Starting a New 18 Inch Doll Cardigan Sweater

After a bit of a break with American Girl doll patterns in order to get ready for Vacation Bible Camp, I finished up a second triangle mesh cardigan and moved on to a new project in lime. I am hoping this sweater will be a bit easier to get around those hands of my daughter’s dolls.

I am also hand writing out patterns for these sweaters in hope of having a three sweater pattern set some time soon. I am hoping to make these patterns easy for those who are gauge challenged in the row department. As YarnHarlot on twitter says, ” Just once, I’d like a pattern to say ” Stitch Gauge 24/10cm, Row Gauge: Who cares? It’s not like you’re going to get it.” For those of you who feel that way, I hope that my patterns will not have that issue.

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Openwork Sweater Experiment for an American Girl Doll

Lately I have been designing things that actually have to fit. This is my first sweater design for my daughter’s American Girl doll. She chose the sport weight yarn (and the outfit to take the photos.) This open work crochet stitch does has a minor issue; the doll’s fingers won’t move, so it is a bit fiddly to get the sleeves over the hands. My eight year old did figure it out herself, though.

I am trying to decide whether to add a small button and loop at the top of the sweater or not. I am working on a second sweater like this one to offer in my Artfire Studio where there are already ballet shrugs and tutus for 18 inch dolls, so I will probably test out the button idea on that one to see how I like the looks of it with a button. I am also working on getting the pattern written for others; I am hoping to work on a couple more cardigan sweaters with different stitch patterns as soon as I finish teaching Vacation Bible Camp next week.

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My Daughter’s American Girl Doll Needed A New Crocheted Ballet Shrug

Felicity's New Ballet Shrug

For a while I have been toying with the idea of creating some crocheted American Girl doll clothing patterns, especially since my oldest daughter has a Felicity doll as well as another 18 inch doll.  As I generally do when I decide to crochet something entirely new, I decided to start with something fairly simple and made a crocheted ballet shrug with some sport weight acrylic yarn I had leftover from a custom order alphabet letter project.

The first challenge was making the shrug fitted, without it being too hard to get over the doll’s fingers.  Just like a baby, a doll is not very helpful when you try to put clothing on it.  I ended up having to add a stitch and frogged about ten rows to start over.

Keeping count of rows was a bit of a challenge as well.  I would definitely recommend using your row counter while making this.  For some reason I thought that the fact that I was writing down the pattern as I went would help me keep track of rows.  (Of course, being interrupted by children while working probably contributed to losing track of where I was.)

Hopefully I will get a chance to type up this pattern in the evening (when no children are awake to interrupt me.)  Once I do I hope to find a pattern tester who would be willing to do a quick test of this pattern for me.  After that you will be able to find this pattern on Ravelry and through my blog as a free download.

Back View of Crocheted Ballet Shrug

If you have other suggestions for crochet patterns for American Girl dolls, please let me know.  I am taking requests from my daughter and have a few ideas of my own.  I am also offering handmade American Girl doll clothing in my Artfire studio.
Pattern now available as free download from Ravelry: download now

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A not so secret Christmas present for my daughter

I have been working on this 18 inch doll dress for a while, trying to decide whether I would try to sell it or give it to my daughter for a Christmas present. Since I have a five year old who is not very good at keeping out of my crafting bag, she saw it at least once, probably two or three times as I made it.

The dress was shown in the magazine as a baby doll dress in white, with pink trim and a bonnet. I thought I would try it out in another color and forget the bonnet, hoping it would fit my daughter’s 18 inch doll which is the same size as an American Girl doll. Somehow my gauge turned out well and it fits perfectly. The color is called Birds of Paradise, which is one of a very few non pastel sport weight yarns I have been able to purchase at local craft stores.

The back of the dress has six buttons, which is probably what took the longest for me to do since I really don’t like working on those little finishing touches like sewing on buttons.  I actually have another dress nearly finished in red because I did not want to work on the buttons in the truck on a trip to my dad’s house.  Maybe the second dress will go up in my shop when I finally get the buttons on it.

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