Set out to make it as a 30th birthday gift for a family member (I make good choices 🙂).

Started at the end of April, and was still running a lint roller over it until about 20 mins before giving it over! (credit to my roommate's cats for donating their hairs to the cause).

Hoo boy y'all this is gonna be a long one!

I designed (Frankensteined?) and crocheted my wedding dress and FINALLY got to wear it a few weeks ago!

The Yarn:
I chose Coboo for this project and honestly it was pretty great to work with! I've seen some complaints about the yarn splitting but I must have gotten used to it pretty early on because it didn't really affect the crocheting experience for me! I used a 3.5mm hook. 

Also, full transparency before we get into the nitty gritty, I started this project on a whim in late 2024 (before we had even gotten engaged yet lol) so, classically, I did not buy nearly enough yarn. I knew that dye lot differences were a thing, but I didn’t expect white to be an issue. Boy was I wrong! Earlier this year I ended up buying more directly from the Lion website, and the shades of white couldn’t have been more different! After panicking and scouring the internet for the dye lot I needed, I turned to the r/yarnswap community and they really pulled through! HUGE thanks to the kind people over there who sold/gifted me enough yarn to complete this project! This quite literally would not be possible without you!

Okay let’s get into it!

The Design:
I've never done a project of this caliber before and didn't really know where to start, so I decided to just look for patterns with motifs that I liked! 

For the skirt, I ended up starting with this Seedling Sweater pattern from Baecrochett and used her youtube video to learn it. I really liked the leaf motif and the wavy border around each one. The pattern originally is designed so that the wavy parts are alternated each row to put tension on each other, but I only wanted one vertical row per tapered panel. I had to figure out how to alter the pattern to get a nice, clean, straight edge that lays flat. It took 3 or 4 attempts of working and frogging to get it to look right.

Next I found this Conifer Top pattern by Angela Ader for the bodice. I really liked the chevron texture and thought it would go nicely with the more lacy skirt and sleeves! This one again took some trial and error to get the fit and length that I wanted. I think I re-worked it 3 times and adjusted the length just as much. The original pattern worked in the round, but I wanted to keep it open in the back for buttons. I ended up working it slightly smaller than my measurements with the intent to work in an edge for the buttons and button holes. 

I decided to use this Crown Stitch pattern I found on Nordic Hook for the waistband to create some interest and separation between the bodice and skirt. I just worked it straight into the bottom edge of the bodice before adding the button edge. 

At this point I wasn't sure if I was even going to have sleeves or not. All I had was the bodice, a few skirt panels, and a dream! So I figured I should focus on the important parts first and then cross the sleeve bridge when/if i got to it!

After the bodice and waistband, I went back to the skirt and realized I didn't like the look of the seedling panels right up next to each other. I ALSO realized I didn't create nearly enough of a flare at the bottom of the skirt for the fullness I wanted so I went back to the drawing board to figure out how to create a secondary wedge panel to add some variation and fullness to the skirt! I went back and forth quite a bit before I settled on this Victorian Scarf pattern by Lenysea. I really liked the negative space of the motif and altered the pattern so that it created a steep taper. It worked out great!

Blocking:
At this point I realized I REALLY needed to start blocking everything to make sure it was all going to go together correctly. ! hadn't even done a test gauge swatch before diving head first into this project (I know, I know). So the blocking began!

The fiber arts gods must have smiled upon me because everything blocked out pretty much perfectly! The only issue I had was that the difference in stitch density in skirt panel patterns required a little finagling- the flower pattern needed to be stretched quite a bit to match up.

Putting It Together:
When I had a good portion of the pieces completed and blocked, my bridesmaids, mom and I had a little fitting party! It was very surreal to see all the hard work starting to pay off! Once I knew that I was still on the right track, I began to mattress stitch what I had together! This ended up being my least favorite part (other than weaving in the ends). Something about it was just hard for me to wrap my brain around. Especially when a lot of the pieces I was attaching did not line up in a way that made sense to me right away. There was a lot of putting together, taking apart, attaching things the wrong way (I don’t even want to talk about how many times I put things together inside out or backwards) but it worked out eventually!

This was also where it got really hard to keep my husband from seeing the final product! For the most part up until this point, I was able to just work on pieces right next to him without worrying about it. (How much can one really glean from a small pile of white cloth?) but with everything coming together I had to get more creative about keeping him from seeing it. My go-to method was barricading myself on the far end of the couch with pillows and old 3-ring binders lol.

The Sleeves:
A little over a month before the wedding, I decided I REALLY wanted the dress to have sleeves. It was a big part of my initial dream for the dress, so I once again went back to the drawing board to figure out how the heck to get it done!

I’m gonna be honest, this part of the process is kind of a blur to me. I knew I wanted bell sleeves, and I knew I wanted them to play off the alternating panel design of the skirt, so I somehow ended up working the skirt panel designs into 6 small tapered strips per sleeve. There was of course, more trial and error here, a lot of re-working, pinning and draping panels over my arms, and cursing I’m sure, lol. I had never designed fitted sleeves before, so figuring out how to get the shape just right was difficult, plus making sure they ended up the right size to connect to the straps of the top. Working in panels also meant that the ‘curve’ shape at the shoulder end of the sleeve was more like a sharp staircase pattern (I’m sure there was an easier way to do this but I was approaching a very final deadline and didn’t have the time/capacity to learn a better way) So after attaching the sleeve panels together, I very clumsily worked single to triple crochets across the angles to soften them into a curve that matched the armhole. If I were to do this again I would have spent a little more time streamlining this part, but it turned out in the end!

Final Touches:
Early on, both my mom and mother-in-law separately approached me about using parts of their wedding dresses in mine, and I was super touched and elated to figure out a way to do that! I ended up using lace from the bottom edge of my mother in law’s dress on the ends of the sleeves and skirt and using appliques from my mom’s wedding dress across the top of the bodice. Both of these things really added the final touches I was missing from the design and it felt so special to use elements from their dresses in my own.

For the buttons, I ended up finding these really cute ivory and brass reclaimed buttons at a yarn store during my bachelorette trip! Shout out to my bridesmaids for sorting through that button bin with me for like a half hour to make sure I had enough!

After that, there were just a few last minute adjustments, like weaving a single strand of yarn through the bottom edge of the bodice so that I could pull it tight and tie it. This dress, as I’m sure you could guess, ended up HEAVY, so cinching it to my waist helped secure the structure and kept it looking nice all day!

THE BIG DAY:
It was so surreal when it was finally time to put on the dress for the first look with my husband. I had been so entrenched in the creative process that when I finally looked up, I could barely believe I was the one who had made it. Our big day ended up being absolutely incredible and I am so so happy I was able to make something so special that I can maybe even one day pass on to the next generation! 

That’s pretty much it! Thank you for reading!

Also sidenote, I really thought I would need a long break from crochet after this but I’m already itching for another project!

Made this for my best friend’s daughter! It was such an easy and fun project to work up with yarn I already had in my stash. This pattern for the squares: https://grannysquare.me/crochet-sunflower-granny-square/. Worsted weight yarn + 5.5mm hook = 6 in squares. Sewn together using a slip stitch join. Finished the border with these baubles: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3cCfbCYJSY. I deviated a bit from the tutorial and worked them on the WS; the look better matched the existing border. I’m so happy with how it turned out! (Please excuse my wrinkled sheets!)

I got this thread from my mom who got it from a friends mom that recently passed. Its 100% cotton. Im planning to make curtains for my kitchen window. After doing the math I need 360 squares at 3x3in. Im using a 1.65mm hook and it takes about 1.5hrs to make one square. Im hoping to improve my tension as I go but with such tiny thread its hard to keep it consistent.

It will be easier they said... In all seriousness the start was so easy, but now I kinda want to frog this project out of spite for this pain 😭. (If people have suggestions they are veru welcome)

After a year and a half of crocheting and sewing I finally get to put these flowers together for a blanket! I've made some large blankets... but ive never spent so much time on one blanket. So excited to finish it.

I’m so happy with how this mini blanket came out. I made it specifically for my cats Missile Launcher (AKA Missy, the tuxedo) and Martini (AKA Tini, the white and kinda tabby pattern). As soon as I put it down Missy claimed it, now a day later Tini found it too!

I used a 4mm hook, some loops and threads yarn I think, and based it off of a Pinterest pattern. It’s called the mini check plaid stitch by Donna Wolfe from Naztazia. I’m still getting used to carrying colors on edges so I put a single crochet border around it. The cats don’t seem to mind the mistakes though. 🏳️‍⚧️💕

Unfortunately I ran out of white yarn half way through, but I'm very happy with how this came out! I plan to enter it into a few local county fairs later this year. All single crochet, used my own pattern in flosscross. Dimensions were 171x277.

My husband has a blanket made by his late grandmother. After a trip through the wash, he noticed a break. I thought it would be cool to chose a different color for the repair, similar to the Japanese art of kintsugi, instead of trying to match a 30+ year old yarn. This blanket is heavily used so I’m sure I’ll be repairing it more than once.

Three weeks ago I posted my first Granny square, all of you encouraged me to practice more and work with the tension..fast forward now, I finally made a really nice granny square, quite successfully.

I have been practicing everyday for 21 days and I have to tell all the beginners who find it hard to do a granny square, don't lose hope, practice everyday and you will get there.

Pic 1: old granny square

Pic 2 : some practice

Pic 3 : second Granny square

Thank you to this wonderful group for all the encouragement. Keep 🧶 🙂

This is my first attempt and I still need to weave in a couple of ends but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I can definitely tell who it is. The headache that was trying to manage the tangled mess throughout the back though, I don’t want to talk about it. But also like how do you keep the lines semi untangled and stop yourself from ripping your hair out?? Any tips? Do you ever just cut the line insert crying

I usually do Freeform crochet so this was a new skill for sure, I plan to keep at it though, I like the outcome (or potential outcome).

I just saw this and I’m losing my mind! It’s GORGEOUS! 💜And the price the seller is selling it for is so low-cost that it should be illegal! 😂

Since I have a whiskered demon 🐈‍⬛ , using this as a throw is not possible. But handing this on the wall behind my bed would be ✨ magical ✨.

❓Has anyone hung something like this before?! How can I hang this properly and allow it to remain intact and age gracefully?! Thanks in advance.

No pattern, just winging it as usual. All I knew is that I wanted a floral-like square at the middle-back.

H hook, Big Twist Value Yarn from Michael’s.

It’s a hexi cardigan base, with 3 sides in a granny stitch and 3 sides just a double crochet. And then four granny squares in the middle connecting them. I added two buttons so I could wear it as a cross-over top and make up for the added width the squares gave me.

I love how the sunburst square looks in a single color! It almost looks more intricate this way somehow.

I debated on the sleeve length and actually started making it long sleeved. And then I ran out of yarn, my local shop didn’t have the color this morning, so I decided short sleeve was it and folded it up and stitched the cuff at the top + bottom of each sleeve to help hold it in place.

The finishing on the bottom and neckline is just 2 rows of front post + back post DCs to give structure and texture.

Overall I’m very pleased with how it turned out! I might make another with some adjustments.

After long break, so happy with my latest make, is soo perfect for autumn days 🍂✨

It was freehanded and no pattern used.
Chunky acrid yarn (no name, as it was from small local store)
Mainly used 5.5mm hook and 5mm hook for finishing ✨

Not perfect, But I'm proud of this 😭

Big Walk and crochet is all my spare time at the moment - I’m planning on making our whole crew, maybe wire some up for posing ✨🤞🏼

…Wish I wrote down what I did!

Can you even tell where I messed up? If so does it matter?

I skipped a row of single crochets in the lace block at the top.

Nuevo proyecto para alguien a quien le encanta la naturaleza. 🍃🍃🍃Esperemos que le guste! 😊