Newborn Mary Janes - Quick Crochet Baby Booties

I'm nearly done with the pieces to my first complete crochet layette set - this piece is the booties. Since the rest of the layette is very girlie, I figured that the booties might as well be undoubtedly girlie as well. What I ended up with was a pair of crochet mary janes, pretty girl booties that feature a "strap" and look just beautiful.

Every piece of this layette set has been created with Caron Simply Soft No Dye Lot yarn. This kind of yarn is classed as a "medium weight" yarn - somewhere between the standard worsted weight and baby weight yarn. To change the size of these booties, the easiest step is to use a different weight of yarn. For slightly smaller booties, use the same hook size but substitute baby weight yarn for the Caron yarn. For slightly larger booties, use worsted weight yarn. You can also go one hook size up or down using the same kind of yarn to further vary sizes, but I wouldn't go more than one hook size.

The booties are worked in two pieces: the bootie, and the bootie top. First, you'll form the base of the bootie - everything but the part that goes over the toes. Then, you'll create the top and whip stitch it in place to cover the toes and top of baby's feet.

The only stitches used in this super-easy crochet pattern are the single crochet, half-double crochet, and slip stitch. Even for a crocheter who has time only to pick up the pattern for a few minutes, these will take less than an hour for each bootie.

The Bootie

Materials: Size H Hook, Less than 4 oz. Main Color (MC) yarn, less than 1 oz. Contrast Color (CC) yarn, tapestry needle.

With MC, chain 8

Round 1: Half-double crochet in each stitch of chain, working 4 half-double crochet in the last stitch. Continuing on the other side of the chain, work 1 half-double crochet in each stitch and 3 half-double crochet in the last stitch (making 4 hdc with first hdc). Join with slip stitch to first half-double crochet.

Round 2: Chain 2. Half-double crochet in the first 7 stitches. 2 half-double crochet in the next 2 stitches. Half-double crochet in the next 7 stitches. 2 half-double crochet in each of the last 3 stitches. Join with slip stitch to first half-double crochet.