Scrap down- Stripy pink dress

My scrap down plans have been a little unsuccessful recently, I keep picking small projects that take an unexpectedly long time. However, this one was a fairly quick and simple pattern to make a doll dress.

Pattern: Soxxy dress by Fawn Pea

Yarn: Hand dyed superwash4 ply in raspberry sauce, either merino or bluefaced leicester

Needles: 2.5mm dpns Mods: Increased the length of each section (skirt, body and bib) to fit doll. Worked one strap from each bib section (front and back) and grafted to held three stitches on opposite part rather than working both from the back and sewing together.

This made a cute little dress, hopefully it will fit as I sized it using a paper outline of the doll. The skirt curls more than I want it to, the pattern instructions work one round of k1p1 rib to avoid this but I think it could have done with more or something like a seed stitch border.

FO Friday- My favourite finished object ever

This is going to be a longish post, with many photos. The FO for today is, as the title says, my favourite FO ever. It is my Niece's Christmas present, and has been a long time in the making.
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I wanted to make her a doll, but a normal looking playmate, not a fancy doll with curly hair and a frilly dress. I started with the pattern Maggie Beans & Friends by Nancy Anderson, it is a great pattern, but I made a few changes (of course). After the neck I worked the body with raglan shaping, it gave a better body shape than going round in circles and meant that I could knit the arms on, rather than knitting arms tubes and sewing them on. This makes the doll a bit more robust, she is for playing with, not looking at!
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The raglan shaping meant there was a row of holes along the increase lines, because of this I put the body stuffing and the plastic tube for the neck inside the foot part of a stocking before it went into the body.
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I was going to knit the legs on from the body, but couldn't get that to work, so I grafted the body closed. Then used a tapestry needle to work loops of skin colour going through the body and over a knitting needle. The legs were worked from these stitches, so they are firmly attached too. (there is a slightly blurry photo of this on my Ravelry project page). I am pleased with the end result of this. Not only are they firmly attached they swing nicely from the join, means she can sit easily and looks like she is moving rather than being all stiff (that is hard to describe, hopefully you know what I mean).
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For the hair I used slightly larger needles and brown yarn and followed the instructions for the head. At fringe level I cast off enough for the fringe and worked back and forth across the stitches to make the rest of the hair for the back of the head. Originally this was going to be a base for looping strands of hair, but I like it as it was and hopefully this will limit the chances of dolly (she is unnamed as yet) getting a haircut! Strands could still be added at a later date.
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Yarn wise she is a scrap and bargain bin wonder. The flesh colour came from a bargain bin, not sure what it is, Rowan of some sort I think, it may even have a little cashmere in it, it is very soft. One 50g ball was enough to make the head arms and legs. The body is made with some Patons smoothie. I am not keen on this yarn, it is very splitty. Hair and all her clothing were made from leftover scraps of yarn and fabric from other projects.
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Here she is:
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With some clothes:
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She has a fairly extensive wardrobe already, hence the large number of photos.

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Red beanie using leftovers from a cardigan
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Garter stitch scarf from literally the tiniest scraps of my charity knitting yarn

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Dress, this maxed out my sewing skills. It is more or less reversible, so technically two dresses for the price of one (the inside is navy blue).
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Woolly jumper, already shared as a scrap down this week, appropriately made from leftovers from a raglan jumper knitted this time last year.
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Very simple t shirt. Jersey fabric is good as it doesn't need hemming and the extra stretch should make it easier to put on.

She also now has some underwear made from the same fabric as it was the only jersey I had and attempts to use white cotton failed miserably. I was not going to make underwear as I thought the white body counts as knickers/pants/panties and a T-shirt, but it seems underwear is the current in thing in the land of the two year old. I had already taken all the photos by the time I made them though.
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Simplest skirt in the world- rectangle with funky selvage, sewn into a tube and a hem at the top to hold a length of elastic
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Trousers made from a fabric scrap, these gave me a little trouble as my first attempt just using two rectangles sewn at the sides and a v of stitching part way up the centre didn't work. I ended up with two rectangles with a smaller rectangle cut out from the middle top. These were sewn into tubes then the two tubes fixed together along the crotch. More elastic and a waistband to make sure they stay on.

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Itty bitty socks, just using a usual sock pattern worked over 30sts and about 20 rows for the leg and foot parts. Very fast to make (compared to a normal adult sock).
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And finally tiny shoes. I used a 4 ply sock yarn and followed the smallest size of Saartje's Bootees by Saartje de Bruijn. By sheer coincidence they fit perfectly. Only one strap instead of two and a popper to fix it, making the smallest mary jane shoes ever! I did try to find some welly boots online, but no joy
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Only one set of hat decreases and the Christmas knitting is finished! Just waiting on the bought items to be delivered now, surely that is the wrong way round, isn't the point of buying rather than knitting that it is faster?!

Scrap down- Toy sweater

I am still working away on my campaign to use up the unloved and neglected part balls that litter my stash.

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This week's effort is part of a bigger project that I will probably share on Friday, it is a doll sweater, made following Pull-Over for 16in Waldorf Dolls by Jennifer Constant, using some leftovers of Lion brand Wool ease in a dark green and 4.5mm needles.

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The first run through I followed the pattern as stated to work the body, it came out way too big so after a big of huffing and puffing and scowling at it I ripped it back. I am a little vague about where I went back to- I ended up with 64 sts around the body after casting on for the underarms. The sleeves have slightly different stitch counts, I think I missed picking up a YO increase when I was ripping it back. They do not look quite as different in real life as in this photo, plus it is for a toy so there is no way I am making it a third time!

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What pleases me even more about this project is this time last year I was making almost exactly the same sweater, in the same yarn, only in full grown man sized. Only this time it took a couple of hours rather than four solid weeks!