About Deborah Cooke

I write romance novels, including medieval romances as Claire Delacroix, and contemporary and paranormal romances as Deborah Cooke. I also am an avid knitter and sewist.

Quilting My Pink Pineapple Star

Posted on January 27, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

Around the beginning of the pandemic, I planned to get several of my tops quilted at the shop with the long-arm quilting machine. Since they were closed because of Covid-19, I popped this one onto the frame and began to hand quilt it. I don’t know if I’ve shown this one to you before.

I love pineapple quilts and picked up this book some time ago – Pineapple Stars by Sharon Rexroad. It was published in 2005 and I’m not sure when I bought it, probably at least ten years ago. (I’m also not positive that I know where it is now.) I remember that it has clear instructions and lots of inspiration, although I could have read more about contrast and fabric selection before diving into the creation of mine. 🙂

This is the central medallion of mine:

Pineapple star quilt pieced by Deborah Cooke

I squared off the corners and added a border. It’s very bright and I love it.

That floral print is a Kaffe Fassett design called Kimono. By the time I realized I needed big squares of it for the corners, it had been discontinued, so I pieced those blocks. You can see the diagonal line in one big peony this corner where I seamed the two triangles. It’s not an absolute match.

pineapple star quilt made by Deborah Cooke

I started to quilt in the center with lime embroidery thread and worked my way out past that lime hexagon. There are still two corner squares that need their quilting finished.

This past week, I bound the outside edge with self-made bias. I was amazed that I managed to find the dark pink from the middle of the star in my stash.

Here’s how it looks now:

It’s interesting how the contrast looks different in the photo than in real life. The green star tips don’t fade out of view as much IRL, probably because the lime is more vibrant than it appears here, more like the octagon in the middle.

As I was taking this picture, my dog decided to lie down in that bit of sunbeam. She didn’t settle in, though, so I didn’t get a pic of her there – even with the quilt, the floor is harder than her bed on the other side of the room, but her opportunism made me laugh.

Another Knitted Ballgown for the Girls

Posted on January 24, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

#619 Blue glitter dress from Stickatillbarbie.se knit in a mystery glitter yarn by Deborah Cooke

You might remember the Blue Glitter Dress from Stickatillbarbie.se (pattern number 619) that I showed you in December. Here’s a Ravelry link, and here’s the link at the Wayback Machine for that page (patterns #601-650).

Here’s that post.

I made another one in plain black. This is an acrylic fingering yarn that’s labelled as baby yarn, that I bought at Walmart for a couple of bucks. I liked how soft it was, but (of course) that means it’s splitty, too.

Here’s the finished dress, which looks much better in plain black than in that glittery stuff:

#619 Blue glitter dress from Stickatillbarbie.se knit in a black acrylic yarn by Deborah Cooke

I knit this one longer, so it would fit the Silkies, and that turned out to be a good thing. Even though the stitch counts and needles are the same on the bodice of both dresses, this one is much skinnier. Only the Silkie girls can wriggle into it. This time, the hem wants to roll, even though it’s in garter stitch. The acrylic yarn won’t take a block, so I sewed a line of beads into the garter stitches to weigh it down. That didn’t actually work – I had to fuss with the hem to get this picture and it flipped up again right afterward – so I’m thinking I might thread some wire into the hem to hold it in place.

Otherwise, I’m quite pleased with it, though – and I’m done with knitting ballgowns. They take forever!

McCalls 8544 Enchanted Evening

Posted on January 22, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

I showed you this new-ish sewing pattern from McCalls for the girls, McCalls 8544. It’s for three ensembles that are close copies of vintage official Barbie outfits.

I made the ballgown, which is similar to Enchanted Evening, this month. This dress reminded me why I hate sewing polyester satin, although it came out well enough.

I haven’t made the gloves yet, or dug out a pair from the wardrobe.

The pattern calls for that swishy addition to be lined as well as the bodice, but not the skirt. I modified that and lined the skirt, too, which made construction a bit more challenging than might have been ideal. (Bemberg rayon and polyester satin together. Yikes.) I like the result, though.

McCalls 8544 sewn for Barbie by Deborah Cooke

In terms of future mods, I think the front skirt is a little wide – that rose ends up a bit further back on the left hip than would be ideal. I’ll take a teensy bit out of the centre front next time. I also don’t love that folded piece at the top of the bodice, much less how it overlaps at the center back. It’s cut on the bias, but I think I’ll modify the piece so that it tapers toward the center back. I also want to trim the backs so that the main fabrics end at the CB and there’s a tab of lining to tuck under one front for the snaps. I think that makes a cleaner back.

It is a teensy bit long for vintage B, but the perfect length for the Silkies. I’ll have to take more out of the CF in both the skirt and the bodice to make one for the Silkie girls.

The fur stole isn’t supposed to have a brooch, but I found the perfect buttons. There’s a hook and eye holding it closed and it’s lined with the same pink satin.

The pink is lovely but I’m looking forward to making a couple of these in jewel tones for the girls. I saw one in red on a Silkie on Facebook and it was just gorgeous.

Enchanted Evening was a fashion offered for Barbie in 1961. Here is the reproduction, with doll, from 1996. You can see that in the promo shot of B on the stairs, the image has been reversed and the gathers are on the right instead of the left.

Barbie Enchanted Evening reproduction 1996

Margot Robbie also wore a version of this dress to the première of the Barbie movie in London. You’ll find lots of images of that online!

Simplicity 9913 – The Mondrian dress

Posted on January 20, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

I have been finishing up some projects this month, but haven’t been good about getting pictures taken. This week, we’ll catch up a bit.

This pattern features designs from the 1960’s. It’s not currently available new, so I bought a digital download on Etsy. It’s Simplicity 9913.

I wanted to make the Mondrian dress, inspired by the Yves St. Laurent model on the right. Because I didn’t trust the download’s sizing, I made one in a solid color first. It actually came out reasonably well – the one difference is that I added a button band to the back closure to keep it tidy. I tried both hats but didn’t have much luck with either, maybe because my model’s hair is thick. They just perch on the top of her head, which looks silly.

My model today is a new girl here. She’s Barbie Looks #20 (that link will take you to the Mattel site) and was discounted on Cyber Monday. I’ve been wondering how the new articulated bodies differ in proportion from the other dolls in my collection so bought this one. The main difference in proportion is that her bust is smaller. She’s probably closest in size to the model muse body sculpt.

Her hair, btw, was not like this official picture. The ends were frizzy and it was very bulky – there was some product in it that made her ponytail as big around as my thumb. So, she had a boil wash and a trim. It’s still not like this picture, but is an improvement.

My idea was that she could be my sixties girl, instead of a Poppy Parker, so here she is in the test sew of the YSL shift. I made the dress in one color, with the purse. I used a 10″ square of orange quilting cotton (used it all up!) and lined the dress with cotton voile.

Test sew of YSL Mondrian dress, sewn by Deborah Cooke and modelled by Barbie Looks #20

It’s a little bit loose for her in the front bust. It fits the vintage body sculpt perfectly through the bust.

She doesn’t seem inclined to be a sixties girl, maybe a contemporary girl who likes vintage fashion, as you can see from the Blundstone boots she’s chosen. She is very posable, which is fun, although I think her knees and elbows look odd.

Next up, the YSL dress with the color block. The black is done with a narrow ribbon topstitched to the dress, which is clever.

Wiki says there were six variants of the YSL Mondrian dress, though it’s tough to find pictures of them all online. Here are a couple of images from the September 1965 issue of Vogue, which featured the dresses. The one on the cover is the one you see most often.

YSL Mondrian dresses in Vogue magazine, September 1965

This pattern is for the dress at the back in the right picture, probably because the front is symmetrical and that’s easier when you’re working small. There was a series of three Yves St. Laurent Barbie dolls released in 2018, including a Mondrian one wearing a replica of the front dress with the blue shoulder. You can see them all in this blog post at The Fashion Doll Chronicles.

I was also trying to find a picture of the back. The pattern has the back in pieces, making me think the middle panel on one side or the other must be in a color, too. I can’t find it, so I just decided to make one of them blue and put some yellow on one shoulder.

Here’s the finished dress:

YSL Mondrian dress for 12" dolls from Simplicity 9913, sewn by Deborah Cooke

I’m not much for clear yellows, so the only yellow fabric in my stash has tiny white dots. I think it works just fine. I do wish I had a mod girl with flat feet to model the dress. She could wear flats (as the YSL girls did, with big buckles) or white go-go boots. The dress would also fit her better in the bust than the Silkie girl, as the made-to-move dolls had proportions more similar to vintage Barbie. Another girl? Hmm. I don’t know…

Done!

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

Finally, I finished my Hebrides in black Kidsilk Haze. I’d finished the pieces in October and it’s been waiting to be sewn up. On New Year’s Day, I thought “enough!”, turned on a bright light and threaded up my needle.

It’s done.

Hebrides cardigan in Rowan Kidsilk Haze in black, knit by Deborah Cooke

We’re having snow today, so the light in the house isn’t very bright. I tossed the sweater into the snow outside for this pic.

Hebrides is a pattern from Rowan 52 by Lisa Richardson. (That’s a Ravelry link.) It was originally knit up in Rowan Kidsilk Haze Stripe, and I’ve knit two in that yarn.

Hebrides by Lisa Richardson knit in Rowan Kidsilk Haze Stripe by Deborah Cooke

Hebrides by Lisa Richardson knit in Kidsilk Haze Stripe by Deborah Cooke

It’s a great basic jewel-necked cardigan. The Kidsilk Haze is both light and warm – that green and purple one has done a lot of travelling with me. It takes up almost no space in my carry-on and always looks great.

I’m not sure the pattern is available online anymore. Rowan changed the name of it at one point to Belle and the sample was in a solid colour of KSH. (Another Ravelry link.) The Ravelry link for the pattern on the Rowan site goes 404, but most of them do since the Rowan site was redesigned. It looks as if it’s available in more publications, though whether those are downloads or print editions is something you’d have to check out.

Will I be making another one? Hmmmmm. Maybe. But it won’t be black! LOL

A New Year for the Girls

Posted on January 2, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

As mentioned yesterday, I have a lot of unfinished projects on my sewing table, and many of them are for the girls. It seems that I fiddle endlessly with the cheap pattern downloads from Etsy – the ones that are scans of older commercial patterns – getting the printed size right, then messing with the fit. They really aren’t that good of a deal in the end, considering the time involved. The plan is to just stop with them.

To that end, I found some new resources. First of all, the big four commercial pattern companies have introduced more patterns for 11/12″ dolls, and they’re selling digital downloads of them. This is a very cool development, since they always print out perfectly at 100%. Here’s a new one, McCalls 8544, which includes versions of three familiar vintage Barbie ensembles. The pink dress is Enchanted Evening, the checkered coat and dress is Poodle Parade, and the blue poof dress is Gay Parisienne.

Simplicity 9869 is one of the patterns that features a decade of fashion. This one is for the 1970’s. I wish they’d make the others available, too, having spent a chunk of time in December fiddling with a scanned version of the 1960’s one. I’ll show you that next.

Here’s the page with the PDF patterns for doll clothes. It’s a mix of patterns for American Girl and Barbie, but there are more fashion doll patterns than has been the case for a while. There are often sales on this site, so keep a look-out. I got the digital downloads of the patterns I bought for just $3 each in December.

If you’re a fan of the vintage Barbie outfits and would like to reproduce them yourself, I found another site for you. This designer has patterns for many of the vintage outfits, available as PDF downloads. I haven’t tried any of them, but it looks like a great resource. His site is called Tailored Doll Patterns and there are patterns for Barbie and other dolls. Here’s his site.

Here’s his pattern for Enchanted Evening, for example.

Stylebook of Doll's Dress for Barbie by Katie Mitsubachi

I’m still searching for the perfect suit for the girls, so I’ve gone back to my Japanese pattern books by Katie Mitsubashi. I’m making a test version of one from this book now and will show it to you when it’s done.

Happy New Year!

Posted on January 1, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

And here’s 2025. 🙂

I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season and have managed some time for crafting. Maybe you’ve added some new supplies or tools to your collection, or reference books.

I’ve been organizing my space and making lists of unfinished projects. They really got out of hand in 2024 so I’m hoping to finish up a number of things this year. I’ll share some of that planning with you tomorrow.

All the best to you and yours for the year ahead!

A Knitted Ballgown for the Girls

Posted on December 18, 2024 by Deborah Cooke

This project has been on my needles longer than I expected. Usually, knitted garments for the girls are quick projects, but this time, the yarn was a challenge.

Here it is:

What the camera isn’t picking up is the glitter. This is a sparkly yarn with a bit of metallic thread included in it. It’s structured with a central cord that might be cotton, then the lumpy-bumpy-glittery color bit is wound around that in a spiral. When you knit, the spiralled thread slides up and down, which makes for some bigger bumps – and a bit of frustration. I don’t know what the yarn actually is as I found it without a label at the thrift store, but I’m sure it’s not intended to be knit on 2mm needles.

Finally, finally, I finished the dress. This is the Blue Glitter Dress from Stickatillbarbie.se. It’s pattern number 619 – here’s a Ravelry link, and here’s the link at the Wayback Machine for that page (patterns #601-650).

The glitter really doesn’t photograph at all. 😦 Too bad, because it’s very shiny, just the thing for a festive party. Without the sparkle showing, it just looks lumpy. (Although this makes me wonder if I should use the rest for a tweedy little suit. Hmm.)

I didn’t love this pattern as much as some of the others from this designer. It’s a top-down knit, starting with 60 stitches – which is a lot. I see on Rav that some knitters have taken that down to 50 stitches, and I would do the same if/when I knit it again. With this one (and part of that might be the yarn. It’s pretty crunchy) the shoulder band is way too big. I ran a few rows of stitches through it on the back side with buttonhole thread to tighten it up.

I did modify the pattern to knit it in the round. The body is knit fairly straight according to the directions, but I substituted my shaping from the dresses with the fur skirts.

I could not get the stitch counts to work out on the mermaid flare. Picking back this yarn a couple of times really wasn’t fun. 😦 The increases are done before and after a knit stitch, and those two M1’s so close together were a challenge in a yarn with no stretch. I’m not sure what I did wrong, but after picking it back twice, I rewrote the instrcutions for the flare increases. You can see in the picture that I divided the skirt into quadrants, offsetting the increases so they’re centered on the right front, the left front. It’s the same on the back. They’re still on either side of a knit stitch, with 3 rows worked plain in between each increase row. This way, my stitch counts worked out.

There’s four rows of garter at the hem before binding off, which echoes the six rows of garter at the shoulder band. I’m pleased with the dress now it’s done, but the next one will be in regular fingering weight yarn. I think it will be in that solid black baby yarn.

It’s possible that I’ll add another set of increases and made the skirt a half an inch longer. It really looks short on the Silkies. I’m also wondering about adding a tulle ruffle under that flare…

Coco – A Chanel Suit for the Girls

Posted on December 12, 2024 by Deborah Cooke

There’s something classic and feminine about a Chanel suit, so I’ve been seeking a good pattern to make them for the girls. Here’s one pattern I tried recently.

This one is Coco from HankieChic. This designer has moved from Etsy to another host since I last posted about one of her patterns: you can now find her patterns here.

I wasn’t sure about the big bow, but tried the pattern anyway. The top and skirt are actually a dress, and the top is a halter. It’s shown with an added belt. Both the dress and the jacket are lined.

I cut the suit from a yarn-dyed silk obi in taupe, and the blouse from a scrap of silk leftover from a blouse I made for myself ages ago. I cut the skirt and jacket lining from Bemberg rayon, and lined the halter top with the same silk fabric.

The jacket has raglan sleeves and a shoulder dart, then princess seams. The skirt has side seams and a center back opening.

There aren’t grainlines on the pattern pieces, which is characteristic of these HC patterns. I guessed, making the grainline vertical on all the pieces. I had some bias stretch on the front edges of the halter so if I made it again, I’d stabilize that edge by putting it on the grain.

Here’s the finished suit:

Coco by Hankie Chic sewn in silk by Deborah Cooke

I think the neckline on the jacket is a bit wide on this one, and to me, the shoulders of the jacket are a bit big for B. There’s a gap between the neck of the halter and the jacket that could be addressed by adding maybe 1/8″ to the neckline all around. I might do the skirt differently too, with darts or pleats in the front and back. Also, I’ll probably lengthen the sleeves. I’m not much for a bracelet length sleeve on a jacket, though it’s common for dolls (probably because it’s easier to get a shorter wider sleeve over their hands.) So, modifications planned for this one. Overall, though, it’s quite cute – and I like the bow better than anticipated. 🙂

I also cut out a pillbox hat in the silk, using the pattern from that first suit, but haven’t sewn it together yet. They are fiddly to make.

I’m also in the midst of trying another suit pattern (the quest continues!) and will show it to you when it’s done.

A Knitted Party Dress for the 12″ Girls

Posted on December 4, 2024 by Deborah Cooke

I seem to be finding a lot of ways to avoid setting in the sleeves of my black cardigan in Kidsilk Haze. That’s certainly not a job for the evening or even one particularly suited to the dark days we’ve been having. I need to turn on a bright light, buckle down and get it done.

But in the meantime, I’ve been knitting dresses for the girls. I saw a picture on social media of someone’s knitted dresses for fashion dolls. They were unspeakably cute with fluffy skirts, knit of novelty yarn. She said she was using a free pattern, so off I went to hunt down options. I chose #146 from Sticka till Barbie as my base pattern, then made a bunch of modifications. Mine needed to fit vintage Barbie with her curves and the existing pattern had pretty much a straight bodice. I added decreases and increases. I also modified the instructions to knit the dress in the round, and made the increases/decreases mirror each other because that makes me happy.

Here’s the listing for the Sticka till Barbie pattern on Ravelry.

You can find the site on the Wayback Machine – here’s the page with patterns 101 to 150.

And here are the girls, posing in a diorama-in-progress that I’m making for the 16″ girls:

Party dresses for Barbie knit by Deborah Cooke

The diorama, of course, is another timesink, but a lot of fun. I like working in the foamboard – it’s easy to cut and light, and the gratification is almost instant.

The gift boxes are from an Etsy vendor who sells printables. It’s right here. They are a bit fiddly to assemble, which is why I’ve put together just two even though I bought this almost four years ago. So cute, though, and they fold up so precisely.

Here’s a better look at the dresses.

For these skirts, I used an eyelash yarn called Bernat Boa. (That’s a Ravelry link.) This yarn is discontinued, but I found my little stash at the thrift store. The bodices are knit of fingering yarns – the black is an acrylic baby yarn, the purple is leftover MadTosh. I made the skirt longer for the purple one (15 rows before decreasing instead of 12). The bodice looks longer on that one because the articulated Silkstone is thinner and taller than vintage B.

It’s interesting how the same yarn can feel different in different colours. That always mystifies me. The purple Boa doesn’t feel as silky as the black and red. I remember a lot of colours of this yarn, so will keep checking the thrift store for more. (I also have some variegated pink, but no fingering weight to match.)

I think the original pattern was knit of something more like a fringe yarn than this eyelash yarn, because the skirt isn’t as puffy in the pattern picture. I have some Lion Brand Fun Fur (also a thrift store find) so will try that out next.

That’s a link to the Lion Brand website – how lovely for a manufacturer keeps the link live after the yarn is discontinued! Here’s a Ravelry link so you can see what other knitters have made with it. I hopped into the advance search and sorted for doll clothes – sure enough, there are a few versions of this dress.

These are also like potato chips. It’s hard to knit just one. I need to find something to go with that pink, and try out the other yarn…

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