Barbie Style Knitting for 18” Dolls! (Just Add Pink Yarn!)

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I’m definitely on a kick with knitting doll clothes lately! The last thing I knitted for my American Girl doll was a lovely orange cardigan that was perfect for Fall, but I have to admit that when all that Barbie-mania was sweeping the nation, I felt a little FOMO that my doll was going to be wearing orange instead of pink! I had to get on the bandwagon quickly, so I went stash-diving for pink yarn and got busy knitting a super stylish coat worthy of Barbie, but sized for an 18” doll.

Hot Pink Yarn!

Now, I know that a lady never talks about the size of her stash… but, let’s just say that I had a lot of pink yarn to choose from. Still, I quickly reached for my lone skein of hot pink Mighty Stitch Bulky from Knit Picks. I bought it on a whim last summer and, to be honest, I thought it was a little too bright… but in this case, blinding pink is the look I was going for so it was perfect.

Tragically, Knit Picks doesn’t make Mighty Stitch in Bulky anymore but they offer this color in a few of their lines – it’s called Pucker. You can get it in Mighty Stitch Worsted or Swish Worsted. This pattern calls for Aran weight yarn, so you could definitely use a worsted weight held single or double, depending on the look you are going for. They also offer Pucker in Stroll. Fingering weight yarn probably wouldn’t work for this pattern, but most of the doll clothes I knit are done up in sock yarn, so you can peruse my doll clothes archives to look for pattern inspiration. (I bet Gwen would look AMAZING worked up in black or white with Pucker as the contrasting color!)

Knit Picks also has a hot pink color called Cosmopolitan in their Wonderfluff line (a bulky alpaca blend yarn). That fluffy texture would give this coat a whole different look – I bet it would be so cool!!  (In fact, I have some Wonderfluff left over from my Professor Meow sweater, maybe I should try it out?)

Duck Dynasty Doll Coat Knitting Pattern

Sorry, I get a little carried away when I talk about yarn! I’ll get on to talking about the pattern. This is my second time knitting a coat from the Duck Dynasty pattern set by Knit N Play. Like I said, it’s written for an Aran weight yarn, but I had my heart set on the bulky so I said a little prayer and casted on. In retrospect, I should have knitted a gauge swatch. If I had, I would have gone down a needle size. Instead, I just grabbed the same needles I used on the last one I made and charged forward. The end product is a little roomy, but Athena hasn’t complained yet.

I love make up stories about my doll while I knit for her – just like how the American Girl dolls come with books chronicling their lives. I recently wrote a post about how you can use AI tools to generate the stories if you aren’t much of a writer (or if you’re just tired from all that knitting). I was dying to test out the Paris backgrounds in my photo editing app so this story will be called “Athena’s Parisian Purrsuit” and it’s going to be an origin story for Miss Kitty Fantastico, a stray kitten who Athena finds strutting down the Champs-Élysées while shopping in Paris. (Want to know what happens? Ask ChatGPT!)

Just for fun, here are more winter in Paris photos, because I couldn’t decide which one I liked best!

Now, for the project details…

yarn details

Knit Picks Mighty Stitch Bulky in Pucker (discontinued in Bulky, still available in Worsted)
Bulky Weight
80% Acrylic / 20% Superwash Wool
Machine Wash & Dry
100 g/136 yd skein
Purchased in July 2022 @ $2.99 (clearance sale!)

Laines du Pingouin Alaska in Black (vintage)
Super Bulky Weight
44% Wool, 44% Acrylic, 12% Polyester
49 yards / 50 grams

project details

pattern: “Duck Dynasty A LaRusse” by Vita, available to download on Ravelry for $3.99.
needles: US size 9 (5.5 mm), wood dpns (from my Sunstruck interchangeable set)
gauge: 15 stitches and 20 rows over 4 inches in stockinette stitch (pink yarn)
yarn used: 93 yards (68 grams) of the pink yarn and 37 yards of the black eyelash yarn
duration: July 30 – August 6, 2023

notes

• I shortened the sleeves when I realized my gauge was way off – I knitted them about 2” past the armhole and then worked the cuff normally. I didn’t shorten the length of the coat at all.