Free Pattern Friday! Crafty Christmas Cottage

Crafty Christmas Cottage Village

A few years ago I found a set of tiny cardboard glittery houses at the Salvation Army. Since then I've collected a few others, mostly new ones and not the vintage treasures with the little cellophane windows. I love those things! They give an instant retro vibe to our Christmas decor and a magical glow when they're lined up on a bed of plastic snow.

Working with yarn to make these little houses, you get to pick any color you want, embellish the outside with soft felt doors and windows, and trim them with icicles. I made three in my favorite retro Christmas color combo. They are crocheted in one long piece for the house, another piece for the roof, and the bottom is left open so that you can get fancy and put in one of those adorable little electric tea lights. I wish my camera would have captured the glow these little houses were giving off! Finish off with a good sprinkling of plastic snow and a dusting of fine iridescent glitter: magic!

Crafty Christmas Cottage

You will need...

Yarn (all worsted weight):

  Your favorite color (for the house)

  White (for the roof)

Hook:
  Size E/3.5 mm (or your favorite! The larger the hook, the larger the house!)

Notions:
  White felt

  Craft glue

  Electric tealight (optional)

  Plastic snowflakes (optional)

  Glitter (optional, but not really!)

Key: 
BLO: crochet into back loops only

ch: chain 

rep: repeat

sc: single crochet 

sl st: slip stitch

st: stitch 

House:

With your favorite color yarn and an E hook, ch 9.

R1: Sc into 2nd ch from hook and next 7 ch (8)

R2-8: Ch 1, turn. Sc into each st (8)

R9: Ch 1, turn. Sc into BLO of each st (8)

R10: Ch 2, turn. Sc into 2nd ch from hook and next 8 st (9)

R11: Ch 1, turn. Sc into each st (9)

R12: Ch 2, turn. Sc into 2nd ch from hook and next 9 st (10)

R13: Ch 1, turn. Sc into next 9 st (skip the last st) (9)

R14: Ch 1, turn. Sc into each st (9)

R15: Ch 1, turn. Sc into next 8 st (skip the last st) (8)

R16: Ch 1, turn. Sc into each st (8)

R17: Ch 1 , turn. Sc into BLO of each st (8)

R18-32: Repeat R2-16.

R33: Turn. Fold the piece into a house shape so that R1 and R32 meet. Sl st the edges together. Fasten off and weave in ends.

Roof:

With white yarn and an E hook, ch 12.

R1: Sc into 2nd ch from hook and next 10 st (11)

R2-6: Ch 1, turn. Sc into each st (11)

R7: Ch 1, turn. Sc into BLO of each st (11)

R8-12: Ch 1, turn. Sc into each st (11)

**If you'd like, you can sc around the edge of the roof to make a smooth edge, as I did with the pink and the red houses. 

Fasten off and leave a long tail. Thread a yarn needle with the tail and sew the roof to the house. The roof will have about 1/4" overhang all the way around. Weave in ends.

**If you have a problem with the roof curling up, spray it with spray starch and let dry flat or iron with a warm iron before you sew it to the house. DON'T use a hot iron on acrylic yarn!

Embellishing:

Cut door and window shapes from white felt and attach to house with craft glue. 

Cut long narrow strips from white felt. "Fringe" the edges by snipping in two directions along one edge to make a zig-zag pattern. Glue the strips to the edges of the roof as desired for icicles.

Hope you like these! I've been looking forward to this pattern for a long time!

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Holidays! God Bless!