Lacey Petals Jacket or Cover-Up

Hi, friends! Am I really back so soon with another post?? I know it’s hard to believe after months of neglecting the blog portion of this little crochet business of mine! Alas, here we are! 😉

Back in March, I finished up a motif-based, light-weight jacket. The version that first caught my attention was made into a cocoon style sweater, but I wanted to make a longer and more traditional jacket.

The motif itself comes from this free pattern on YouTube–there is no written pattern, so please be patient with yourself if you decide to make this motif and aren’t accustomed to following along with a video. I promise, though, it is worth it! Just look how beautiful it is! And I’ve seen it in a few other colors–it’s always gorgeous!

Want to buy this jacket?? I’m selling them on my website! 

I found it helpful to take notes on the pattern for my own use as I went through the video–the first motif took quite a while to complete, re-watching parts of the video, writing things down–but it was really nice to have an abbreviated written version available for the subsequent motifs.

After figuring out how many motifs to use and how to assemble them, I decided on border and sleeve designs. I’ll admit–it is a bit of a rough draft, and I don’t plan to have anyone “test” it, per se, but since it is a free tutorial based on a free pattern, consider this a great opportunity for you to get creative and gain some confidence in your crochet work and pattern decision-making skills! 🙂 Still, I think it turned out pretty great!

Time to make one for yourself!

NOTES:

Please know that I do not take responsibility for or ownership of the motif pattern itself–it is a free pattern from another maker, which has been linked both above and below. I’ve created this tutorial to show you how to use this motif to make the jacket/cover-up.

I’ll give the quick and simple cover-up conversion instructions at the end! Regardless of how you plan to use this piece, the yarn usage listed below has got you covered.

Admittedly, the material I used makes for a heavier-than-ideal (at least for me) bathing suit cover-up. But if you’ll be someplace with bars/restaurants right on the beach, it’s a perfect cover-up so that you won’t feel naked AND you won’t be freezing in their cranked up air conditioning! 😀

MATERIALS:

5.5mm hook

~660m worsted weight cotton (I used 4 skeins of “I Love This Cotton” in white.)

4 skeins of this material still left me with about 30m after converting to the cover up. If you need to make a wider sleeve, you should still have enough with 660m. If you also intend to make the cover up strap longer or wider than mine, you may want to purchase extra cotton to be safe.

Scissors

Darning needle

STITCHES USED:

Ch – chain

Sl st- slip stitch

Dc- double crochet

Tr – treble crochet

Tr4tog – treble 4 together

Tr5tog – treble 5 together

Crab st – crab stitch, or reverse single crochet

Dc2tog – double crochet 2 together

Fpdc – front post double crochet

Hdc – half double crochet

INSTRUCTIONS:

You will be making a total of 8 motifs and using the join-as-you-go method. Generally, this is not my favorite method, but in the case of this motif, it worked out splendidly and I really recommend you give it a try if you haven’t in the past. It was much easier and faster than other methods I may have used, ordinarily.

Start your first motif with this video: Motif Pattern on YouTube

I used the magic ring to start, which is not what is shown in the video. Either method will be fine and simply depends on your preference.

Make your first motif. WOOHOO–one down, 7 to go! 😀

Before starting your second motif, please watch the first minute or so of Part 2 of the pattern videos so you have an idea of what’s coming for the joining method: Part 2 of Motif Pattern

ASSEMBLY:

Using the join as you go method demonstrated in Part 2 of the video (linked above), you will join your squares in the following (or similar) fashion:

Joining squares 1-6 is the easy part–just make sure you DON’T close up the space between 5 and 6 because that is the front/open part of the jacket.

When you get to square 7, you will join to square 5 as you’ve done all the others. You will ALSO join to the side of square 3 to close up the side seam at the same time! I’ve highlighted these joins in another schematic below. You will follow the same instructions for square 8, joining to both 6 AND 4.

Just join the sides of the squares that are matching in color. Picture the schematic folding down on itself at the shoulder join line.

Excellent! The body of your jacket is now complete–time for a border!

BORDER:

Starting at the bottom inside corner of square 8 on the open edge:

R1: Dc evenly around the entire open edge of the jacket, making a sort of U shape. Ch 1, do NOT turn.

R2: Crab st (reverse sc) back around. Finish off.

Starting on one of your side seams where the opening begins for the armhole, with the right side out:

Loosely sc towards the shoulder to close off the armhole a little bit more–go up to the center of the square. (This is optional–if you want a really loose and open arm hole, skip this step.)

Starting right where you are at the bottom of your armhole:

R1: Ch 2 (first dc), dc evenly around the entire armhole. Join to ch 2. (If you want to cinch up the sleeve even more, only dc into the dc stitches and make just 2 dc stitches in the larger ch spaces at the shoulder join.)

R2: Ch 2 (first dc), dc in next 3 st, dc2tog (decrease). *Dc in next 4 st, dc2tog* around. Join to ch 2. Don’t worry if your st count doesn’t come out for a perfectly even repeat.

R3: Ch 2, *fpdc around next st, hdc in top of next st* around. Join to ch 2.

R4-R5: Repeat R3.

R6: Crab st (reverse sc) around. Finish off. Weave in all ends.

COVER UP CONVERSION:

R1: Ch 4. Hdc in 2nd ch from hook. Hdc in next two chains. Ch 1, turn. (3 hdc)

R2: 3 hdc across. ch 1, turn.

R3-Rxx: Repeat R2 for as many rows as needed to reach desired length. I made mine ~equal to my wingspan. Finish off and weave in ends.

Feel free to make your belt wider than 3 stitches, of course. I just preferred the daintier look of it being rather thin.

CONGRATS! Time to go ROCK this new jacket/cover up of yours!