Something rather wonderful happened last Monday and it's kept a smile on my face all week.
Babukatorium featured my rainbow nightdress case on her Facebook page and... well... the response has been more than a little surprising.
My silly bit of purely self indulgent crochet has notched up over seventeen hundred likes! Seriously, over a thousand folks clicked the like button on something I made.
I am truly staggered!!
Along with all those likes and shares came a number of requests for a pattern. Well that posed a small problem... there wasn't one. I made it up, using a collection of some of my favourite stitches. A few comments also pointed out that it would make a rather nice bag either for a laptop or a tablet or just a general bag for putting stuff in.
I never wrote about the nightdress case here, not sure why, other than 2012 didn't seem to be a big blogging year. I did post it on Flickr though, which is where it was spotted. I've been following Babukatorium on Flickr for ages, ever since I started an account there. Never thought for an instant to look for a Facebook page. I only really use Facebook to keep in touch with a few family members and close friends. So imagine my surprise when I received a message on Ravelry and another on Facebook telling me that my funny little nightdress case had been featured on Babukatorium's Facebook page and was getting a lot of appreciation. Off I went to have a look and the picture already had a few hundred likes and some lovely comments. Made me smile a lot.
After a bit of thought, by which time the likes had gone up to over a thousand, I decided to tell the story of my silly little nightdress case and I've done my best to write out the pattern so that anyone who wants to can make a bag or a case of their own.
I've mentioned before about my on going, never ending quest to live inside my own personal rainbow. Well back in 2012 I came across some wonderful cotton. It comes in a real rainbow of colours that I fell in love with instantly. Planet Penny Cotton. It's distributed by Penny of Planet Penny and sold in her Etsy shop.
Look at those glorious colours! I absolutely love it!
At first I used it to make little things like covers for the pen holders on my desk and the occasional flower decoration, but I wanted to make something more substantial with it and I wanted to do something that used a number of stitch effects, especially shell or fan stitches because I love the look of rows of fan stitches done in all different colours.
Being an old fashioned kind of girl I remembered that years ago I'd always kept my nightdress in a nightdress case on the bed. In more recent times my night clothes often spent the day languishing wherever I'd taken them off which could be anywhere from the bathroom to the kitchen depending on what I was doing at the time... maybe a pretty rainbow coloured case would be the perfect solution to the nightly roam around the house looking for where I'd left my nightdress.
Did I need or even want a pattern? Not really, this was pure self indulgence, just for me, so why not make up my own pattern.
The front of the bag is kind of a sampler of some of my favourite crochet stitches.
I used The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller as my stitch reference guide. No matter how long you have been crocheting, (in my case over 50 years now) this book is a very useful stitch and crochet basics guide.
The Planet Penny cotton is more of a four ply than a dk and I am a "loose hooker" (stop giggling) so I use a 3.00m hook. I would happily recommend the Planet Penny Cotton for these types of projects but any yarn of your own choice will do. Go with what you are comfortable with. If you want a nice tightly woven fabric then obviously a smaller hook size is better, if you want a lacy fabric then use a bigger hook size.
Once yarn and hook are decided you have to decide on the 'dominant stitch' that you want to use and the size of the bag you want to make.
My nightdress case is 14 inch/35cm wide and 11inch/28cm tall. It will comfortably hold a nightdress, or a pair of Pjs, or some sleepshorts and top, or a nightshirt and PJ pants, all with a pair of snuggly socks tucked in the side. I'm a pretty big girl, however, if you are more on the petite and svelt side you could probably get away with making a smaller one. If you are making a bag to fit a tablet or Kindle or some such then measure the item in question and remember to take into account the 'thickness' of what you want to put in the bag. If your item is quite thick then you will want to make the back and front a little bigger to ensure you can get what you want inside.
Once you have a size you can start on the maths... don't be put off by the maths, crochet, knitting, even patchwork all have an element of the mathematical about them but it isn't hard and can usually be done with a bit of trial and error.
Make a chain that is the width of the bag you want to make. (Try and crochet as normally as you can so that you get a standard gauge.)
Count the number of chains. Write the number down.
Now here's a tip – trying to join together two piece of crochet with 'fancy' stitching that goes right up to the edge can be something of a nightmare, so I think it makes it much easier if both ends of your rows are some kind of standard crochet stitch like a treble (US dc) or double crochet (US sc) for my bag I made a border, or a margin of 4 plain stitches down either side to make joining the back and front together a whole lot easier.
Now we come back to that decision about the dominant stitch. Pick one that you like and use it as the base for your maths. I picked the shell or fan stitch. I love this stitch, it is just soooooo pretty.
I decided the easiest way to show the pattern was to make something else using the same pattern elements so I am making a new case for my Kindle. This is the pattern size detailed below.
The fan stitch covers 6 stitches. These 6 stitches are the base number for the maths. How many chains did you make to get the size you want? I made 44. I want a border on each end of 4 stitches so 44 – 8 = 36. That means that I will have 6 fans in between my border, BUT I will need 1 additional stitch to close the final fan... so...
I need a chain of 45. You will have to use common sense to decide whether to round up the number of stitches you need or whether to round down. Remember if you have a specific item in mind you want to be sure the bag fits. Also remember that most crochet stretches a little in the making.
And another tip, stitch markers are your friends. You can never have too many stitch markers, they are one of the most useful tools in the crochet notions bag.
I am from the UK so my pattern is written in UK crochet terms, however, I wrote a page for the pattern in US terms here or you can access it from the 'Pages' menu in the left hand column of the blog.
So here we go...
All my pictures are clickable and zoom-able if you need to get closer to the detail.
Row 1: Ch45
4 stitches at either end for the 'border' and 6 stitches per fan plus 1 to close the final fan means I will have 4 plain stitches, 6 fans, and 4 plain stitches.
Make a turning chain (46 chains in all)
Row 2: dc (US sc) in 2nd chain from hook, dc (US sc) in each chain to end = 45 dcs (US sc) ch1 and turn.
Row 3: Repeat row 2
Now get out the stitch markers, place the first one in the fifth dc then skip 2 dcs and place another stitch marker in the next stitch, continue like this until you have only 4 stitches left. The stitch markers mark each place were the hook is inserted for the fan stitches in the fan stitch row. Each marker denotes the start, centre and/finish of each fan. You should have 2 markers per fan plus 1 with 4 unmarked stitches at each end. So I have 13 markers 2 for each of the 6 fans plus 1.
If you have this combination then you have the right number of dcs. Lay the work out flat and count carefully, there is nothing more frustrating than getting to the end of a long row of fans only to find you have a stitch over or are one short.
{For a nightdress case the same as the one I made you would have a 69ch, comprising 4 stitches each side for the border, and 10 fans which equals 21 markers, 2 for each fan (10 fans) plus 1.}
Row 4: dc in next 4 dc, *dc in next dc, skip 2 dcs, make 5 trs in next dc (fan) skip 2 dc,* rep from * to * until you reach the last stitch marker, dc in marked stitch to close the final fan, dc in last 4 dc, change colour, Ch 3, turn
First row of fan stitches complete:- 6 fans with a 4 stitch border on each side.
Row 5: (ch 3 counts as first tr) tr in next 3 dc, 3tr in next dc, (half fan made) *dc in 3rd tr (central tr) of fan, 5 trs in next dc* repeat from * to * to last 5 stitches, 3 trs in next dc, 1 tr in each of next 4 dcs to end, change colour Ch1, turn.
You now have 2 rows of fans.
Now we need to level out the top of the fans ready for the popcorn stitch row.
Row 6: This is the popcorn stitch set up row. htr in 1st st, 1htr in each next 6 sts, then in next 6 stitches *1tr, 1htr, 3dc, 1htr* rep from * to * to last 7 sts, 6htrs, 1htr in 3rd ch of final st. Do NOT change colour. Ch 3, turn.
Row 7: This is the popcorn stitch row. (ch 3 on hook counts as first tr) tr in each of next 6 sts, *popcorn {*see below*} in next tr, tr in next 5 sts* rep from * to * until you have 6 popcorns, tr in each of next 7 sts, ch1, turn.
*{Popcorn Stitch - make 5 complete trs in one stitch (like for the fan) pull the loop left on the hook to make it a bit bigger. Remove the hook from the loop (don't panic it's only for a few seconds) Insert hook through the top of the first of the 5 trs, capture the abandoned loop and pull it through, pulling the group of 5 stitches tight together. At this point you can either ch1 to close the stitch or continue with the next tr. If my explanation doesn't make sense try here for a better explanation and a video}
Row 8: 45dc across the row, make 45th dc in 3rd ch of previous row, change colour, ch3, turn.
Count the dcs to make sure you have 45. Ignore the V stitches in this picture it's just to give you a close up of the popcorn row.
Row 9: V st row, get out your stitch markers again. Place 1 stitch marker in 4th stitch from each end of row and 1 stitch marker in 6th stitch from each end of row. (ch 3 on hook counts as first tr) tr in each of next 3 sts, ( remove stitch marker for 3rd tr) skip next dc, *V in next dc, (marked with the stitch marker – remove it now) skip next dc* rep from * to * until you reach next stitch marker, remove stitch marker and place final V in this stitch, skip next st, tr in each of final 4 sts, ch 1, turn.
The Vs will seem as if there are too many so now we need to retention the row.
Row 10: dc in first 4 stitches, dc in space between 4th tr & 1st V of previous row, *dc in ch1 space of V, dc between V* rep from * to * last V space, dc between V and next tr, dc in each of next 3 sts, dc in 3rd chain of previous row. 45 dcs.
These 10 rows make the pattern. It is now entirely up to you how you use them.
In the picture I have already begun to make more fans, the pattern ends with the V stitches in blue.
The chart has 11 rows because I wanted to show a row of V in V stitches which is what I did in place of popcorns further on in the pattern.
For the nightdress case I worked off a ch 69 which gave me a 4 stitch border on each side and 10 fans and did the following rows:-
2 dc rows
4 rows fans
1 line popcorns (including set up and dc row = 3 pattern rows)
1 line Vs (including retention row = 2 pattern rows)
4 rows fans
Double V line (see chart = 3 rows)
4 rows fans
Double V line (see chart = 3 rows)
4 rows fans
Double V line (see chart = 3 rows)
4 rows fans
Fill in row (row 6)
dc row to finish.
With it's rainbow of colours, I think the back is just as pretty as the front even though it is plain stitching,
For the back off the same number of chains I worked
1dc row
28 tr rows
1dc row to finish
This gave me 2 pieces the same size. (My trebles are quite tall so some folks may need more rows)
Join the front and back of the bag together with a round of dc stitches, keeping them as even as possible. This is tricky and for neatness can be entirely dependent on your tension. Work with the right side facing so you are using the patterned side as the stitch guide. Personally I try to hook 1dc in each row that begins or ends with a dc, 2 dcs in rows with a htr at the edge and 2 in rows with a tr at the edge. But it really is all down to what you think looks and works the best. Try to keep a record of of how you stitch the first side once you have it done to your satisfaction, so that you can mirror it on the other side. The bottom is easy as its joining the same number of dcs on each piece. I put 3 dcs in the corners, but 2 might be adequate depending on how you crochet.
For the flap I crocheted a flat circle in plain trebles knowing that I intended to decorate it with flowers. Obviously the circle needs to be as wide as the bag :)
There are loads of crochet flower and leaf patterns out there, pick your favourites and use them. Lucy of Attic24 has several on her blog and there are plenty of others on the internet or in books like 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet by Lesley Stansfield or Nicki Trench Cute and Easy Crocheted with Flowers. I used little heart shaped buttons for the centres of my flowers.
You can decorate the flap however you please, or not at all, or make a fancy circle. Actually the fancy circle sounds like a great idea – I may make another just to do that. The choice is entirely personal. If you want to you can do what I plan to do with the kindle case and extend the back so that it folds over like an envelope flap.
Once the closing flap is made comes the tricky business of lining. Bag lining can be a royal pain but it is worth it.
For the bag part of the nightdress case I bought a patterned silky lining fabric. The silkiness makes it easier to slide nightclothes in and out of the bag. For the kindle case I will use felt because the idea is to protect the kindle when it is getting bounced around in my handbag. I used some pretty cotton to line the flap of the nightdress case.
And there you have it. A pretty bag for whatever you want to use it for.
And finally... I am no teacher, I have never written up a pattern for other people to use before and I have done my best to be clear and make things easy to understand but if anything is wrong, or not clear please let me know and I'll happily answer questions or make corrections.
Love O. xx