Ken PJ's and Robe

I tend to buy multiples of Barbies, Ken's etc. so I can adapt patterns and donate them for a few years without having to start over with a new doll and new dimensions.

I stil have a few more years with the Ken Dentist Doll and then I'll have to hunt for a new model as I suspect he'll have been retired. I looked this year just out of curiousity and picked up a few Barbie Zoologists as my doll when I run out of Barbie Vet dolls. I was concerned as I looked at the dimensions for the Ken professional dolls that he keeps getting smaller. This makes fitting clothes for him from the old Ken patterns increasingly more challenging.

This is another pattern I found in the out of print Crochet World's Fashion Doll Showcase #1.

There is always a challenge when you adapt older patterns for dolls but with the changing sizes of the Barbie doll family there is an additional challenge that it just isn't a change in available fibers it also means you are adapting for different sizes not just in height but in other proportions as well. This is why when possible I do try to buy several versions of a specific doll to donate so when I adapt a pattern I get to use it for a couple of years before having to refit it to a new model.

I needed my Tulip Etimo Steel .9mm Hook to make this fit Ken. The original pattern calls for a C hook to give you an idea of contrast. I used Red Heart's Size 10 Thread White and Aunt Lydia's Size 10 Delft

The pants were easy to make and I'm thinking these would make great sweat pants in another color with a shirt. I struggled last year to find enough patterns that would fit Ken so I'm going to expand where I can on patterns that fit.

Lots to Love 10 Inch Doll Sweetly Dress

You might have noticed I've been working alternating between the smaller baby dolls and Barbie's clan to make sure I catch up on donations for these dolls. This is another outfit from the free Sweetly pattern set found here.

Guage has been kind of funny this year with this set but while I've used smaller hooks for other patterns in the set this year I went with a g hook as suggested for everything but the shoes and I adapted the shoes using an f hook. I turned the bootie pattern into shoes. I've found they stay on the doll a bit easier.

I went with a contrasting yellow for this set because I'd made a pink bonnet for the other set I'm sending with the 10 inch doll and thought some variety might be nice. The pink worked better than the yellow with the variegated yarn I wanted to use, but the yellow was a nice contrast for the bonnet, panties, and shoes. There's one more set with another bonnet so I'm going to have to see what colors I have left to make a different colored bonnet so the child ends up with mix and match options for dressing the doll.

Stacie Sunday Best

I have a preposted donation list to help me track all the items made to keep me on track. I started it last year late in the year and this year I started it from the first project made and it has helped me to focus on dolls in need of dressing.

I started out well with Barbie's clan in January. Barbie and Chelsea have a good start. This is promising since last year poor Chelsea left with only one outfit. However, Stacie prior to this project had but one outfit and Ken and Skipper still have only the clothes they came in so I have some work to do not to have that what was I thinking moment in the fall when I realize I've forgotten to include enough outfits for a doll.

I started making Barbie clothes for my now adult nieces before moving on adding Barbies to the donation recently. During the years my nieces were younger I hunted the Internet searching for out of print leaflets and magazines devoted to crocheting for Barbie and her clan. While adjustments sometimes have to be made for the changes in doll sizes, available yarn/thread, and my own guage, I find I'm often able to make the patterns work for even the modern Barbie line.

This pattern comes Crochet World's Fashion Doll Showcase #1 published in 1988. It has a wide range of patterns from leisure to more formal outfits. I started with this one because I wanted something for Stacie and I thought it would give me an idea of what I was working with for guage.

The pattern calls for Knit-Cro-Sheen and a Size 1 steel crochet hook. I used Aunt Lydia's and Red Heart Thread and traded back between my Tulip thread hooks 1.8mm and 1.25mm.

The pattern shows the picture for the dress but not the coat. I shortened the coat because I found the longer coat didn't fit well over the dress. Without a picture to see how the designer intended it to fit it was hard to determine how it was supposed to fit but I liked the short sweater look for the outfit.