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Ginger Lab

Dressing "Ginger" For Valentine's Day

Kyra

•11 minutes to read
Dressing "Ginger" For Valentine's Day

Before Christmas Ginger Lab came out with a wintery Christmas-feeling gingerbread person bottle which I had to have... I'd been missing the ginger beer itself so it was an easy choice to make. I absolutely loved her outfit and ended up later filling her with mainly brown sand so she'd look more like a gingerbread cookie. With the decision to keep her as a year round decoration made I knew I needed to also create her a new outfit since it was no longer Christmas.

Pinterest geared image showing my post title, images from below, and my main URL.

Quick Overview

I had decided I'd go simple and make her a pink scarf for Valentine's Day. Then it got more complicated when Zoey wanted to make Ginger some hair using a simple crochet chain. This decision led to me creating, essentially, a hat to use as a wig base but then after two strands of hair Zoey grew bored with making it, understandably, so I finished it off with a few more chains and moved them all to one location to look more like a pony tail. And with that Ginger's hat/hair and scarf was done.

Flat lay with the hat on its side with the hair to the left. The scarf is bent in the center to frame the hat below and to the right.
The final hair and scarf for "Ginger"
Back view showing the scarf and hair on Ginger.
The back of the final outfit!

Yarn Choices

We shopped my yarn stash for Ginger's clothing. Zoey went through looking for rainbow colors and seemed to ignore my stash of cotton yarns and went for the more special ones. She finally settled on the this unlabelled rainbow-ish yarn I had but later didn't like how it randomly got thicker in some spots.

Two unlabelled balls of yarn and four rolls of crochet thread on top of a clear bin full of yarn.
The final yarn choices.

Originally, for the scarf, I had pictured a pink and perhaps red sparkly yarn(s) but I didn't own anything like that. Instead I chose an unlabeled pink acrylic or cotton blend yarn for the scarf and paired it with four balls of crochet thread I bought second hand years ago to add the idea of sparkle. I went with the pink Valentine's Day theme with two light pinks and a dark one before throwing in a blue to hopefully match the hair Zoey was creating.

Hair or Hat

The hat, or should we call it hair, started off with Zoey choosing her favorite rainbow yarn and then deciding to create crocheted chains for the hair strands. With her idea in place I decided to use the same yarn to make essentially a hat to attach Zoey's strands to. After two strands, which she loosely attached herself, she was done so I pivoted by making more hair strands and attaching them to the center of the now hat. Figured this way it can cover up the hole in the center and I could simply called it a ponytail.

TLDR: How To

Hat

  1. Magic circle with a round of double crochet stitches (dc) until it covered the lid and then close it off.
  2. Another round of double crochet stitches (dc)
  3. Increased the size with one dc, one dc, two dc repeated all the way around
  4. Finished off with a round of single stitches (sc)
  5. Cut my yarn, pulled to knot it, and used a large needle to hide my ends.

Hair

  1. Zoey made two chains for each strand of hair
  2. I made two chains twice as long so I could fold them in half to make a total of four additional strands of hair.

Putting It All Together

  1. Tied Zoey's two strands together end to end to make one long one
  2. Folded my two strands in half and tied the center with Zoey's making six strands gathered together
  3. Sewed them to the center of the hat making sure they stuck out the top together

Done!

How To Make The Hat

After listening to Zoey's hair idea and explaining how we'd make it happen I reminded Zoey how to make a crochet chain with the pink thread while I quickly created the hat or wig base with her chosen rainbow yarn.

Image shows our legs and yarn as we work on our own projects.
She worked on her chaining while I looked up how to make a magic circle and got started on the wig base (aka hat).

I quickly looked up a tutorial to remind me how to start a magic circle and used double crochet stitches (dc) rather than single stitches (sc) to speed up its creation. Every once in a while I compared what I had with the bottle lid so I'd know how large to make it and when to finish off the round with a slip stitch. Once ready I pulled it tight and closed it off with a slip stitch. Thus the original center circle was done!

Image shows the circle almost complete with a red crochet hook still attached leaned up against the lid. It the back is the ripped off piece.
I kept comparing my circle with the lid so I would know when to close the first round.

To start the second round off I chained two stitches to give me the height I needed before starting the round of simple double crochet stitches (dc). I kept the circle the same size by only adding one dc to each prior stitch. Once I returned to the beginning I closed it off again with a slip stitch.

Image shows the current hat iteration fitted on the lid with the crochet hook behind it.
After the second round of double crochet stitches (dc) the hat was a bit tight but worked.

At this point the hat was a bit tight on the lid so I decided to increase the circle by adding a new stitch for every three stitches. To do this, in my third round, I again started by chaining two stitches to give me the height. I then stitched a single double crochet stitch (dc) into the first stitch, a single dc into the next, and then two dc into the third stitch. I repeated this pattern of one dc, one dc, two dc all the way around the outside. I didn't count my stitches but I had two stitches remaining at the end so I simply repeated only the part of the pattern that I had room for with a single dc into each of them before ending that round. At the end I again closed it off again with a slip stitch.

At this point the hat looked good but I wanted a better edge so I chained one more stitch and did a round of single crochet stitches (sc) to finish it off. With the last round closed off with a slip stitch I then cut my yarn, pulled to knot it, and used a large needle to hide my two ends.

Image shows the hat on the lid with the lid fully hidden within.
The finished hat before weaving in my ends.
The lid is now flipped upside down so you can now see the excess yarn out the sides.
As you can see it goes beyond the lid bottom fully hiding it.
Image shows an empty and wet dapped bottle wearing the just finished hat and looking truly see through.
The bottle hadn't fully dried, was making the clothing while waiting to fill it with sand, but I had to grab it for a quick fit test.

And with that I passed the hat and rainbow yarn over to Zoey to start making the hair.

How To Make The Hair

Zoey want to make the hair so I started the scarf while being available for consults. She started making a single chain for the first strand of hair, put it in the hole in the center, and knotted it to keep it in place. She then made another strand and pushed it through another hole. Then she decided to work on something else so I had permission to continue the project on my own.

The hat is flipped upside down showing the interior of the hat and the know while the chained hair goes to the left.
She wanted a photo of the inside after adding the first strand to the hat.
The hat with the single strand of hair attached sit precariously on Zoey's blonde head.
And of course she also wanted to wear the hat.

Once she was done I decided to switch the plan from attaching each single strand individually to the wig base and instead gather them in one place and call it a ponytail. Zoey was in agreement so I quickly crocheted two more chains twice as long as the first two with the idea we could fold them in half thus upping Zoey's count of two strands of hair to a total of six strands.

Putting It All Together

Before continuing it was time to prep the hair. After trying a few things I realized Zoey had cut the excess yarn on one of her chains a bit short so I decided to tie her two strands together making it as long as my two strands. I then gathered my two, folded them in half, and used Zoey's to tie them all together at that center point.

Image shows the two strands knotted together.
After thinking about it I decided to start by tying the two strands Zoey made hair end to end to make a new longer one.
Image shows the center point of all six strands tied together.
After finding the center point of my two strands I used Zoey's to knot them all together into one bundle.

With the ponytail knotted together I centered it in the hole made from the magic circle, flipped the hat mostly inside out, grabbed a scrap piece of yarn, and stitched it together to secure it.

Image shows the inside of the hat with the yarn already brought through it all once and the needle poised to do it again.
I used a large yarn needle and a scrap of excess yarn Zoey cut off to attach the knotted stands to the hole in the hat. I brought it through everything four times before it felt secure and I realized I was running out of yarn to tie it closed.
Image shows the hat inside out resting on the table with the hair going off to the right and the top knotted.
I left either end free while sewing so once I was done I could tie the ends together to secure it all in one place.

With the ponytail secured to the hat it was now done and ready to go!

Scarf

While Zoey worked on the hair strands I started on the scarf. Here's how I made it!

TLDR: How To

  1. Used a chainless foundation single crochet composed of single stitches (sc) for the first row
  2. Preferred the look of the top side better so I stitched into the last stitch to go in a round rather than doubled back. Had to increase height so did: sc, sc, chained two stitches, dc (double crochet stitch)
  3. Continued with a row of dc stitches
  4. Returning over what I did with a single chain and a row of single stitches (sc)
  5. Cut my yarn, pulled to knot it, and used a large needle to hide my ends.

Done!

How To With Photos

I didn't have a sparkly yarn so I decided to combine the pink one I had with four strands of crochet thread to create the look of dimension and add both a bit of rainbow for Zoey and allow it to match with her chosen hair color. I opened, unrolled them, and lined up their ends together and got started being careful to untangle any bits before it got too complicated and tangled up as I went.

Image shows all five strands together next to a blue crochet hook... Zoey wanted to keep the red one.
I combined all five yarns and threads together and decided to treat it as one piece for the rest of the scarf.
Shows all four balls of crochet thread, the pink yarn, my started scarf, the no-hair hat, and part of Zoey and I.
I had all five balls next to me and was careful to watch the lines in case they started tangling.

I remembered I used to prefer the look of crochet better when I started with a chainless foundation crochet stitch rather than crocheting directly into a chain so after looking up how to do it again I was on my way. At the end you're technically supposed to return back... essentially going back and forth like a typewriter, but I liked how that side looked better than the reverse so I instead decided to circle around to the back for the next row by crocheting into the last stitch three times. In addition to going around I also wanted to switch from sc to dc so into that stitch I decided to stitch two sc, chained two, and then did a single dc thus increasing the height for the second row. I then continued crocheting along the length of it with a single dc into each stitch.

Image shows the end of the first chainless foundation crochet stitch with the reversed side stitched into it.
At the end I decided to crochet around the end by single crocheting twice into the reversed stitch, chaining twice, and then doing a single double crochet into the same stitch giving me the height needed and switching to the reversed side.
Image is the same as the last with two more double crochet stitches added.
After that first stitch I continued with a row of double crochet stitches.

After finishing that second row of dc I did a single chain and returned over what I did with a row of sc. I then cut my yarn end, pulled to knot it, and used a large needle to hide my two ends.

Image shows either end of the scarf with a sewing needle trapping the one end to weave it in.
And with essentially a single row of single stitches, a single row of double stitches, and another single row of single stitches the scarf was done. I cut and weaved in my ends using them to strengthen the end of the scarf.

And with that the scarf was done!

Finished Outfit

And here is Ginger in her new Valentine's Day outfit!

Image shows the ginger girl bottle wearing the hair and the scarf laying on the floor.
Her clothing was ready but the scarf would't stay on.

The scarf wasn't quite thin enough and/or long enough to stay on itself so I decided to use a simple pink stitch marker as a brooch. This worked great until I took it off to snap a few photos and the cheap plastic broke. That said, for now I was able finagle the broke piece to be more hidden and still hold the scarf all together... so success!

Image shows the ginger girl bottle with a focus on her face wearing the hair and the scarf closed with a stitch marker holding it in place.
I used a pink plastic stitch marker as a brooch.
Image shows the ginger girl bottle wearing the hair and the scarf closed with a stitch marker holding it in place.
I loved how it all looked!
Image shows the ginger girl bottle wearing the hair and the scarf closed with no stitch marker in sight.
And once the stitch marker broke I was able to use the larger piece to hold it all together and be more hidden. Win win.

I hope this post found you well and you're having a good day. If you have any ideas of other outfits for Ginger let me know in the comments below. I haven't fully decided on whether we'll make her a whole wardrobe or not so I am taking recommendations... and maybe there will be future posts.

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