Pretty Tulle Bow Tutorial

Hello lovlies!

In my last post I mentioned the upcoming Angels for the forgotten's annual craft challenge which officially kicks off in April. Well, I decided I needed to get a jumpstart this year, because this household is so crazy I never know when I'll have time for crafting so if I have an hour downtime to make something, by gosh I'll take it :)

Thankfully you won't even need an hour for these little beauties! In fact you can whip one up in about 5 minutes and half of that is waiting for glue to dry! Quick projects do indeed rock, hardcore!

So what will you need?
Some tulle. I use multiple colours but any will do.
Small piece of ribbon
needle and thread
glue (I used 450 quickdry for this tutorial, a glue gun or even super glue would work just fine, so long as what you are using dried clear)
a lighter or heat source (to stop your ribbon from fraying)
a clip to attach the bow to

1. Cut your tulle so you have 3 pieces each one slightly smaller in height and width then the last. Mine are 10x15.5cm, 8x14cm, and 7x10cm. Start with your largest piece. Fold it in half  and then in half again. The clip is handy at this stage to hold the tulle so it doesn't fling open.

2. Repeat the process with the middle piece and again with the top piece. Stack the pieces together.

3. Take some thread and gather the centre of the bow. Pull tightly and tie thread around the centre.

4. Take the small piece of ribbon and melt the end with the lighter to stop fray. Put a drop of glue on the centre of the bow and wrap the ribbon around it so the join is at the back.

5. Slide the clip under the ribbon and squeeze a small amount of glue in under the ribbon to help hold the clip in place.

If your edges are not straight or you tied it slightly off centre, which I have a habit of doing, then just trim the sides slightly to fix and then you are all done! Told you it was fast!

Try different lengths and widths to alter your bow. You can also glue on other small decorative pieces to the middle of the bow.

Ribbed Prem Jacket - Free Crochet Pattern

Good morning lovlies.

Phew it sure has been a busy week in the mamma household. A lot of creating and crafting and outings. The Angels for the forgotten's annual craft challenge starts in a few short months, and so I've been gearing up for that and making a head start on patterns and ideas. If you are in Australia and looking for a great organisation to support with handmade items, these guys are just fantastic. Ive been sending items there for over a year now and the work they do with the little they have is nothing short of amazing. There are SOOO many things you can do too, it isn't just limited to crochet/knit.

Im also extremely excited to say that I have some international yarns on the way in the mail to play with and I can't wait to test them out. Its a very rare thing to get worsted weight yarns here in Aus and especially hard in the area of Tasmania I'm in. I hope to do some newborn sized things with them, but I am especially hoping to get some cocoon patterns up :)

Today's pattern is for a sweet little jacket with a collar and ribbed edging. As you can see it works great for both boys and girls. I've included more images and measurements then I usually do to try and give you guys better instructions. I hope it helps. You can expect more images being added to past patterns as well :) This pattern will require front and back post double crochets and if you are unfamiliar with them, there is an excellent YouTube video on them here (granted, the video is for hdc's but the method for going around the posts is the same for all fp/bp stitches)

The pink jacket made as instructed will fit a baby of around 26 weeks gestation. The blue jacket was made using a 3mm hook instead of a 3.5 and is slightly smaller (24 weeks gestation)

Notes:
trc = Triple Crochet. Yarn over twice, insert hook into stitch, yarn over and draw hook through sticth (4 loops on hook), yarn over, pull through 2 loops, yarn over, pull through 2 loops, yarn over pull through last 2 loops.

You will need
dk/8ply/light worsted weight yarn in a main and contrasting colour
3.5mm (E) hook
1 button
needle for sewing

Front panels

1. Ch7, sc in the second ch from hook and each across. (6)
2. Ch2, turn, dc across. (6)
3-5. Ch2, turn, dc across.  (6)

6. Ch2, turn, 2dc in the first stitch, dc in the last 5 stitches. (7)
7. Ch2, turn, dc in the first 6 stitches, 2dc in the last stitch.  (8)
8. Ch2, turn, 2dc in the first stitch, dc in the last 7 stitches. (9)

9-11. Ch2, turn, dc in each stitch across. (9)

End off, weave in tails. My panel is 13cm long, 4cm wide at the top and 6cm wide at the bottom.

Repeat to make a second panel.

Back panel
1. Ch21, sc in the 2nd chain from hook and each across. (20)
2-5. Ch2, turn, dc across.
6. Ch1, turn, slst in the 1st stitch,  dc in the next 18 stitches. (18)

7-9.ch2, turn, dc across.
10. Ch2, turn, dc in the first 7 stitches, sc in the next 4 stitches, dc in the last 7 stitches.
11. Ch3, trc in the first 6 stitches, dc, sc in the next 4 stitches, dc, trc in the last 6 stitches.
End off

Lay the front pieces onto the back piece and Sew the shoulder seams together first.

 Next sew the side seams from the bottom up for 4 rows. Turn jacket in the right way so seams are inside.

Sleeves
1. Join yarn to any stitch in the arm hole near the centre underarm and ch2, evenly dc around the entire opening for 24 dcs. Join.

2. Ch2, dc around, join. (24)
3. Ch2, dc2tg, dc in the next 20 stitches, dc2tg. (22)
4-6. Ch2, dc in each stitch around, join.
End main colour.
Change to contrasting colour and hdc in each stitch around. (22)

Main cuff 
With jacket opening facing up and bottom edge away, join contrasting yarn to left hand corner.

1.Ch2, hdc in each stitch along the bottom of the jacket, when you get to the next corner stop.

2. Ch2, turn, dc in the 1st stitch, *fpdc around the next stitch, bpdc around the next stitch* repeat  across, to the last stitch and dc in the last stitch.

3. Ch2, turn, dc in the 1st,  fpdc around each bpdc from the previous round, and bpdc around each fpdc from the previous round, dc in the last stitch. It will depend on your stitch count as to if you start with fpdc or bpdc.

4. Repeat row 3.
End off

Rejoin as shown

5. Ch3, dc evenly up the side until you are level with the bottom of the sleeves,

 sc evenly around the neck area, until you are level with the bottom of the other sleeve,

 change back to dcs and dc evenly till you reach the bottom.

6. Ch2, turn, dc in each dc stitch, when you reach the sc's from the previous round *2sc in the 1st stitch, sc in next stitch*, repeat for all sc stitches, when you get to the last section of dc's from the previous row dc in each remain stitch.

7. Ch2, turn, dc in each stitch around. Finish off and weave in all tails.

Attach button.

Finished measurements