Have you ever crocheted broomstick lace? I didn’t hear about it until about a year ago, when I was looking through a pattern book and I saw a tutorial for it. Unfortunately, the tutorial had no pictures, so I couldn’t figure out how to do the stitch. A while later, I was on Pinterest when I found a nice photo tutorial this time, and it was easy to figure it out.
If you’ve never done it before, or if you’ve crocheted broomstick lace and want a nice quick project, this outfit will work well for you. It’s a good introduction to broomstick lace, and it will fit basically any Barbie-sized doll: Liv Dolls, Moxie Girls, Monster or Fairy Tale High, and, of course, the ubiquitous Barbie. The broomstick lace leaves gaps in the fabric, so lining it would be a good idea. However, we must keep in mind that most Barbies shed their clothes within a week, so I don’t think they would care about a slightly sheer garment. 🙂
Left: Fairy Tale High doll, Middle: Elsa Barbie, Right: BFC Fashion Doll
Above you can see the different body types the dress can fit on. You can add more rows before the decrease to make it into a dress, I left it a bit shorter so the Barbie can wear leggings underneath it and make it more like a tunic top. (The leggings are not pictured because I was in a hurry to take these pictures, and I couldn’t find the leggings.)
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Materials
- Small amount of worsted-weight yarn (I used I Love This Yarn, as I often do, in dark blue)
- Size H (5 MM) hook
- Broomstick (I used a size Q (15 or 16 MM) crochet hook, you could use a giant knitting needle, dowel, or, yes, a broomstick)
I use US crochet terms in all of my patterns. Here’s a chart showing US -> UK with the abbreviations I use.
You will need to know how to do broomstick lace. Click here for a tutorial that I think is pretty awesome.
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Row 1: Ch 20. Starting in the second chain from the hook, *pull up a loop in the next chain and put it on your broomstick* 20 times. You should have 20 loops at the end. *Take five loops off your broomstick and make 5 sc into that group* 4 times.
Repeat Row 1 (substituting the ch 20, of course, you’ll just work back across the row like in the tutorial) until the garment is about 1 inch shorter than you want it to be. I think I did 4 rows total to make it the length you see in the pictures. Next we will be decreasing so it won’t fall off your Barbie. There are no sleeves in this pattern, instead the Barbie’s arms go through the gaps between the broomstick lace groups.
Decrease Row: *(Pull up a loop in the next stitch and put it on your broomstick 4 times.) Skip the next stitch.* Repeat this across. You should have 16 loops on your broomstick. *Take four loops off your broomstick and make 4 sc into that group* 4 times.
Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing. Thread the tail onto a yarn needle and hold the ends of the dress together to make a long skinny tube. Whipstitch the ends together. Then weave in all the ends, and you’ve made a lovely dress/shirt/tunic top for your Barbie!
To wear it, put the Barbie’s arms between the broomstick groups, so there are two in the front and two in the back. This is a great dress to whip up if you need something quickly, and as previously mentioned, makes a great introduction to broomstick lace. What do you think?
Let me know if you have any questions ~ and as always, if you make one of these and send me pictures, I would be overjoyed, I’d love to see what you guys make. 🙂
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