Month: April 2018

 

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So quick and easy, and a lot of fun to make!! These little crochet dresses fit perfectly over baby shower bottles! They make great baby shower favors! I have the free crochet written pattern to go with the YouTube video tutorial below.

If you want to attach your crochet baby shower favors to your favorite crochet baby blanket, these work great! These are similar to the ones that I used on my crochet baby blankets

 

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If you want to make the crochet baby carriage Favor, I have the free Ravelry PDF download and the step-by-step YouTube video tutorial:

If you want to make the crochet baby diaper Favor, I have the free Ravelry PDF Download and the step by step YouTube video tutorial:

These are my favorite! Multi-colored open and close

For a boy baby blanket (I used a ribbon)

For a girl baby blanket (I used a ribbon)

For a boy, open and close

For a boy, open and close

Cute little baby shower kit that includes the little pins

 

Baby Shower Decorations:

Simply adorable decorations for tables, cakes, cupcakes etc…

cute table scatter for a girl

cute table scatter for a boy

pink scatter decorations

blue scatter decorations

adorable animals

More adorable animals larger set

table scatter gender neutral

little babies table decorations

Baby Shower Bottles for your crochet dresses:

Baby Shower bottles style 1

Baby Shower bottles style 2

Baby Shower bottle Style 3

Baby bottle that can be used as a game (Guess the amount of m&m’s or pacifiers)

smaller baby shower bottle style

Don’t want the bottles. You may like these.

Photo Fun!!

One way to get your guests to mingle and have fun is with a photo booth. Some party places will allow you to rent an inexpensive photo area. I rented one, and was amazed at how fun it was! We loved the picture memories from it as well! Whether you rent a photo area or make your own photo area, you may like these:

photo props

Different photo props for a boy

Different photo props for a girl

Baby Shower Fun Games:

One Lucky Winner

Bundle pack of baby shower fun!

Different bundle of baby shower fun games

One fun game

Different bundle of fun baby shower games

Different bundle of fun baby shower games

One game from 24-96 pieces, choose your amount

Quickly add beads to your crochet baby shower dress

Crochet Little Dresses for Baby Shower Favors Written Pattern. Scroll down for the FREE PDF download.  This pattern is also available in Ravelry.

General Materials: 

• 3.75mm crochet hook
• tapestry needle
• scissors
• Your favorite animal button or flower (pick the colors that you want).
• The yarn that I used: Make sure to pick the color that you want
• optional: these magnets are even better than the ones I used on video tutorial
• optional: multicolored beads.

Abbreviations:

ch: chain

slst: slip stitch

dc: double crochet

FPDC: Front Post Double Crochet

hdc: half double crochet

• Ch10
• slst into the first ch to form a ring
• Ch3 (Counts as your first dc), make a total of 30dc into the ring.
• Slst into the top st of the first ch3 that you made.
• Ch2, 1hdc into the same st, ch1, 2hdc into the same st (beginning shell)
• *FPDC around the next st, ch1, 2hdc into the next st, ch1, 2hdc into the same st (shell). Repeat from* for one round.

 

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This is where some people have difficulties. Try not to skip stitches. You should end up with 14 shells total. In the video tutorial, I show how to make the dresses with different numbers of shells, but I would recommend finishing with 14 shells total for your first little crochet dress. This will give you 3 shells in the front, 3 shells in the back, and 4 shells for each armhole: 3 +3 +4 +4= 14 total.

You may have to spread the stitches apart with your fingers in order to see them clearly.

I skipped the last st, and then made a slst into the top st of the first ch2 that you made.

• Slst into the first ch1 space, ch2, make 1hdc into the same space, ch1, make 2hdc into the same space (beginning shell)
• FPDC around the previous rounds FPDC.
• Make 2hdc, ch1, 2hdc (shell) into the next ch1 space.
• FPDC around the previous rounds FPDC.
• The first armhole, skip 4 shells and make an FPDC around the next FPDC from the previous round.

• *Make 2hdc, ch1, 2hdc (shell) into the next ch1 space, FPDC around the previous rounds FPDC. Repeat from * 3 times.
• The second armhole, skip 4 shells and make an FPDC around the next FPDC from the previous round.
• Make 2hdc, ch1, 2hdc (shell) into the next ch1 space, FPDC around the previous rounds FPDC.
• Slst into the top st of the first ch2 that you made.
• ch2, make 1hdc into the same space, ch1, make 2hdc into the same space (beginning shell), FPDC around the previous rounds FPDC.
• *Make 2hdc, ch1, 2hdc (shell) into the next ch1 space. FPDC around the previous rounds FPDC. Repeat from * for one round.
• Slst into the top st of the first ch2 that you made.
• ch2, make 1hdc into the same space, ch1, make 2hdc into the same space (beginning shell), FPDC around the previous rounds FPDC.
• *Make 2hdc, ch1, 2hdc (shell) into the next ch1 space. FPDC around the previous rounds FPDC. Repeat from * for one round. FO.

 

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If you want to place a ribbon, turn your crochet dress inside out, if you haven’t already, so that the ridges are facing towards you. Place your ribbon, as shown in the pictures above.

 

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I used sewing needle and thread to sew on my accessories. Optional, you can sew your magnet in place on the back of the dress.

 

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Here is the FREE PDF download:

Helenmay Crochet Little Dresses For Baby Shower Favors PDF Written Pattern

 

Crochet Quick and Easy Baby Shower Dress Favor Step-by-Step YouTube video tutorial:

 

 

I actually crocheted these adorable baby shower gift bags for all of the guests to the first baby shower that I ever hosted:

These quick and easy beginner crochet octopuses are adorable!!! Put baby socks on their tentacles for even more fun!

My favorite baby shower games: guessing the new mommy’s belly size, guessing the number of m&m’s in a jar, guessing the price of different baby items.

I would recommend having a diaper raffle for your baby shower. A family member let me know about this for my first baby shower that I hosted, and it was a huge hit! Diapers are expensive, and you will go through a lot of them! It is a fun way to get a lot of diapers for the new baby. On your invitations, let people know that they will receive a raffle ticket, in exchange for diapers, for a chance to win a gift basket.  raffle tickets

It is also fun to have a Guest Sign- in book, I love this one because it also includes areas for them to write advice to the new mom. It also has a bonus area for writing down the baby shower gifts and allows organization of guests name and gifts. Here is another Guest sign-in book to choose from.

This is a funny story about my first baby shower that I hosted. I decided that I didn’t want to buy the bingo game, and that I would just make my own Bingo game. HUGE mistake! I didn’t want anyone to win too quickly, and I ended up making the game too hard! I was calling out items and more time was passing without a BINGO! Luckily, I was saved by someone who called out BINGO, but it definitely took forever, and was way too long…lol… I would recommend purchasing a Baby Shower Bingo game. If anybody else has funny stories, or fun baby shower games, please leave a reply and share with us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you crochet a lot, you will definitely start to organize your yarn into categories from least expensive to most expensive. There are certain crochet projects that will require an inexpensive yarn, for example, a crochet water bottle holder. You aren’t going to use your expensive alpaca yarn to make it. Usually, you will be saving the expensive alpaca yarn for something special, for example, a crochet baby sweater gift.

It is a very good idea to organize your different yarns. I will try to tell you to keep your yarn stash to a minimum, but I know how difficult it actually is to do that.

When you have a crochet project in mind, you will have to decide what yarn to choose for your crochet project.

The majority of inexpensive yarns are 100% acrylic, or are mixed with acrylic. When I first started crocheting, I made decorative crochet hot pads using acrylic yarn. Someone pointed out to me that acrylic yarn is made from petroleum products and could melt when hot items are placed on it. I still have my crochet rooster hot pad that I made from acrylic yarn, and I have placed hot items on it. The crochet rooster hot pad has a sheen on the surface where the yarn melted slightly. I have since switched to 100% cotton for my crochet hot pads. You will notice a difference in texture between different 100% cotton yarns. My favorite 100% cotton yarn is “I Love This Cotton” yarn by Hobby Lobby because it is extremely soft and has a wide variety of different colors.

On your yarn label, you may see the terms shown in the picture above: Lace, sock, sport, light worsted, worsted, chunky, or bulky.

These different yarn styles work better with certain crochet projects and crochet hooks. On your yarn label, you will see a crochet hook size. This is a recommended crochet hook size. I will often use different crochet hook sizes from the recommended, depending on the crochet project I am working on. I point this out because some people seem to think that you can only use the recommended crochet hook size with a particular yarn. For me personally, I rarely look at the recommended crochet hook size for a yarn style, but for some, it may be helpful to know that it is there to help you.

Yarns come in different weights, or thicknesses. The thickness of your yarn (among other factors) has a huge impact on the look of your crochet work and the amount of time it takes to complete your crochet project. Yarn weight determines how many stitches it takes to crochet 1 inch.

Ply, (plural plies) plied, or folded, yarns are composed of two or more single yarns twisted together.

The thickness of a given yarn is determined by the individual thickness of the plies, not by the number of plies. If the plies are thin, a 4-ply yarn can be finer than a heavy, single-ply yarn.

What is WPI? If you use an inch gauge, or yarn gauge, (above) to check the number of times you can wrap the yarn in an inch. That is the Wraps Per Inch (WPI).

What does worsted mean in relation to yarn? Wise Geek said it best.

“Worsted weight yarn is a medium width, smooth yarn that is used for a wide range of crochet projects, especially sweaters, hats, and throws. This yarn is very popular with beginning crocheters since it is easy to work with, and crafters can follow their stitches and patterns very easily when using it. It also yields smooth, warm end products with a hefty feel to them. Most Yarn stores stock a range of these yarns, and people can also order a specifically desired yarn from a yarn company or spin their own.”

“The “weight” of yarn reflects how fine it is.”

“Worsted weight yarn falls somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, with a gauge of 16-20 stitches for every 4 inches (10 cm), depending on the size of the crochet hook used. ”

“The yarn is named after the village of Worstead in Norfolk, England. As far back as the 12th century, this town was producing smooth, even yarn. ”

If you know of any interesting facts about yarn that I may have left out, please leave a reply! Happy Crocheting!