Category Archives: Doll Berets

“A Rosy Outlook”

My Little Darling, Alice, is forever contemplating life and the world with a positive attitude. Actually all three of my Little Darlings are like that, and they remind me on a daily basis to do the same. Really, though, how can one be gloomy gazing at their beautiful and sweet faces!

Our latest blast of springtime hasn’t made it difficult to have a rosy outlook either. Spring has been here in the Chicago area for a good many days now, and I am spoiled beyond being spoiled, if that’s possible. The warmth and sunshine feels heavenly, and I am enjoying every second of it!

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Just like our weather, Alice’s new ensemble is all warmth and sunshine. The dress features the tiniest pink roses in shades of warm pink and pretty green. The background is a deep ivory or light maize color. Ivory scalloped French lace edges the hemline. A hand dyed rayon ribbon sash ties in a bow at the back of the dress.

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The wool sweater is knit with panels of lace on the center back, down the center of each sleeve, and a narrower panel along each front. Tiny bullion stitched rosebuds mingle with the knitted lace on the sweater’s front.

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A beret that matches the sweater is knit from my beret pattern. A pair of embroidered rosebuds and a hand made pom pom embellish this tiny beret.

Accessories to complete this ensemble include a crocheted flower basket filled with a paper wrapped bunch of blossoms, a bracelet, and tights.

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Alice’s “A Rosy Outlook” ensemble will be available tonight (February 21, 2017) at 7:00 pm CST, cindyricedesigns.com.

BTW, I am so sorry about the technology problems last night which made me unable to publish my website at 7:00. I stumbled upon a work around which will hopefully prevent it from happening tonight.

I hope you all are having a great Tuesday! Thank you so much for visiting with me today. Bye for now! ❤

New Knitting Pattern

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Happy Friday to everyone! I finished my sweater dress pattern (earlier than expected, yay!) for the Little Darlings. If you read yesterday’s blog post, “A Little Wish for Spring”, you saw the sample I made for this pattern. (The beret Alice is wearing is from my beret pattern.)

This sweater dress pattern has two sleeve lengths, short (shown) and elbow length. I’ve also included two dress lengths. I made the shorter length for “A Little Wish for Spring”. The longer length is the same width, but with 8 additional rows. The pattern guides you through the raglan bodice and then the increases to form the a-line skirt shape. BTW, as most of my knitting patterns are, this dress is knit all in one piece! The dress is made with fingering weight wool; I used Palette from Knit Picks in Blossom Heather.

My sweater patterns are made with ease to be worn over a dress. This sweater dress pattern, however, is made so that the dress fits on the doll without ease. It is a cute, fitted bodice, no bagginess. Dianna Effner created the most adorably sculpted Little Darling dolls, so I like to highlight their cuteness when I design for them.

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The sweater dress is the perfect canvas for embroidery or other embellishment. I’ve included photos from some of my other Little Darling sweater dress embroidery to spark you creativity.

This pattern is available on Ravelry.

Bye for now! Thanks for stopping by!

“A Little Wish for Spring”

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So far winter has not gotten the best of me. It should have really; we’ve had a LOT of extremely gloomy days! However, I am enjoying the coziness inside my house with cups of tea, twinkle lights around the window, and a fire in the fireplace.

So . . . Alice and I are only sending out “A Little Wish for Spring”. It is so nice to see roses, even if they are the embroidered kind.

I chose Alice to model this ensemble because she looked the prettiest in it. Her coloring goes perfectly with warm, neutral, and rosy colors. This pink yarn is a little bit neutral—it is a heathered yarn with very faint hints of lavender and warm red. So all three primary colors are accounted for to make this yarn a neutral color even if it is “pink”.

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Alice’s beret features a hand made silk ribbon bow in a hand dyed warm lavender with ecru pearls decorating the center. (Alice’s beret is knit from my beret pattern which is available for your knitting pleasure.)

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I chose the embroidery colors from my notes when I made Patsy’s sweater dress. I added the very pale peachy pink colonial knots for a pop of light. You can see Patsy’s sweater dress set here.

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I am currently working on this sweater dress knitting pattern which will be ready for purchase very soon. It will have two sleeve length options and two dress length options. This is the short sleeved and shorter length version. The Little Darlings have adorably shaped arms and legs which I like to show off.

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