McCall's Fashion Crochet - Doll Ensemble

For this week, I have the Violet Ensemble. This is intended to fit an 11 1/4" fashion doll. They suggest using fingering or nylon yarn, 3-ply in violet, and a small amount of purple for the trim, along with a steel crochet hook size No. 1. They provide a gauge of 5 single crochets and 6 rows equal to 1 inch.

I tried fingering weight yarn but couldn't get the right gauge with a 2.75mm hook. I went up to a sport weight yarn that seemed a little heavier than most sport weight yarn and managed to get closer to the gauge. I used Dive Washed-Out Jeans for the jacket with some Unger Fluffy for the trim. I made the dress out of some scrap yarn I had that was on the lighter side of sport weight.

This is what the main pieces looked like before they were sewn up and the trim added.​ It's easier to see their sleeve method on the lighter colored dress. You fold it over and sew the tops of the tabs that are next to each other together. The V in the middle is the neckline and you run the seam up the back. 

Jacket

Dress

​Here's the finished look.

This particular Barbie's hair made it difficult to work with the hat, and I think the trim was supposed to go all the way around the hat, but it sort of works. The dress was pretty tight, even though I added an extra stitch to it. The fit of the jacket came out ok though.

Here's the scoring:
1. Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes 1.0 
2. If there is a gauge, could I match it? Not with their suggested yarn, but I did find one that came close. 0.5
3. Does it look like the photo? Aside from color and appliques, yes. 1.0
4. Would Barbie wear this? Yes 1.0
5. Did I enjoy making this? Yes. It was pretty simple once I was able to get the gauge right. Their method for the arms was a little different from what I'd seen before, but it worked. 1.0

Final score 4.5