Taking a Little Break . . . and a crafty gift-idea :)

Hi - I'm popping in to say 'Cheerio' for a whole 3 weeks - one week leading up to the School Easter break because I literally need to get my 'house' in order before the family visits start, and another two weeks for the Easter hols themselves - hurray! I'm going to get some intensive crafting done before my first craft fair on the 21st April, and get down to making some Kindle sleeves.

Before saying 'Au Revoir' for 3 weeks, I thought I'd update you on my crochet facecloth attempt. I decided to make one in cream cotton and edge it in white cotton, using a loop as before to add a little practical detailing. I was quite pleased with it - easy to make, just chain 22 stitches and work in double crochet, curving the corners by increasing on the 3rd, 4th and 5th rows and decreasing on the last 3 when I was reaching a nice squarish shape.

I'm quite a 'tight' crocheter, so it took me a little longer than some would, to reach the desired shape - what I'm trying to say is that I didn't quite whip it up, it probably took me 2-3 hours to finish in total! Hence I only made ONE facecloth :) So how to 'jazz' it up to make it into a gift - it looked a little mean all on it's own, with a bar of soap (I know, it's just a family bar of soap, but !) . .

I played around with it, trying to think how to make it look pretty, and make all my hard work worthwhile, and then voila! . . .

. . . I had the idea to add a button on the opposite corner from the loop, so I could then . . .

. . . wrap the soap with the facecloth (envelope style) using a button and loop closure - wey hey! I'd made a 'sort of' soap-cosy, without realising it - I think it looked really pretty as a gift (even better with a nice handmade soap!) - you could use any pretty complementary button - I used one of my painted wooden ones. "When is a facecloth, NOT a facecloth - when it's a soap-wrap/facecloth, hehe!"

There are lots of versions of crochet soap cosies on the internet, and some lovely finished crochet soap-cosies for sale on Etsy, but this is my version - you can use it for a gift idea or for sale - just make a square of double-crochet, add an edging with a loop and a button on opposite corners - easy, peasy! Why not try one, as a gift, or as a little addition to your craft stall (add a handmade gift-tag of course!) - I'm looking forward to using a nice handmade soap with this one and perhaps giving it away, but I wouldn't mind trying making some for sale too - (in my sleep, I think at the rate my 'to do' list is going, hehe!).

Hope you like this 'off-the-cuff' tutorial/idea - you're welcome to use it or any version you care to take from it, for sale or otherwise :) It would be sweet of you to link back to this post if you make one the same :D

I think that's a wrap - see you in 3 weeks!

Bye for now :)

Alison x

P.S. I used Puppets Lyric crochet cotton (8/8) for my facecloth - it's lovely-jubbly stuff!