Little Boy Blue Revisited

Our family is expanding unto the fourth generation. The newest addition will be born this summer. He will be my Great Great Nephew. On the shower invitation was a request to replace the normal baby shower card with a book. The family of the soon-to-be GGN are really appreciative of hand made/home made presents which fit nicely into my plans since I was in the process of  knitting a blue baby outfit (sweater, soaker and booties).  I decided to press my luck and create a 'book'. I thought of  making the book out of linen and make t-shirt transfers and press them on the cloth. However, I couldn't find linen close to home. There might have been some at Joann Fabrics, but Joann Fabrics was in  the middle of moving from one location to another and I didn't feel courageous enough to face the commotion of the move.  I rethought the process and decided to use a photo album and turn it into a book. To coordinate the book and the outfit I determined that an expanded edition of Little Boy Blue would be appropriate.

I had an enjoyable time making both the outfit and the book. I hope my GGN and his family enjoy them as well.

Bride and Groom Dolls

        

I am very new to blogging  and recently new, again, to knitting and crocheting, since I hadn't done either in twenty years.  I took up hook and needle this time  in October of 2012 in order to make nice Christmas gifts that didn't cost $20.00 a pop, as I had over 40 gifts to give. It was down to the wire on Christmas Eve day before all gifts were completed but I felt like Super Knitter when everything was wrapped and ready.
It felt very strange not to have a crochet hook or a pair of knitting needles in my hand when the new year began, so I kept on, looking for any reason to browse through wool stores and web sites with yarn for sale. I made a baby blanket and sweater for a friend who had just had a child,  a few hats and scarves just in case...
Then I got an invitation to the bridal shower of my niece. What can you possibly knit or crochet for a bridal shower? I remembered that, back in the day (way back in the day, actually )  someone would dress plastic dolls to resemble the  bridal party dresses and suits and they would be attached to the cars in the bridal party.  Knowing nothing of colors or styles for the BP *, I thought further and decided to knit/crochet just the  bride and groom.  I doubt they will be placed on the hood of the bridal limo, but I am hoping they will be a keepsake that is precious to the bride-to-be.
When I decided to try my hand at creating the bridal pair, I looked on the net for patterns. I found a blog that featured a Dr. Who David Tennent doll, including the jacket, at  http://snuffykin.livejournal.com/39857.html . It was great fun to do and turned out well, but when I started the bride I used a different pattern, Lovely Lucy, from Red Heart, http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/lovely-lucy-doll and the sizes were incompatable.  I am an avid Dr. Who fan, and David Tennant  is one of my favs, but he just isn't cut out for a groom, I guess.  So I redid the groom, clothes and all.
The clothes were a combination of patterns, resized to fit the completed dolls, and I used the following patterns as guides:
Groom
Groom's trousers - http://bitstobuy.blogspot.com/2013/01/another-free-knitting-pattern-in-dolls.html   Groom's jacket - which I modified a great deal, not using the knit/purl borders on the pattern, which made it look too much likea sweater and not a jacket  http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L10640.html?noImages .  For the groom's vest I used the top that was included in the lovely lucy doll patterns noted above.
Bride
The bridal dress was mostly my own in-my-head pattern. I did use the dress pattern in the L10640 Lion Brand pattern as a guide,  making it on straight needles, not ciruclar, and sewing the whole outfit together  once the top and bottom were done, but I used a pattern of stitches called the granite relief stitch, found at http://www.jfcampbell.us/anne/patterns.htm .
Shoes
The shoes, which probably could have been crocheted but aren't, are made from craft foam sheets,  such as the kind found online at http://www.craftkitsandsupplies.com/foam-crafts-c-5.html or a craft store; Michaels, AC Moore , Walmart or even Joann Fabrics. I measured the feet on the dolls and used the pattern below to create the shoes.
Knitting blogs, crocheting blogs, any blog from a crafty, sharing person, are a wonderful source of helpful hints, information  and inspiration. I hope I will become one of those bloggers. 
There are many free patterns to choose from on the internet. A few sites I have found are:
http://www.patonsyarns.com/pattern.php?NEW_PATTERNS=1
http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/#gsc.tab=0
http://www.yarn.com/webs-knitting-free-pattern/
http://www.lionbrand.com/freePatterns.html
http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns
The Paton site, the Lion Brand , Red Heart and the yarn.com site also have yarn and patterns for sale. They are four  of my favorite window shopping sites for yarn. 
 *Bridal Party

Shoe Directions

Another view of the dolls