Halloween Pumpkin-Dress Tutorial (English)

Hi blogmonsters,

Clawdeen again. 

And I have something nice for you:

My latest Halloween-Pumpkin-dress! 

Do you like it?

I hope so... as Halloween-Special I want to show you how to make it yourself.

Please don't be angry if it doesn't work out at first try. 

This is my first try in doing a tutorial, and since english is not my mothers language, its even more difficult.

But I'll do my best to explain to you how it works so you can understand what I mean.

You don't need much knowledge for this, basic ideas in how to crochet and to sew are enough.

Calaminthe shows out how to do it.

And now we start

You need: 

- orange yarn. Calaminthe uses cheap acrylic yarn for Crochethook size 4 or smaller. 

- Hook Size 3,5 or 4

- a piece of black felt

- black sewing cotton

- sewing needle, bigger wool needle to sew up and scissors to cut the felt and the yarns.

Skills you need:

- crochet chains

- single crochet (basic crochet stitch)

- sewing up

First you crochet a row of loops (or chains), until you have 16 or 20. 

You have enough, if the chains fit around the widest part of your doll which are her hips.

As soon as you know how many loops you need, you close the row by stitching into the first loop again.

It should then look like this.

Now you can begin to crochet a row of single crochet.

It should look like this.

From now on you stitch twice into one loop and so you crochet 2 basic single crochet stitches  per chain.

I just stitch in the middle of the loops, then the dress will be more elastic.

Here is how the first finished crochet stitch should look like.

And it should look like that after you finihed the second row.

Go on like this, always stiching 2 times per loop. 

After another row the whole piece should begin to look wavy:

And like this after another row.

From now on it will be enough, stitching 1 time and then 2 times per stitch.

Crochet like this another two rows.

Now you should have 6 or 7 rows and conspicuosly waves.

Those waves are important, they will make the typically pumpkin shape later.

If you now would sew up the whole thing, you would have a cute skirt for your doll.

But we go on with crochet....

From now on we will go smaller again.

This means, from now on you leave one loop out between each stitch, like shown above.

the first stitch should then look like this.

Go on like this, and you will see that the skirt now will get narrow very quickly.

When you are back to the size of 16 or 18 loops, you should have a kind of balloon skirt.

It should look like this.

now it is important to proove, if the skirt still fits over the hip of your doll, as shown above.  

If not, open some of the last stitches up carefully. If you think its not narrow enough for the dolljust crochet some more stitches until it fits.

If you just want to have a skirt its time to sew up the thing.

If not, go on with crochet.

From now on it is important to prove from time to time if the dress still fits over your dolls hips. Of course you don't want the dress beeing to small or too big, don't you?

Now you go on making single crochet stitches, row on row, stitching once in each loop, as in row 1, until you have something that looks like a bottle.

If the dress is too big leave out one loop per row at the back, until it fits to your doll and you are still able to push it over her hips. if it fits, just go on with single stitching.

If you like the top of the dress in a different colour, go on with the new yarn when the skirt part has ended. Then it is important that you choose a yarn that is the same size as the one you used before.

When you finished the bottle neck part, try it on again. the skirt part should begin  at the hips and end up at the middle of the femoral of your doll.

The top is long enough if it ends under the armpits of your doll.

For the last row you now do 3 single stitches.

Then, for the first strap, you do 3 or 4 chain loops.

then you leave out 3 or 4 loops of the row under and go on with single stitches.

You need like 4 or 5 in the front. Try it out on the doll. 

Now again crochet 3 - 4 chain loops, for the second strap.

And then do again some single stitches, as after the first strap.

Do this until you finished the row.

You are finish now with chrochet work and you can sew up with a wool needle.

Please don't be daunted if it doesn't work out as good as you wanted by first try or if you have to open the one or other stitch again until the dress fits.

My crochet dresses are always a "try and error" - they often don't work out as I want them to look like, but I try out crochet until I have what I want myself.

But usually the MH dresses are a quick thing to crochet, even beginners shouldn't need more then a few hours on one.

Sorry that I cannot give a more detailed tutorial, its more important that you understand how it basically works.

Also, the result always depends on which hooks and yarns you choose.

But I am sure you get a feel on how it works very quickly.

With this method, you should also be able to crochet dresses for dolls in any other size, perhaps for yourself.

Your dress should now look like this. 

The typically pumpkin form you should have got with doing the waves.

Now you cut out a pumpkin face from black felt in the shape you like.

Careful: 

The mouth should be bigger then you imagine the result because parts of it will hide in the folds of the skirt.

Now you just need to sew on the face at the front of your skirt and you are finished.

Best is to fix the face parts with some needles before so you are sure that it is where you want it to be: at the front of your dolls skirt.

Another opinion is to embroider the face instead of make a felt one.

Here you see the result once again.

The hair accessoire is made of a pipe cleaner. The nice pumpkin earrings I found at Tedi, Germany but iam sure you will find some cute ones in any shop that sells Halloween costumes.

Thats all for today.

I really would be happy about some feedback, so please comment under this post.

I wish you much fun with doing your own pumpkin dress.

Of course I also would be happy to get photos of your own finished dresses. I would like to show them in the blog then, if you want me to.

Bye for today,

Clawdeen!