I’ve been working away here at headquarters preparing this special video tutorial for the shaping and joining portion of the Flower Child Pullover crochet pattern; this post features some brand new photos, discussion of how to expand the size of the design, and full step-by-step video instructions for the shaping and joining rounds (keep scrolling – videos are at the bottom)!

First off, all the resources in this post are SUPPLEMENTAL to the written pattern, which is available for purchase in my Etsy Shop or Ravelry Pattern store – or click here to read the original post with all the info about this design 🙂 You need the written pattern for the full instructions – this video is just a walkthrough of Rounds 8-12 of this pattern.

I wanted to get those specific rounds being worked on video because I had a lot of questions so far this season about the joining round for this project – much like the free Mandala Top crochet pattern, the Flower Child utilizes two circular shapes for the garment which are attached using a back-and-forth stitch and chain technique which is a bit complicated to get through in just written format.

The new video tutorials go through the joining portion step by step, reading along with the pattern and explaining and demonstrating as I go. I shot this footage after making several pullovers from this pattern, and I tried to include a few tips and tricks as I went without overloading on extra info.

One of the modifications I made on my practice pieces were to experiment with ways of creating larger sizes for this design. The written pattern includes sizes Small, Medium, and Large but I’ve had many inquiries on how to get larger/plus sizes for it. While I’d love to rewrite this whole pattern to expand the sizing options, these tips are the best I can do at the moment – please let me know if you have any questions 🙂

Some Tips on Sizing UP

As mentioned in the notes of the pattern, some expansion of sizing can be done by making an extra repeat Round 8 of the pattern. This can be done on any size at least once, and on the Large potentially two extra repeats of this round may be made. In the video, I work one extra Round 8 on this Medium size pullover before moving on to the shaping & joining rounds.

Fair warning, though, extra rounds cause the garment to be LONGER as well as WIDER so you’ll have to take that into consideration! If your piece ends up longer than you want, you can always skip a bottom edge row in order to compensate for that, which is what I did on this example.

On the first few examples I made, I was so enthused about starting the project that I forgot to check my gauge, and I was using a different kind of hook than the one I originally used when I wrote the pattern. And so that’s how I accidentally did another method for sizing up – changing my gauge! If you want a garment that is just a bit looser, sizing up your hook to get a different gauge is a great way to help expand this garment. I believe my gauge was 7″ at Round 4 for this looser example instead of 6″ in diameter as given in the pattern – shown below is Size Medium with the larger gauge.

It’s also possible to extend the size of the armholes – sleeve yokes and be difficult to fit to each individual even when creating a garment which is specifically graded for size! For the Flower Child, the sleeve yoke (aka the arm-hole) can be expanded by making extra chain stitches on the joining round, which is mentioned in the video but not fully demonstrated – this will change the number of repeats in the sleeve portion of the pattern, but a savvy crocheter will be able to navigate that pretty easily if familiar with the design.

Video Tutorials

I hope these instructions were helpful! I started making these latest sweater dresses for the tutorial video and found the color therapy to be really effective – I chose colors inspired by my succulent plants for the blue, green, and neutral toned ones 🙂

This design was pretty much born to be a scrapbuster, and the original written pattern comes with detailed lengths approximated for each color change so you don’t have as much guesswork to do.

Ahhhhhh! I had so much fun revisiting this design. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 5 years since I released the pattern! I’m constantly torn between updating older designs and creating whole new ones – I usually opt for a little of both. If there’s something you’d like to see, be sure to drop a comment! 🙂 I love hearing from ya!

-MF