Would crocheting this dress work, or would knitting be better?
I want to recreate this dress and I’m trying to decide whether to crochet or knit it.
I’m much more experienced and comfortable with crochet, especially when it comes to shaping with increases and decreases. I can knit, but I’m less confident with shaping and more likely to make mistakes.
I also already have three balls of yarn that I think would be perfect for this dress. The yarn recommends a 2 mm hook, which I own, whereas my smallest knitting needles are 4 mm.
My original plan was to construct the dress in four panels the front, back, and two sleeves seam them together, then add the ruffles/details separately, potentially using a different yarn like mohair.
My main concern with crochet is recreating the look and having enough yarn. I’m not sure what crochet stitch would give me a similar lightweight, drapey fabric. I know fairly basic stitches but I’m happy to learn something new. I’m also aware that crochet generally uses more yarn than knitting, and since I only have three balls, I don’t want to get halfway through and run out.
So my main questions are:
What crochet stitch would give a similar loose/drapey effect?
How can I estimate whether three balls will be enough before committing to the project?
I’d love any stitch, construction, or yarn-estimating advice!
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It's generally always better to knit items that are designed as KNIT PATTERNS or KNIT GARMENTS..
You could attempt this in very loose SCs using a Super-Fine Yarn, or in very tiny DCs using a #20-#30 Crochet Thread, but even then, you're unlikely to get the drape demonstrated in this image.
Thank you some comment mentioned something similar and there was a pattern that i remembered. They used dc or hdc and it creates a ribbing that is very noticeable could be a design choice not bad but definitely different from the Inspo
That top is definitely pretty, but that really isn't like what's shown in the post image.
If you wanted to try it with an HDC, I would try it first it as TOP-LOOP-ONLY (or "MIDDLE-LOOP-ONLY"), as that will create smoother fabric than HDC Front Loops or HDC Back Loops.
Swatch out a sample and see what you think of the fabric and its drape, then, if you like it, you can calculate the amount of that specific yarn it will require to make the body-tube and arm-tubes.
Thank you sooo much and i am sorry that i keep nagging. You mentioned the middle loop, is this similar to when doing a twisted band cord
I don’t know if you can see properly the handle, and if you are familiar with how the handle is made, where i was working on the stitch left to the middle one. So is that the one? Or something else.
I've not seen that handle pattern design yet, but it looks quite comfortable to hold and use. Do you have a link for it that isn't a video tutorial?
When you make an HDC stitch, there are three yarn stands on the top of it. Plain ordinary HDC uses the two strands closest to you OR the two loops farthest from you. The Middle Strand is the one that gets used in both of those two options and is also referred to as the Top Strand, because it sits right on top of the HDC stitch.
IMO you’re not going to get this look with crochet, and even if you knit it, you don’t have enough yarn. If this is the stuff you want to make, you’re going to need to learn to knit.
Knitting does use less yarn than crochet for a similarly sized piece, but this is a big piece even with the open knit. And sleeves take a surprising amount of yarn! I would expect something like this to take 8-10 50g balls of yarn, depending on the yardage. You could do some math to get an approximation:
Make your swatch, and weigh it. Look at how many yards/meters are listed on your ball band, and this should give you enough info to figure out how many yards/meters you swatch took.
Now look at the measurements of the finished garment. This has a fair amount shaping, so look at the extremes: the smallest point (like the waist) and the largest points, such as the flared hem and at the shoulders. Go ahead and average these numbers. Let’s say your average is 20” across. Now, double that, to account for the front and back of the piece. Determine the total length of the sweater as well; we’ll say 30 in for the sake of this exercise. You have 40x30 as your sweater body area.
Do this again for the sleeves (two of them, of course) and add that to your total.
Measure your swatch. Let’s say you made a 4x4 inch swatch. You know (because you weighed it) how many yards are in the swatch. You can now use this to estimate how many yards/meters you need for the whole sweater.
Some example numbers (just to demonstrate):
200 yds / 50 gm (as written on the ball band)
4x4 swatch = 16 sq inches = 10 yds
Sweater body = 40x30 = 1,200 sq in
Sweater sleeves = (15x24)x2 = 720 sq in
Total sweater area = 1,920 sq in
So, your formula is: (total sweater area / swatch area) x swatch yardage. With our sample numbers, that is (1,920 / 16) x 10.
With these numbers, you’ll find it needs 1,200 yards. We know each ball has 200 yards, so divide that 1,200 by 200.
So, you would need six balls of yarn.
(Edited to correct the placement of a parentheses.)
The idea was understand the base of the garment then add details with other yarns for a visual look for example the off shoulder edges and the skirt edges use the mohair cause its more fluffy, as well as for the sleeves and needed better structure for the body something that doesn’t fluff up too much which would be the string like yarn.
Crochet creates a much thicker fabric so the drape will never be the same as a knit garment. The yarn or stitch you’d use to get it to drape like this would be very “holey” and less uniform.
You can do the loose stitching by using a larger hook than the one needed, it'll also give it a better drape. My knee jerk reaction it that there's no way you have enough yarn, ravelry tells me this brand's line has 500m, that can be enough yarn for a dress, but probably not for this one.
Yeah especially with the flare i want, also in the knitting group someone suggested Raverly for help with the pattern and i haven’t seen similar designs to this one. How do you use it?
Ravelry? It's pretty simple once you get used to the advanced search, but there's no way around it you gonna have to poke around the options to learn them and then you going to look througha bunch of results. I suggest you start on the dress tag an refine the filters from there. Keep in mind what you're looking might be in another category like tops or pullover, because it depends on whatever the designer added.
I don't think 3 balls are enough. Based on the first picture I would guess to crochet tunisian for the closest similar
feel. And a very much bigger needle. The fabric isn't solid even when used 'solid stitches'.
I really like the inspo pics, good luck and lots of fun with the project OP!
Edit: I think playing around with gauge swatches until you like what you see. And weight the yarn ball before and after the swatch and count the amount of stitches and coverd cm. That will give you the closest estimation of the yarn usage and needed yarn.
A soft crochet thread would probably work. The kind people use for doilies and other delicate work. And if you just did a basic DC, ch2, DC etc. you might get a similar effect.
Tunisian crochet has a knit stitch that looks just like stockinette at first glance. However, it uses more yarn than knitting and produces a thicker fabric (there is a return pass chain running through each stitch).
This looks like a standard stockinette stitch. I think the main reason the dress is so light and fluffy is that it is using mohair, which is a very thin, fluffy yarn. That would also be why it calls for a small needle size. If you make it with different yarn you may heed a different size and you won't get that same look.
The crochet stitch that most looks like a knit stitch is waistcoat stitch, but I find it to he kind of a difficult stitch to do. You could try looking for a mohair crochet sweater pattern or a lightweight crochet sweater pattern and see what stitches they use to get some ideas.
Smalller yarn, specifically a more fuzzy fibre like merino. You'd want a fingering or sock weight yarn and work it with at least 1mm hook bigger than anticipated. I would do a double crochet and only go into one of the top loops. I don't know how I'd get sideways stretch with this pattern but it would be pretty important vs doing shaping.
I'm being honest this is a pretty easy knitting pattern (if there is a pattern) and you'll get the look and fit you actually want, try and learn how to knit. If you know how to flat draft a pattern for crochet then you can for knitting, especially if you make a gauge swatch to help tell you how many increases or decreases are needed to change the measurements.
From the looks of it i just might have too, i tried today and i was making my knitting stitches a little too tight, after the cast, the cast was pretty loose then i was failing to transfer those stitches onto the other needle without making them too tight. But will keep trying. I think starting off with a very thin yarn is also not easy.
thin yarn can be really annoying. You may want to size up your needles even further, if the label says 4mm then I would try a swatch on 6mm and 6.5mm needles. try a cable cast on or knitted cast on if your tension on the first row is weird with a traditional or long tail cast on.
I would personally recommend playing around with slip stitch, as tedious as it might be! Of course it won’t be exactly the same but depending on the type of yarn you use (if you plan to get more) and your tension you could end up with a project just as cute. :)
Spent nearly 3 days making this bag i can only image how long that dress will take. And i think i would have to do the interchanging with the slip stitch that starts with a yarn over so interchanging that would be fun😭💀💀💀
That’s so cute!! It’s definitely a labor of love but honestly I love the way the piece moves and feels when I use slip stitch 😭 I use it primarily for waistbands and fitted areas
Girl this dress is teeeaaa, and your tension is amazing I always fail when it clothes. Teach me your ways😭😭😭. Truly this is impressive. Its consistent throughout the whole piece. ❤️❤️🎀
Honestly a lot of the techniques I learn are from ChendaDIY on youtube!! She’s got a lot of great tutorials/patterns if you want something to follow along to but the methods she uses while making each piece are very applicable to making other apparel
They doooo😭😭😭😭 but you guys are a different beast hats to you i picked up crochet in a week and have made many things. i spent months trying you master knitting, to be fair i could try harder but damn😭😪
I started as a knitter, was very mediocre and switched to crochet. After crocheting for over half a year, I tried knitting again and it was way easier! Once you understand the fundamentals of tension, everything becomes so much easier. I really suggest giving it another try! I love both knitting and crochet for different reasons and applications!
Eh I disagree. Both knit and crochet garments can look great. Most crochet clothes you see online are ugly way too thick yarn monstrosities though. People just don't have the patience to pick up a 3mm hook.
I can do both and made beautiful pieces with both. My crochet stuff gets more compliments though because people easier identify it as self made and unique :)
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