FREE PATTERN crochet striped slouchy beanie

*If you use this pattern, whether for personal use or to sell the product, I do please ask that you give credit where credit is due. I spend quite a bit of time coming up with my designs and patterns and would appreciate if you share the love and let them know about my business as well :) Happy crocheting! You can follow/contact me on my Facebook page and at my Etsy shop*

So today I have created a new beanie! I decided to write out the pattern and share it with you all. I added some pictures along the way to try and help if there might be any issues understanding my pattern. If you have any questions, please let me know! So far I have only tried to make this beanie in a toddler size and adult size.

Materials
* 1 skein Worsted weight yarn - I used Vanna's Choice yarn for both
* H hook
* Weeving needle


Toddler size (pictured in dusty purple)

If you don't know how to make a magic circle, making a small chain and joining would work just fine.

round 1: In a magic circle, chain 1, 10hdc; join with sl st into first hdc

rnd 2: Chain 1 (never counts as first hdc), 2hdc in each hdc around; join with sl st into first hdc (20sts)

rnd 3: Chain 1, *hdc in st, hdc around hdc just made, skip next st* repeat until end; join with sl st into first hdc

To show you how I hdc around the very first hdc, I put the needle from front to back in-between the chain 1 and the hdc. In the picture you can see that I have already YO and pulled through.

The picture above demonstrates how you want to place your hook when you hdc around the last one made.

Here is what it should look like when you hdc around an hdc.

rnd 4: Chain 1, 2hdc in each st around; join with sl st into first hdc (40sts)

I like to hdc "under" the stitch to help give it a more dramatic look and make the holes really pop. I hope this picture can help to demonstrate what I mean.

rnd 5: Chain 1, *hdc in st, hdc around hdc just made, skip next st* repeat until end; join with sl st into first hdc

You are going to notice that after these rows of hdc's around the last that it will look as if it's rolling up. Once you increase in the next row your work should flatten out again like pictured below.

rnd 6: Chain 1, *hdc in st, 2hdc in next st*; join with sl st into first hdc (60sts)

Increasing is done!

rnd 7: Chain 1, *hdc in st, hdc around hdc just made, skip next st* repeat until end; join with sl st into first hdc

rnd 8: Chain 1, hdc in each st around; join with sl st into first hdc (60sts)

Repeat rounds 7 and 8 until you have 19 rounds total

rnds 20-25: Chain 1, sc around; join with sl st into first hdc (60sts)

Finish off and weave in ends.

Adult size (pictured in taupe)

round 1: In a magic circle, chain 1, 10hdc; join with sl st into first hdc

rnd 2: Chain 1 (never counts as first hdc), 2hdc in each hdc around; join with sl st into first hdc (20sts)

rnd 3: Chain 1, *hdc in st, hdc around hdc just made, skip next st* repeat until end; join with sl st into first hdc

rnd 4: Chain 1, 2hdc in each st around; join with sl st into first hdc (40sts)

rnd 5: Chain 1, *hdc in st, hdc around hdc just made, skip next st* repeat until end; join with sl st into first hdc

rnd 6: Chain 1, *hdc in st, 2hdc in next st*; join with sl st into first hdc (60sts)

rnd 7: Chain 1, *hdc in st, hdc around hdc just made, skip next st* repeat until end; join with sl st into first hdc

rnd 8: Chain 1, *hdc in next 5sts, 2hdc in next st*; join with sl st into first hdc (70sts)

Increasing is done!

rnd 9: Chain 1, *hdc in st, hdc around hdc just made, skip next st* repeat until end; join with sl st into first hdc

rnd 10: Chain 1, hdc in each st around; join with sl st into first hdc (70sts)

Repeat rounds 9 and 10 until you have 23 rounds total

rnds 24-29: Chain 1, sc around; join with sl st into first hdc (70sts)

Finish off and weave in ends.

And there you have it! A simple beanie that doesn't take too long to make, but still super cute!

Mario 5th birthday party

Yesterday I threw my son a Mario themed 5th birthday party! It's actually the second year in a row, but I didn't get the chance to really decorate last year. So I decided to put some work in this time :) I think it turned out great! Just wanted to share some pictures of the decorations with everyone.

So to start off, here are the party favors I made for our littlest guests. Bubbles, super Mario fruit snacks, gold chocolate coins, and homemade rice krispie treat stars with yellow white chocolate. I made the mystery boxes with yellow take out boxes I found at the dollar tree and just printed off a question mark to use as a stencil.

Found this idea on Pinterest to make fire flowers out of veggies. What a cute and healthy party snack!

Here's a shot of the whole party table. I found the yellow fans at walmart for $0.99 for both in the party section. Once again I turned the the internet for a picture of the M to use as a stencil and just taped it on.

To make the cake and cupcakes I just made a simple vanilla recipe, and a vanilla buttercream frosting. I filled the cake with homemade blackberry filling which sadly you can see came smearing out on the side of my cake :( Oh well, the top was all that really mattered!

My pride and joy from the party! This baby took quite a few hours to decorate. Lots of color changing which involved having to clean the only 2 identical tips I had. But I would say it was well worth it!

Luigi cupcakes!

Mario cupcakes!

I found these plain party hats at Walmart for a couple dollars for 8. I made stencils of the pictures and cut them out and glued them on. Perfect! I couldn't find any plain party blowers anywhere, so I bought some Spiderman ones and just took the pictures off.

And finally for my wall decorations! I made my best attempt at making letters that looked like a Mario font. Then made 4 stars to go with it. The mushrooms I actually just used a ruler to make a ton of squares and just colored them in following a pixel pattern I found on Pinterest. These were really too easy!

So there you have my DIY mario birthday party :)

Soccer cupcakes

My son has his end of season party this evening! I decided I would make a few cupcakes and searched Pinterest for ideas of something I could make with what I already have at home. I ended up making some Vanilla cupcakes from this recipe 

I made the frosting with this recipe. It's the best! It's so fluffy and makes it easy to decorate and KEEPS IT'S SHAPE. I have tried other buttercream frostings and they just seem to "fall apart" when I try to use decorating tips. 

All I needed was green and black food coloring. They were really too easy to make. I used the Wilton 21 tip to make the soccer balls, and the "grass" tip for the grass. 

Here is the step by step for the soccer balls. To make the white outside edge I made 2 smaller stars in-between the black stars. It kept the balls a little more round that way.

And here they are all finished!

 I thought these were so fun and so easy to make. I always love getting the chance to practice decorating :) One day I would love to go to school and get my pastry arts degree.

Princess Sophia costume tutorial

I would like to start off by saying, I am not a pro when it comes to making tutu dresses. BUT..... I have to say I am pretty proud of this one :) My 2 year old daughter wants to be Princess Sophia from Disney Jr's Sophia the First for Halloween. So I decided I would make it myself. The best part is, it cost me less than $20 to get all the pieces I needed!
So here is the list of supplies that you will need...

For the costume
     * 6" Lavender crochet tutu top
     * 3 - 25 yd. Lilac tulle spools
     * 2 purple gem buttons
     * Set of 6 pearl mardi gras beads
     * 2 sheets white felt
     * tiara

Crafting supplies
     * Scissors
     * Pencil
     * Tacky spray
     * Hot glue gun
     * Measuring tape
     * White sewing thread

Let's get started!

So I actually didn't take pictures of putting the tutu dress together. You can find tutorials on that if needed on youtube. 

Basically, I cut the tulle into 32" strips. When i tied the tulle to the crochet top, I used 2 strips together to make the dress nice and poofy! For the shoulder straps, I measuered and cut 4 pieces of tulle at 20". Once again I doubled up for each strap to make it thicker. I put the dress on my daughter and placed one end of the tulle through a top hole (front to back) in the top that was right next to her shoulder. I pulled it through by a couple inches, enough the tie to the other end when I was done. Then I took the long end and placed it over her shoulder and stuck it through a top hole right behind her armpit. Pull the tulle tight enough that it will keep the dress in place, but with a tiny bit of slack that you can still get it on and off. Then bring it back over the shoulder and from the front, stick the second end through the hole next to the first end. Tie them together on the inside of the dress and tuck the ends up into the sleeve so you can't see them.

I hope that made sense! I wish I had taken pictures, but I didn't decide until I was done making the basic dress that I was going to do this tutorial.

 Now you will want to take a strand of those pearl mardi gras beads.

Take the scissors, and cut anywhere on the strand to make one long piece. Fold it in half to find the middle. You are going to find the center of the front of the dress, and place the beads in that spot.

I put one end through a hole, and pulled it back out through the one next to it.

Next you will turn the dress so the backside is facing you. Find the center of the dress again and stick the beads through 2 holes to pull to the inside.
Take the hot glue gun, and glue the 2 end beads together. I twisted them first just to make it easier.

Now you will need to use another necklace. We are going to cut 2 pieces of the beads to add to the top. I cut mine 6 1/2" so they would reach from top to bottom, and I would be able to angle them towards the middle.

Take the white thread, and cut 6 strands that are about 10" long. Just has to be long enough to tie knots to hold the beads to the top. I used 3 strands for each section of beads. I tied them to the beads first, placing each string at the top, bottom, and middle of the beads.

Doing this allows you to tie the beads to the top and bottom of the top, and use the middle to get that angled look I was talking about earlier.

So next I tied each strand to the top of the crochet top about an inch away from the shoulder straps.

Then you will tie them directly underneath at the bottom so they are a straight line. Pull the middle strings towards the center of the top. I just did it tight enough to where I couldn't pull them over anymore. Tie them in place. The picture below shows the left side tied.

Now you are done sewing on beads!

Here is what we have so far!

Let's make some appliques! This is where the felt comes in. I used a sparkly white felt that I bought for another project I never made, so at least I found a use for it :)

I took pictures of how I made it, but once I was finished I made a template in case someone wanted an easier way to do it. I need to find out how to upload the PDF so it's printable!

Keep in mind that I drew that by hand, so it's not perfect! I used a small bowl to draw out the whole design so it's not perfectly even, but came out good enough in the end.

In this picture you can see the stencil that I used. Afterwards I had to draw a tip to add to the "petals". I wrote out instructions on how to cut and trace the design onto the felt on the picture above. I made 4 designs so I could place them on the front, back, and each side. Then I cut along the outside edges of each design.

Then I cut out each triangle piece. I made sure to keep each piece where it belonged, so they all matched.

You will want to use a box, or paper bags down for this next step. And probably open up the windows, or do this step outside because the tacky spray smells very strong. Make sure you spray the BACKSIDE of the felt with the pencil markings. I sprayed each piece as I went so they wouldn't dry on me and I would end up using way more spray. REMEMBER to make sure the tulle on the dress is laid out nicely and not bunched up so it looks nice and pretty when you are all done!

This causes your fingers to be a sticky disaster. I wish I had tips on how to prevent that from happening, but I don't. If you know any, please do let me know!

Congratulations!!!! The dress is done!!! Now let's accessorize.

I found the tiara next to the check out stands at Joann's for $1! Awesome deal! I actually found the tiara, purple buttons, and mardi gra beads there and spent about $6 with a 25% off coupon. Here are the buttons I found to make the amulet.

I decided to make my own amulet because I was trying to work on a budget and the price of the ones sold in stores are just a little much. So again, I used a strand of beads, and just one of these buttons to make an amulet. I sized the necklace so it was just long enough that I could take it on and off around my daughters head. I twisted the beads to hold the place and hot glued them together. you will have a lot of extra beads left over, so I cut them so it was just long enough to circle around the button. Once again I didn't get the step by step pictures of this process, but I can show you my after pictures so you can see what I did.

I first cut the beads around the button to the perfect size, then glued them together. Then I circled the glue around the button and placed it on the pearls. I let it dry for a minute then flipped it over and coated it with glue so it wouldn't fall off.

And there's the amulet!

For the tiara, I just took another button and hot glued it to the middle where I thought it looked best.

There you have it! A sweet little DIY princess Sophia costume! If you make a dress using my tutorial, I would LOVE to see pictures <3

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