A dress pat­tern! :D

A vari­a­tion of gink­go the square top. Inspired by a dress I saw at Amer­i­can Appar­el, which was half lace and half satin kind of mate­r­i­al. And I thought (as I usu­al­ly do when I see any­thing I like at the stores), “I could make that.”

I’m not a fun per­son to go shop­ping with, that’s for sure. Any­way. On to the pattern!

Here’s the back of it, and a clos­er look at the cro­chet pattern.

 

Below is the writ­ten pat­tern for cro­chet­ing the top part of the dress. I will then explain how to make and attach the skirt part of the dress. Please for­give my lack of pho­tos in that part (>_<)… I tried to draw dia­grams to explain some of the steps, hope they help!

Fin­ished size: bust 32″, waist 26″, length 16″, with a bit of neg­a­tive ease.
To cre­ate larg­er sizes, I’d sug­gest using a heav­ier cot­ton and a larg­er hook, i.e. DK/sport (3.5mm hook); worsted (5mm hook).

For the top, I used:
#10 cot­ton thread
2.5mm hook

For the skirt, I used:
1/2 yard sheer fab­ric
1/2 yard white poly­ester satin
(the amount of fab­ric required may vary; it depends on the size of the top and how full you want your skirt to be. See the Skirt sec­tion below)

 

Top (make 2) 

Stitch pat­tern:
Fan = [dc, 2ch, dc, 2ch, dc] in same space

ch 96

Row 1: ch 3, dc in 4th ch from hook, dc across, turn.

Row 2 (set up row): ch 5, dc in 1st dc, skip next 2 dc, dc in next dc, [skip next 2 dc, fan in next dc, skip next 2 dc, dc in next dc] to end, [dc, ch 2, dc] in turn­ing ch, turn.

Row 3 (pat­tern row 1): ch 3, skip first dc, fan in dc between fans, [dc in 2nd dc of next fan, fan in next dc between fans] to end, dc in 3rd ch of turn­ing ch, turn.

Row 4 (pat­tern row 2): ch 5, ch in 1st dc, dc in 2nd dc of next fan, [fan in next dc between fans, dc in 2nd dc of next fan] to end, [dc, ch 2, dc] in turn­ing ch, turn.

Rows 5–6: work pat­tern rows 1 & 2 once more.

Row 7: work pat­tern row 1.

Row 8 (increase row): ch 3, dc in 1st dc, ch 1, dc in same dc, dc in 2nd dc of next fan, work in pat­tern until turn­ing ch, [dc, ch 1, 2 dc] in turn­ing ch, turn.

Row 9 (increase row): ch 4, dc in next dc, skip next dc, fan in next dc, work in pat­tern to last dc between fans, fan in last dc between fans, dc in 2nd last dc before turn­ing ch, ch 1, dc in turn­ing ch, turn.

Row 10: ch 3, fan in next dc, dc in 2nd dc of next fan, work in pat­tern to 2nd last dc of row, fan in 2nd last dc of row, dc in 3rd ch of turn­ing ch, turn.

Rows 11–16: work pat­tern rows 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, and 1.

Rows 17–19: repeat rows 8–10.

Rows 20–30: work in pat­tern. End with row 2.

Arm­hole shaping:

Row 31: ch 1, sl st in 1st dc, next ch 2 space, next 3 dc, next ch 2 sp, and next dc. ch 3, fan in next dc between fans, work in pat­tern until last fan, dc in 2nd dc of 2nd last fan, leave remain­ing st unworked, turned.

Row 32: ch 3, dc in 2nd dc of 1st fan, work in pat­tern until last fan, dc in 2nd dc of last fan, dc in turn­ing ch, turn.

Row 33: ch 5, dc in 1st dc, dc in 2nd dc of 1st fan, work in pat­tern until last fan, dc in 2nd dc of last fan, [dc, ch 2, dc] in turn­ing ch, turn.

Row 34–36: work pat­tern rows 1, 2, and 1.

Neck­line shap­ing — right:

Row 37: work in pat­tern to the 5th fan of the row, dc in 2nd dc of the 5th fan, dc in next dc between fans, turn.

Row 38: ch 3, dc in 2nd dc of 1st fan, work in pat­tern to end.

Row 39: work in pat­tern until last fan, dc in 2nd dc of last fan, dc in turn­ing ch, turn.

Row 40: ch 5, dc in 1st dc, dc in 2nd dc of 1st fan, work in pat­tern to end.

Row 41 — 51: work in pattern.

Row 52: ch 1, sc in 1st dc, [sc in 2 ch sp, sc in next dc, sc in 2 ch sp, sc in dc between fans] until last dc, skip last dc, sc in turn­ing ch, sc in 3rd ch of turn­ing ch. Fas­ten off.

Neck­line shap­ing — left:

Row 37: count­ing from the left edge, attach yarn to the dc between the 5th and 6th fans. 

Row 38: work in pat­tern until last fan, dc in 2nd dc of last fan, dc in turn­ing ch, turn.

Row 39: ch 3, dc in 2nd dc of 1st fan, work in pat­tern to end, turn.

Row 40: work in pat­tern until last fan, dc in 2nd dc of last fan, [dc, ch 2, dc] in turn­ing ch, turn.

Rows 41–51: work in pattern.

Row 52: ch 1, sc in 1st dc, sc in ch 2 sp, [sc in dc between fans, sc in ch 2 sp, sc in dc, sc in ch 2 sp] until turn­ing ch, sc in turn­ing ch. Fas­ten off.

 

Assem­bly

With right sides togeth­er, sew shoul­der and side seams together.

Turn top right side out. Work a round of sc even­ly along neck­line and arm­holes. Gen­er­al­ly, sc in each dc, and sc in each ch 2 sp; when cro­chet­ing into the ends of the row, 2 sc in each row.

Work 1 dc in each dc around the bot­tom edge of the top.

 

Skirt — fab­ric measurement

Cut two rec­tan­gu­lar pieces of fab­ric, one piece for the top lay­er of skirt, one piece for the skirt lining.

Width for both pieces = 1.5 times the cir­cum­fer­ence of the cro­cheted top’s bot­tom edge.

Mea­sure length of the fab­ric as desired for the top lay­er of skirt. Minus 1″ from the length for the skirt lining.

*Add 1/2″ seam allowance to all sides of both pieces of fabric.

Skirt — sewing

For the top lay­er of skirt, with wrong side fac­ing, fold fab­ric in half width-wise, so that the short sides are togeth­er. Sew the short edges togeth­er, so it forms a tube.

Repeat for the skirt lin­ing. Now we have two fab­ric tubes.

With the wrong side fac­ing on both fab­ric tubes, place the top lay­er of skirt inside the skirt lin­ing. Match­ing top edge and using large stitch­es, hand or machine sew the top edges togeth­er. Don’t back stitch. As shown in the dia­gram below: the skirt lin­ing is the short­er tube on the out­side, the top lay­er of skirt is inside out inside the skirt lin­ing, and the orange lines are stitches.

Gath­er the skirt even­ly along the seam just sewed by lin­ing it up with the cro­cheted top, as follows:

With right sides togeth­er, line up the top edge of the skirt with the bot­tom of the cro­cheted top (the cro­cheted top will be upside down inside the skirt tubes). Once the skirt is gath­ered enough so that the top edge of the skirt match­es the bot­tom edge of the cro­cheted top, pin top to skirt along the the first dc row of the cro­chet top. Machine sew along the top of the first dc row. The dia­gram below shows the posi­tion of the top inside the skirt tubes in dot­ted lines, and the orange seam line.

 

Final­ly, hem skirt and skirt lining.

And we’re done! :D

 

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

Have an awe­some day!