pdf update

Ahhh, the Lotus Duster. In a lot of ways I consider this design my “breakthrough” – when it was first published for free on my blog it was what really got people noticing Morale Fiber, and it was also a huge lesson for me in how to write, grade, and lay out written patterns. 6 years, 150 tutorial photographs, a hood, 2 1/2 hours of video tutorial, and 750K+ page views later, I still love to make these as much as ever – and I hope you do too! 🌱

That’s why as I updated my new contact info to this design’s PDF I decided to also add ALL the tutorial photos contained within the file to the free blog version of the pattern. Originally, when the Lotus Duster got its first overhaul and purchasable PDF copy, I was worried about not having enough storage space for all the images. However, in the years since I’ve continued to blog and had to upgrade my image hosting anyway – so it was time to finally add those tutorial images to the free version! ✨

You can access this and tons of other free crochet patterns on my Free Patterns page here, or get the portable, printable, ad-free copy in my shops! Oh, and one more thing – this design just hit the shelves in my Ko-Fi Shop, and is on sale for only $5 until Aug 15! 🦋🌙

Most of my posts recently have been about updating the contact info in my PDF patterns, tweaking them, and giving them another home in my new Ko-Fi Shop – which is a huge job! I’m aiming to get all the PDFs updated to the new contact info (regina@moralefiber.blog) by the end of the year. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t got brand new exciting things happening hush-hush style at headquarters 😉 I’m slow but I’m steady, at least!

-MF

Have you noticed a “pattern” yet? Every time I update my older PDF’s with the new contact info, I debut them in my Ko-Fi Shop on limited-time sale for only $5! Today’s PDF update is the Cottage Vest, a dear little design that I debuted last year thanks to SOOOO much hard work from the pattern testers.

I’ve also been making new examples as I update some of these patterns, since I enjoy creating new versions from designs past. It gives me a chance to refresh them in my brain, which is necessary since I have over 80 patterns at this point and it’s good to have them sorta recently in my brain for when people ask me questions 😛 Today’s variation is the Cottage Vest worked in luxurious Malabrigo Rios, with darling little coconut shell heart buttons.

I definitely messed this one up (even though I frogged the beginning twice) so it’s a bit smaller than standard, but luckily even with the miscounting (and gauge-ignoring) the pattern is written flexibly enough that I didn’t have to frog again once I decided to just roll with the mistake 😉 That’s what I get for chatting and trying to follow a pattern at the same time!

Pairing these cottagecore hobbit vests with vintage dresses is my favorite, although they look great over just about any type of outfit in my opinion. Here’s a few more examples:

Bottom left photo is also pictured with my Gnome Toboggan pattern, Bottom right is also pictured with my Cobweb Wrap pattern.

The Malabrigo is always a pleasure to work with, but I personally think that plain old cheap acrylic worsted weight is the best for these vests as the yarn is thick and sturdy enough to meet the gauge and hold the shape at the same time. I still aim to make some pretty faerie vests with upcycled cloth skirting out of this design sometime soon! I’ve been doing more sewing-crochet garment melding, but I’ll have more on that when I return from the woods where I’ll be camping out this week, selling my wears and wearing myself 😉