A winter outfit

 

I finished the skirt for Ethel-Maud I showed you previously and as I said, it is a little wider than I would have really liked.  So, as I was getting mightily frustrated trying to work out the best way to make a matching sweater.....

...I decided to just add a bodice to the dress instead LOL  It was simple enough to do and it actually now fits a little better than before.  

And here's the second headband I made.  It's a better fit than the lemon one and looks much better.

I also altered the base of the headband by cinching it in with a few stitches; it fits much more snugly now and the little "knot" sits beneath Ethel-Maud's hair very nicely.  She is very taken with these headbands ~ I can see that I will be crocheting a fair few more in colours to match all the outfits she's hoping I will make 😄  Still, as the headbands make her less self-conscious about her receding hair, I really don't mind.

By the by, it dawned on me the other day that since Norah Wellings stopped production in 1959, then Ethel-Maud is at least two years older than I am! 

Of course a strapless dress ~ even a woolly one ~ isn't the best outfit for winter so I decided to make a frilly capelet to cover Ethel-Maud's bare shoulders.  Again it was a very easy make, done in a similar way to the skirt.

I made a length of chain to fit comfortably over her head when joined into a ring, then did treble crochet stitches (US double crochet) into each chain.  On the second round I put three trebles into each of the previous stitches, and on the third round I crocheted two trebles into each stitch.  I then did two more rows simply crocheting one treble into each stitch.

I think there is a little too much fullness in this capelet, to be honest.  If I make another one (and I suspect Ethel-Maud would rather like a few, of varying lengths, to add to her wardrobe!), I will experiment with the two increasing rows a little. I think I shall either crochet two trebles into each stitch of both the rounds, or do two in the second round and two in every other stitch in the third.

Don't tell her I said so, but every time I look at Ethel-Maud in this capelet all I can think is that if she had a bowl of fruit on her head she would look very much like Carmen Miranda 😄