How to crochet buttons

I love these! I've gotten to the point now that every pattern I have that required buttons, I use these little crocheted buttons. I've even started adding them to patterns that don't call for buttons because they secure my accent flowers. I'm hoping to post an example later this week of a pattern with an accent flower and how to bring the whole thing together.

They only take a couple minutes and are a GREAT solution for leftover yarn scraps at the end of a skein.


Notes:
I normally say use whatever hook you are comfortable with, but these buttons need to be small so you can use them. Because of that, I recommend using an E/3.5mm hook. It will give the buttons the right size when you are finished.


Pattern:
Ch 4 and join with sl st to form a ring.

RND 1: Ch 1. Sc until you fill the ring easily. (No less than six, no more than twelve-ish). Depending on the size button you want, you can adjust the number of sc you put in the ring. For the purposes of the pattern, it really doesn't matter.

For this button, I did 8sc in the ring for RND 1.

RND 2: Ch 1. 2 sc in same st as joining and in each st around. Sl st in ch 1 to finish round.

RND 3: Ch 1. [Insert hook into same st as joining, YO and pull through, insert hook into next st, YO and pull through, YO and pull through all loops on hook] DEC made. DEC in each st around. Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing later.

This is from the back/working side. As you dec, the sides will fold in on themselves. This is correct. When you are finished, squish the button flat, and the second layer adds a bit of firmness to the button.

This is the finished button from the front. Very simple, but super cute.

Flower accents

I've tried making flowers a ton of different ways for different projects I've worked on. This is, by far, my favorite pattern.

This one I did not creatively change in any way. It is a straight copy of a red heart pattern, but below you will see my photos of the pattern as I go and how to work through some of the slight speed bumps you might face.


Notes:
One of the sts in this pattern was one I wasn't familiar with, a treble stitch (abbreviated tr). It is just like a double crochet, but one more. Let me explain. When you do a double crochet, you YO, insert hook, YO and pull through, YO and drop 2 loops, YO and drop 2 loops. For the treble, you YO YO, insert hook, YO and pull through, YO and drop 2 loops, YO and drop 2 loops, YO and drop 2 loops. So, you wrap one time extra and grab and drop one time extra. In theory, you could do this as many times as you want and just make the stitch longer and longer. But for this pattern you only need the tr as I've described it above.

Pattern:

Ch 6, sl st to form a loop

RND 1: Chain 5. *Dc, ch 2** repeat from * to ** five times. Sl st in chain 5 to finish round. Should have a circle with 6 posts (looks kind of like spokes in a wheel).

RND 2: Chain 1. In ch sp from below: *sc, hdc, dc, tr, dc, hdc, sc.** to make a petal. Repeat * to ** in each chain space. Sl st in chain 1 to finish off round.

RND 3: Ch 1.  Flip flower forward so you are looking at the back. Sc around the post created in RND 1. Ch 3. Repeat around each post and sl st to finish.

 Reaching behind the flower to sc in the post

After the first ch 3 is finished

The back of the flower after all the Sc CH combos have been done.

RND 4:  Ch 1. In the ch spaces made by RND 3: sc, hdc, dc, tr, tr, tr, dc, hdc, sc to make a petal. Repeat in each ch sp around. Sl st in ch 1 to finish round. Notice you are doing the same thing from RND 2, you are just adding 2 more tr sts.

What a finished RND 4 looks like.

RND 5: Ch 1. Sc around post from RND 3. Ch 4. Repeat around and sl st in ch 1 to finish off. This is the same as RND 3 except you add a extra ch in each ch sp.

RND 6: Ch 1. In ch spaces made by RND 5: sc, hdc, dc, tr, tr, tr, tr, tr, dc, hdc, sc to make a petal. Repeat in each ch sp around. Sl st in ch 1 to finish round. Fasten off. Again, this is the same as RND 4, but you add 2 more tr sts. Even though I ended my flower here, you could, in theory, keep going with it forever. For each sc and ch round you would add another ch, and in each petal round you would add another 2 tr sts.

Finished flower after RND 6.

These are super easy to make and VERY cute.