My Life Nightgown 2

This is Adoring Doll's Christmas Nightgown pattern that can be purchased here.

As you may have noticed I chose more nuetral blues as I felt it would be more useful to have a year round outfit rather than holiday specific for this item.

Notes:

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

I tried working the surface crochet with an alternative of working in the back loops. I'm not a huge fan of either. In the future I think I'd just do a row of alternate color sc in the rows and not have the texture. I have no issue with the flat texture found in the rest of the nightgown.

The surface crochet made adding a button hole in the back more challenging so I closed with a snap.

This is one of the last three items I need for the 2025 donation. They are all complete and I'm preposting them on Veteran's Day. It feels amazing to be done. I'm making some items and then it will be time to start the 2026 donation!!!

Rag Doll Nightgown

Notes:

This is the free pattern I used for the My Life doll found here.

I used the suggested pattern hook sizes for this doll rather than going up a hook size as I did with the My Life Doll.

Due to height differences I decreased the number of rows before rows 20-23 to allow for the bottom finish.

I am close to finishing the Our Generation Nightgown and about 1/2 way through the last My Life gown both are different patterns. I have started the My Life swimsuit and hope to get started on the Our Generation swimsuit so they all finish at about the same time. I'm preposting the second weekend of November so my hopes are good that I can finish despite some pressing family stuff.

My Life Nightgown

I had forgotten this nightgown pattern and while searching for nightgowns for this year's donation I rediscovered this free gem which you can find here.

After completing this item one of the My Life Doll's is ready to pack!!

Notes:

This works up quick and not hard to follow. I plan on using this for the Rag Doll as well to finish off that donation as well.

I used the H hook rather than the suggested G changing to an I hook when the pattern suggested changing to an H. I found this fit the doll nicely.

To close the nightgown I finished the back and added a button and buttonhole. The pattern suggests ribbon but the button seemed a bit more likely to survive.

Lots to Love 14 Inch Baby Doll Nightgown

Several years ago I made a mistake of not reading my notes and made this nightgown with the suggested G hook for the Lots to Love 10 inch Baby doll. It was huge and the Lots to Love 14 Inch Baby Doll inherited a nightgown. For some reason I never went back and made it for the larger baby doll again until I went on a quest to give nightwear to the dolls this year for the donation and realized I didn't have a specific pattern for the larger doll but I had used this pattern previously.

This pattern is the nightgown from Darski's free Sweetly pattern set found here.

With this item finished this doll is also ready to be boxed the day before Halloween!

Notes:

I used a G hook and Bernat Baby Big Ball Sport Yarn.

Bernat Baby Sport and Herrschners' brand yarns have been my go to yarn for the baby doll projects. I just ordered more of the Herrschners' striped yarns for the 2026 donation as I still have solid colors from my previous order but I've burned through quite a bit of my striped stash this year and do to the price of shipping I try to order only when they have shipping offers.

Supplies change but I find most of my Baby Bernat sport at Walmart. I used to order it online but the Walmart oddly has kept a wider selection of colors than I could find online and the price has been good. I've kept a decent stash so not sure what the current state of their availability is for this brand but I'll be starting there when I need more next year.

Glitter Girl Nightgown

I would like to start by thanking all those who offer free doll patterns for others to use. My donation has been greatly increased because I do have access to a huge library of free patterns. I like to challenge myself each year trying new patterns so I buy some and I try new free patterns. This is my fourteenth year doing this donation after years of making doll clothes for family so it is helpful to stay fresh by trying new things.

Those who provide free patterns provide them as they see fit. I find some formats easier to use than others. Normally I avoid You Tube patterns because I find a written pattern easier to follow. Again when it is free people provide it as they choose. So I continue to thank those who provide them in the format of their choice.

With that in mind I have to own my processing style. I will explain further.

First so there is no confusion most people are aware of the cheaper versions out there for the 18 inch American Girl Dolls. However, I do sometimes get questions about the Glitter Girl as the Wellie Wisher substitutes are not as well known.

A few years back I read about the Wellie Wisher and wondered if there was a more affordable alternative I could add to the donation as I'd been finding some really adorable crochet patterns for the doll. I came across the Glitter Girl dolls and its been a staple for the donation since. For those who buy the Glitter Girl doll I've found most of the Wellie Wisher crochet patterns do fit in the same way most of the American Girl dolls fit the My Life Dolls and the Our Generation Dolls I donate. I try everything on as I make it to make sure the outfit will fit.

I did search for a Wellie Wisher written pattern for a nightgown for this project. I was willing to buy one but I didn't find one out there. However what I did find was a You Tube video. With no other patterns that fit my search and loving the look of this one I decided to figure out how I could make this work for my processing style.

This is a free You Tube pattern for the Wellie Wisher nightgown found here. The creater is Allmycrochet.

I can't follow directions while listening and watching a video. If you can that is wonderful. I have stayed away from video patterns for this reason.

I love youtube to see stitches and I also appreciate when a pattern includes a video that demonstrates some places where the designer has tried something new or does things differently from a traditional way I'd normally approach something.

You see these sometimes attached to blog pattern and those I love. However, when I sit down to create something I really like to be able to refer back to the directions in writing. I especially find in hard to wait for the rows that repeat with the same pattern until you get to the directions that change. It's hard to know where to skip to because you aren't sure what changes when. I learned this when I skipped a little ahead only to discover I'd missed an increase.

This technique may or may not work for you. I took the notes function on my phone and transcribed the pattern while I watched the video on my laptop. I then was able to send the notes to my laptop and with the picture I took of the finished item I now had a functional pattern for my use only. Since I constantly repeat patterns yearly for this project I had no desire to go back to the video again and this solved my problem. I am thrilled with the outfit.

If I find another you tube pattern that fills a void I can't get in written format I'd consider going this route again. However, it still is not my first choice for patterns.

16 Inch Baby Doll Nightgown

Updated to add free pattern link here.

This was another one of my September projects that never got posted. Nightgowns/wear are one of my yearly challenges for the dolls. I try to see how many outfits I can complete for different dolls in each category before the deadline. When I have options I will use different patterns when not I repeat as needed.

This is one of Darski's patterns that I sadly don't have a link for but it is a simple nightgown that ties in the back. I've used this for years for the 16 inch baby dolls. I still need to make one more and its on my to do list before the donation is due. I did make a mistake with this one as it didn't get a hat. There is no pattern but I generally do work something up. I will make sure the next one has one.

I stocked up a while back on Herrschners worsted and baby yarn for doll projects. This is made with Herrschners worsted weight and a g hook based on last year's notes. I will write on the pattern any additional notes I have when I make the second one for this year's donation and add them to that project page.

Barbie Nightgown

I still have to go back and finish Chelsea's nightgown from the AG mini pattern but I wanted to explore my Barbie binders to find something for Barbie. I hit this one first, although I suspect there are more in the collection. I rather liked this one and decided to make it the next nightgown for the challenge.

I returned to my out of print newsprint House of White Birches Crochet Wardrobe for 11.5 inch Fashion Dolls. There are a couple of options for night wear for Barbie. I chose the negligee pattern.

The original pattern uses size 10 thread with a starting chain of 60. I suspected this wasn't going to work but I try to see where these older patterns are going because they can surprise me.

Sure enough this was huge. Even reducing to size 20 thread it was still enormous. That's when it was time to use some crochet math to decrease the pattern and save my size 20 thread for other projects.

I started with a 50 percent decrease but it was not to be an easy math day. Decreasing that much made it too small. However a 75 percent decrease with some rounding and a few adjustments made for the fit I needed.

Notes:

I used size 10 thread and a 1.25mm hook for this outfit.

Chain 45 After making the math changes to rows 1 and 2 the only additional adjustments were to the row counts as they were now smaller than the original pattern. However the basic pattern worked with the reduced counts.

There is a 3 stitch cluster between each sc set. The cluster being 3 sc in one stitch.

Row 1: sc 6 cluster sc 11 cluster sc 7 cluster sc 11 cluster sc 6 total 53 stitches

Row 2: sc 7 chain 8 skip 14 sc 11 chain 8 skip 14 7 sc

Follow rest of instructions as written with understanding stitch count will differ.

Also as a note to myself clearest way to know you've made a mistake is clusters should not be stacked on top of each other they should alternate rows. If this pattern is not occuring you have made a mistake. I noticed this a couple of times and was able to go back and fix before I'd gone too far.

One mistake I did make is not counting total number of rows it took to complete for the length of this doll. The pattern calls for 40 but I don't have an accurate count. I worked on this between other projects as the repitition can be a bit dull at times. I also like to give my hands a break from the smaller hooks.

Skipper Nightgown

Like Stacie's nightgown this too is made from an AG Mini pattern that can be purchased here. I bought the set so I'm slowly working on adapting the patterns that will work for the donation to the Barbie's sisters.

Notes:

I made some additional changes for Skipper after making this for Stacie.

As with the previous AG Mini adaptation I needed size 10 crochet thread and a 1.8mm hook to get this outfit to fit Skipper.

The bent arm issue still makes this hard to get on and off of Skipper with the style of the arms so I left them off.

After adding the trim to the bodice for Stacie I decided not to use if for Skipper and I wouldn't use it for the future outfits. I am still planning on using this for Chelsea this year and will likely be back to this for future donation years.

I added notes to fix the count that increases with each row where I just winged it with Stacie's outfit. I will have this for future attempts.

The bottom trims worked better with the additional notes I added for myself. I was able to get both trims in contrast rather than just one.

Lastly just as a note to myself this closes with tie no need for a snap. I did finish the back before adding the ties and collar.