Funny Sunnies Tutorial: Give your sunglasses a Crochet Makeover!

Hello, fellow crochet enthusiasts! Welcome to my rainbow world. If this is your first time here on the site, make sure to say hello down in the comments. 

I wrote this little tutorial because I felt something was sorely lacking in my life. I make crochet printed clothes, wear crocheted sweaters, swathe myself in afghans and tote my stuff around in crocheted purses. I sneak a little crochet into my whole wardrobe, here and there...except on my eyewear. It was the final hurdle I had to overcome to reach my full crochet potential. With this in mind I googled "crochet glasses" and very little came up that appealed to my rather ostentatious sensibilities. So it was up to me to make my eyewear dreams come true: here is the result.

Enjoy making your own. Take notice that I call this a tutorial and not a pattern. I provide instructions and techniques, but with a fun project like this there is plenty of room for fudging and improvising to create the sunnies of your dreams. One piece of advice: take note on how you fudged for your first lens, that way your second lens will match up nicely. But really, the sky's the limit on a project like this!

First things first: supplies!

You will need:

• 2 or more colors of yarn (cheap acrylic works just fine for this)
• 4.0 mm crochet hook (I wanted my stitches to be tight so it would be stiffer)
• Scissors
• A pair of sunglasses. I used 'wayfarer' style for mine because they've got big lenses that you can stick your crochet to. Plus, you can find them in any store and you can get them cheap. 
• Glue! I used hot glue, but you could use tacky glue, rubber cement or super glue. 

Getting Started: The Daisy

With the color you want to use for the center of your daisy-

Make a slip knot for your hook and chain 24. Use a slip stitch to connect the chain, forming a loop. 

Next, single crochet into the 'braided' side of your loop. To get a nice flat circle, I alternated every other stitch, putting one single crochet into the chain hole and two (1-2-1-2-1-2 until I worked my way around the circle). This way my circle grew nicely. 

Slip stitch to connect your circle and tie-off.

Next, using the color you want for the petals of your daisy, make a slip knot for your hook and slip stitch into any of your single crochet holes to connect. 

Chain 8 (for big petals like in the picture). If you're more demure, 6 or 4 will still look like a petal and the flowers will be noticeably smaller.

Skip a hole in your single crochets and use a slip stitch to connect your petal. Work your way around the flower center, connecting your petals every 2 or 3 stitches for a natural, varied look (also makes fudging a little easier).

Slip stitch to connect your petal circle and tie-off. 

For weaving in ends, in short, I didn't really. I tied my ends together and used my crochet hook to tuck them under some stitches on the back of my flower, then trimmed the excess. They won't be visible when you glue it anyway.

Repeat the same process for lens two. 

Gluing!:

Try positioning your daisies on the lenses of your glasses to get a sense of where you want to glue them. Once that's settled, take your glasses and set them somewhere they won't wiggle around so that when you glue you can get your daisies positioned right the first time. I actually put my glasses around my thigh to anchor them and it worked nicely.

Turn your flower over so the side you plan to glue is facing up. On a flat surface, make a circle of glue around the inner perimeter of your flower, careful not to get glue too close to the inner edge, because it can smoosh out onto the lens. 

Stick your daisies on one at a time and let them dry. 

Then...Look fabulous!

If you're in the market for a different kind of flower, you can also try the Zinnia! It is very similar to the daisy, but there are a few little changes here and there.

For instance, to begin, I only chained 20 for a slightly smaller circle. I still alternated 1 and 2 single crochet stitches in each chain to grow my circle. 

To make the shorter, chubbier petals, I slip stitched to connect to the circle, then into the next single crochet hole I did this: double crochet, triple crochet, double crochet and slip stitched into the next hole. Kind of like a shell stitch. I really liked the result. 

 As you can see, there are so many ways you can make this design your own. Use this framework to experiment and come up with magical things! And when you do, please tag me: @snapdragonbrand on Facebook and Instagram.

This is the only design I would not suggest. Naturally, you'd look fabulous...but you'd also be functionally blind. 

Much love!

-Ashley Lee Zhong, Snapdragon Brand

Notes:

• Make this project, share this project on social media, do your thing...then tag me @snapdragonbrand
• Makers, feel free to make and sell this design. I would especially appreciate it if you credited or linked me though. 
• All Crochet printed t-shirts  in the pictures are designed by me and available in my shop. Please check it out HERE!