Knitting my childhood outfit for Trudi

At the end of 2023 I decided to attempt a replication of an outfit my Nanna had knitted for my second birthday gift - a top and skirt with straps. I searched for the pattern she had used but wasn't able to find the exact pattern online, though I did find similar vintage patterns for knitted skirts with straps and knitted blouses which I was able to adapt and rescale for a 20 inch Sasha Studio doll. I commissioned some sandals to roughly match those I wore in one of the photos of me wearing the original outfit (thank you Lisa Hartley).

I bought 2 ply jumper weight Jamiesons & Smith of Shetland yarn (purchased via Woolwarehouse) to make the outfit and plotted out the flower garland design for the skirt on a spreadsheet grid, which is the tool I use for plotting out stranded knitting patterns. I don't think I got the proportions of the skirt and flower garland band quite right, and the skirt is a bit longer than the 'just above knee' look I had as a child. I knitted socks in finer yarn (1 ply), by Jamiesons of Shetland.

Trudi has had the outfit for several months now - I finished it before the Sasha Festival in Milton Keynes during June but was too busy and stressed about job issues to do anything about photographing it at the time. So at the close of 2024 it seems a fitting time to look back and reflect on this creative project before planning future craft projects for 2025 (after I finish knitting a current project for one of my daughters). 

I have photographed Trudi standing on the quilt given to me by my friend JoAnn when we attended the 2022 Sasha Doll festival in the USA. Despite adjusting the colours a bit on the computer, the skirt colour looks more orange in the photo than it does in real life.

Photo of toddler me in the original outfit with Trudi wearing the replica knitted outfit

Me wearing the knitted outfit on my second birthday

Me wearing the knitted outfit outdoors in the street where I grew up in Cape Town

Hats for Jenny and Lexie

I have designed a hat pattern for Jenny and Lexie, my Heather Maciak dolls.  These knitted hats are made to go with the sweater pattern I designed for the dolls after meeting Heather in Vancouver during November 2015.  They can also fit Heather's 8.5 inch Emily and Annie dolls.

The hats modeled in these photos, taken just after Christmas 2016, were knitted specially for Heather and posted to her in February 2017.  

Lexie wearing the rainbow fair-isle pattern hat

Lexie likes the multi-coloured pom pom on the top of the hat

Jenny shows off the blue and red fair-isle hearts patterned hat

Jenny likes the 3 coloured pom pom on the hat

My Jenny and Lexie modelling the hats, Christmas 2016

Heather explained to me that they arrived in the middle of a snowy period when she was recovering from a heavy cold and reading books in front of her fire (sounds cosy) and they brightened her day. Once her cold was better she was able to venture outdoors into the snow-covered garden to photograph her Jenny and Lexie wearing their sweaters, hats and some matching mittens sent to her by Susan Scribner several years ago when it last snowed in the island.

Heather's Lexie and Jenny rushed out into the freezing weather, cosily dressed in their sweaters, hats and mittens.  The following photos were sent to me by Heather Maciak.

Heather's Lexie and Jenny in the Vancouver Island snow (photo Heather Maciak)

Heather's Lexie looks like she is about to scoop up some snow for a snowman, Jenny is pleased to be wearing a warm hat (photo Heather Maciak)

"Look, no mittens!" say Heather's Lexie and Jenny as they defy the cold to show they cannot lose their mittens which have cords threaded up the sleeves of their sweaters (photo Heather Maciak)

The hat pattern is now available as a free download on Ravelry (you need a Ravelry account to access it) - as with the sweater pattern I am sharing this pattern openly using a Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike Non-commercial licence - you are welcome to knit this for your 8 inch dolls but may not sell the pattern or sell your knitting from the pattern unless you contact me for permission.  I reserve the right to make the hat to sell. 

I now plan to knit hats to match the sweaters which I made for my own Jenny and Lexie, in purple and denim blue.

Miniature knitting for Jenny and Lexie

It didn't take long to sew on the buttons and sewing in the ends wasn't so bad for Jenny's new blue sweater, it was better than sewing pieces of a knitted garment together (this one is seamless).

Jenny's miniature fair-isle sweater

The back view of Jenny's sweater

On Saturday morning I pressed Jenny's new sweater and put it on her.

It rained quite a lot but there was a break in the weather during the afternoon so I ventured outside to take a photo of Lexie and Jenny wearing their sweaters, with the rosehips in the garden.

Lexie and Jenny show off their knitwear in the autumnal garden

I also spent time sorting out the pattern instructions for this piece of miniature knitting, I had already written it up but needed to check everything carefully and get it into a form which can be printed out for reference when knitting.  The fair-isle part of the pattern is shown as a colourful grid (using an excel spreadsheet).

"Look Jenny, this is the pattern for our sweaters"

Lexie and Jenny pose with their sweaters and the pattern instructions

I'm sharing this pattern openly using a Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike Non-commercial licence - in other words you are welcome to knit this for your 8 inch dolls but may not sell the pattern or sell your knitting from the pattern unless you contact me for permission.  I reserve the right to make the sweater to sell (when I have the time to make it - I'm currently knitting the plain version in pale blue).

If you would like the knitting pattern please email me on dollmum @ yahoo.co.uk or download now from Ravelry (see Sweater Jenny and Lexie dolls for the listing on Ravelry).

Miniature knitting for Jenny and Lexie

It didn't take long to sew on the buttons and sewing in the ends wasn't so bad for Jenny's new blue sweater, it was better than sewing pieces of a knitted garment together (this one is seamless).

Jenny's miniature fair-isle sweater

The back view of Jenny's sweater

On Saturday morning I pressed Jenny's new sweater and put it on her.

It rained quite a lot but there was a break in the weather during the afternoon so I ventured outside to take a photo of Lexie and Jenny wearing their sweaters, with the rosehips in the garden.

Lexie and Jenny show off their knitwear in the autumnal garden

I also spent time sorting out the pattern instructions for this piece of miniature knitting, I had already written it up but needed to check everything carefully and get it into a form which can be printed out for reference when knitting.  The fair-isle part of the pattern is shown as a colourful grid (using an excel spreadsheet).

"Look Jenny, this is the pattern for our sweaters"

Lexie and Jenny pose with their sweaters and the pattern instructions

I'm sharing this pattern openly using a Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike Non-commercial licence - in other words you are welcome to knit this for your 8 inch dolls but may not sell the pattern or sell your knitting from the pattern unless you contact me for permission.  I reserve the right to make the sweater to sell (when I have the time to make it - I'm currently knitting the plain version in pale blue).

If you would like the knitting pattern please email me on dollmum @ yahoo.co.uk or download now from Ravelry (see Sweater Jenny and Lexie dolls for the listing on Ravelry).