Project Pretty Link Party: Hanger Hack

So, I’ve never done a link party before but Jen, over at I Heart Organizing, started a Project Pretty link party.  How can I say “no” to Jen?  She only has the most awesome blog ever!  I’ve been saving this yarn for a long time, just waiting for the right opportunity to use it.  Hanger covers (not the ones your grandma used to do, where you endlessly wrap yarn around a wire hanger) have been all over the internet lately.  The problem is, there are scant few tutorials for it.  So, I decided to take a crack at it myself.  I found the hangers at a thrift store, in a huge bundle for a buck.  Gotta love that, right?  They looked just like this:

Bare wood hanger from the thrift store

Pretty awful, right?  My daughter has trouble keeping her satiny jacket on a regular hanger, so I figured I would hack it, make it easier for her, and pretty it up a little too.  This is the first hanger I finished.  Very simple.

Completed striped hanger cover

Then, I decided to take on something a little more girly, a little fancier.  I know you’ve seen these hangers floating around the internet.  Similar ones were designed and published by a Japanese crochet author.  I don’t read Japanese, so this is my take on it.

Hanger cover with vines and flowers

I’m pretty happy with the results.  My daughter’s jacket no longer slips off the hanger and these look SO cute hanging in the entryway closet.  I started with 5 balls of cotton and I still have the better part of them all left after completing 2 hangers.  And now, in my own feeble manner, I offer up the tutorial for how I did these

Supplies: 2.5 ounce balls of Peaches and Cream cotton, 1 ball each color.  I used Bright Blue, Bright Pink and Bright Lime.  Size F crochet hook.

Striped Hanger
Chain 13 with main color.
1. SC in each chain across, ch 1. Turn.
2-6. SC in each chain across.
7. Join color B. SC in each sc across.
8. Join  color C. SC in each sc across.
9. Join main color. SC in each sc across.
10. Join B color.  SC in each sc across.
11. Join color C. SC in each sc across.
12. Join main color.  SC in each sc across.
13. Join color B.  SC in each sc across.
14. Join color C. SC in each sc across.
15-40.  Join main color.  SC in each sc across.
41. Join color C. SC in each sc across.
42. Join color B.  SC in each sc across.
43. Join main color. SC in each sc across.
44. Join color C. SC in each sc across.
45. Join color B. SC in each sc across.
46. Join main color.  SC in each sc across.
47. Join color C. SC in each sc across.
48. Join color B. SC in each sc across.
49-54. Join main color.  SC in each sc across.
Tie off.
Joining: Slip cover over hook and around hanger so that the hook comes through between the 20th and 21st row, and just after the 6th stitch of that row.  At one end, join main color and slip stitch both edges closed across the bottom of the hanger to the other end.  Tie off.

Vines Hanger
With main color, chain 73
Row 1: SC in second chain from hook and each ch across.
Row 2-8: SC in each sc across.  Tie off.
Joining: Slip cover over hook and around hanger so that the hook comes through between the 4th and 5th row, and just after the 35th stitch of that row.  At one end, join main color and slip stitch both edges closed across the bottom of the hanger to the other end.  Tie off.
Flowers: Ch 4. slip stitch in first ch.  *Ch 3, slip stitch in first ch.  Repeat from * until there are six petals.  Tie off.  Make 12.
Vines: Join color B at first stitch of the center bottom, at the top of row 4. SC in first stitch.  *ch 3, skip 2 stitches, sc in next stitch.  Repeat from * 23 times, ending with sc.
Row 2: Ch 3. SC in first ch 3 space.  *Ch 1, insert hook into top of one flower, ch 1 through both flower and loop, ch 1, SC in next ch 3 sp, ch 3, sc in next ch 3 sp.  Repeat from * across..

And there you have it!  You could do a solid color cover, then add some dimensional flowers.  You could get as simple or fancy as you wanted to.  I hope you have fun with it!