Crochet Striped Summer Shorts for Beginners

Crochet shorts sound tricky, but these are built from simple parts. First you make a ribbed waistband, sideways, until it fits round your waist. Then you work round its edge with increases to make room for your hips, add stripes, and finally split the work into two legs with a short chain between them. That chain, the gusset, is what turns a tube into shorts.

The pattern and video are by Elise of the lilthings YouTube channel.

Video tutorial by Elise on her YouTube channel, lilthings: watch "crochet easy shorts for beginners🧸🎀crochet clothing quick and easy | crochet pants for summer" on YouTube.

Written from the video. Measure yourself as you go: the counts below are Elise's size.

Materials

• 5-ply milk cotton in grey and pastel yellow
• 3.0 mm hook
• Stitch markers, a tape measure, scissors and a darning needle

Waistband

With grey, chain 13 (10 + 3 for turning). Row 1: 10 dc.

Rows 2 to 55: chain 3, turn, and work 10 dc in the back loop only, with the last dc going into the top of the turning chain.

Keep going until the strip, stretched, fits round your waist (Elise's was about 73 cm stretched) and still stretches over your hips. Then seam the two short ends together.

Hip round

Work round the bottom edge of the waistband, alternating:

• 1 dc in the side of a row, and
• 2 dc in the gap between two rows.

That's 3 stitches for every row of the waistband, which widens the shorts by about 1.5 times: about 164 stitches for Elise's 55-row band. Your count depends on your rows.

Stripes

Work 14 rounds of dc with no increases, changing colour every 2 rounds: 2 grey, 2 yellow, for 7 stripe pairs. Carry the colour you're not using up the inside of the join, loosely.

Legs

1. Count your stitches and mark the centre front and centre back. Elise's 164 gave 81 for each leg.
2. Chain 15 from the front centre to the back centre: this is the gusset bridge.
3. Work leg 1 in rounds: round the leg stitches and 15 dc across one side of the bridge. 6 to 8 striped rounds.
4. Join at the other side and work leg 2 the same way, using the other side of the bridge.

Tips

• Waist must pass over your hips. Stretch the waistband over your hips before you seam it; it's the narrowest opening.
• Carry colours loosely. A tight carry pulls the join line in and makes it pucker.
• Longer shorts: add stripe rounds before you split the legs, or more rounds to the legs.

Frequently asked questions