I want­ed to make a thin white belt to go with this dress I made (pic­tured, more on it lat­er :D). I saw peo­ple wear­ing these twist­ed leather belts and was won­der­ing if I could cro­chet one. Not going to look like leather, but twisty nonethe­less. I’m quite hap­py with how it turned out, so I thought I’d share it here :D

This pat­tern requires famil­iar­i­ty with basic cro­chet stitch­es (ch, sc, dc, tr) as well as some knowl­edge of cabling with front post cro­chet and back post cro­chet (fpdc, bpdc, fptr, bptr). I learned cabling while fol­low­ing this hat pat­tern (which has writ­ten tuto­r­i­al and pho­tos to explain the cabling action) and it’s actu­al­ly quite a lot of fun once I get the hang of it. 

If you’re inter­est­ed, here are videos for front post dou­ble cro­chet (fpdc), back post dou­ble cro­chet (bpdc). And here is a video for mak­ing a cro­chet cable worked over 4 stitch­es, which is basi­cal­ly what this belt pat­tern is about :D

And now, the belt.

I used a 3.75mm hook and a worsted weight cot­ton yarn. Plus a 5/8″ but­ton for clo­sure (just some­thing I found in my stash, you can use a larger/smaller but­ton if you like), and thread and nee­dle to sew on the button.

The belt is worked back and forth in short rows cross-wise until desired length.

Row 1: ch 6, dc in 4th ch from hook, 1 dc in each of next 2 dc, turn.

A foun­da­tion row of 4 dc is made (begin­ning ch counts as 1 dc). Now here’s how the cabling is going to go down…

Row 2 (right side): Skip first 2 dc, fptr in next dc, fptr in begin­ning ch…

(Row 2 con’t) … bptr in first skipped dc, bptr in next skipped dc. 

I find that an easy way to go back and do bptr in skipped stitch­es is to turn the work to the wrong side and make fptr in the skipped stitch­es, start­ing from the stitch in the far left. (pic­ture below is viewed from wrong side)

Viewed from the wrong side, 2 bptr are made.

Com­plet­ed row 2 viewed from the right side — one set of cable made. Turn.

Row 3 (wrong side): ch 2, dc in next dc (the 4th stitch from hook, where the arrow is point­ing in the picture)…

(Row 3 con’t) 1 bpdc in each of the next two fpdc from pre­vi­ous row (the stitch­es are indi­cat­ed by the arrows. The pic­ture shows the work upside down because when one is hold­ing the work with the wrong side fac­ing this is what one would see).

Turn. Viewed from the right side, row 3 completed.

Repeat row 2 (RS): Skip first dc, fptr in next dc, fptr in begin­ning ch… 

 

(Row 2 con’t) … bptr in first skipped dc, bptr in next skipped dc. (pic­ture below shows work viewed from right side)

Repeat row 3 (WS): turn, ch 2, dc in next dc, 1 bpdc in each of the next 2 fpdc from pre­vi­ous row. Turn. (pic­ture below shows work viewed from right side)

 

Repeat rows 2 & 3 until the two ends of the belt almost reach each oth­er when wrapped around waist (with an approx. 1/2″ gap). End with row 3. Don’t fas­ten off.

Sew a but­ton to the begin­ning end (not the end attached to the work­ing yarn). I used a bit of cro­chet thread to sew on the but­ton for stur­di­ness, and used this method to cre­ate a “shank” so that there will be enough space behind the but­ton for the cro­cheted but­ton loop.

Going back to the oth­er end, with the work­ing yarn, make a but­ton loop clo­sure as follows:

ch 1, skip first dc, sl st in next dc, ch 6 tight­ly, sl st in same dc, skip next dc, sl st in top of turn­ing ch. 

Don’t fas­ten off. Try on belt and adjust the num­ber of ch in the but­ton loop if necessary.

Fas­ten off, weave in ends, and wear with a breezy sum­mer top! :D

 

Note: The com­plet­ed belt will nat­u­ral­ly twist a bit so it’s not intend­ed to be worn loose­ly. It will lie flat if worn fit­ted to the body. 

Feel free to drop me a note if you have ques­tions or comments!