Workbasket Magazine Sep 1985

Let's give Workbasket Magazine another chance after last week's challenges. This week I have an ensemble from September 1985. 

The magazine photo really is this washed out in person.

I thought it was interesting that this Barbie appears to be missing shoes. I guess they had a hard time keeping track of those little things too.

This Doll Ensemble is a skirt and top set and is described as an easy, “sporty little boatneck...fashioned around a granny square front and back.” It has a simple rib stitch skirt to go with it. The pattern suggests a 3-ply sport weight yarn with a size 1 steel hook (2.75mm). The pattern gives a gauge but I wasn't able to get it right with the sport weight yarn I tried (Premier Cotton Fair) so I dropped down to a fingering weight (Scheepjes Spirit in Dolphin and Berroco Comfort Baby Fingering) and got the gauge with a size 0 (2.5mm) hook.

I don’t love sewing squares together but the top only had 16 little squares, eight in each color, to sew together. The squares were very simple to make since they are just one round each and the directions for putting them together made sense. In the next section they add the sides to the assembled squares and I missed where they had one side in color one and one side in color two. I decided I liked the way it looked with just white sides so I left it and made both of the arms white too instead of one in each color.

The skirt is 36 rows of single crochet in the back loop, finished with a seam up to within an inch from the top. Add a snap to the waistline and you’re done!

I like the way this one turned out especially after last week’s disaster.

Rating:
Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes
If there is a gauge, could I match it? Yes
Does it look like the photo? Yes
Did it fit Susan? Yes 
Did I enjoy making it? Yes
This one gets a 5!