Jollibee Crochet Costume

I just realized that I outdid myself last month. Even with a rough start, I can't help but notice that I have accomplished quite a number of milestones last September. Aya and I started our school year with our homeschooling provider, I was able to save up enough Hive earnings to buy myself a laptop, and I finished not one but two crochet projects! The first one was the Alice in Wonderland Amigurumi which I shared last week. The second one was an MTO requested by my sister's friend. The Amigurumi wasn't quite finished yet when I received this order. I really wanted to complete that personal challenge so only began working on the Jollibee Crochet Baby Onesie once I achieved my first goal.

The Jollibee Baby Crochet onesie is yet again another personal challenge I imposed upon myself. My client gave me a two-week deadline for this costume. Even though I've warned my sister not to send clients my way if they will set a really short deadline. It seems like one challenge is not enough for a month. I remembered @jonalyn2020's motto of not saying no to any client orders. So, it's a yes then! I have less than two weeks to make this Jollibee Crochet Baby Onesie.

To make this challenge even more interesting, I did not find any pattern online. I usually just rely on free online patterns when I have a tight schedule and an urgent deadline. And since I can't find a pattern, I had to improvise. From improvisation, comes a new project purely born out of my imagination.

Unlike the Crochet Baby Shark Romper I made some 2 months ago, I started this Jollibee Crochet Baby Onesie from the neckline downward. Like any other patternless creations I made, I went through a series of repeated restart, frogging, restart, frogging, and another restart. I am very much excited about this onesie, I wanted it to be perfect. I had a video chat with the little cutie that's going to wear it, I wanted him to look really really cute and not have any trouble with his costume.

The costume is for a 1-month baby boy. It's a good thing I have enough experience in making crochet wearables for little boys and girls, I made use of the measurements I got from the very first crochet baby wearable I created.

Jollibee is a fast-food restaurant that originated here in the Philippines. I know there have been branches all over the world. If you're not familiar with Jollibee, it's a big jolly, happy mascot of a big bee wearing a costume of red and yellow stripes. Coincidentally, the kiddie dresses I created late last year, plus the Belle dress I made early this year have leftover yarns that match the colors I need for this costume. I have white and black yarns in my stash just because.

While I was adding the yellow stripes to the costume, I noticed that the colors are almost the same as Luffy's strawhat. I had the sudden urge to make a strawhat. The only problem is who's going to use it. My husband loves anime and manga so I asked if he'd want to have one. Unfortunately, the answer is no. At least not yet. I will still push for this until he says yes. And he will say yes. Eventually. LOL

Given the time I have to create this Jollibee crochet baby onesie, I originally promised sleeveless or short sleeve onesies. With the stress of the time limit I have, I was able to finish a big chunk of the project in a matter of days. Besides, the client is insisting she wants a longsleeved Jollibee costume so I went ahead and crocheted the sleeves. Since I wanted to also play Splinterlands, but I also wanted to crochet, why not do both at the same time? It's double the fun.

Assembling the parts

Weaving the ends off on any project is my least favorite of the process. For this project, my favorite part was assembling all the parts. Using a blunted needle, I slowly and carefully stitched each part together. For the first time, I don't really mind having to weave off all the ends as I slowly see the entirety of the Jollibee baby onesie. I have endured having to repeatedly frog and restitch a big majority of this project. The more I see the colors come to life, the more excited I get. This is why I was able to complete the project faster than I anticipated.

Aside from the yellow and red stripes, one significant detail to the Jollibee ensemble is the chef hat and the antennae. I made the hat in this project last because I am feeling confident that I will be able to make this part of the project much easier than all the other parts. And I was not wrong. I have grown more confident as I continue to make more crochet creations. After all, the Jollibee hat is just a simple combination of double crochets to form the perfect circle. Then some single crochets to form the antennas.

I almost forgot about the mittens. My daughter saw me making them and she asked why I needed to make crochet mittens for the baby. See, I told her that we don't need mittens or gloves here in the country because we live in a tropical country and as such, wearing mittens won't be too smart. Unless of course we live on some of the few cold places in the country.

The entire project was really cute. Oh, I was able to finish it within 6 days. For a slow crocheter like me, this is huge progress. Pushing myself on every project I make pushed me to crochet faster and better. And for that, I am plenty happy and proud of myself. I can feel that my fears and worries while crocheting a new patternless project are getting less and less. I feel like I am ready for another new project.

Seeing the cute little baby wearing his Jollibee Crochet onesie is satisfying. I asked my client if I could borrow some of the pictures from their photoshoot and there it is! My beautiful creation worn by such cuteness, it's overwhelming. I've received some more messages inquiring about my crochet. I am lovingly entertaining each. Even with my newfound confidence in my work, I am still being careful, making sure I'm not way in over my head. Quality still goes over quantity. So I am accepting projects one by one, making sure I have plenty of time.

_{@romeskie is a full-time stay-at-home mom to a homeschooling toddler. Loves crocheting as a hobby. Maintains a mini food forest, aiming to grow more to achieve that farm-to-table homesteading. Learned how to cook after leaving the corporate world to take care of her family and is now starting to acquire basic baking skills. Learn more about her adventures and misadventures in the world of motherhood.
Connect with her through her Facebook Page: The Leftie Crocheter and on Instagram. Feel free to subscribe to her Youtube Channel: The Leftie Crocheter}