Up-cycled Crocodile Scallop Crochet Pillow Cover

When my husband and I got married, he brought to the household a number of serviceable if well used throw pillows that we had on our couch for a while because I just didn't take the time to replace them. One of them was a blue and brown stripy one that had started to look particularly sad and deflated. I pulled the old slip cover off, re-stuffed the pillow with some cotton batting, and decided to create a crocheted pillow cover to replace it. I also re-covered the pillow in some new fabric that I sewed together and then top-stitched closed. I'm not much of a seamstress, but most anyone who can sew in a straight line can pull that part off- I just cut the fabric into a square a few inches larger than the pillow. I didn't serge the seams as the fabric was pretty sturdy and I don't own a serger yet.

Now onto the fairly easy but also time consuming and yarn gobbling pillow cover part. Crochet a chain that is 4 inches or so bigger than the full width of the pillow. Make sure you don't pull the chain too tight across the pillow, or there won't be enough width to cover the whole pillow. If you're unsure, just make a few extra chains- I'll explain how to get rid of them at the end if need be. I used about two balls of Red Heart Super Saver, which are 364 yards. Use any medium worsted yarn that you like, depending on how soft you want the pillow cover to be.

Here is how mine turned out. I would consider this project to be easy intermediate.

Slip stitch in the sixth chain from hook (counts as a v-stitch), chain 1, skip a stitch, v-stitch (DC, ch 1, DC all in the same stitch), chain 1, skip stitch, and v-stitch again. Keep going till the end of your chain. Before you move on, match the piece to your pillow to make sure it is not too small or too large. Make sure you end with an even number of v-stitches. If you have too many chains at the end, gently work out the slip knot at the end of the chain, and slowly pull out enough chains until you end up at the last stitch worked. Then re-tie your slip knot to secure the piece.

1. To start your scallops, chain three (counts as a double crochet), and rotate piece to work down side of last v-stitch made. Work 5 dc in the side of the v-stitch. Rotate the piece to work up the other side of the same v-stitch, work 6 dc up the other side. Skip the next v-stitch and rotate piece to work down the side of the next v-stitch. Work 6 dc down the side, rotate to work 6 dc up the other side. Continue to end. The last scallop may seem a little tricky as it is just chains and not an actual v-stitch, but just work your 6 dc down the side, and scrunch those stitches down a bit so you have enough chain left to work your next 6 dc up the other side.

Close-up of a scallop

2. Slip stitch once to get to the center of your scallop. Chain 5 and slip stitch into the center of the scallop. Chain one and make a v-stitch into the center of the v-stitch you skipped in the row below in-between your two scallops. Chain one, and make a v-stitch into the center of the next scallop, chain one and make a v-stitch in the next skipped v-stitch. Continue til end.

Repeat instructions from rows 1 and 2 until the piece is long enough to cover your whole pillow. Make sure you are always working so your scallops line up on top of each other, just like a line of scales would. Fasten off.

To finish off, carefully hand-sew your cover onto the pillow so it lays nice and flat. I also sewed the piece so it overlapped some over the fabric of the pillow in the back- everything lays very and smoothly with no wrinkling when it is on the couch!

You could do lots of cute color combos with the yarn and the fabric, and you could also switch off colors like in the Crochet Today pattern below. The beauty of this project is you can weave your ends into the scallops as you go if you decide to switch colors. I learned this stitch from two different places. I highly recommend both of them as great sources for patterns and inspiration.

http://www.crochettoday.com/crochet-patterns/art-major-color-wheel-cowl-and-beret

http://e1.interweave.com/dm?id=1AE5DBCFA767496A3201658F965996008ABE8796B2082438