I wanted to make a matching sweater for my daughter’s America Girl doll so I needed to use the same yarn so to make it smaller I used size 6 needles and cast on 18 stitches, knit as directed until I had 22 stitches for the sleeves, then picked up 12 stitches along each side, knit the band as directed, did some of the increases for the back (should have done more) and used short rows to make the back longer and then only 2 garter rows for the hem.
It worked fantastically if I do say so myself!