Crochet pattern: Basket-weave pillowcase

My mother-in-law recently crocheted an afghan for Zach and me, and since she had a few extra skeins of yarn, she gave those to me as well. At first, I didn’t know what to do with them. Then I thought a matching pillow might be nice. I decided to try out a new stitch, and the basket weave seemed perfect. (Learn the basket-weave stitch here.)

Pattern: For a pillow about 15″ x 15″

Materials: 5.5mm hook (US 9/I), bulky yarn (about 3 skeins), yarn needle

Directions:

Chain 42.

Row 1: ch 3, starting in 3rd loop down the chain, dc 42 sts

Row 2: ch 2, [4 FPdc (front post double crochet), 4 BPdc (back post double crochet)] repeat 4 more times until 1 st left, 1 hdc into end ch

Row 3: repeat row 2

Row 4: ch 2, (4 BPdc, 4 FPdc) repeat 4 more times, 1 hdc into end ch

Row 5: repeat row 4

Row 6-7: repeat row 2

Row 8-9: repeat row 4

Repeat this pattern until you have 79 rows.

Fasten off and weave in ends.

Lay the work flat. Grab the two far ends and bring them together in the center. Overlap the ends by 6 rows. Use yarn needles or spare crochet hooks to temporarily keep things lined up.

Using a yarn needle, double yarn for extra thickness. Start at top and whip-stitch down one side. Where there are three layers of material, be sure to stitch through all three layers. Tie off at bottom. Repeat for other side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If I were to redo this pillowcase, I might add on 2-4 more rows and make the overlap larger so the pillow doesn’t show as it does in the picture above. Other than that, I’m quite pleased with how it turned out.