It started out so innocently...

Over at Crochetville, Sue89 posted a thread with her Little People Doll. Thought the picture was cute, and I am always on the lookout for crocheted dolls, having some long-standing fantasy about making my girls their very own crocheted dolls/doll wardrobes.

She was kind enough to post a link to the pattern, Little People to Crochet. The yarn it calls for is apparently discontinued, and it calls for an E hook, but hey, they're dolls. If you can't substitute material with dolls, what can you substitute it with? No one's going to wear it, no one's going to smack you upside your head for not checking the gauge.

Now, Sue's doll is cute. Adorable little thing that I think any little girl would be proud of. I used her picture for the copy of the pattern I downloaded, in fact. 'Cause if I was thinking whatever I made would come out looking like the dolls in the pattern itself, I'd never make it. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've passed over the pattern in the past because of the sheer hideousness of the model dolls. (Even if you don't want to make it yourself, click on that link to see the ugliness.)

So I printed it out last night, thinking I'd make one for Smoochie once I was finished with the baby shirt I was working on. Finished that pretty early today, since I only had to put on sleeves. Now, to begin with when I was planning to make this doll, I was planning to do a nice, normal doll. Unfortunately, I wound up being influenced by Lady Linoleum's recent zombie asparagus post, and a chance still from Tim Burton's upcoming film Corpse Bride. And so, I made this:

It's actually a pretty straightforward reproduction of the pattern. I went off on my own way with the face, the arms (long scs to achieve a ragged look, in case you're curious), the hair, & obviously also the skirt. This one is actually going to Linda, since Bobbie asked me about fifty times as I was crocheting if I was making it for her. I'm going to make another one, but green instead of gray, & give that one to Bobbie.

Sad thing is, it's still not as ugly as the original dolls, and I made a point of making it ugly...

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One last comment about Lady Linoleum's post that I linked above. It's all well & good to make fun of vintage books (hey, I've spent my fair share of time at The Institute of Official Cheer). But I appreciate taking them seriously. Nothing wrong with Granny's crochet. Nothing wrong at all.