The Dogwood Top is a light and easily customizable design, which is perfect for the spring and summer months!
I am so excited to be bringing you a free crochet top pattern that is perfect for some warm and sunny weather.
Right now, late spring is coming in full force in my area, and real Dogwood Trees are starting to bloom. They first inspired the dogwood flower crochet pattern a while ago, and today’s wearable project is based on the same motif.
Construction of the Dogwood Top
Making this Dogwood Top takes quite a lot of flowers (made very similarly to my original dogwood flower design, but not exactly). They work up in only two rounds and are a great project to have in your purse or on the go.
Then, all of the flowers get arranged and connected together using chain stitches (see the pictures below).
Because of how this works, you could technically make this top in any size just by adjusting how large your chains are. It has the potential to be very free-form if you want it to be.
And lastly, you may notice that the finished top has some trim around the neckline and sleeves. This gives it just enough structure and a bit more polish, but I did decide to leave the bottom edge unfinished so that the flowers create a sort of lacy edge.
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Materials Needed
- Size E hook
- 600 yards of fingering weight yarn’
- Needle for weaving ends
Abbreviation Used
- Ch: chain (s)
- Sl st: slip stitch (tutorial)
- St: stitch (es)
- Qtr: Quatruple Treble
Gauge and Sizing
- Each flower measures 3.75” across
- Finished top is size s/m and measures about 30 inches tall by 22 inches wide(at waist)
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Directions
To make each of the flowers used in this design:
Round 1: *ch 6, ss into magic loop. Ch 4, ss into magic loop* repeat 3x for a total of 8 loops. Ss into the bottom of first loop and cinch magic loop tightly closed.
Round 2: going behind first ch 6 space, ss into the first ch 4 loop. Ch 6. Qtr 5 into the same ch 4 loop. Ch 6 and ss into the same ch 4 loop to finish the first petal. Go behind the next ch6 space, and ss into next ch 4 space.Repeat three more times so that you are left with four petals total. Fasten off & cut yarn.
Make 45 flowers total using these same two rounds.
When finished, go back and make sure that all of your flowers are secured very tighly in the middle. I found that for this design it worked well to just tie the two ends of yarn together after pulling the magic circle tight.
Laying Out the Flowers
The completed flowers get connected with chains of seven stitches (more or less according to your preferences and desired sizing. Setting up the flowers to stitch them together means putting them in rows, with the rows alternating so that the petals from one row of flowers fits into the “dip” between flowers in the row(s) beside them.
Here’s how to lay out the flowers for the origi- nal design. Starting with what will become the front bottom edge of the top, put this many flow- ers in each row(staggering them):
Row 1: four flowers.
Row 2: three flowers.
Row 3: four flowers.
Row 4: three flowers.
Row 5: four flowers
Row 6: This is where the neckline opening starts. There are four flowers total but over a longer row. Two flowers go on one side, then a space for one flower is skipped in the middle, and then two flowers finish the row.
Row 7: Continuing with the neck opening, we have another row with four flowers total but over an even longer row. Two flowers go on one side, then a space for three flowers is skipped in the middle, and then two flowers finish the row.
Row 8: five flowers.
Row 9: four flowers.
Row 10: three flowers.
Row 11: four flowers.
Row 12: three flowers.
Prefer the PDF Version?
Grab the ad-free, printable PDF pattern.
You can view it on your computer, phone or tablet or download and print it at home.
Connecting the Flowers
Once you have your flowers arranged, you can start chaining to connect them. I recommend starting at one of the corners of the shirt, to cut down on how much you may need to cut and re-attach the yarn. ameliamakes.com
(The two progress pictures below can also be used as a reference).
As mentioned before, each chain to connect these flowers is seven stitches long. Starting with two flowers and then incorporating a new one, here, is how my pattern went for connecting the petals with chains(these notes are for each time I was ending a chain with a slip stitch, or wher- ever I was chaining to)
Top of one petal one on flower one, top of petal one on a second flower, middle of petal one on the first flower again, then on to the middle of petal one on the second flower. Then, top of the closest petal on a third flower, which would be followed by probably going to the middle of a petal, and so on. This is how I typically went about creating and connecting the chains, but at many different times there were slight variations.
After all the rows are done, it is easiest to hang the top on a hanger through the neck opening, and use chains of seven to go back and forth connecting the sides (up about three rows of flow- ers).At the arm openings I did several more chains and connected them to each other to create a little more shaping
The Finishing
To give the top a cleaner finish, the last thing to do is single crochet two rounds of stitches around the neckline and sleeves.
I chose to leave the hem of the top “raw” to show off the shape of the flowers but you could also chain and then single crochet around the bottom as well for a straight edge. Finally, weave in your ends.
Keep the Crafting Delightful!
Amelia
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