One Day Bow Belt!

Hey! Posting on a Monday - weird! I normally don't post because of work (boo!) but I was SUPER PRODUCTIVE today making a *really easy* crochet bow belt. 

I made this by crocheting on public transport to and from work, for a little bit during my lunch break, and a bit more when I got home. So, if you do this on a day that you *don't* have work, I bet you could make this super fast!

 It's hard to take a flattering photo of one's own middle ... anyway, you can see how this works; it's a skinny belt with a big bow designed to brighten up simple outfits and look super pretty ^_^

Here's how you make it!

Belt 

 Make a slip knot and then crochet five chains, or however wide you want your belt to be. Chain another two, treble into the fifth chain.

Treble into each chain stitch.

<Chain two, turn your work, make five trebles into each stitch along the row>

Repeat <...> until the belt is long enough to encircle your waist.

Now you want to extend the belt a bit more so you have an overlap of the two ends; you will sew your bow in the centre of this overlap, and put fastenings on either side of the bow (check the picture below to see how the belt overlaps).

To make a button hole, skip one treble stitch and chain two instead. Then treble along the row as per normal.

Bow

Chain 30 (or as long as you want your bow to be), then chain another two and treble into the 30th stitch.

Treble along the row, chain two, turn your work, and treble across again.

Repeat for nine rows.

Fold the resulting rectangle into a bow shape. Thread a large needle with a long length of wool and make a stitch to hold the bow into place. Then wrap the wool around the centre of the bow to hide the stitch. Once you're satisfied with how it looks, sew the bow onto the belt, in the centre of the overlapping section.

Finishing up

Sew a button onto the belt so that it is opposite to the button hole. Add a snap onto the other side of the overlapping section. Weave in all the ends.

And it's finished! Huzzah! Put it on and force everyone in the vicinity to admire your skills ~_^

I really hope you like this project, and if you make one, I'd love to see it!

Lisa x

Crochet and Spool knitted Princess Leia Hat!

Oh my gosh - I finally finished this hat! Squee; I am so happy! This is actually a really simple hat, but the spool knitting simply took ages >_< I really love it though, it's really comfortable and because the wool I used is 100% Baby Alpaca it is so soft ^_^

I used the thickest brown wool I could find (Vera Moda Husky), which helpfully didn't have a ply on the label. I crocheted the hat with a 6mm hook though, so based on that, I'm estimating around 12 ply. The base hat is made up of trebles; if you're looking for a simple pattern, try this Pokeball Hat - obviously just ignore the colour changes ^_^ Then I made a big spool knitter using a wrapping paper tube and four skewers; I cut the tube down to about six inches and then taped the skewers evenly around the tube, leaving them sticking up about an inch above the top of the tube.

And then I spool knitted. A lot. I spool knitting 202 inches for each bun, which used up just under 100 grams per bun.

Then I coiled the spool knitting tubes into the buns; they have a diameter of about 5 inches and are about 2 inches high. Sewing them together was a bit tricky! Possibly using hot glue would have been better, but I was concerned it might be seen and hot glue also does make things a little less soft.

Anyway, once they were sewn into a bun-shaped, I sewed them onto the sides of the hat.

 

And now it's done! Yay! ^_^ I am so happy that I finally finished it!

See you later - with all the backed up pictures for the drawing challenge!

- Lisa x