Hi, guys! Remember the cropped T-shirt I mentioned I was working on in my last post?
Guess what, guys? After making the top, I wasn't sure it'd fit my outfit because I plan to wear Crocs with my ripped boyfriend jeans. It seemed like the mesh might look a bit off so just in case, I decided to make something else. I'm currently working on another cropped top with the double crochet stitch that'll look like a little T-shirt. I can't wait to show you guys the finished look!
The post
Well, I’m about to show you how it went.
The backstory to the top is that:
- I wanted something colourful,
- I had to pick from my yarn stash at home, and
- I wanted the dominant colour to be a dark contrast to the light blue jeans I would wear.
Now, I didn’t have a stash of yarn with many colours having many balls. Luckily, the colours I had many balls of were going to fit what I had in mind, but there was still some work to do because I needed to plan the colour arrangement.
The colours were dark salmon, which is like deep peach, light blue, dark blue (navy blue) and cream (off white). Now, I only had one ball of cream but the plan was to use it sparingly, as a demarcation between the sets of colours so I knew it would be enough. I was going to make the top with horizontal stripes.
I love the combination of light blue and navy blue, but I wanted a colour in the family of red to give it a different look, so I decided on dark blue, light blue, and dark salmon. After two sets of it, I’d do 1 row of the cream, then start all over again.
I decided to do a swatch to see how it would look.
I loved it and even began to get excited!🤗
I didn’t start by doing calculations with my measurements and the swatch because I was making it for myself — I could just easily place it on my body and check the fit.
I ended up making it too wide. After 8 rows, I reduced it a bit, starting the next row on the third stitch and ending on the fourth row from the end (leaving 3 stitches on each end). That was better than starting again.
I was making use of a 3mm hook for the top so the stitches were not loose. It was going to be a straight and loose cropped top, not body-hugging. This means that I didn’t have to stress about increases and decreases.
On the third day, I was already at the neckline. I made a round neck. Before the end of the day, I’d completed the front panel.
I began the back panel the next day. It was the same process as the back, only that I didn’t have to leave three stitches at each end since I began with the right number. Also, the neckline was higher than the front. I should have taken three days but I didn’t get any work done on the second day so I eventually finished on the fourth day —Friday night.
After completing both panels, I joined them at the shoulder before joining them at the sides.
Now, because the top was not body-hugging and I just made it straight, there was going to be a bit that would come down at the arms so I didn’t bother adding more rows for the arms. I only went round the armholes once with single crochet in dark blue. I would have added one row of double crochet but my dark blue yarn was almost finished so I just left it. By the time I did this, I’d already finished with the neckline. I’d done a little single crochet ribbing in dark blue. After the single crochet round the armhole, the top was complete! I left the sewing of ends for the next morning before I start preparing to go for the hangout. Gosh, it was so pretty!
😌And here’s my complete outfit.
☺️Yes, I styled it with my paracord bag.
My hangout was my book club’s, by the way. If you want to see how it went, click here
Till next time, guys. Ciao!
All images are mine, unless stated otherwise.