Heart Shaped Sweater

The first pattern for the Dolly Culture Pattern Archives. Many thanks to the talented Anne-Gwenn for sharing her wonderful creations with the community. You may have seen her work on the SqueakyMonkey Flickr stream and other friends she’s done trades with. We have much more inspiration coming your way. But, first we need to make this website look good!

We encourage you to be creative and take these patterns as a starting point. Practice your skills - take it to another level. Have fun! Lula Bebop has done her best to make these patterns easy to understand and we hope you enjoy them. Please comment here or see her blog (where you can also download the pattern in French) if you have comments, suggestions or questions.

Beginner Tips for Tiny Crochet

1. Make sure you know the basic stitches and are comfortable with crocheting straight with, say, a 2mm crochet before any attempt at the patterns described here. I personally feel anything made with thread gauge larger than 20 seems bulky on a Blythe doll, and the patterns here are made according to my own (subjective but still) taste.
2. For starters, choose a light color. Counting tiny single crochet stitches in black dentelle thread is not for the faint heart.
3. Don’t be greedy when buying your first crochet thread bobbin. Choose a good, high quality thread, that won’t fray easily. You will be making mistakes and will have to unmake then re-crochet. You want to be able to do that easily, and you want the end result to be rewarding to your efforts. You will try with mohair later. Tating thread is a good choice. DMC Cebelia and Olympus Gold are examples of good quality references I know which won’t fray easily, but I’m sure there are others not as freely available on my side of the world. Pearled cotton thread frays a bit more, so if you are a total beginner, wait for the next learning stage and you will be more comfortable.
4. Use a steel crochet hook to go with this thread.
5. “High” stitches are easier to start with. Keep the patterns in single crochet stitches for when you will be comfortable with a small gauge.
6. When crocheting for dolls’ clothes, I always use a crochet hook smaller than the gauge that the thread prescribes. It gives a tighter result.
7. There are excellent resources on the web for crochet sizes equivalents, free patterns and techniques or basic stitches tutorial. Try which also provides links to a lot of free patterns (please always check the terms of use).

The pattern is done in double crochet stitches (db), from bottom to top.
This model has been realized using a 1mm crochet and a size 8 pearled cotton (a gauge supposed to be crochetted with crochet size 1.25mm , but I like a tighter stitch for dolls clothes). The exact reference I used for the model in the pictures is DMC Petra 8.

You Need To Know:

• how to chain stitch (ch)
• how to make a simple crochet stitch (sc)
• how to make a double crochet stitch (db)
• how to crochet two double crochet stitches together (2dbtog)
• how to do a slip stitch (ss)

Abbreviations: skip * stitch (sk*)

Special stitch:

• picot: 3 chain stitches, a slip stitch in the first chain stitch.
• fantasy stitch: |sc, 1 ch, sk1, 1db, 1 picot, 1db in same stitch, 1 picot, 1db in same stitch, 1ch, sk1|, repeat from | to |
• Optional: you can add pearls to the fantaisy stitch. Having previously put pearls on the thread, make one of them slip between the last stitch and your crochet while doing the middle chain stitch of each picot.

At the beginning of each row, 3 chain stitches for turning count as a stitch.
When a row starts by 2 chain stitch, it is because a decreasing is needed. A chain 2 followed by a db is equivalent to 2 db together. This way, you form one stitch with two.

Main Body Piece
(1) On a base made of 35 chain stitches:

• rank 1: 3 ch, db to end. (35 stitches)
• rank 2: 3 ch, db to end. (35 stitches)
• rank 3: 3 ch, 1 db in the same stitch, db to last, 2db in the last stitch (37 stitches)
• rank 4: 3 ch, 1 db in the same stitch, db to last, 2db in the last stitch (39 stitches)
• rank 5: 3 ch, 2db in one stitch for the following stitches: number 15,16,17,18 and 22, 23, 24, 25. 1db in each stitch for the rest of the stitches. This will make the shape of the two cups. (47 stitches)

On this base, you will mount the two sides of the back and the front separately. Numbers in green show where to start crochetting once you have finished and cut at each step.

Right Back:

• rank1: 3ch, 1db in the same stitch, 1db in each of next 5 stitches, 2dbtog (8 stitches on a 8 stitches base)
• rank 2: 3ch, 1db in each of next 6 stitches, 2db in last stitch (9 stitches)
• rank 3: 3ch, db to end (9 stitches)
• rank 4: repeat rank 3

Cut, close the thread.

Front:

• skip 3 stitches from the last stitch from the left back, attach the thread on the 4th (this will form the armhole, see position 2 in green on the picture).
• rank1: 2ch, 1db in each of the 4 next stitches, 5 db in the same stitch (cup), sk2, 1sc in each of next 9 stitches, sk2, 5db in the same stitch, 1db in each of the next 3 stitches, 2dbtog.
• rank 2: 2ch, 1db in each of the next 3 stitches, 2db in each of the next 5 db, sk2, 1sc in each of the next 5 stitches, sk2, 2db in each of the next 5 stitches, 1db in the next 2 stitches, 2dbtog.
• rank3: 3ch, 1db in next 2 stitches, 1db in next 10 db (cup), sk2, 1sc, sk2, db to end.

Left Shoulder:

• rank 1: 3ch, 1db in each 2 following stitches, 2dbtog (4 stitches on a 5 stitches base)
• rank2 : 3ch, db to end.(4 stitches)
• repeat rank 2 twice (4 rows in total)

Cut, close the thread.

Right Shoulder:

• attach the thread on the 5th stitch counting from the end (see position 3 on picture).
• rank 1: 2ch, 1db in each of the 4 following stitches (4 stitches on a 5 stitch base)
• rank 2: 3ch, db to end (4 stitches)
• repeat rank 2 twice (4 rows in total)

Cut, close the thread.

Left Back:

• skip 3 stitches from the last stitch of the front piece, attach the thread on the 4th (see position 4 on picture).
• rank 1: 2ch, 1 db in each of the next 6 stitches, 2db in the last stitch. (8 stitches on a 8 stitches base).
• rank 2: 3ch, 1 db in the same stitch, db to end (9 stitches).
• rank 3: 3ch, db to end.(9 stitches).
• rank 4: repeat rank 3.

Cut, close the thread.

Sew the shoulder parts to the back parts (you can do it with your crochet using slip stitches to gather both sides)

Arms:
Since I don’t like to sew, the arms parts are crocheted in round around the armholes.

• Join the thread under the arm hole, on the middle stitch of the 3, on the main body piece.
• rank 1: 3ch, 1 db in next stitch, 2db on the side of each db around, 1db on last stitch, join in the first stitch with a slip stitch (25 stitches without counting the slip stitch), turn
• rank 2: 3ch, |2dbtog, 1db in next stitch| repeat until the end and join with a slip stitch (17 stitches), turn
• rank 3: 3ch, 1db in each db around, join with a slip stitch, (17 stitches) turn
• repeat rank 3, 3 times (6 ranks in total)
• rank 7: 1 ch, start the fantaisy stitches with 1sc in the same stitch as the first ch. Finish with with a slip stitch in the first sc.

Finishing

Bottom lace:

• Join the thread at the start of the beginning chain of the main body piece.
• 1ch, 1 sc in the same stitch, fantasy stitch and finish with two sc.

Back piece:
Add three rows on the vertical side of each side of the back, in order to sew snaps : 1sc on the side of sc, and 5 sc in total on the side of 2 db. (the count depends on your personal natural tension.

Hide the thread ends into the sweater with an embroidery needle.
Sew two snaps to close the sweater.

Copyright 2007 kittens@throwingkittens.eu Pattern is courtesy of Lula Bebop. Please do not redistribute on forums and other public places. Please direct your friends to her blog or Dolly Culture. Thank you for your generosity Lula! If you make something with these patterns - let us know! We’d love to see it!

Check out these books for more information on how to crochet.

Written by: Tiffany