American Girl Doll Pleated Skirt

Free Doll Skirt Knitting Pattern

Skills Required/Techniques Used:

-Knit & purl, cast on & bind off

-Increasing: make 1 (m1), knit front and back (kfr&b)

-Working in the round on double pointed or circular needles

-Picking up stitches

Materials: Brown Sheep Nature Spun sport weight yarn, 1 3/4 oz (40 gr) 184 yards (168 m), color 112S Elf Green - 1 ball

Notions: yarn needle, stitch marker, a piece of 1/4" wide elastic for belt, sewing needle and sewing thread to sew the elastic ends together

Needles: US 2 (2.75) circular or double pointed needles OR SIZE NEEDED TO OBTAIN GAUGE

Gauge for stockinette stitch: 26 st = 4" (10 cm)

Abbreviations:

dpn – double pointed needles

K – knit

P – purl

St – stitch

Sts - stitches

pu&k - pick up and knit

as est. - as established, work as the pattern demands, here knit the RS rows and purl the WS rows.

co – cast on

RS – right side

WS – wrong side

kfr&b - knit front and back
m1 - Make 1 increase - I used the increase described by Elizabeth Zimmerman Make a backward loop over the right-hand needle and in the next row/round purl/knit as a regular stitch.

Pattern Notes:

Stockinette Stitch in rows:
Row 1 (RS): knit
Row 2 (WS): purl

Repeat two rows.

Stockinette Stitch in rounds: knit all rounds

Skirt

The skirt is worked from top down. The belt is worked back and forth.
The skirt is worked in rounds without seams on circular needles or dpn.

Belt

Cast on 57 sts, lrave a 6" long yarn tail.
Work in stockinette 3 rows: row 1 (RS) knit, row 2 purl, row 3 knit.
Row 4 (WS) knit.
Rows 5 and 7 (RS): knit.
Rows 6 and 8 (WS): purl.
Fold the belt lengthwise along the ridged of the forth row, WS inside, * insert left needle into the first st on the cast-on edge, knit it together with the next st on needle. Repeat from * for every st to the end of the row. This will form a "tube" for the belt.

Join and continue to work in rounds.
Round 1 (increase round): kfr&b in each st of the round = 114 sts
Round 2: *k4, p2 - rep from * across the round (19 times)
Rounds 2-19: like round 2.
Round 20 (increase round): *k2, m1, k2, p1, m1, p1 - rep from * across the round = 152 sts
Round 21: *k2, p1, k2, p3 - rep from * across the round.
Rounds 22-39 work as round 21.
Round 40 (increase round): *k2, m1, p1, m1, k2, p3 - rep from * across the round = 190 sts
Round 41: * k2, p3, k2, p3 - rep from * across the round
Rounds 42 - 49 work as round 41. Bind off.

Finishing

Insert elastic tape into the belt tube. Sew the opening closed with the "tail". Weave in all yarn ends.

Enjoy!