My favorite color is purple and those who know me well can probably attest to this. It just so happens to be that is also my niece’s favorite color. Hmm, wonder how that came to be…
Anyways, I had bought some solid purple yarn along with a nice blend of purple variegated yarn. In my mind, I imagined a lovely knitted dress my niece could wear. I used the same pattern from theKnitted School Uniform 2nd Grade. The pattern came with several options to change the skirt portion, which I did accordingly.
Let me just say, it felt like this took such a long time to make. I even had my mom help me knit some of the skirt part because I got so tired of knitting this thing. Can you imagine I’d get tired of knitting?
It is a very simple pattern, however, because I chose a circle skirt, it required increased stitches. I had to use two pairs of circular needles, at the same time, because there were just too many stitches for one pair alone to handle!
This dress also ate up a lot of yarn.
This dress is also heavy, which means it drags the neckline down.
You can imagine, then, how disappointed I was when I realized that this knitted dress was too big for my cute niece to wear. That was the big facepalm moment. Anyways, alhamdulilah fee kulli haal(All Praise and Thanks is to Allah in every situation). I don’t remember what gave me the idea, but I thought, hmm why not see if the dress would fit me? And guess what? It fit; alhamdulilah at least not a total loss!
Prior to considering this option, I was already thinking up a few changes I could make to the knitted dress. For example, adding a few more rows to the neckline or just giving this dress to my niece when she got older and taller.
Here are some more pictures of this knitted dress that ended up being in my size. SubhanAllah, I think it’s pretty amazing that I intended it for my niece, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Perhaps for when she’s older inshaAllah.
I believe it was around two or three years ago that I made an ostrich plume shrug for my sister. I hadn’t seen my sister in a while and wanted to knit her something cute she could wear around the house. Her favorite color is green and I happened to have some lovely green yarn on hand. I went pattern searching on ravelry and came across this. I thought it was perfect and started knitting!
The lace knitted up beautifully and it was an easy repeat to do alhamdulilah(All Praise and Thanks is to Allah). I remember trying to knit lace before and messing up spectacularly because of the many rows to keep track of. It was a much better experience this time around which made this shrug a quick one-day project.
I don’t have a picture of how it looks when I sewed up the sides, however, I recently made this same shrug again but for myself. I don’t really do much knitting/crocheting for myself anymore so it was a nice treat.
Front of the shrug
I had this lovely vibrant variegated yarn left over from a dress I made my oldest niece (will post about that eventually inshaAllah [if Allah wills]. If you look at the right corner (when it’s worn) the bind off edge is a bit yellow and that’s because I ran out of the hot pink/purple/red yarn just as I was binding off. I’m glad I had just enough yarn to pull this through though, alhamdulilah!
Close up of the lace portion from the back
I normally don’t like wearing such shocking colors as it’s really not my style. However, I thought why not go out of my comfort zone and try it. I mean, I’m not exactly going to wear it out of the house anyways, so it could be a fun piece of clothing to lounge in. All in all, I’m happy I knitted this since it’s quite warm and actually looks very cute when worn mashaAllah. :)
Back of the shrug
One thing I would like to note: when wearing this shrug, it’s a bit awkward at first since the arm holes are almost in the center when this is laid flat. So, you’d have to adjust the collar a bit to have it sit properly when worn. But, once I figured that out, all was well.
Also, it was quite difficult/annoying getting decent pictures of this shrug, but woohoo I did it! ;)
It’s been a while since I last posted about sewing. How the time flies subhanAllah. I haven’t sewn any new garments lately, but I have definitely been mending. I used to dislike having to mend clothes –ugh– I still do, but to a lesser degree.
I was looking through some pictures and came across a few things I’ve sewn over the years but didn’t post about. I thought it’d be nice to share them with everyone.
I made this dress a few years back when my oldest niece was smaller. I was going through a ruffle phase. I am quite fond of flowy dresses, especially with the addition of ruffles. This was made with soft lawn fabric.
I like drawing out the patterns myself and figuring out how to sew them. I made this dress as a challenge to myself to see if I could sew something both layered and ruffled. My other goal was to sew it as neatly as I could. Hmm, seems somewhat successful I think. What say you?
Peek-a-boo
This dress used up quite a bit of fabric. :/ But, I was happy to note that there was just enough leftover for me to make a mini version for my sister’s daughter.
Less ruffly, but just as cute!
My oldest niece really loved this dress and it looked lovely on her mashaAllah. And although she couldn’t speak then, my baby niece looked adorable in her mini-version. I love matching outfits with slight variations to mix em up.
One of my very close friends recently had her first son! Allahumma barik feeha. Ameen :)
Sooo, of course I was going to make something for her and her son. I had some gray yarn on hand which, incidentally, I was planning on using to make a sweater for my nephew. Instead, I was able to make my friend’s son a sweater and a hat along with a matching hat combo for my brother and his son! Alhamdulilah the yarn came in good use.
This is a basic crochet sweater pattern that I added front post/backpost double crochet to. (It was either double crochet, or half double, I can’t remember now.)
Close up of the border. I think this added a bit of sophistication to the otherwise simple sweater. My mom really liked it too. :)
I also knitted a stretchy 2×2 rib hat for her son. I casted on 48 stitches I believe.
I also made this hat via loom knitting. To make sure it was extra warm, I doubled the whole hat and then binded off on top. This was made with velvet yarn, so it was pretty soft.
I’ve always found mommy and me hats adorable. My friend’s favorite color is green so I bought this caron’s simply soft yarn to make a hat for her.
I also made two vests for her son as well, one which I posted a pattern for, and the other I will post at a later time inshaAllah.
Overall, my friend appreciated the gifts a lot and was so happy. Alhamdulilah :)
That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!
As always, hit the like/follow/share button if you enjoyed this. Have an awesome day everyone! :)
I knitted this dress for my niece back when she was in 2nd grade, so that’s two years ago. It was winter time and the weather was freezing. I really wanted to make a dress for my niece that she could wear to school. Her school’s uniform dress code is dark blue which I did not have in yarn. I did, however, have a bunch of Pagoda Caron’s simply soft yarn. I thought, meh, she can wear it to school and see how it goes, or she can wear it at home.
The dress looks oddly more green here than blue.
Alhamdulilah, this was a relatively quick knit at the time since my niece wasn’t as tall back then. The pattern is from Elena Nodel’s Color Flirtations Dress. (*Cough* there’s no flirtations with the colors in this one though)
After I finished making the dress, I showed it to my niece and she was soooo happy! She thought the color was pretty as was the design it self. Seeing how much she loves this dress, it felt like all my hard work paid off ten-fold. Even now she still wears it, though it’s shorter on her.
My niece wearing her dress.
Recently, I had the thought of making her an updated school uniform with the right color this time. I will upload that later inshaAllah, so stay tuned!
It’s gotten pretty chilly lately, so I decided to make vests for my baby nephew. After making him some from my own design, I had the thought of making some for my friend’s son. As I was making his, I wrote down the pattern so I could reference it whenever I wanted. Then I thought to share it with you all!
So here is the pattern with some pictures to help you along the way.
Crochet Baby Vest Pattern (2-4 months)
You will need:
5.00mmCrochet hook, also known as H/8
Medium Weight 4 yarn (I used Caron’s Simply Soft Dark Sage). The yarn is very important, too thick and the vest will be too big, too thin and the vest will be too small.
Sew on button snaps
Sewing thread and needle
Measuring tape (optional)
Stitch Marker (optional)
I also used a sewing needle which isn’t shown here.
The terminology here is American crochet style so please keep this in mind before you begin. :)
(Stitches used: Double Crochet, Single Crochet, Slip Stitch)
Main Bodice:
Row 1) Chain 64 stitches. Make one double crochet in the third chain from the hook (See pic below) and in the following 60. (Total 61 stitches)
Double crochet in this chain
Row 2) Chain 1, turn your work. Make one single crochet in the first stitch (See pic below) and in the following 60 stitches. (Total 61 stitches)
Single crochet right here
Row 3) Chain 2, turn your work. Make one double crochet in the first stitch and the following 60 stitches. ( Total 61 stitches).
*Of note: The final stitch in every row is either a single crochet to the top of the Chain 2…or a double crochet to the top of the Chain 1 from the row directly below it. (See pic below) This means that the chains count as a stitch.
That’s where my final stitch in every row goes. Here I will place a double crochet in this ch1 from the row below.
Repeat Rows 2 and 3 until you get your desired length. I suggest doing a total of 15 rounds for an average height baby. These rounds are counted from row 1 of this vest. I advise writing down the row number to keep track.
My friend’s baby is tall, so I stopped crocheting at row 19 (this is a row 3 repeat) which made the length around 7.5 inches long.
What 19 rows looks like
*Regardless of how many rows you do, your final row must be a Row 3 repeat.
Now we will begin our front neckline. When this is crocheted flat it will look like the right lapel, but will end up being the left lapel when worn. Make sense? So we will write this as the:
Left Lapel:
Row 1) Turn your work. Do not chain! Slip stitch three times. Then, chain 1, make one single crochet in the next 10 stitches. (Total 10 stitches).
Row 2) Chain 2, turn your work, make one double crochet in each stitch across. (Total 10 stitches).
Row 3) Turn your work, do not chain! Slip stitch two times. Then, chain 1, make one single crochet in the next 8 stitches. (Total 8 stitches).
Row 4) Chain 2, turn your work, make one double in each stitch across. (Total 8 stitches).
Row 5) Turn your work, do not chain! Slip stitch one time. Then chain 1, make one single crochet in the next 7 stitches. (Total 7 stitches).
Row 6) Chain 2, turn your work, make one double crochet in each stitch across (7 stitches).
Row 7) Chain 1, turn your work, make one single crochet in each stitch across (7 stitches).
Row 8) Repeat row 6
Row 9) Repeat row 7
Bind off and leave some yarn for sewing later.
How this looks like. Do you see my stitch marker (cough cable needle)? That’s where we will begin the center back.
Center back:
Row 1) Skip 7 stitches from the bottom of the armhole (see pic above). Join with a slip stitch. Then, chain 1, make one single crochet in the next 22 stitches. (Total 22 stitches)
Row 2) Chain 2, turn your work. Make one double crochet in each stitch across (22 stitches).
Row 3) Chain 1, turn your work. Make one single crochet in each stitch across (22 stitches).
Repeat rows 2 & 3 six times, ending on a row 9. We are matching the length of the left lapel and the back. Bind off after finishing row 9, leave some yarn for sewing.
Right Lapel:
Row 1) Skip 7 stitches from the bottom of the center back armhole. Join with a slip stitch, chain 1, make one single crochet in the next 10 stitches. (Total 10 stitches).
Row 2) Chain 2, turn your work. Make one double crochet in each stitch. (Total 10 stitches).
Row 3) Chain 1, turn your work. Make one single crochet in the next 8 stitches. (Total 8 stitches).
Row 4) Chain 2, turn your work. Make one double crochet in each stitch. (Total 8 stitches).
Row 5) Chain 1, turn your work. Make one single crochet in the next 7 stitches. (Total 7 stitches).
Row 6) Chain 2, turn your work. Make one double crochet in each stitch. (Total 7 stitches).
Row 7) Repeat row 5
Row 8) Repeat row 6
Row 9) Repeat row 5. Bind off, leave some yarn for sewing.
Should look like this
Now you will sew both shoulder seams together (See pic below) with the excess yarn you left in each bind off.
All sewn up the vest should look like this:
Looks almost done right? Not quite!
Neckline:
Turn your work so that you are facing what looks to you like the left side (but when worn is the right).
Insert your hook at the bottom of the neckline where you had slip stitched a few times (See picture below)
Join here
Row 1: Join to the bottom edge of the left neckline by slip stitch. Then chain 1, make one single crochet in the next 13 edge stitches up the left neckline, then one single crochet in the next 9 back neckline stitches, and finally one single crochet in the next 13 edge stitches going down the right side. (Total 35 stitches) Bind off and weave in any loose ends.
Here you can see the 13 single crochets I did.
You can do fewer neckline stitches if you’d like. Just make sure the two front sides have even stitch counts. So you could even do 10 stitches, 9 stitches, and 10 stitches if you want a tighter neckline.
Now all you need to do is sew the snap on buttons! Use your measuring tape to see where you’d like to sew them. Or eyeball it like I did.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to do snap on buttons, you can sew regular buttons or just not have any buttons at all. Do which ever you’d like. I personally like the sewn snap on buttons because they make opening and closing the vest so much easier and faster.
Finished!
While writing this pattern, I tried to make it as comprehensible and easy to follow as possible. Did I succeed? I sure hope so!
InshaAllah every thing made sense, and if something did not you can always leave me a comment below.
That’s all for now, thank you for reading!
As always, hit the like/follow/share button if you enjoyed this. Have an awesome day everyone! :)
It was time to do some stash cleaning! I had these yarns for such a long time that I decided to finally put them to good use. I got the inspiration for making this sweater after looking at some patterns on ravelry. I came across this pattern for a cute sleeveless buttoned tunic. Then I customized this design for my niece.
At this stage I stopped following the main pattern, and added a lace mix
I remember wanting to learn a bit more about lace knitting. It requires more focus than normal knitting, but I was up to taking the challenge. Alhamdulilah, I came across another ravelry user who recommended doing a lace pattern for the bottom half of this sweater.
This is called a leaf pattern lace and it’s a multiple of 10 stitches + 1. I adjusted the sweater to the pattern so it could flow nicely.
I decided to make the neckline, waist and hem be in 2×2 rib instead of the garter stitch that the original pattern called for. I’m not a huge fan of the garter stitch. I also added half sleeves to the sweater. Overall, I’m quite satisfied with how it turned out, alhamdulilah. Best of all, my niece looked adorable in it :)
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!
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As you might know by now, I love knitting, crocheting, or sewing things for my loved ones. When my sister’s son was born, I was getting super excited to make something for him. My sister’s favorite color is green, and I happened to have some green yarn in my stash. So, I went pattern searching! I came across a pattern from Red Heart for a hooded sweater and decided to try my hand in making one.
I decided not to add sleeves, and I included a something post crochet (can’t recall if its front/back post single crochet, half double, or double crochet)
I did a couple of things differently from the pattern. I didn’t do stripes, I also didn’t add sleeves, and I added a bit of what I like to call “cable” crochet (ie. front/back post crochet).
With the hood attached. Look at those cute ears!
Another thing I did differently than the pattern was add an actual button row all across both front edges of the sweater and the hoodie. I wanted to add some contrasting darker green to make the sweater pop a bit.
Finished sweater!
When I made this sweater I hadn’t crocheted in a long time, instead I was focusing on knitting. I remember it felt really nice going back to crochet considering it’s the first yarning craft I ever learned. I will always think fondly of crochet :)
I made these a while back while I was still in college. I remember wondering what I could make with variegated yarn and came up with the idea of hats. Warm and colorful hats! One of these I knitted and the other I crocheted. I was more of a crocheter at that time; it was easier and faster for me. Back then, I wanted to see quick results with yarn, and felt that knitting was slower. It’s interesting thinking back how I’ve grown since then. Alhamdulilah fee kulli haal. :)
Crocheted hat :)
I sometimes like adding a solid color to variegated yarn so there’s some sort of contrasting balance.
Them ear flaps though.
DPNs!
I started using double pointed needles (DPNs) around this time, and it was definitely a challenge I welcomed. I can still remember how it felt going to the store with my parents specifically to get DPNs. I was exuberant and ecstatic! I felt like woah this is some next level stuff. It felt almost as if I’d graduated to the next class or something… I’ll stop right there, you get the idea I’m sure. ;)
Finished knit hat. I believe this one was for my Dad
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading :)
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For a minute, I couldn’t recall who I made this crocheted dress for- the absurdity! Disclaimer: I really like knowing and remembering who I made what for. So you can imagine I had to sort out my memory a bit. Then, I realized –ohhhhh I made this for my sister’s first daughter. And more memories followed.
I love my sister a lot, so I of course wanted to crochet and sew her daughter dresses. (At that time, I don’t think I knew how to knit dresses).
This is my go to pattern for crochet baby dresses.
Back of the dress. Hmm…could have added the buttons a bit better.
I don’t always like adding sleeves to projects, so I left this one sleeveless. It was very easy to crochet and you can have fun with matching colors. Prior to liking knitting, one thing I loved about crochet was the ability to easily fix a mistake. It’s very simple to just unravel the error and try again. With knitting I had to actually learn how to pick up dropped stitches, but when I figured it out, it became easy as well.
With both knitting and crochet, you need practice to be able to fully develop your potential. Most important thing to note: Don’t stop yarning!
That’s all for now, thanks for reading! Click the follow button to be notified when I make a post. You can also follow me on instagram.
The Veiled Purl 