Crochet Outfit for Baby Doll

There’s one guarantee in life and that is if kids can take the clothes off a doll, they will. I don’t want to get into the kind of trouble the kids in our program get into with that. Instead, I try to make sure all the dolls have permanent clothes. If I find a naked doll (yes, this is a thing), I put it away until I can properly outfit her with locked-on, can’t-take-off, clothes. Even THEN, if I don’t make it fool proof, they find a way.

I was rummaging through an old drawer when I stumbled upon several naked dolls that I must have confiscated over the years. I’m sure I had every intention of making them clothes, or at least, permanently sewing on their original outfits. These dolls are so cute and the kids absolutely love playing with them, so I pulled them out and took them home.

I didn’t have time to make them outfits at work before school let out but I was scheduled to work a week of our summer program. The majority of the kids in the summer program are not kids I know. They are from our sister school. I figured making crochet outfits for dolls would make a nice ice-breaker with them while introducing them to crochet. It worked beautifully. I  pulled out the doll and started making her an outfit and I had a circle of kids crocheting with me in no time.

I was only there one week but I was pleasantly surprised that quite a few of them (three Kinders!) picked up chaining fairly quickly and I had two older girls trying out single crochet. It was a lot of fun. They wanted to help dress the doll so they made her a necklace and a bracelet.

Now she’s ready to go out and play!

Another Crochet Phone Case

The last few days of the school year brought about a slow-down in crochet projects. I’ve been wanting a pink phone case so I decided to make one. The kids liked it so much, I threw it in the prize box. Then one day, I forgot my phone case so I ‘borrowed’ the one in the prize-box. The kids called me on it so I made a new one and put theirs back in there. I’m pretty sure someone picked it so it’s a good thing I corrected the error of my ways!

I used two strands of yarn for this one, pink and white, and used the knit stitch and simple stitch in tunisian crochet. At first I was worried it would be too thick but it was perfect. It hugged my phone just right. 🙂

Crochet Graduation Hats

The school year is over, and on the last week we have a party for our 5th graders as we send them off to middle school. It has become a tradition that I make them all a small crochet graduation hat as a keepsake.

This is from the tutorial I posted on YouTube

The caps I gave away last year

I made the little caps again but couldn’t decide how I wanted to present them. In the past, I have placed them on top of a stack of supplies like pencils and pens. I have dangled them from a candy wreath and sometimes I just handed them over. Candy is always a hit, so this year, I filled a baggie with Skittles and tried to make it look like a little face. I stuffed the bag into the hat. I wasn’t sure it would work but the kids loved it.

The latest round.

The face isn’t very artistic but the kids loved it.

Around this time of year, I get more views and questions on YouTube about the graduation hat. A few times, someone has asked me how to adapt it to make a real hat. Well, you can do the same thing as in the video but just make it bigger but after thinking about it, a few minor adjustments might be needed to make it sit right. I realized some might appreciate a video on it and as  I have no other pressing projects, I started working on a wearable version.

So far so good

I plan to make a YouTube video on it if it works out. So far, the head part seems to fit just right. I’m practicing with some yarn I had on hand which is why it’s grey, but once I have the pattern ironed out, I’ll pick a school color. I’m seeing a lot of red/burgundy and blue so it will probably be one of those colors.

Stay tuned, this might turn out interesting. 🙂