A Crocheted Monster Hanging Basket

I found the pattern for this Hanging Monster Basket by Crochet Ever After on Ravelry. It's a really easy pattern to follow. I didn't have super chunky yarn so I used 2 strands of worsted weight yarn with a 6 mm hook for the body and 1 strand of worsted weight with a 4 mm hook for the eyes. It was surprisingly huge!

Check out Crochet Ever After's patterns on Ravelry. Are you working on a crochet project over the summer?

Sewing 18" Doll Clothes - the Liberty Jane Harajuku Skirt

Here's a couple of doll skirts I made for my daughter. This skirt is so cute, especially the jean one with the little bow I found in my sewing bin. Not totally sure where it came from, I was just saving it for a someday project. The second layer in the skirt is tulle. No problem right? Hah! That's a trick to sew with. It took a lot and the tulle for the jean skirt ended up a fair bit shorter than it was meant to be but at least I got it in the end. The pink skirt went together easier but that tulle is tricky.

The pattern is, you guessed it - yet another Liberty Jane one. I love those patterns. They are easy to follow and always fit well. The Liberty Jane Harajuku Skirt from Pixie Faire is a fairly strait forward pattern, but if you haven't sewn much with tulle, take it from me and buy extra. At least it's cheap!

My daughter has a Newberry Doll (blonde) and a Journey Girl and when I made these clothes originally it was for the Journey Girl. I find that if I'm using a pattern for American Girls I can check off 'shrink to fit' when I print the pattern and add a little length and it's just about perfect. The clothes fit the Newberry doll as well, but some are a bit tight because she is closer in size to the American Girls.

The t-shirt below is inspired by the Peek-a-boo lace tutorial on Pixie Faire, but I didn't cut out the t-shirt fabric underneath. My daughter has a similar shirt so she is really happy with this one. I used my absolute favourite 18" doll t-shirt pattern that I posted about here.

Liberty Jane Harajuku Skirt from Pixie Faire

Did you know? Pixie Faire gives a pattern away for FREE every Friday. Awesome, right? They also have free tutorials and patterns, so go take a look!

http://www.pixiefaire.com/blogs/freebies-and-giveaways

Sewing 18" Doll Clothes - Stylish (and did I mention realistic-looking?) Jeans for your doll ... and a cute hoodie

The Liberty Jane Ruched Hoodie from Pixie Faire is my favourite thing I made for the dolls. It wasn't easy, there's a lot of pieces, but it was worth it. I usually 'shrink to fit' when printing pattern pieces and maybe lengthen them a bit when working from a pattern for American Girl dolls since Kelsey (dark hair) is a Journey Girl but this time I just made it full size. It still fits nicely and works for Allie, the Newberry doll as well.

The Liberty Jane Jeans Bundle from Pixie Faire is wonderful. They are easier to make than you would think, and the pockets would be functional if they weren't so tiny. They are adorable. You can use this pattern to make boot cut, skinny, shorts, capris, whatever length you want. To make them fit the Journey Girl I checked off 'shrink to fit' when I printed the pattern pieces, so that means that Allie the Newberry doll doesn't fit into the skinny jeans. She's slightly shorter and chubbier. Also, I had to add slits at the bottom to get them over Kelsey's feet. The shorts and the boot cut jeans are a bit big on Kelsey, the Journey Girl, even having shrunk the pattern down (if you do that, remember to give it extra length because the Journey Girls are tall) but they fit Allie nicely. The double stitching on the sides and around the pockets and fake zipper really add to the realism. 

Liberty Jane Jeans Bundle from Pixie Faire

 Liberty Jane Ruched Hoodie from Pixie Faire

Did you know? Pixie Faire gives a pattern away for FREE every Friday. Awesome, right? They also have free tutorials and patterns, so go take a look!

http://www.pixiefaire.com/blogs/freebies-and-giveaways

Sewing 18" Doll Clothes - the best best best T-Shirt Pattern!

I've tried to make t-shirts a few times but none of them have compared to the Liberty Jane t-shirts. The Liberty Jane Trendy t-shirt pattern is free, and the The Liberty Jane T-Shirt Variations 18" Doll Clothes Pattern Pack gives you a few more sleeve types and two neckline variations. I love these little puffed sleeves and because they are so small, they're actually very easy. The white shirt above and the plain purple shirt below are both upcycled old shirts that my daughter outgrew. She loved those shirts so she was thrilled to be able to use them again for her doll.

Because I was making the shirts originally for Kelsey, a Journey Girl (below), I sized the pattern down by checking off 'shrink to fit' when printing. They also work just fine for Allie, the Newberry doll (above).

I made a sleeveless version, which is great for layering...

I'm pretty sure the tank top pictured below is this Spaghetti Strap Tank Top free from the Liberty Jane website. I wanted to make the ruched tank top seen here but I didn't have enough of the shiny pink fabric.

The Liberty Jane T-Shirt Variations 18" Doll Clothes Pattern Pack

Did you know? Pixie Faire gives a pattern away for FREE every Friday. Awesome, right? They also have free tutorials and patterns, so go take a look!

http://www.pixiefaire.com/blogs/freebies-and-giveaways

Sewing 18" Doll Clothes - the Liberty Jane Flounce Skirt and Peplum Top

another version of the skirt...

My daughter has had Kelsey, a Journey Girl doll from Toys R Us for a couple years now and absolutely loves her, but she didn't have many clothes to choose from. I had whipped up a few when she first got the doll, but they were all made from free tutorials or my own ideas and they weren't great. Not that tutorials don't work, but they were all for American Girl dolls which are a slightly different shape and I didn't have much fabric to work with then. I decided to make her a new wardrobe for Christmas, and this time I had quite a bit of small pieces of this and that, most too small to work for anything child sized but perfect for doll clothes.

I discovered Pixie Faire patterns. They are fairly inexpensive and the clothes they turn out are impressive! My favourite are the Liberty Jane patterns. The Pixie Faire website has just added Journey Girls to the dolls they sell patterns for, but they weren't there yet when I made these before Christmas. I found, though, if I hit the 'shrink to fit' option when printing the pattern pieces and then lengthened them a tiny bit the patterns for the AG (American Girl) dolls fit Kelsey just fine. I didn't shrink the Peplum Top in the picture above, so it's a bit big. By the time I made it we had decided to get her another doll for this Christmas, a Newberry Doll from Sears, Allie. She's closer to the size of the AG dolls. We find all the clothes work can be worn on either doll and that's a real bonus.

Kelsey has a plastic upper chest as opposed to Allie's cloth body up to the neck so tops like this peplum one look better on Kelsey.

The skirt Allie is wearing came with her and the leggings are from the free pattern and tutorial by Sew Adollable. They are so easy I made a few pairs in different lengths. I checked off 'shrink to fit' for this pattern as well.

Peplum Top 18" Doll Clothes Pattern by Liberty Jane from Pixie Faire

Picture Day Outfit Flounce Skirt and Top for 18" Dolls by Libery Jane from Pixie Faire

Did you know? Pixie Faire gives a pattern away for FREE every Friday. Awesome, right? They also have free tutorials and patterns, so go take a look!

http://www.pixiefaire.com/blogs/freebies-and-giveaways