How to Make a Beach Skirt Cover-up

Have fun at the beach in this bright and breezy cover up skirt. The Kalimah beach skirt is made up of a plethora of linked flowers. Each made in one of three bright colors, the flowers stand out yet are absorbed in the larger design.

This skirt is made from 100% cotton yarn and is easy and fun to make. Flowers are made one by one and joined together as you go. Add extra rows of flowers for a longer skirt. The skirt is medium sized but could be adapted for different sizes.

Last month my friend and co-worker asked if I could make her a skirt for her upcoming beach vacation. Excited to have someone to design and make something for I happily accepted the invitation.

She loves bright colors, so asked it to be orange but also mentioned other colors like yellow, blue and green. She has beautiful dark brown skin, and a perfect figure so these colors would look really great on her.

I like to use cotton for wearables and have been enjoying the range available at Hobby Lobby lately. I wanted solid colors so decided to work with ‘I love this cotton’ yarn. I chose colors in ‘Glowing’ which is bright orange; ‘Turquoise’ which is a nice bright blue’ and ‘Bright Citrus’, a light green.

Next I had to figure out a design. Being a beach cover-up type project I was aiming for an open stitch fabric. I’d recently seen flower outline designs and was able to find a chart to base my ideas off. The chart had way too many stitches so after a few attempts I was able to scale it down, change it up a bit and get what I wanted.

I added points to petal tips which could also be used to connect the flowers. Six points meant they tessellated like hexagons. Working with three colors these could be arranged so that no two flowers of the same color touched.

The top section of the skirt was a little more tricky. I needed to add a border that ended up straight, supported the flowers and looked similar. Like the flowers, I wanted to use chains and single crochet stitches.

There are 12 flowers on the top row so I needed to repeat 12 times and mirror the two halves of each repeat. My first attempt left me with a waistband that was way too wide. Adding rows of decreases on top, single crochet was too tight and double crochet stretched but didn’t look right.

I needed to reduce the number of stitches between the open stitch work, so I took nearly the whole thing out and, after figuring out how many stitches I needed to get down to I tried again. It came out so much better the second time around as I’m sure you’ll agree.

I continued on and added a stretchy waistband like the brim of a beanie. I included holes in this so a belt could be added. This meant that the skirt would be easy to get into and the belt would act as a drawstring to cinch in the waist and support the skirt. I replicated the petal design at the ends of the belt to visually tie it in with the body of the skirt.

The pattern for the Kalimah beach skirt cover up is available for free further down this page. A PDF copy of the pattern is also available to purchase from my RAVELRY DESIGNERS PAGE.

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Kalimah Beach Skirt Free Crochet Pattern

Have fun at the beach in this bright and breezy cover up skirt. The Kalimah beach skirt is made up of a plethora of linked flowers. Each made in one of three bright colors, the flowers stand out yet are absorbed in the larger design.

This skirt is made from 100% cotton yarn and is easy and fun to make. Flowers are made one by one and joined together as you go. Add extra rows of flowers for a longer skirt. The skirt is medium sized but could be adapted for different sizes.

You are welcome to sell the items you make with this pattern, but please give me, Krazy Kabbage, a mention in your sales listing and provide a link to my website

www.krazykabbage.com.

Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Cotton (medium weight; 100% cotton) in Glowing 270 yards, Bright Citrus 180 yards and Turquoise 180 yards.

You will need crochet hook size I-9 – 5.5mm and a yarn needle to weave in ends.

Gauge: 12 single crochet x 15 rows = 4″.

This pattern uses US terminology.

Stitches and Terms Used: Chain (ch), Single crochet (sc), Slip stitch (slst), Single crochet two together (sc2tog), Back post slip stitch (bpslst), back loop only (blo).

Construction: The skirt consists of 5 rows each with 12 flowers around. Flowers are arranged so that no two flowers of the same color touch. The flowers are connected as they are crocheted, joining at two points with each adjacent flower.

START HERE

Flowers

Ch 8. Slst in 1st chain to make a ring.

Rnd 1: Ch 1, 11 sc in ring, sl st in top of 1st sc to join.

Rnd 2: Ch 8, slst in next sc. [ch 8, skip 1 sc, sl st in next] 5 times.

Rnd 3: [6 sc, ch 4, 6sc] in each space around. slst in top of 1st to join and fasten off.

To join flowers, on round 3, instead of chaining 4, ch 2, slst through ch 4 space of adjacent flower and chain 1. Join flowers with 2 consecutive points sharing a point with the 3rd flower.

The 12^th flower of each row joins to the first of that row to form a circle.

Top section

The top section is worked on to the top of the first round of flowers using the bright orange ‘glowing’ yarn.

Rnd 1: Slst in the ch 4 space at the top of a flower. [Ch 8. Slip stitch in the ch 4 space where flowers join. Ch 8. Slst in ch 4 space of flower] repeat around top of skirt. Slst in top of slst to join.

Rnd 2: [8sc in space. ch 4, 8sc in next space. skip flower point] repeat around top of skirt. Slst to join in first single crochet.

Rnd 3: Ch 1. Sc2tog [chain 4, skip 6, slip stitch in the ch 4 loop of round 2. Ch 4, skip 6, sc2tog twice] repeat around. sc2tog across last 2 sc. Slst to join in 1st sc.

Rnd 4: Ch 1 [sc in first 8, sc2tog] 12 times. Slst to join.

Rnd 5: Ch 1. Sc in each around. Slst to join.

Waist Band

The waist band is worked sideways on to the top section of the skirt.

Row 1: Ch 7. Starting in the second ch from hook, sc in each across (6sc). Bpslst around the first 2 stitches of round 5 and turn.

Row 2: Working back along row 1, skip slsts, in blo, sc in each across. Ch 1 and turn.

Row 3: In blo, sc in each across. Bpslst around next 2 stitches of round 5 and turn.

Row 4: Working back along previous row, skip slsts, in blo, sc in first 2, ch 2 and skip 2, sc in blo of last 2. Ch 1 and turn.

Row 5: In blo, sc in each across. Bpslst around next 2 stitches of round 5 and turn.

Row 6: Working back along previous row, skip slsts, in blo, sc in each across. (6sc) Ch 1 and turn.

Repeat rows 3-6 around top of skirt.

Fasten off leaving a tail. Sew first and last rows together to close gap in waistband.

Belt

Make 1 turquoise and 1 citrus.

Ch 8, slst to make a ring. Ch 1 [6 sc, ch 4, 6 sc] in ring. Slst in first sc to join. Ch 200. Slst in eighth ch from hook to make a ring. Ch 1 [6 sc, ch 4, 6 sc] in ring. Slst in first sc to join. Fasten off.

Thread belt through holes in waist band of skirt.

Tagged beach, bright colors, cotton, cover-up, crochet, dress, flower, giveaway, neon, pattern, skirt, summer, win, yarn