Check Your Tension

Last week there was a pile of knitting patterns at my craft group, and a box for charitable donations. All women's and children's clothes, except for this one. After buying it, I realised that it was for 12" dolls, not 18". And for 3ply,  not DK. 
I was going to recalculate the pattern, multiplying everything by 1.5 to get the correct size. Then I had a thought. I checked the pattern for the tension  details. 
32 Stitches to 4" for 3ply. I knew that on 4mm needles with DK, 32 stitches measures 6". That's 1.5 times. So I knitted the party dress pattern using thicker wool and larger needles, adjusting length by a factor of 1.5. It worked beautifully. The leaflet suggested edging the neckline with a row of double crochet .  I did all the edges with a random yarn. The tie belt and buttons on the back look good too.    

I have never tried knitting a pattern with different sized needles and yarn before, but this has worked really well. I Perhaps I'll have a go at the little coat next!