I spent a spare couple of hours this morning finishing off another toy for a Toy Society toy-drop. I thought it was going to be a rabbit but, once I had embroidered the face, it became obvious that he was, in fact, a polar bear. Luckily I hadn’t started the ears so I made a quick change to my plans. Fingers crossed for a bit of sunshine tomorrow so I can send him out into the world.
Project Number 2 for my friend has been completed. I came across the genius idea of a matinee jacket made from two crocheted hexagons a while ago so a pregnant friend was the perfect excuse to try it out. I wasn’t entirely convinced it would work but there was evidence to the contrary on Yarn Tail’s blog and Cozy’s Corner so I put my scepticism to one side. I have tagged this as a pattern but it is more a loose set of directions. The two blogs above give far more detailed instructions if you want to make it yourself.
You begin by starting a granny hexagon with a tight centre ring. I was using a 4mm hook and double-knit so I began with a circle of 4 chains. By the time you get to the third round, you will find that the hexagon will not lie flat. This is one of the few times in crochet where this is a good thing! You want to end up with a motif that will not lie flat. As I am basically ignorant about the size babies come in, I erred on the side of caution and made 14 rounds which left me with
You need to make two of these. Each hexagon can then be folded and the shape of half of the coat appears.
With the two pieces held right-side together, seam down the back of the coat, sewing in the outside loops only. The basic shape of the coat is then complete.
Seam both sleeves from the arm hole up to the third group of treble crochets before the neck edge. To create a collar, I used Cozy’s Corner’s method of 5 rows of trebles round the neck edge. I added two more rows of trebles along each front edge for the buttons/button holes and edged the bottom and sleeves with a single row of double crochet.
It was quick, very easy and looks a far fiddlier piece of work than it actually was. I think I may have over-estimated the size of human babies, however. I was going for newborn size but I suppose he or she can always grow into it.
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