Friday, December 19, 2008

In Pigeon Forge, TN, & Learn to crochet edgings on your napkins

Hello friends!

I am shopping in Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, TN, but I wanted to post something for you! :) I love to go during their Winterfest. There's just something magical about Christmas lights.


And now on to MORE, yes MORE crocheting! LOL. I have always wanted to know how to crochet and when I finally learned something simple (like all the scarves I've made this year as gifts!), I wanted to move on to something easy, quick, but looks nice. I never knew these edgings on napkins were so darn simple! I think I'm going to edge every one I own. :)

I hope you are done with your Christmas shopping and getting time to relax. Heck, who are we kidding? We don't relax until dinner is made and the gifts have been opened on Christmas day! :)

Hope you're having a grand Friday! Best wishes for the weekend,




EDGING YOUR NAPKINS**

The first step to edging your napkin is to make a blanket stitch all around the outer edge of the piece, as close as possible to the edge of the fabric.

You will work the edging into the sewn stitches you just made. Warning: this can be a tedious process, but once you get past the first round, the work will become much easier. Use the smallest steel crochet hook you have (I used a size 12, 1-mm hook) to make it easy to get under each stitch. I worked this border with size 10 crochet thread—mine has a sliver of gold spun in for extra fun.

1. Insert your hook under any stitch and chain 1:

Make 1 single crochet (sc) in each sewn or embroidered stitch. Keep the tension pretty loose since you are using a tiny hook. Be very gentle with the sewn thread so that it doesn't break:

Make 1 single crochet in each stitch all the way around the napkin. Add 1 chain stitch to the last sc before turning each corner.

When you get to the end of the first round, slip stitch in the first single crochet to join the round. At this point, you can switch to a slightly larger hook to make things easier. I continued using a size 4 (2.0-mm) hook for round 2.


2. For the second round, chain 1, *single crochet, ch 4 in the first stitch, skip 1 stitch; repeat from * around:

Slip stitch in the first single crochet to join the round, and you're finished!

**From craftstylish.com

2 comments:

jan said...

The crafters in my family do not crochet, so I never learned. I taught myself the basic stitches a few weeks ago, when we were travelling, but I couldn't manage to decipher any of the patterns! Thanks so much for this tutorial! I have some plain hankies that I wanted to embellish, but they just aren't finished without the crocheted edge!!

Ruth @ Camellia Rose said...

Ohhh... I always wondered how people got the crochet edge around a piece of fabric. Easy when you know how right?

Thanks for visiting my blog, and have a merry Christmas!