Rendering a Crochet Collar in Adobe Illustrator CC

Hello Everyone,

I love my profession very much. Knitting has always been my hobby.

It's amazing how craftswomen create incredible items by using a crochet or knitting needles and yarn. Of course, the process of creating a crochet garment is laborious and time-consuming. But, as a result, a unique garment can be created since there is no limit to imagination of a knitting master and just few resources are required. A custom-made crochet garment can serve for a long time and does not go out of fashion.

In this post, I would like to share some of my ideas on how you can use Adobe Illustrator CC to design the "Irish" lace patterns. The "Irish" lace crochet technique allows "drawing" with a crochet any fantastic patterns. You can use various crochet motifs to create symmetrical or asymmetrical, monochromatic or colored patterns. Inspiration for the modern version of the "Irish" crochet can be found practically everywhere, from folk traditions to computer-generated patterns called fractals.

According to the Irish lace technique, or a modern interpretation of this technique, crochet motifs are joined together on an irregular crochet mesh. Motifs could be arranged in any desired order. The most important in this process is to find a balance so that the crochet garment looks harmonious. Finding such a balance can be difficult. Very often, many crochet motifs go to a basket and are hardly ever used afterwards.

Garments created in the "Irish lace" technique practically do not stretch. You can design the lace pattern in Adobe Illustrator, print this pattern in full scale, and then start crocheting the necessary motifs. Moreover, the motifs can be generated in Adobe Illustrator by using Effects, photographs, works of art, elements of folk costume, and so on.

Let me demonstrate you how to visualize the "Irish lace" design by looking through an example of creating a lace collar.

In this case, we use a ready-made motif and a "caterpillar" cord for the collar design to simplify the task. This motif has been photographed on a solid color surface. It is easier to remove the motif background if the color of this background is solid.

You can process the motif photo in Adobe Photoshop, reduce its size, remove the background and save the motif as a *.png file. If you do not have access to Adobe Photoshop, you can remove the background in Adobe Illustrator:

1. Place the motif photo in Adobe Illustrator.
2. Crop unnecessary parts of the photo.
3. Reduce the photo size by using the Selection tool.
4. Create a screenshot of the motif.
5. Apply Tracing to the screenshot.
6. Remove the traced motif background carefully.

 
The above-mentioned technique is described in detail in chapter 11 of "The Craft of Garment Design with Adobe Illustrator" e-textbook.

Next, measure the size of the real crochet motif and make sure that the digital copy of this motif has the same size. There are several ways to measure the digital copy of the crochet motif. You can use rulers and guides, or you can draw a rectangle (square) with the dimensions of the real crochet motif and make sure that the digital copy of the motif fits into this rectangle (square).

The digital motif can be copied many times. If you want to create just a crochet diagram, you can draw a motif outline with the Pen tool. After that, design a crochet pattern by copying the motif outline.

Prepare the front and back bodice pattern as in the picture below. Draw a collar half by using the Pen tool.

Rotate the half of the collar by using a guide and the Rotate tool, and then create a mirror copy.

You can print collar outline, cut it out and make sure that this is the shape of the collar you want.

Create a "caterpillar" cord brush and experiment!

Draw lines with the Pen tool and use the "caterpillar" cord brush. Copy the main motif several times. You can create a pattern that simulates an irregular mesh and fill the collar outline with this pattern.

You can print the collar plan (diagram) and use it for further work.

If you cannot print the entire collar diagram, break it into pieces and print them on several pages. Then, cut off unnecessary edges and glue the pages together.

Note: you can learn how to create various textile patterns in Adobe Illustrator CC by reading chapter 10 in my e-textbook "The Craft of Garment Design with Adobe Illustrator".