03-06-2020

Found a little vintage brown button with a wavy shape that echoes the fan-and-posts pattern - to be honest, that’s the most interesting element of this garment, and it wasn’t part of the actual pattern! I made a crochet chain loop for the button using the cast-off end of the wool, and attached it back to the edge of the garment with a slipstitch before darning in the end to secure it. The size is already rather small, so this will give her a little extra width.

27-05-2020

I’m giving up on the pants. Compared to the (very successful) Dolly Knickers the crotch is clearly coming out far too wide to fit between the doll’s legs, even without the added frill - but more importantly, crochet really doesn’t produce a suitable fabric for small-scale underwear. I could size them down, but if I go back to the small hook then the fabric is going to be even stiffer and more helmet-like, and the poor creature is going to end up with a cricket box rather than miniature knickers.

25-05-2020

Still too small. I ended up starting off on a 3mm hook, changing up to a 3.5mm hook for rows 5-8, and then a 4mm hook for the armhole and body rows, which just about squeezed large enough for a 9-inch chest..
On the other hand, the pants when made on a 4mm hook seem to be coming out to fit a 10-inch waistline at the moment and, being made in double crochet, are of course as stiff as a hat. :-(

24-05-2020

Exactly the same problem as last time - the width at armhole level is only 7½“. And in fact this is just what you’d expect from 49 stitches at a tension of 26 stitches to 4”; I wonder if the 12” Sasha Baby actually has a smaller body than Clara’s 12-inch baby doll.

I think the 2.5mm hook is really too tight for this wool anyway, so it won’t hurt to go up a size or so.

23-05-2020

No real idea what sort of wool and hook were used in the original pattern - I found some scrap wool in what I’m guessing is a light DK weight, tried it with a 2mm hook, and happened to get the stipulated gauge, which I hope is more accurate than on some of the previous doll patterns! This wool is probably a little thick; the double crochet of the yoke is coming out as stiff as if for a hat pattern.

Apart from the plain yoke, this top is actually pretty much identical to the previous one (Sasha Baby Crochet Top), so I plan to use a variant shell pattern in place of the 2tr, 2ch, 2tr shells. Probably this 5tr fan and intervening posts pattern.

Fortunately the stitch count of 49 sts to set up for this row happens to work out perfectly…