Crafty Corner | Lavender Butterflies

Today, Gentle Readers, we have yet another Irish crochet project—this time, lace butterflies to decorate this T-shirt I bought several years ago.

(Please excuse the wrinkles; it’s been in storage a long time, poor thing)

I think my favorite part of this shirt (apart from the gorgeous lavender color—one of my best!) is the fagoting and dainty lace along the neckline:

What I don’t savvy are these glue-spots on the right sleeve

nor the width and depth of the neckline (a bit much for comfort). Solution? Embellishment, baby! 😊

My plan (Lord willing) is to “hook” up some pretty lace butterflies of various shapes and sizes, and scatter them across the front and sleeves (hide the glue-spots!), and fill in the neckline—perhaps trim it with this cute butterfly edging found on Pinterest.

For the back, I intend to make this beautiful large butterfly:

Instructions can be found on
Antique Pattern Library under Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No2
or on YouTube

You know those tops that were popular a few years ago—with the lacy backs? And the ones with wings printed on the back? That’s kinda what I’m going for here. “Look! I’m a butterfly! Or a Faerie...or Casual Cosplaying as Nooroo....”

What can I say? I like a bit of whimsy in my wardrobe. :-P

All butterflies will be worked in shades of lavender, using six-strand embroidery floss split in half (’cos none of my crochet threads are the right color):

The two cards and small ball are what I had on hand, which I took to Jo-Ann to find additional skeins. As you can see, color 210 and 209 are almost spot-on with my light and medium shades, respectively. The picture makes it look like 209 matches my deepest shade (center card), too, but it’s actually a bit deeper in real life, and Jo-Ann didn’t have anything that looked right. So this will be used as accents. 

 

I did a test-run of one of the upper wing sections yesterday, using three stands of embroidery floss, worked over purple Speed-Cro-Sheen as padding cord, with a #13 steel hook.

While the result looks pretty good overall, I think I’ll use three strands of padding cord when I make the real thing. One strand just doesn’t give it that raised look typical of Irish crochet.

Also, the #13 hook I used has a really shallow under-cut (which you might be able to see in the pic) that made it a bit difficult to work with. Kept splitting the threads. So I plan to work the actual motif on a #9 hook, as it’s about the same size as the one I used for the mock-up anyhow (???) and has a deeper hook.

Already, I’m loving the soft texture and slight sheen of the embroidery floss! Somehow fits the “feel” of the top....

Stay tuned for Part Two!

Until next time, Gentle Readers,

God bless,

~ℛ~