Your personal businesscard holder

Nowadays, so many people have their own blog or even their online business / shop and it is a necessity to advertise in order to stand out from the crowd. You could start really simple by making your own business cards  to make at least your direct environment aware of what you are up to. In my next blog post I will put all the Do’s and Don’ts on a list of how your business card should look like, what it should contain, including the latest trends to stay up to date with the  latest technology.

But of course once your business cards are ordered you can start thinking of how to carry them around. Why not DIY your own business card holder?! :-)

What you need is:

-  some cotton yarn (this stays nice specially knowing that this holder might be laying around in your bag or in your back trouser pocket, in that case better not opt for light colored materials)

-   a small piece of fabric, I have recycled a cushion cover that I wanted to through out and went well with the orange yarn I had chosen ;-) (let’s go at least 50% green!!)

-   needle and some thread (or you can use your sewing machine like I did)

Find instructions after the jump... 

PATTERN:

This pattern is based on following business card dimension (standard):

8.5 cm x 5.5cm (3.35 inch x 2.16 inch)

Chain 27  (your rectangle crocheted piece will be slightly bigger, around 1.5cm (0.6 inch) than your actual business cards)

Row 1: 1sc in 2^nd ch from hook, *1sc in next ch*, repeat *-* 23 more times, 1ch, turn piece  = 26sc

Row2: *1sc in next ch*, repeat *-* 25 more times, 1ch, turn piece  = 26sc

Repeat Row 2 until you reach approximaely 6.5cm - 7cm (2.6 inch)

Your final piece will be 10cm x 6.5cm  (3.9 inch x 2.6 inch). Finish off and sew nicely your yarn in on both sides.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cut your fabric 10cm x 7.5cm

2. Fold your fabric on one of the long sides with 1cm towards the inside as this will be the top of the fabric you will see at the open business card holder and sew this part nice and straight.

3. Place the right side of your fabric and the right side of your crocheted part on top of each other.

4. Sew now on the 3 remaining sides and leave a seem of 0.5cm on the 3 sides

5. Turn the little bag inside out, like this both right sides are now outside.

Your business card holder is now ready to use.

If you think it is a little big you could crochet a little hook which you sew at the back and a button at the front so you can close it.

In my case the holder is tight enough to keep the business cards nice at its place.

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Fan like Earrings make a great gift!!! (+ pattern)

Don't you have this sometimes where you think ' I have crocheted or knitted this scarf/jumper but wish I had some earrings to go with it'? Well, if you have some yarn left, a couple of earring pieces from a craftshop and of course 15mins of your time, you are ready to go.

These are easy earrings but they will look, for those who can not crochet, rather complicated and exotic. They are ready in now time and you can make as many as you want. Come to think of it, they would even make a great present.
I have even added a little template you could use to hang the earrings on when you give it out as a present!! ;-)

PATTERN:
chain 8  and form a ring finishing with a sl st in 1st ch
Row1: 2ch (counts as 1hdc), 8 hdc in circle space ( = 9hdc in total), turn
Row2: 3ch (counts as 1hdc +1ch), *1hdc in next hdc, 1ch * repeat 7  more times (= total of 9hdc ), turn
Row3: 1ch, *1sc in next one-chain-space, 3ch, another sc in same one-chain-space*, repeat this 8 more times, finish off.

Repeat this pattern one more time.

Once you have crocheted the 2 fan like patterns in your favourite pattern/colour, you can start putting it all together, the crocheted fan, the connection ring and the actual earring piece (as you can see in the picture below) and you will be wearing them in no time ;-).

ch = chain
sc = single crochet
hdc = half double crochet
sl st = slip stitch

Template to use as packaging for your earrings.
Place the mouse on the picture and click on the right mouse button, save the pictures so you can reopen it and print it.
Glue it on some cardboard and you have your own original packaging ;-)

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White crocheted bracelet/ necklace

I have made this simple bracelet/necklace the other day. Unfortunately I only took pictures of it being a bracelet though. Of course, I'll give some guidelines but you can make this bracelet/necklace as long as you want.

So, do you have some yarn laying around? Because it is honestly as simple as that. If you are not happy with your yarn , you can always spice it up with some simple sewing thread to make this yarn more fancy looking, more jewely like looking. In the picture below you can see that I have used white cotton mixed with some light grey sewing thread.

You don't need to know much about crochet to be able to make this jewelry. But you know as they say, simple is always the best. ;-) It could even be a great idea for a present.

What you will need is yarn (cotton or acrylic ), some sewing thread and a button.
(I would prefer cotton in this case as it is a bit more heavy and falls more neater around your wrist).

INSTRUCTIONS:

Use both yarns at the same time and create a chain of 2m long, slip stich in the 1st chain and finish off. (make sure your chain is not twisted before finishing off)

You have actually made one big circle.

Take the circle and turn it into one straight line. On one ending (u-turn looking) you can sew the button and on the other end (the other u-turn)  create a loop opening big enough to serve as button opening. Use some extra yarn and turn it around the chain to create the button opening.

You are now able to turn the chain up to 4 or 5 times around your wrist or at least 2 times around your neck.

P.S.: Don't forget still one day to go, so leave a comment here and win a FREE Giveaway from my Shop.

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Make your own bow tie ring

I can imagine that you have crocheted a scarf or even several scarves this winter. And in most cases you have some yarn left. So how about making a bow tie ring in the same yarn as your scarf. This is so easy and can be done in no time so that you can make even different rings in different colours to match different outfits.

Before going over to the pattern and the 'Hows' of how to make this ring I would like to make a small announcement.

I know most of you are amazing crafts people and you all know to crochet well. But I would like to thank you for all the visits my blog had over the past 2 months therefor I would like to organise a FREE Giveaway coming from my Headband section in my shop The New Crochet. So hope to see you all at this Blog on Wednesday, January 16th and hope you'll be the lucky one for this 1ST Free Giveaway on this site.

Well enough about this, back to our bow tie ring.

To make this ring you will need to crochet 3 little strips.

 I have used rather thin acrylic yarn and used hook 2.5.

Sc= single crochet

Part 1 (ring):

PATTERN:

Chain 3

Row 1: skip 1 chain, 1sc in each of the 2 remaining chains, chain 1 and turn

Row2: 1sc in the each of the 2sc, chain 1 and turn

Repeat this until your crocheted strip is long enough to go around your ring finger, when long enough finish off and sew the ends together. In my case it was around 6cm long (2.3 inch)

Part 2 (part to tie the bow to the ring):

PATTERN:

Chain 3

Row 1: skip 1 chain, 1sc in each of the 2 remaining chains, chain 1 and turn

Row2: 1sc in the each of the 2sc, chain 1 and turn

Repeat until the strip measures 2.5 - 3 cm (around 1.2inch) (depending on the thickness of your yarn) and finish off.

Part 3 ( bow):

PATTERN:

Chain 4

Row 1: skip 1 chain, 1sc in each of the 3 remaining chains, chain 1 and turn

Row2: 1sc in the each of the 3sc, chain 1 and turn

Repeat until the strip measures approximately 7cm (2.75 inch) and finish off and sew the ends together.

Now place the bow on the ring and fix them together by using Part 2. Ring and bow are placed on top of each other in the same direction while part 2 is placed in the opposite direction.

Have fun with it!!!

 

 

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Infinity chain scarf (+ free pattern)

First of all I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and may your year be filled with plenty of happiness and lots and lots of beautiful and creative moments!!!

The festive season is a time for family and there is hardly any time for ourselves but this is all behind us now and a new year with new resolutions has started. This is day 2!!! So time to be creative.

Just before the holidays I have made this chain scarf. It is the simplest thing ever, it is beginners level but I think any level will enjoy making this as this is a good reason to get rid of little bits and pieces of yarn from last year. Like this, your scarf could turn into a colourful item and at the same time you have created some new space to stock up on Spring colours :-).

With the length I have chosen you can wrap the scarf an additional time around your neck. Of course you can test this out and make it longer if preferred.

PATTERN:

Row1: 200ch, finish circle with a slip stitch and fasten off.

Repeat this 32 times (less or more depending on your yarn thickness or the thickness you would like to give to your infinity scarf).

30 chains are for the actual scarf, the 2 additional ones I have used to turn around the 30 chains to keep them nice and need together and finally sewed them slightly to the bunch of chains to keep them in their position.

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Merry Christmas to you ALL. See here my Christmas gift to you. 20% discount on everything in my Etsy shop during the next few days to come.

Don't hesitate to ask for custom orders. 

Happy Shopping!!

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Flower choker necklace (+ pattern)

I have realised from all your comments the past 2 weeks, that everyone is busy preparing Christmas decorations or even Christmas presents. Maybe this little bracelet could be part of your preparations, for yourself or for someone else. You could make it in the same colour as your outfit. You could even make a bracelet to go with it, to have a matching pair.
The whole bracelet is done in crochet.

I have used cotton yarn for the flower and for the actual string I have crocheted lace that I bought at a DIY shop, which is used for necklaces.

To fancy up the flower I sewed a bead in the middle of the flower.

Hope you like it or even better, I hope it gives you some inspiration to fancy up your outfit during the festive season. And all this in a very cheap and fun way!!

PATTERN:

String:
Depending on the size, necklace or bracelet you crochet the amount of chains necessary and finish off. (you could also use a thin leather strap to replace the crocheted string)

Flower:
chain 5 and form a ring with a sl st in 1st ch
Row1: 3ch, 1dc in same ch, *2dc in every ch*, repeat 4 times, finish with a sl st in 3rd ch from beginning
Row2: 4ch, 1dc in same ch, *1ch and 1dc in next dc*, repeat 9 times, finish with a sl st in 3rd ch from beginning
Row3: 1ch, 1sc in 1st ch space, 4ch, 1sc in same ch space, *1sc in next ch space, 4ch and again 1sc in same ch space* repeat 9 times, finish with a sl st 1st sc.
Finish off

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Christmas ornament from your old T-shirt (+ pattern)

In my previous blog post you will find how to turn your old T-shirts into yarn. As this yarn is more chunky, it is great for floor carpets etc. but why not use it for some Christmas decoration?!

You can make a flat Christmas ball, you can add some thin red ribbon and you are set in no time for your tree decoration in a few weeks time.

PATTERN:
chain 5 on hook size 6 and form a ring with 1 sl st in first ch
Row1: ch 1, *2sc in every ch* finish with 1 sl st in first ch
Row2: ch1, *2sc in every sc* finish with 1 sl st in first ch
In most cases this might be enough, but in case of my brown yarn, the cotton fabric used was a lot thinner, so for this one I added a 3rd row.

Row3: ch1, *2sc in next sc and 1sc in following sc* finish with 1 sl st in first ch

ch = chain
sl st = slip stitch
sc = single crochet

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Recycle your old t-shirts into yarn

Are your hands itching to starting crocheting or knitting but you have no yarn at home? Do you have some old t-shirts laying around at home? If your answer is twice yes, than your problem is solved and you can start in no time ;-).

Of course you can buy recycled T-shirt yarn in the shop, it has the same thickness as the one you will cut but it will have a different sentimental value.

Nowadays we do think more in terms of recycling, well this is an excellent way to start.

When searching on the net you will find more ways of 'how to cut your T-shirt into yarn', but for me this video explains it very well. If you will try this at home, please do use an iron board, like she explains, as this will make the job so much easier.

The only part of the t-shirt used is the part just underneath the arms till just above the bottom seem of your t-shirt. Also make sure you won't cut the strips/yarn smaller than 1cm as you will need to pull the yarn slightly to make sure it rolls up and turns into real looking yarn ready to be crocheted or knit. If it is too thin you will pull it apart very easily. The yarn recuperated from one T-shirt is around 50gr.

This yarn is excellent for potholders or for home made carpets. But you can also make a simple Christmas decoration with it which you can see in following blogpost.
Have fun with it! ;-)

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Bathroom crochet bowl (+ pattern)

I bought some rope yesterday because I just wanted to try to crochet a little bowl. The pattern you will find in this blog post shows you how you can vary in diameter. But I just wanted to have a bowl for the bathroom to store some little soaps that is why the diameter is around 14cm.

The rope I used is 2mm thick and not too stiff to work with. But for a thickness of 2mm I have used hook size 6. 

Hope you'll like it :-) .

PATTERN:
Ch 5 on hook size 6 mm  and form a ring with 1 sl st in first ch.
Row1: ch 1, 2sc in same ch *2sc in every ch* finish with 1 sl st in first ch
Row2: ch3, 2hdc in next sc *1hdc in next sc and 2hdc in following sc *  finish with 1 sl st in 3rd ch from beg of round 
Row3: ch3, 1hdc in next hdc, 2hdc in following hdc * 1hdc each in the next 2hdc's, 2hdc in the following hdc * finish with 1 sl st in 3rd ch from beg of round
Row4: ch3, 1hdc in next hdc, 1hdc in next hdc, 2hdc in following hdc * 1hdc each in the next 3hdc's, 2hdc in the following hdc * finish with 1 sl st in 3rd ch from beg of round
Row5: ch3, 1hdc each in the next 3hdc's, 2hdc in following hdc * 1hdc each in the next 4hdc's, 2dc in the following hdc * finish with 1 sl st in 3rd ch from beg of round
Row6: ch3, 1hdc each in the next 4hdc's, 2hdc in following hdc * 1hdc each in the next 5hdc's, 2hdc in the following hdc * finish with 1 sl st in 3rd ch from beg of round

Depending on the diameter of your bowl you keep repeating Row6.
Once the diameter is big enough you will keep repeating next Row.

Row... : ch3, *1hdc in the next hdc* finish with 1 sl st in 3rd ch from beg of round

Once you have reached the desired height...
Fasten off.

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Fancy up your yarn!

I have mentioned it in my previous post, 'Make your own crochet coasters', that you could spice up your yarn. As I had used existing yarn for my coasters, I will show you here how it works and how the result could look like by using cotton and normal sewing thread!

So start experimenting and let me know how it turns out.

You can find this pattern in my blogpost Christmas decoration!

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