And now it’s time for the last part of our Secret Garden Shawl tutorial. First, a few words about the yarn. For this shawl (as for majority of my projects) I used “Tango” yarn. It’s 100% cotton yarn 125m/50g. The manufacturer is St. George from Serbia.

1. light yellow 0303

2. yellow 0004

3. lime green 0113

4. light green 0350

5. light blue 0404

6. light pink 0394

7. light lavender 0408.

8. light grey 0025

9. grey 0370

These are the Secret Garden Flower elements. There are 5 different elements. You need to make 66 elements in total, 14 pieces of  element A, and 13 pieces of all the other elements.

This is the chart of the whole shawl. You can see that you need to make 65 small square elements (little blue squares in the picture), and 10 small flowers (pink circles), five on each side of the shawl. Now you think: “It sounds like a lot of work!” Yes, it is, but I think the shawl is worth the effort.
The last lesson you have to learn is how to make and join the small flowers on the sides of the shawl. So, let’s get started!This is the place where we will join our small flower.

Complete the first three rounds of the Secret Garden flower. Work through the fourth row, make one complete petal, and stop once you’ve worked the third dc of the second petal.

The arrow in the picture indicates the place where you should join the first petal.

So, just make slip stitch in that ch-9 space

then make 2 dc and sc in the same ch-5 space (these are remaining stitches of the petal)

Make sc, then 3 dc in the next ch-5 space, and then again, join the petal to the next ch-9 space with slip stitch. Make the rest of the petal – 2 dc, sc in the same ch-5 space.
Now, join the third petal to the next ch-9 space in the same way you’ve already joined the two previous petals.

Join the fourth,  the fifth and the sixth petal to the next 3 ch-9 spaces. Now we just have to make one more petal.

So, make the last petal (sc, 5 dc, sc in the last ch-5 space), and join with slip stitch to the first sc, or make an invisible join. Fasten off. Join 9 remaining flowers in the same way. Now, when you’re done, you can enjoy your shawl and be proud of yourself!

Hope you will like this tutorial! If you do, and decide to make one for yourself, please send me a picture, I would be delighted to see it!
The first part of the Secret Garden Shawl tutorial you can find here. The second part is available here.
Have a creative week!

When I posted the picture of my newest cell phone pouch on Facebook I saw that you really liked it, so I decided to show you how to make one for your own phone. So, I sat down, and made this DIY free tutorial.

Before we start, I want to look back at my brief history of making phone pouches. These guys are my first  pouches. I made them at the beginning of my crochet obsession, and wrote a post about them here.

This pouch was made in October of 2013. It’s very easy to make, and you can find the link to the free pattern in this post.

If you’re familiar with the basics of sewing you will be able to easily make this cute phone pouch. Just one more note before we start. Plaid fabric on the pictures always represent the inner bag (lining) and plain fabric the outer bag. So, let’s get started!

1. First decide which flowers you want to crochet. I found the pattern for my flowers in this Japanese craft book, but there are so many beautiful and free flower patterns on the Internet. If you spend some time on Pinterest, you will find plenty of beautiful flower patterns. Make as many flowers as you wish. I made only three, but you can make a whole bouquet of flowers.

2. Measure your phone.

3. Cut out the fabric for the outer and inner bag. For the outer bag, as well as for the inner bag you need to cut out 2 rectangular pieces of fabric which are 4 cm (1,6″) wider and 6 cm (2,4″) longer than your phone.

4. Finish raw edges with Zig-Zag stitch to protect them from fraying. It isn’t necessary step, so you can skip it if you want.

5. Sew on your previously crocheted flowers on the right side of the fabric for the outer bag. Arrange them as you like, play with them a little to find the best possible composition.

6. Embroider the stems and the leafs. Decide on how many stems and leafs do you want. Don’t make too many leafs though. You know the phrase: “less is more”, and I totally agree with that. I embroidered my stems and leafs with back stitch. If you don’t know how to do it, you can learn watching this video.

7. Cut the small piece of velcro tape approximately 1.5 cm (0,6″) tall  and 4 cm (1,6″) wide. You should sew on the velcro tape on the right side (if the fabric has the right and wrong side) of the inner bag’s fabric. So, place the loop side of the velcro tape on one piece of the fabric, abut 2 cm (0,8″) below the top. Make sure to place it in the middle, in the same distance from the left as well as from the right side of the fabric. Then place the hook side on the second piece of the inner bag’s fabric. Carefully sew around all four sides of the velcro tape. It might be a little tricky, so sew slowly.

8. Take the pieces of the outer bag’s fabric and place them facing right sides together. Sew around the sides and bottom edge. Do the same with the inner bag.

9. Trim the corners at the bottom of your inner and outer bag.

10. Fold the seams inward and press them with iron.

11. Turn the outer bag right side out.

12. Place your outer bag inside the inner bag (lining). The right side of the outer bag should be facing the right side of the lining.

13. Sew a 1.5 cm (0,6″) seam around the top of the pouch.

14. Leave the small opening on one side.

15. Turn the pouch right side out through the opening you left, and push the lining inside the bag.

Press the opening closed and top stitch around the opening of the bag, very close to the edge. This will close your opening and make everything look nice. Introduce the pouch to your phone.

Hope you will like this tutorial. Sewing is not my area of expertise, especially sewing terminology (yet in English!), and it is quite possible that I’ve made some mistakes, so if you encounter any, please let me know in the comments.

Enjoy the tutorial and have a nice week!

*

I’m always very happy and excited when I have something to give, and today I’m sharing with you the second part of my Secret Garden Shawl tutorial! So, I’m happy! Very happy! Hope you will be happy too! In the first part of the Secret Garden Shawl tutorial, I showed you how to make Secret garden flower. Now, it’s time to learn how to join our flowers. We will use “join as you go” method. In this tutorial I use U.S. crochet terms.

I know that many of you, prefer crochet charts instead of written tutorial (me included), so I made one colorful chart for you. I like to make every round in different color, because it’s easier to differentiate one round from another, which is sometimes very helpful. This is, of course the crochet chart for Secret Garden Flower.

And this is the chart for joining the flowers. We have to make only one complete square (the blue one on the picture), with others, we need to complete only the first six rounds, the last round we will make and in the same time join our flowers. So, let’s start!

Make one complete flower, and complete the first six rows of the next flower. After you make several ch-9 petals of the last (seventh) round, make ch-4, take the first completed flower and insert your hook into any of ch-9 spaces; make slip stitch, then ch-4.

Make sc in the first stitch of the next petal, which is sc.

Make ch-4, then again, insert your hook into the next ch-9 space of the first flower, yo,

and make slip stitch.

Make sc in the first sc of the next petal. We’ve just joined the first two flowers. Continue the last round of the second flower as you normally would.

When you finish the second flower, join the third flower in the same way we joined the first and the second flower together. Then join the forth flower with second and third. Look at the chart to see where to make joints.

In this space between 4 joined flowers we will make our small square element. We will join it together with the flowers also with slip stitch.

First, make a circle in the same way you made the first round of the Secret Garden Flower. Begin with a magic ring. Make ch-4 in the ring. (Counts as dc and ch-1)  Make * dc in the ring, then ch-1; Repeat from * 6 more times. You should have 8 dc with ch-1 between each dc; Pull the yarn tail and close the ring. Join with slip stitch to the first ch-1 space.

Insert a new color (light gray) in any of the ch-1 spaces, make ch-1, then make sc in the same space. Make 3 sc in the next ch-1 space, then make ch-2.

Insert your hook into the joint of two flowers, through both loops

 yo, and pull the yarn through the stitch and through the loop on your hook, which means to make slip stitch.

Make ch-2, then 3 sc into the next ch-1 space.

Make 3 sc in the next ch-1 space, ch-2, then again, insert your hook into the next join of two flowers (through both loops), yo and pull the yarn through the stitch and through the loop on your hook. (make slip stitch)

Make * ch-2, 3 sc in the next 2 ch-1 spaces, ch-2 and make slip stitch into the next joint of two flowers.

Repeat from * one more time.

Make ch-2, then sc in the first ch-1 space where we’ve already made our first sc. Cut the yarn and pull it through the stitch. We’re going to make an invisible join.

Thread the tapestry needle, and insert the needle below both loops of the first sc we made, from back to front, and pull it through.

Insert your needle back, into the last sc you made – through the back loop only, from front to back, and pull it through.Weave in yarn end.

And this is how our small square element should look like. It was easy. Isn’t it?

Next time, in the third part of the Secret Garden Shawl, I will show you how to make and join those little flowers on the edge of the shawl. I will also make color chart for the elements of the shawl as well as the element placement chart.

The first part of the Secret Garden Shawl tutorial you can find here.