I love mixing fabric and yarn to make pillows. It is so much faster and gives you a quick decor change just by flipping the pillow over! So, with the holidays approaching, I designed this quick and easy crochet Christmas pillow pattern that features the popcorn stitch and a fabric back. The crochet front is done in the traditional Baltic Square motif using just the single crochet and popcorn stitch.
This pillow works in the round to make the Baltic Square motif. It is simple once you get the first few rounds in because after that, you are just repeating the row until you get to the size you want. You can adjust this one to any size pillow form that you have, as long as it is square. You could make this one to cover an older pillow or a new form.
I especially love this one because the popcorn stitches add that bit of texture and design to an otherwise really simple pillow. I chose a fabric with gold swirls to add some movement and sparkle to the fabric side. I hope you enjoy working this one up as much as I did.
Materials
- Red Heart With Love Premium – holly berry
- Fabric of choice
- pillow form
- crochet thread (10)
- I hook – 5.5 mm
Abbreviations
- ch – chain
- sc – single crochet
- dc – double crochet
- sl st – slip stitch
- popcorn – work 5 dc into one stitch and then remove hook from the working loop and insert back into first dc of the set (insert from front to back) and pull the working loop through to pull all together and create the popcorn stitch
Crochet Christmas Pillow Pattern
Ch 8, sl st to join
Row 1 – Ch 3, work 4dc popcorn into the ring (which counts as 5 including the ch 3), [ch 5, popcorn into ring] 3 times, ch 5, sl st to top of 1st popcorn
Row 2 – Ch 3 (count as 1 dc), *work [2dc, ch 2, popcorn, ch 2, 2dc] into next ch 5 space**, 1 dc into next popcorn; repeat from * twice more and from * to ** again, sl st to top of 1st popcorn
Row 3 – Ch 3 (count as 1 dc), 1 dc into each of next 2 sts, *2 dc into next sp, ch 2, popcorn into next popcorn, ch 2, 2dc into next space**, 1 dc into each of the next 5 dc, repeat from * twice more and from * to ** again, 1 dc into each of the last 2 dc, sl st to top of ch 3
Row 4 and beyond – continue to repeat row 3 except add more dc to fill in the sides, so each time, you will increase the number of dc between the corners by 4 sttiches, but the corners stay the same.
For my 12×12 pillow, I worked 9 rows and 1 row of sc as the border.
Border row – once you achieve the size you want and finish the row, ch 1 and work a sc into each dc st across, at the corner, ch 3 and then work a sc into each dc across. Repeat at each corner to achieve the squared corner look.
Finish and weave in ends.
Finishing
Block the crochet side to achieve the square shape.
Measure and cut your fabric leaving at least 1/2 inch larger to fold to act as a hem.
Fold the fabric over to create a clean edge and then line up the wrong sides of fabric with the wrong side of the crochet and use crochet thread (10) to whip stitch the fabric to the crochet side.
After stitching three sides, insert pillow form and then whip stitch the final side to finish the pillow.
Tips and Other Ideas
- Since there are openings in the middle and around the popcorns, you can add ribbon or other embellishments to the pillow easily by weaving them into and out of the openings.
- Mix this up with other fabrics and yarns to work for other holidays or your regular decor
- Put a contrasting fabric under the yarn side to show off your stitches and add another color.
- Make this larger or smaller by increasing or decreasing rows as needed.
- If you want a larger border, drop a row of popcorn stitches and put in two rows of sc at the end.
- If you don’t want to use fabric, just make two crochet sides and stitch together.