Welcome to a new realm of second hand fashion with crochet thrift flip.
Inspiration and Design
Who can resist a bargain? Not me, and when that bargain helps me and mother earth. Well, I’m green!
Let me take you back to 2021, I know, probably not the most enticing time travel out there but I have a purpose!
I was thrifting with mom for dresses and spotted a jean pinafore. It was in a good condition but the length was not my thing. I almost left it until mom said, you could just cut it…
IDEA!
Why stop there, why not add some crochet glam to this piece! This is not the first time I glam up my store-bought wardrobe with crochet, but it is my first time working crochet into denim fabric.
What exactly is crochet flipping?
Simple.
Crochet Flipping (v) – when you take a ready made item and you adjust or modify with crochet.
Technically, the action can apply to anything in your wardrobe/house. But for this post we are adding the “thrift”.
To execute this action we need an idea, clothes, awl, fabric pen, ruler, yarn, and of course a crochet hook or two.
The latter depends on the project and fabric you are working on. For example, since I’m working into denim I wanted a sturdy cotton blend yarn.
The yarn:
I chose to stash dive, not too deep but just the right amount of dive. Because I’m working with jean fabric, I wanted to use a cotton blend yarn. However I didn’t actually want a soft yarn, Lolli (sadly discontinued) had the right amount of body and the coveted splash of color.
You’ve seen this yarn before. I bought an entire collection of it for the Secret Garden Dress and then used it to design the Mango Tango top. Yes, I like the yarn!
It’s a knit tube in a blue-grey color with pops of neon. Simple and eye-catching.
Description
Crochet is a marvelous craft that let’s you express yourself in any medium. Give your clothes a second lease on life by altering them with crochet. Or as I like to say, Flip them with crochet. Sounds both naughty and fun.
In this project we are altering the length of a denim pinafore and adding a crochet border for some zing.
Crochet Pinafore Thrift Flip
Materials:
Long Denim Pullover or skirt
Awl
2.5mm crochet hook
3.75mm crochet hook
70g of yarn (I used Lolli a dk weight cotton/polyester knit yarn).
Bias Binding
Tape measure
yarn needle
Size:
Pinafore Medium (38” for bust/chest)
Bottom – 46” around
Adjusted length with crochet – 34” length from strap to bottom
Cut it:
Once you have acquired all your material, it’s time to make some decisions. Because I was just adjusting the length of the Pinafore, all I had to do was decide on the length. 31″ seemed appropiate.
Now what?
After your crochet flip decisions are made, crochet a swatch. Use this swatch, and your fabric pen, to mark every third stitch onto the fabric.
I made a dc swatch with 3.75mm hook.
Then, using the awl (sharp pointy metal instrument), pierce the fabric.
I had a total of 63 holes.
Optional: encase raw edge using a bias binding.
Crochet Border
Next, with 2.5mm hook, attach yarn to the center back of your (pinafore) and make 3sc per hole. Yes, I know the picture shows dc or granny stitch, but I just didn’t end up liking the look so I frogged back and went with single crochet.
I had a total of 189 stitches, ch1
Switch to 3.75mm hook
Rnds 2 to 4: Dc around, remember to slip stitch to the beginning double crochet to join in the rnd.
Rnd 5: Dc in the first st, *skip 2, 3dc in next st(granny stitch made); rep from * to last 2 sts, sk2, 2dc in next, join with a sl st to the first dc. (granny stitch rnd)
Rnd 6: Sl st to space between granny stitch, ch1, *dc3dec, ch2; rep from * to last granny stitch.
Fasten off, weave in ends.
Of course, there are many stitch combinations you can use to crochet thrift flip, but I really liked this one.
Let me know if you have crochet flipped before! I’ve done this one other time and it’s even documented on the blog!
