Doll Clothes--more details

As promised---months ago--a little more detail on the doll clothes. I had to wait to borrow someone's camera in order to have a macro capability. These aren't the best, but the photographer wasn't paid.

It's not too easy to describe my exact steps in making the clothes because once you get "her" diminsions down, you "just work" and try the garment on the doll every so often or measure to make certain it will fit.

Once you know your stitch and row gauge you can calculate how many stitches to chain or cast on based on the necessary dimensions.

This is just like any item from yarn. All the directions are doing for you is saving all the calculations (which is a good thing).

The knitted sweater and skirt outfit is made from a Bucilla yarn on size 3 needles. I love the stitch pattern. I tried several color combinations until I found one I liked. One thing I did was to make certain that the stripes match across the sweater when the sleeves are down. I rarely see this in adult sweater patterns.

The periwinkle outfit is made from Pinguoin Pingora Baby, begun on 3's, then worked on 4's above the flounces.

This is a fun pattern to do and the directions are easy: Beginning at the bottom, st. st (k 1 row, p 1 row) is worked for the distance desired. On the next row, k2, drop the next st. off the left needle, then drop every 4th st off the left needle as you knit across. (The space between the drops could vary depending on how far apart the drop stitch design.) At the end of desired flounce, continue in st.st. until piece measures the desired length. I love this stitch pattern. Imagine, a dropped stitch on purpose!

The varigated gown is crocheted on an E hook from knitting worsted yarn, (Red Heart Super Saver), which I don't use very often for doll clothes. Fingering yarn is preferred because it is so delicate as well as cotton crochet thread for crocheting, even though it takes much longer.

With this gown, I "just worked" for the most part. With yarn this thick it doesn't take too many stitches to get around the doll's waist. Just keep increasing or decreasing until it looks right and fits her. If it's not quite right, the stitches can be undone and crocheted again rather quickly.

The three-piece quilted outfit was sewn from scraps of pre-quilted fabric, which is great because the proportion of the squares to the size of the outfit is perfect. The pieces were made from a generic pattern I made from several different patterns, except for the tote which I "just cut".

Very simply, I finished the edges with the overlock foot (optional accessory) on my Pfaff 1475. It's probably stitch #25 because that's what I generally use for overcasting. Then I turned up the sleeve hem, stitched the fronts to the back, put bias seam tape on the front edges and around the neck, then turned up the hem. Put 3 snaps for the closure and it's done.

Not all the outfits are this easy or go this quickly!