A friend told me crochet was a “old lady hobby”, and then I made her my summer crochet halter top. Needless to say she now thinks crochet is totally cool and even asked me to teach her how to crochet! This tank would look amazing paired with high waisted shorts or a cute skirt! I’ve even used it as a swim top! So many places you could wear it. Plus the color combinations you could try with this top are endless! Let me know what colors you guys ends up trying!
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Materials You Will Need
Yarn: I used Caron Simply Soft in the colors Autumn Red, Ocean, and White for this tutorial (pictured later in this post). You can purchase this super soft yarn here. I also used the Bernat Maker Home Dec in Aqua, Woodberry, and Clay which is pictured at the top of this post. Regardless, any weight 4 or 5 yarn should work for this project. If you plan on using this top in water, as a swim top for example, you will want to use 100% cotton yarn. Acrylic yarn does not dry as nicely or as easily as the cotton yarn would. How much yarn you will use will depends on how long you make the the halter top and straps. One Skein each (315 yards) should be more than enough for multiple tops in this size.
Crochet Hook: I used a 6mm Hook (also referred to as size J or 10). You could use a 6.5mm hook for a looser stitch, or a 5mm or 5.5mm for a tighter stitch as well.
Tapestry Needle: This is a yarn needle to weave in your ends.
Scissors: to cut your yarn. The scissors below are the ones I use and keep in my crafting bag. They are super sharp and compact enough to carry with me and my projects!
I have some other great summer patterns like this one you may want to check out like my Festival Tassel Crop Top or my Simply Cute Bikini top (Pictured below).
Stitches Used in This Pattern
I will be using abbreviations in this written pattern so here is a list of the names/abbreviations and brief directions for each:
Stitch (ST) – Next chain or stitch you are going to work into
Yarn Over (YO) – wrapping yarn around hook
Chain (CH) – After having an slip knot on your hook, YO and pull through your slip knot. That is a chain 1. YO again and pull through loop on hook. That is your chain 2, and so forth.
Slip Stitch (SS) – Insert hook into next chain/stitch and yarn over. Pull through chain/stitch and continue to pull through the loop on your hook.
Single Crochet (SC) – Insert hook into next chain/stitch and YO then pull through the chain/stitch. YO and pull through both loops on hook.
Double Crochet (DC) – YO and insert hook into next chain/stitch and YO and pull back through the Chain/Stitch. YO and pull through 2 loops, YO and pull through last two loops on hook.
Summer Crochet Halter Pattern
For simplicity sake we will call the colors of yarn Main color, Border A, and Border B.
I would say this is a “one size fits most” kind of top. You can change your hook size to bigger or smaller to decrease/increase size or also alter the number of beginning chains. Make sure it is an odd number. One more option to increase the width of the top is to DC 2, CH2, DC 2 in each chain2space instead of doing just 1DC, CH2, 1DC. This will increase each row by 4 stitches instead of only by 2.
Foundation Chain: With your main color yarn CH 25.
Row 1: DC in the fourth chain from the hook. The chains at the beginning of the row will count as a your first DC. DC in the next 9 stitches for a total of 11 DC so far. In the next chain DC, CH 2, DC. Then complete 1 DC in the next 11 chains. CH 3 and Turn.
Row 2-11: DC in each stitch until you reach the chain 2 space from the previous row. In that chain 2 space you will DC, CH 2, DC and then continue to DC in each stitch down to the end.
*If you want your top to be longer just continue the same pattern for any additonal rows until you reach a good length.
Leveling Rows:
Now continuing from where your last row was, begin to DC in each ST across until you are 2 stitches from the chain 2 space. At this point stop, turn your work, and SS in the top of the last three stitches you just made. CH3 and DC back across the row.
*Basically you are making little steps with each row to begin leveling out your work.
Once you reach the end, CH3 and turn. Then again DC down the row until you are two stitches from your CH 3 in the previous row. Turn your work and SS in the top of the last three stitches you just made. Ch3 and DC back across the row.
Repeat this until you are left with 1-2 DC’s and then tie onto the other side of the top and repeat same thing to make both sides symmetrical.
Connecting Steps: With the yarn color of your preference (I used white) tie onto the bottom of top on either side. SC the 1-2 DC’s of the previous row. Then CH 2, and SC in the top of the next “step”. CH 2, SC in next step and repeat until you reach the other side of the corner.
Adding Border and Straps:
Feel free to adjust length of straps on your crochet halter top to fit your needs!
Change to Border A color yarn. Tie onto the side of the halter in any spot. You are going to do 2 DC’s in the side of every other row of DC’s along the side (see picture below for clarification). You will DC 2, CH1, then DC 2 in the next row and so on. When you get to the corners, DC 2 , CH 2, DC 2 all in the corner stitch. On the top of the halter you will want to do two DC’s into one ST, CH 1, skip 2 ST’s and do 2 DC’s in the third ST. When you get back to where you started, SS to the first DC you started with.
Change to Border B color yarn. Tie onto the side of the top in a chain one space made during the first round of your border. SC in that same CH1Space, then SC in the top of the 2 DC’s from the previous row. *SC in chain1space, SC in the next 2 ST*, repeat between asterisks until you reach a corner. When at the corner, CH 60 and then SS in each CH back to the corner making your first strap. Now you are going to continue with the *SC in chain1space, skip next ST, SC in second ST* and do the same thing for every corner.
Weave in all loose ends.
That is it!
Now you are the proud owner (or seller!) of a gorgeous summer crochet halter top! Feel free to show of all your hard work by wearing it at the beach, your next concert, or just o the grocery store because you can! I guarantee you’ll be getting tons of compliments on it anywhere you go! So glad I got to share this awesome pattern with you!
If you have ANY QUESTIONS please please leave me a comment below and I will get back to you ASAP! Also if you would be willing I would love for you to share your finished projects (and you wearing them out doing fun summer things!) on my blog’s Facebook Page! Thank you so much! If you have any suggestions for future projects or tutorials please comment below!
XOXO Taylor Lynn
This beats the tops I’ve been seeing at Target by a long shot! This is awesome 🙂
Aww thank you!
Your tops are so pretty. Thank you!
Finally someone who shares their patterns, im in Florida & it’s so hard to find summer tops. I can’t pay for all these patterns being on disability so thank you , now let’s see if I can make it , do you recommend any yarn for how hot it gets here in Florida
Cotton is best for hot weather!
If I use a smaller hook 3.5 can it be used for a toddler
I am not sure how much that would change the scale of the project, but if you end up trying it out I would love to hear how it turns out!
What’s your best recommendation for adding some sort of liner to it so it’s not see through? I know I could sew some fabric under it, but I’m not a fan of sewing and was wondering if you had any different ideas.
I don’t know of any other way besides sewing, but you could always take it to a local tailor and get pricing on how much it would cost for them to sew on a liner for you
Are these two separate pieces? That are added once you get the desired length?
This halter top is all one piece.