A Doll Dress and the Perks of Teaching Knitting

I’ve taught a bunch of kids and a few adults to knit, and every once in a while, that knitter will make something for me. I’ve gotten a variety of pot holders and bookmarks from the kids I’ve taught and a scarf and a hat from a close friend I taught to knit. These gifts are especially sweet not only because they are hand knit, but they’re part of an ongoing circle of the passing on of the craft.

My mom taught me to knit when I was around 12 years old, and she’s received a variety of gifts from me over the years. The most recent is a doll dress. 

I wish I could say it was an easy knit, but it was kind of a challenge. I started this first part of the pattern 3-4 times. This is the top of the dress–the neckline and the shoulders.

I’m not sure if my challenge was understanding the pattern or the placement of the stitch markers, or what, but eventually, I figured it out.

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Once I got that beginning down, things went a little more smoothly.

The way the neckline, shoulders and sleeves are knit is called raglan. It was all one piece. Then I had to pull off the live stitches, put some yarn through them to hold them for later, continue down the bodice, and complete the skirt.

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I’m not sure why, but I decided to put the snaps on the back next. I think I was worried about how they’d all match up. I don’t work with snaps much. The sewing was a little messy, but those snaps are not coming off. 

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The next challenge was trying to match the sleeve colors from where I left off on the sleeves and to each other. The skein of yarn is ombre/self-striping. The color goes from that deep blue at the top of the dress to purple, lavender, all the way through the orange, down to the yellow-gold and then back from yellow-gold to orange to red, etc., so if I had just picked up each sleeve where I was in the yarn, one would be yellow-gold. The other may have been the same or the yarn may have started to move to orange.

I went through the skein to find the purple to match where I left off on the sleeve to the lavender at the end of the sleeve. Then I did that for the other side as well. It was actually kind of hard because I not only needed to match colors at the start of the sleeve, but I had to be sure the yarn would turn to lavender at the right time.

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Thank goodness the knitting project stories I share on this blog have a happy ending though. The dress turned out really nice!

Here’s the finished front:

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And the back:

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One might ask, where’s the doll? And why does your mom have a doll?

Well, these pictures are from before I gave my mom the dress and thus, the dress had not yet been put on the doll. The next time I am home for a visit, I am pretty sure the doll will be wearing it.

As to why my mom has a doll . . . she had worked at a shop that made doll clothes for many years. When the shop closed, the owners allowed the employees to take any of the display dolls. My mom took them up on it and now this doll resides at my childhood home and has a variety of festive and fashionable outfits.

Peace Out (and In),

Julie

 

More about knitting!
The Danger I Live: Knitting a Hat
The Curl is Real // Trying to Flatten Stockinette Stitch
Designing a Cowl
My Crafty Side Hustle