Our Generation Mermaid

While searching for a baby afghan kit a while back I realized I found a Mary Maxim Mermaid Tail Doll Kit I had purchased and never made. It is no longer available although they are currently selling a knit kit. The copywrite was 2016 and they do retire their doll kits so I wasn't completely suprised to find it was no longer available. They haven't offered it yet on their pattern site.

This is one of the more "modest" patterns I've seen for the 18 inch doll mermaids. There is a bathing suit base you can see below. Then instead of the bikini top, the designer has made a sweater.

I wasn't a huge fan of the Mermaid tail pattern. It was more complicated than it needed to be as I found when I made Sweet Silver's Creation's Mermaid for the My Life doll that I'll be writing about later. I did like the other parts of the pattern. I don't have a quick and easy swim suit pattern for the Our Generation doll and I do with this pattern set. This is a pretty quick and easy pattern and it fits the doll well. I also thought the sweater would be a cute addition to another outfit. Again I don't often make sweaters for the Our Generation but this would be a cute add on for another outfit.

I am glad I cleared another item out of my stash. I regret buying stuff I never make. It also inspired me to find my other mermaid pattern to make for the My Life doll.

Our Generation Let the Sunshine In

I'm continuing to try to rotate through the various donation dolls to make sure they all get a decent sized donation bag to leave with in November. While this set has several pieces it works up fairly quickly so it was a great choice to add to the Our Generation doll's donation. You can find this free pattern as part of Darski's Weatherby Set here. I used the swim suit pattern from this set for the Our Generation doll this year as well.

I tend to find shoe patterns from other sets and because I can make them work I keep using them. These shoes are from a pattern set I purchased from Sweet Silver Creations School Uniform you can purchase here.

Notes:

I used a K hook on the dress for the bodice and an I hook for the skirt. I used a K hook for the Bolero jacket.

I used an F hook for the shoes and reduced around for the final row to get the shoes to fit.

Last year I took these pictures for something that might be obvious to others but had me confused. I knew I'd made this jacket before but I couldn't figure out how it was large enough to fit the doll. The directions for the collar need to be completed prior to adding the arms. The collar increases the size of the jacket working completely around the outside of the jacket. It will eventually bend to form a collar at the top but it is not what one thinks of as working a collar at the top of shirt or jacket. I went back and used these pictures as I thought I might this year so I'm adding them again as I suspect I will be back looking for them again.

I'd only made this jacket once before and the notes I made said it was different but I didn't write down how. This time I took pictures for something that might be obvious to others but had me confused. I knew I'd made this jacket before but I couldn't figure out how it was large enough to fit the doll. The directions for the collar need to be completed prior to adding the arms. The collar increases the size of the jacket working completely around the outside of the jacket. It will eventually bend to form a collar at the top but it is not what one thinks of as working a collar at the top of shirt or jacket.

I have no idea how many more outfits I can finish before the deadline but what ever isn't finished this year will make it into the 2024 donation.

Our Generation Bathing Suit

With this finished swim suit I am down to 2 to finish my yearly challenge. I need one more for the 16 Inch Baby Doll and one more for the My Life doll and all dolls will leave with a suit in their donation bag.

This pattern is one of Darski's free patterns found in her Weatherby set here.

Notes:

I used a K hook for the first 2 rows of the bathing suit as I couldn't get it to slide over hips with smaller hooks. I went back to an I hook after that and the bathing suit fit fine. For similiar issues I used a K hook for cover and the visor.

I added a row of dc front post stitches to the visor prior to adding the suggested front post stitches as it added some bulk to the visor and made it less floppy.

I've made this outfit a couple of times now for the Our Generation doll and next year I think I'd like to try one of the other bathing suit patterns and see if I can find one that fits without being quite as bulky as this one.

Our Generation Boy Shirt Pants and Shoes

I've added the Our Generation Boy Doll Daniel to the donation this year. I'd been working on finding patterns that would fit the doll and this week I decided to take one of Adoring Doll's Christmas patterns and turned it into a more daily wear shirt, pants, and shoes set. You can purchase the original pattern here.

This is an adorable Christmas themed pattern but while I have lots of daily wear patterns for the girl dolls I don't have as many for the boy.

This one was easy to adapt. I am actually thinking about turning this into a summer outfit with shorts and perhaps using a sweater pattern in combination with the hat, boots, and pants from this pattern to make more of a winter set for the doll. We will see what I get to before the donation date.

Notes:

I used an I hook for the shirt. I chose not to go with a striped shirt as I wanted something simple for this first outfit. Instead of a sc border I went with reverse sc as it just provides a more interesting look.

The pants took me a bit to figure out an appropriate hook size. I have weird guage at times but I needed a K hook to get the waist to fit the doll. Anything smaller with the stitch count and the pants would not slide up and down the body. Since I was not going for a holiday look I did not trim the bottom of the pants.

The shoes are designed to be boots and I do intend to make a winter outfit at some point and will be back for the boots. However, I wanted more of a shoe pattern for this outfit so I finished off the boot pattern after finishing row 7 and I found it made a nice shoe. This could be my shoe pattern for the boy. I used an I hook to get the shoes to fit the feet.

I hope to return to make the hat when I make a winter outfit. If I have time I'd love to include some holiday outfits. For now my focus is gettig some regular wear outfits as I suspect they will be used more frequently.

Our Generation Howdy Neighbor Madison

Guage is always an interesting adventure for me. I can follow the directions I've used for years with a doll and some years it just changes. Last year I wrote down the changes for the Madison pattern to fit the My Life doll and I followed them using a ball of yarn I believe I was using last year when I made the doll for the My Life donation in 2022. However, this year the dress was a better fit for the Our Generation doll. No real loss since I generally have more outfits for the two My Life Dolls than the Our Generation Doll, but I always find it strange to see what works and what doesn't from year to year.

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.

Since this works up quick I may try it later for the My Life dolls with an I hook to see if I can get a better fit with a different colored yarn.

It feels good to get some items finished for the project. There are many wonderful positive things going on outside of doll world but this donation is near and dear to me and I want to make sure I don't neglect it.

Our Generation Sleeping Bag

One positive of having a shared goal of completing certain projects for all the dolls is it helps me not to neglect certain dolls, only to panic as the deadline approaches and I realize I haven't completed projects for certain dolls. Sometimes I just get more inspired for certain dolls than others in a year and focusing on finishing certain items helps me to remember each doll.

This brings me to the first of the 18 inch doll sleeping bags. While I've made clothes for the My Life dolls I've been neglecting the female Our Generation Doll. Some patterns just seem to be easier to fit to the My Life Dolls but it doesn't excuse not including the female Our Generation Doll. So when it came time to make start the shared projects for the 18 inch dolls it seemed important to start with the Our Generation Doll.

You can find the free American Girl Sleeping Bag pattern here.

I love the texture used in this pattern. Especially with the striped yarns it makes for some fun patterns.

For my notes for future projects to get this to fit the Our Generation Doll I used a K hook rather than the suggested I hook as it was tight getting on and off with the suggested hook.

I have 3 more sleeping bags to make and this part of the collective project will be completed. I saved the biggest ones for last.