Long Sleeve Sweater Dress Free Crochet Pattern for Large Strawberry Shortcake Styling Doll, Disney Princess dolls, and Barbie dolls

Created by Paperdollmom, Copyright, 2015

Materials needed: Impeccable Yarn and a size I hook

Beginning at the bottom of the dress:

-Chain 23, DC in 3rd chain from the hook
-DC across, chain 3, turn. Continue to do so until you have completed 5 rows of DC.
-DC in first 3 stitches, chain 4, skip 4, DC in next stitch
-Now start working the sleeve of the arm. [Chain 3, and now work a total of 12 DC around the armhole, the first chain 3 counting as 1. Slip stitch to the top of the first, chain 3, and continue to work in rounds until the arm is a total of 4 rows. Finish off the arm.]
-Starting with the yarn once again, making sure to start with a slip stitch through the top of the very last DC in the main row. DC in the next 6 stitches, chain 4, skip 4. DC in the next stitch.
-Repeat [ ] to complete the second arm hole.
-Starting with the yarn once again, making sure to start with a slip stitch through the top of the very last DC in the main row. DC in the last 2 stitches of the row. Chain 3, turn.
-DC across while decreasing 7 stitches across.
-Now slip stitch down half of the back of the dress on that one side only, then slip stitch down the last half of the back of the dress with both sides together to close only the bottom half of the dress.
-Finish off the last yarn ends (there should have been a total of 6 on the entire project).
-Cut a strand of yarn, knotting both ends to prevent fraying. Use this yarn strand to tie the top half of the back of the dress together in a bow.

 

*The flower hair accessory in Strawberry's hair was created using a flower loom in the normal way to create a simple flower. I then took a bobby pin and slip it through the back of the flower to place in her hair.

The same sweater dress on a Barbie doll.

 

The same sweater dress on a Mattel Disney Princess doll.

 

Happy Crocheting!

 

 

Play-doh what? Play-doh clothes!

While I was at Target yesterday I picked up a bunch of new Play-doh. My youngest is the one that mainly uses Play-doh, and she loves it. She has a favorite Ken doll of hers (that she named Ken Yum Heffley) that she strips down and creates all kinds of Play-doh clothes for him. She is kind of amazing! Today I decided that I would make some Play-doh outfits for a few dolls with her, which got my oldest joining in on the fun as well. Here are our creations:

I decided to give my new Strawberry Shortcake doll a new dress, my oldest gave Anna beautiful new swimwear, and my youngest gave her new 5th Harmony doll quite a detailed new look! Can you tell my youngest is really into this?

Our second round I produced a tutu with accessories for my ballerina Barbie, my oldest has her Evil Queen sporting a beach look, and my youngest gave Briar Beauty a new summer look! I had never done this when I was a kid, but I wish the idea  had come to me back then. It is a really fun (and inexpensive!) way for girls to be creative with their dolls. My youngest has a birthday not far off and I ordered her some pretty awesome Play-Doh playsets. I can't wait to see what is created with them! Now that the Play-doh fun is done, I am ready for some TV and a nap!

book talk: with Strawberry Shortcake

I am still not feeling that great today, but I dragged myself out of the house, basically so my girls would get out of the house. We went shopping at Target, spent way too much money. I decided to spoil my husband this Valentine's Day and got him quite a bit that I think he will like. We also stumbled upon new 5th Harmony Barbie Dolls! They had exactly one of each of the girls, that was it. I am guessing they just recently put them out and hadn't sold any yet. I didn't even known they were coming out with these dolls in the Barbie line. My girls really like 5th Harmony, our whole family watched them all come together through X Factor. I decided to be a nice momma and let them each pick one out. They were elated! After Target we ate some lunch, then it was off to Toys R Us, mainly because I wanted to browse through the dolls and see what was new. If you couldn't tell, I am kind of in love with dolls, paper dolls, Barbie dolls, anything and all. I usually buy them for myself with the intentions of using them as models to crochet clothes, and then when I feel I wont crochet much more for a specific doll, I pass it onto my daughters. I sort of made an inner resolution this year to hold off on buying so many dolls and to focus on doing crafty things with dolls that I already own.

 I have been pretty good about it, I think. I did buy that Winx Club Icy Doll (that I absolutely love). I knew if I didn't snag her I would never see her again. (Does that sound like too much rationalizing?) Tonight I caved in and purchased a Strawberry Shortcake Styling Doll (one of those larger ones). I have been eyeing her since before Christmas, and truth be told, there is something nostalgic about Strawberry Shortcake, as I grew up with the original versions, and I have just never bought any of the Strawberry Shortcake dolls over these past years since they have made their appearance (though we own many of the DVDs). Anyways, the doll was 25% off, so that seemed to justify the purchase in my mind. I have been looking to get a larger, more childlike doll in appearance, so this one is perfect. It allows me to reminisce in my mind over childhood memories and gives me a new (different body shaped) doll to create for. And I just have to say, I watch and follow a lot of doll collectors online, and I never understand why Strawberry Shortcake is so overlooked! How do you not find her adorable? Plus she smells just like strawberries (yep, just like the originals!).
After leaving Toys R Us we headed to the public library (not our base library unfortunately, which I miss). I had gotten an email the other day, apparently a second notice of an overdue book. What happened to libraries actually sending out the first notice? I know I had never gotten it! I ended up having to search beneath my youngest's bed, amidst everything else that seems to collect there, to find a specific American Girl book. It is now returned, new books collected, and we are back in our warm home! I cannot seem to get the chill out of me though, and am looking forward to staying in the rest of the weekend, relaxing, keeping warm, and getting better. I did snap a few photos at the library to share in this blog post. Since I wanted to start utilizing our library more than a bookstore, I thought some fun photos of books that caught my eye at the library might add a bit of fun to it for me. Most of what will catch my eye is in the kids, as that is where most of our time at the library is spent, but who says kids books can't be fun?

I am kind of out of words with this one. I am not sure if this is a new addition, 3 giant brown teddy bears in a corner, or if I have just never seen these before. I am guessing they are new, I cannot believe that I would have just overlooked this bear pile. Something about stuffed things in public areas for all kids to use grosses me out. I just imagine that they are harboring about a million germs inside them, just waiting to creepy crawl onto my kids. Bleh.

I am always so impressed with the Nancy Drew shelf wherever I go, bookstore or library. I am always so amazed at how many mysteries there are to dive into with Miss Nancy!

I snapped this photo just because I thought the cover of this book was pretty beautiful. I probably should have checked it out to see what it was all about, but by this point in the day I was just really needing to get home and into pajamas, and that was about all I could focus on.

I'm not sure I will get much accomplished the rest of the weekend, I have plans to plop on the couch and forever not move! If I am feeling more up to it, I may write up a review about the Strawberry Shortcake doll, or maybe even figure out what craftiness I want to do with her. Hope you are all staying warm yourself!

2 Year Blogaversary!

Today is my Two Year Blogaversary! I never wrote anything about it last year, but this year I thought I might post something small.
I first wanted to share how I came about starting this blog. In 2011 I created a blog named Inflammation of..., which was vital for me in releasing a lot of my grief during the time my oldest daughter was very ill, which eventually became something that I had to break away from completely to help myself heal. I closed down that blog and created a new one called A Time for Paper Dolls, where I shared many paper doll sets that I created, eventually closing that one after I ached to write more, which leads me to Haunted Verse! I started this blog in February 2013 to give myself a place to express my emotions which tend to constantly course through my mind, through my creative writings pieces, making sure to carve out some time for myself to write everyday. I have written many poems, short stories, and flash fiction that can be found throughout my archives, though I have shifted more specifically towards journaling this year. A couple of months ago I decided to also start posting my crochet patterns that I create to share with fellow crocheters, so I think my blog is pretty well balanced with the things I love!
I am proud to say that as of today, I have had 12,593 pageviews to my blog, and my most viewed post is my Simple Crochet Snowflake Crochet Pattern, with 564 views. For those of you who would like a few more statistics, diving deep into my archives, my most viewed creative writing piece is my poem titled Power of Pain, with 100 views. My most viewed  acrostic poem is Lamentation, viewed 69 times, and my most viewed flash fiction piece, is Sorceress, with 48 views. And just for fun, my three favorite short stories I've shared on here are A Love Song, The Box, and Scorched Memories, with such a low number of views I wont even mention!
I seem to have a steady rate of viewers, probably mostly free crochet pattern seekers being guided here through Ravelry, though I'd like to think many come to read my random thoughts. I hope to continue to share myself through this blog this year and to become more acquainted with the fellow bloggers that visit!

Grantchester

So I have been thoroughly obsessed with Masterpiece Theater's new mystery show, Grantchester. Whenever it comes to my mind I am secretly wishing it was Sunday so that I could anticipate the new episode. I am not sure why I like it so much, I tend to usually gravitate towards their classic shows, mysteries not so much. I like mysteries, though I have not really gotten too wrapped up in any that I have seen. But Grantchester, that is something all different! Sidney Chambers is an intriguing clergy man, mysterious, conflicted, and talented in solving murders. What more could you ask for?

 

 

Anyone else enjoying this new series?

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I went to bed last night with my throat feeling suspicious, and awoke today with a confirmation, I am sick. I've basically been a sleeping dragon on our couch all day, ready to spew fire at whoever disturbs me. My youngest was needing a lot of help with her math today, my oldest was having issues with her laptop, so school was put away after about 2 hours in so that I could plop my scaly fire breathing body on our couch once again, giving in to the inevitable. I tried watching a few TV shows until I realized that I always fell asleep before I ever saw the endings. So I just set it to a Big Bang Theory marathon and let it go. Then I could dose in and out of my sleepy dreams always aware of what was happening. I am feeling a bit flustered as I seem to be making no connection at all to do any sort of energy work on myself, so I must muster through it. My oldest daughter is also feeling under the weather in a different way. She has been getting a lot of aches and pains here and there, and everywhere. Why? Could be growing pains, side effect from one of her meds, strain from her dance classes, arthritis symptoms, or just plain Crohn's discomfort. She is taking it all like a champ with a much needed hug here and there. So our house is moving quite slow today, simply awaiting bedtime so that we can crash. Hopefully all will be well once again tomorrow!

Homemade Replacement Cutie Pops Hair

I've had this idea for some time, and just finally went ahead and followed through. I thought I would put the idea out there for all those moms with little girls who have lost all their Cutie Pops hair, or have found their hair in a disastrous clump! It is quite simple, and allows one to really get creative by picking different types and colors of yarn. So here we go:

Materials needed: yarn, scissors, pencil, thick sheet of foam, and crochet hook (optional)

 

Step #1: You will need a thick sheet of foam that can be found in craft stores, costing about $.99 each. These sheets are thicker than the general foam sheets found, and one sheet will make a TON of bases for new Cutie Pops hair. You will need to trace the heart at the bottom of an existing hair piece, which is no easy task with the nob poking out of the bottom! But this heart does not have to be perfect. I would suggest keeping your first one to use to trace for others so that you don't have to keep doing this awkward step over and over again. You can also gently push the foam sheet against the heart on the head until it leaves an impression. Then you can cut that out to use as your base. Make sure that your heart fits snuggly into the heart shaped hole on the doll's head. 

 

Step #2: You now need to cut a small slit into each side of the heart to allow a piece of yarn to slide into it. Make sure to use the same color as the yarn you will use for the pony tail so that it can easily blend in. 

 

Step #3: Cut a bunch of strands of yarn all the same length, making sure that the length is exactly how long you want the pony tail to be when it is folded in half. So, basically, the length should be double how long you want the hair to be in the end. You can cut a lot of yarn or a small amount of yarn. You can mix yarns or use all the same, it is up to you!

 

Step #4: Pull the yarn around the foam heart snug and place the bundle of yarns pieces you cut in the previous step on the opposite side of the heart, wrapping that initial strand of yarn that is slid into the sides of the heart, around the bundle, tying a knot. Make sure to try and place this knot around the center of the larger bundle of yarn pieces.

 

Step #5: Cut another strand long enough to blend in with the rest, tying it around the entire bundle of yarn as depicted in the picture. Tie this yarn in a knot and allow it to blend with the rest of the yarn. This is also a good time to snip all the ends so that they are even.

 

This is what your new pony tail should look like! You may need to make 2 if you own a Cutie Pops doll with 2 pigtails. You can actually be finished if this works for you, or you could take the crochet hook and any type of yarn to crochet a little hair thing to go around the base of the pony tail. For mine, I used an I hook and Red Heart yarn, making a loop of 6 chains and 1 row of DC stitches. Very simple! You could also just create a long chain with a couple of rows of SC to use as a ribbon to tie around the pony tail. Or even an actual ribbon! Just be creative and have fun!

 

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it will help add a bit of beauty and fun to an old doll! And if you want to crochet a matching dress for your Cutie Pops, you can click here for a free pattern!