Lacy Crochet Summer Baby Gift Set

My cousin is expecting a baby girl next month. What a perfect excuse for me to crochet something lacy, pink, and embellished with satin ribbon! I combined three free crochet patterns to make a lacy hat, diaper cover, and booties set for the sweet summer baby.

 
I found all three patterns on Ravelry.com. If you are new to crochet, then I would definitely suggest signing up on Ravelry. It's free, and it's a wonderful resource for finding great patterns! It's also a pretty convenient means of organizing and keeping track of your projects. 

Pattern Links

• Lacy's Hat by AG Handmades (free)
• Princess Diaper Cover by The Lovely Crow (free)
• Basic Baby Booties by Susie J Crochet (free)

Supplies

• Yarn
• Comfy Sport from KnitPicks
• white (it's more of an ivory or antique white than pure white)
• 75% pima cotton, 25% acrylic
• 2 balls (I used less than 1.5 balls)
• Shine Sport from KnitPicks
• blush 
• 60% pima cotton, 40% modal
• 1 ball (I used less than half a ball)

• Hooks 
• 5.00 mm (hat and diaper cover body)
• 3.50 mm (diaper cover edging and booties)

• Embellishments

• Pink ribbon from Jo-Ann
• 3/8 in x 18 ft spool (only $1 with a coupon!)  

The comfy sport yarn is the same yarn I used to crochet my son's baptism outfit. This yarn is so soft! It is also lightweight (sport weight category #2), mostly cotton, and perfect for warmer, summer weather. The other reason I chose this yarn is because I had two balls leftover from the previous project and I am currently on a self-imposed ban from buying more yarn. This is also why I used the pink shine sport yarn. The shine sport is the same weight and more-or-less the same material (60% cotton rather than 75%). It is true to its name (it's shiny), but I think it complements the soft antique white.

Modifications

Lacy's Hat 
(finished dimensions: width = 6 inches, length = 5 inches)

This pattern was written for worsted weight yarn. In order to compensate for the fact that I was using sport weight yarn, I followed the 3-6  month pattern and used a 5.00 mm hook, with the goal of the final dimensions matching a newborn size. The smallest head the hat should fit is 12 inches around, but the pattern has a lot of stretch potential, so I'm hoping that it grows with the baby for at least a few months. I replaced the crocheted bow from the pattern with pink ribbon.

Princess Diaper Cover 
(finished dimensions: waist width = 7 inches, length = 6 inches)

Here is yet another Lovely Crow pattern. (What can I say? I'm a fan.) This is another great pattern with lots of close-up pictures. What makes this Lovely Crow pattern extra special is that it is FREE on Ravelry. This pattern was also written for worsted weight yarn, so I simply followed the 3-6 month instructions with the idea that it would fit a newborn using sport weight yarn. This is one of the reasons I greatly appreciate patterns that include multiple sizes! Rather than adding an elastic band, I used a ribbon to tie the waist.

Note: This pattern includes an excellent pictorial tutorial on how to do an invisible join when finishing off (I used it in every piece of this set).

Basic Baby Booties 
(finished dimensions: sole length = 3 inches)

This is a great beginner pattern. I found it very easy to follow. My booties ended up half an inch shorter than they were supposed to be, but hopefully they will still fit a newborn (I should have checked my gauge first and used a larger hook). Since the pattern was written for lightweight yarn, I did not alter it, at least not for sizing purposes. I made the soles (first three rows) pink. I wanted to add a ribbon, so I replaced the last row with double crochet stitches in a pattern that looks similar to what was used in the other two pieces.

Here's what I did (see Quick Reference Guide for abbreviations):

• Modified Row 8: 
• Switch to pink (pull a loop of pink yarn through on the sl st at the end of row 7)
• Ch3, dc in same space, (skip next stitch, 2dc in next stitch) x 10, fasten off, skip last stitch and join to top of ch3 using invisible join
• There will be 11 dc groups and 11 spaces in this row (22 st)

I threaded the ribbon through the spaces and tied a bow in the front. I think the ribbon turned out to be a bit too wide for the booties, but I kept it to ensure that the set matched.

Tutorial Links

Here are some tutorial links for the techniques I used to make the lacy crochet summer baby gift set:

• Edging rules-of-thumb
• How to make an invisible join
• How to heat seal the edge of a ribbon (use with caution)
• How to change colors in the round (video)
• Note: Usually when I change colors, I just crochet over the loose ends to avoid having to weave them in later. However, with the lacy hat pattern, I found that the yarn shows up in the spaces when I do this. Therefore, for the hat and the last row on the booties, I left all of the loose ends and wove them into the first shell stitch cluster. It was a lot of weaving, but I think it turned out cleaner looking. I did something similar for the diaper cover, but in hindsight, realized that I should have just woven the ends into the areas that were going to be covered by the edging.

I can't wait for my cousin to see this pretty gift set! 

Are you crocheting a gift for a summer baby this year?