Clothing a doll without a pattern is a challenging lark ............

Well, hello there......

Autumn continues to barrel along at pace here. The winds have almost stripped the trees of their leaves and, as I have said before, it is dark by 5pm, if we are lucky. Mostly earlier. Jean and I declared today was an "Out to coffee somewhere different" day, so we went across the valley to a little tea shop where we had wonderful coffee and free refills for £1, can you believe, and a breakfast baguette. Bacon and egg on a baguette. Paradise is across the valley.

There is a little interesting gift shop next door, so we wandered in to look at everything, and I got chatting with the delightful lady who owns it. We discussed bunting. It transpired that she is also a wedding planner and already has 6 weddings booked for next year. This could be interesting. And then I asked her if she was on Pinterest. What is that, she said.

Hah.

When we left 20 minutes later, she was signed up and browsing and the shop was running itself. She was SO excited. She may not be doing much else this weekend.

Now. Doll's clothes. I have no patterns but decided, how hard can it be. So I cut a pattern to fit a large doll and zapped it up roughly to see if the sizing was right.

You have no idea how deformed dolls are.

And how huge their hands and feet are.

Or the fact that their feet are at weird angles which require more space.

Or how out of proportion their heads are. The heads over which the pjs have to pass.

Effort #1 may have been a trifle large for Barbie.

So I cut a bigger pattern and made that up roughly. It looked huge.

The legs will not go on. The doll has FAT LEGS and feet which do not move.

So I made it even bigger. Put it on a table next to the doll and you think, oh, that is ridiculous.

No, it is not.

 It fits. The only trouble is that it fits the small doll I have here (with some room to spare in the pants department) and I believe Billy is larger. And obviously will have a larger head too. And I can't find any ribbing small enough to use in the stash, so I just made a large neckline. This pattern will require some modification, which will be including velcro fastenings down the front of the pj top. It will fit better if it does not have to contend with a massive cranium.

The ridiculously large pattern does not, however fit the large doll in residence. Even though the pattern looks huge enough to stuff a toddler into it with room to spare. All of a sudden, the very pricey doll's clothes in the shops are beginning to look like bargains, I tell you. I am better left making blankets. Or sleeping bags. Or things which do not require tiny hands to manipulate the fabric.

However, we are relaxing in the knowledge that Molly (aka the small one with the huge head and short fat legs) is now warm and toasty in the crib here at Moreglanny's house, and that half a newspaper has been used to make 3 sets of patterns which will need to be altered when Billy arrives, no doubt.

Life is all about having fun.

The boys do like snoozing....................