Howdy Neighbor Madison Dress

I did warn I was on a crusade to use up the Michael's green Craft Smart yarn. The dress is another of Darski's free patterns Madison fround in the Howdy Neighbor collection here.

The shoes are from Sweet Silver Crochet Patterns School Uniform pattern that can be purchased here.

I went back and looked at my notes from last year and I didn't document either on my pattern or blog the changes I made this year. Sometimes I do just make the changes and forget to write them down so I decided this year to record as I went. Next year things like guage may be different. I find my stitches can be looser or tighter depending on when I make something so hook sizes do vary. I've gone down in hooks on some patterns and increased hook sizes on others. I'm finding it helps to have a benchmark.

Notes: I used a J hook for the bodice as it was tight with an I hook. After the joining round I returned to the I hook.

I finished the back in green rather than the white trim. It just worked better for me. I also used a snap to close the back rather than buttons.

Row Changes:

Row 3: It says sc 19 I believe this should read 9 to match the stitch count. This is why I love designers that give you a stitch count. It is so much easier to figure out what they intended when I make a mistake or when there is a mistake in the pattern.

Row 11: There was no stitch count for row 10 so I could be off, however, based on what I did in row 10 to reach the stitch count in row 11 I dc in 5 3dce in next 11 times to get a count of 55.

To get the length I wanted on the dress I added rows.

I went from 12-16 to 12-20.

Trim:

I did not finish the back in white and I adjusted the top trip. I did not ss I crocheted 5 sc across back. I chained 8 instead of 5 for the strap, it was too tight with 5. Then I continued pattern as written making these changes for the other side of the dress.

Shoe notes: This might be another guage issue but I've started using an I hook for the bottom of these shoes and the Mary Jane's switching to an H hook after the 3rd round is completed. I find the shoes fit better. If I stick with one hook they are either too large or too small.

This is another quick dress if you need one for an 18 inch doll.