@CraftyIrish, a good place to start is
Oh Sew Kat. A lot of her patterns are easy to make and if you look under the tab "Tutorials and Pattern Hacks" she show what she does with her patterns. Part way down the page is the free doll skirt which you get when you sign up for her emails (and they are great emails). In the Tutorials and Pattern Hacks she shows how she added lace to that free skirt. You can go to her Etsy shop through her blog. Pixie Faire is a site that many doll designers sell their patterns at. Some are easy and some are intermediate and some are difficult.
@Marniesews, thank you for the kind words on the styling and presentation. I do this for me as we have one grandson. He's almost 14 and into soccer and swimming. I understand you about a parent with dementia. My mom had it and it was a difficult time in our lives.
I made another outfit for the dolls. This one is a Christmas outfit so I went with something with red in it. Actually the jumper fabric is from the Christmas section in our quilting store.
They said it is an easy pattern but matching plaids or checks is not easy. It would be a fairly easy pattern to make if you used a print.
I'm not happy with the pictures as the jumper does not seem to be centered on the doll.
I'll have to redress the doll and get the jumper centered on her body. It does fit perfectly and the blouse is linen so not slippery for moving the jumper into place.