Crocheting a Baby Dress

I've been trying to widen my crocheting horizons lately.  Scarves, hats, and blankets are nice, but they don't really need you to pay attention to the gauge much.  My friend Elena is having a baby girl in March, and she's having a baby shower next weekend.  Soooooo, I figured I'd try something different.  I made her this cute little pink dress using a free pattern I'd found on Ravelry.

The original dress was a bumble bee design, yellow and black stripes with a large white flower on the chest.  I decided to go with the solid pink and improvised small daisies to go along the waist.  I even found some cute daisy buttons to use on the back!

The dress is larger than what I was originally going for.  The pattern said to use crochet thread and a size E hook.  I used baby yarn and a size F hook (couldn't do it with size E on this yarn), and I think it's more of 6-9 month size instead of the original 0-3 month the pattern was making.  Still, it'll give her something to grow into and can hopefully use as a tunic when she gets a little bigger.

I shared the post on The Crochet Crowd's page on Facebook.  From my post alone, as of right now, there are 95 likes and 482 shares!  Then TCC featured it on their page, too (sort of like winning the lottery in terms of crochet fame), and last I looked, there were 3,960 likes and 2 shares, as well as 140 comments and requests for the pattern.  WOAH!  It seems the dress is a big hit!

Unfortunately, Elena also happens to follow TCC on Facebook, so she saw the post.  GAH!  Well, I told her she wasn't supposed to see that post and to just act surprised when she opens my gift at the shower.  Geez.  LOL!  I can't wait to see it on Caisley though.  It might be a year from now, but I'll add it to my Crochet By Nabela page whenever I get a picture.

Can't wait!  :)

In the mean time, I've got some hats and scarves to make for the boys.  They seem to have outgrown the ones I made them last year, so they picked out some new, soft yarn and want me to make them aviator hats.  I'll give it a go.

I want to try and make clothing, too.  If I do, I'm probably going to bite the bullet and fork out the dough for the fancier yarn these patterns seem to call for.  I think the drape and final look and feel of the project will be worth it.

Oh, one more item I recently finished was Hubby's Harley Davidson throw...

Yeah, this one took some time.  I made the background using black yarn with the simple afghan stitch.  Then I took a picture I found, added a grid to it using Photoshop, and cross stitched the pattern on top.  The flames, I have to say, took the most time to do, but the final look is quite convincing, I think.  I had to do much of the work on the bus in order to keep Hubby from seeing it, and many people asked me about it and made comments.  A few were interested in buying it, but truthfully, they probably wouldn't pay enough to make it worth my while, not with all the hours of work I put into this baby.

I still have yet to put the black flannel backing on it to cover the work in the back.  Right now, Hubby is scared to use it for fear of getting it dirty or snagging the threads.  I assured him that he at least needed to keep it on the back of his chair so that *I* could look at it!  LOL  I'm glad he liked it though.

Well, more on my crochet work later.  I need to find something challenging to work on for the spring.  Maybe clothing for the boys?

Pinterest, here I come!  :)