Strapless / Off-the-Shoulder Crochet Top Tutorial & Guide

Hey there, my name is Krystal Everdeen and I make crochet top tutorials on my YouTube channel. This post serves as a supplemental guide to my video tutorial on how to make this off-the-shoulder crochet bikini top. You may use this as a tutorial on how to crochet this top, but I would recommend watching the video tutorial first, and then coming back to this post if you feel as though you need additional information. Hope you find this helpful, if you do please share this with your friends 😀 Thanks for stopping by!

The first step is to chain a chain that is long enough to wrap around your body starting from the tip of the left arrow, all the way around to the tip of the right arrow- allowing some room in the middle to make the lace-up design later. You do not want to make the chain long enough for the ends to touch when you wrap it around yourself. If the ends of the chains touch, it is too long and the top will be too big for you. Essentially, you just want to make the chain long enough to cover your left breast, wrap around your back, and cover your right breast.

After you have chained a chain long enough to cover that portion of your body, you will then go back on that chain using (what I call) a triple crochet. *I get mixed responses as to whether this is really triple crochet or not, but for the sake of all Krystal Everdeen tutorials, this is triple crochet*

Yarn over, through the stitch, yarn over, back through the stitch, – you are left with three loops on your hook- yarn over, through one loop, yarn over, through two loops, yarn over, through the last two loops.

You are going to continue with triple crochet the entire chain, and once you reach the end of the row, you will chain two, flip the project over, triple crochet into the very first stitch, then continue with triple crochet until the end of the row.

You will then repeat that patter until your project is long enough to cover your chest. Of course, you can choose to make this design longer or shorter, depending if you want a bikini top or a top that covers your entire torso. You will know when you are done with this portion of the project when you place it against yourself as if you were going to wear it, and you are happy with the coverage.

However, keep in mind that what we have completed so far is only this top portion of the project as indicted by the arrows below. If you would like to make a bikini top/ crop top like mine, then only make enough rows to cover your breasts with this closer, less sheer stitch. If you would like to make a full top that covers all the way down to your hips, then make enough rows so that this portion of the project will cover you all the way down to your waist.

After you have completed the first portion of the top, the next step is to crochet the more sheer stitches right below that. Starting where you left off, you are going to chain two and flip the project over at the end of the row as you always do; but this time, you are going to chain an additional two chains, then skip a stitch, crochet a triple crochet into the next stitch, chain two, skip a stitch, crochet a triple crochet into the next stitch, and continue with that pattern until you reach the end of the row. At the end of the row, chain two, flip the project over, then chain two again, reach on over to the triple crochet stitch from the previous row, and crochet another triple crochet on top of it. Then, chain two, reach over and crochet a triple crochet on top of the previous row’s triple crochet, chain two, and so on until you reach the end of the row, then repeat.

After you have made a number of rows, put the project against yourself, and are happy with the coverage, the last detail of this design are the scallops. From the end of the row, you are going to chain two, reach over to the previous row’s triple crochet stitch, and crochet 5-8 double crochets inside of that one stitch. A double crochet is yarn over, through the stitch, yarn over, through two loops, yarn over, through the last two loops. After crocheting your double crochets inside of that one stitch, you are going to chain one, slip stitch into the next triple crochet from the previous row, chain one, and create your next scallop in the following triple crochet stitch. Continue with this pattern until you reach the end of the row.

After creating your row of scallops, your project should look something like this. The first portion of the top should have more rows than the second portion, but the exact number of rows is completely up to you, as everyone has different preferences and are different in size.

Lastly, you will crochet two long chains from the bottom of the top on each side. You can determine how long you need to make your chain by aligning it as shown below. You will be creating a lace-up design with this chain, so you need to be sure that it is long enough to go back and forth on the top and still have enough to tie at the top.

After you have created your two chains, lace them up as desired and tie the two together at the top. Your project should look something like this. You can choose to stop here and wear this as a strapless crochet top, or you can take the next step and add the two cuffs that serve as sleeves- sort of.

In order to make the cuffs, you need to chain a chain that is long enough to wrap around your arm. This time, you will want the two ends of the chain to touch as you wrap it around your arm. Just be sure it is not too tight! After you have created that chain, go back on it with a triple crochet. After you have completed that first row, attached both ends of the project together using a slip stitch. Then, continue making two or three more rows- again, depending on how big you want to make these cuffs. Then, crochet a couple rows of the second triple crochet pattern we used earlier for the top. Then, finish off the cuffs with a row of scallops. Essentially, you are making mini versions of the top, minus the lace up design.

The last step is to attach the cuffs to the top. Simply attach your yarn to the top of each side of your crochet top, chain a chain that will be long enough to allow you to lift your arms when you wear this, then attach the cuff to the end of the chain using a slip stitch. After that, you have just completed crocheting this lovely crochet top!