These Crochet Hot Water Bottle Covers Became a “thing”
Do you use a hot water bottle? We have all been pretty sick over the last couple of months. Every type of respiratory illness seems to have made an appearance.
The littles have caught every cold that has come through the area, the Extra Bronte Sister ended up with a sinus infection that spread to her ears. I did the rounds with Covid, all the colds, the flu, and who knows what else. getting older is a beast lol.
One of the things that has provided me a lot of comfort is my hot water bottle. Because of this I decided to give each of my kids one for Christmas. I decided to create a crocheted cover for them. And so I needed to develop a pattern. After many iterations (some tremendous failures lol) I came up with this simple crochet hot water bottle cover pattern.
Free Crochet Hot Water Bottle Pattern Cover
Supplies needed to make this crocheted hot water bottle cover:
approx. 4 ounces of worsted weight yarn
a size G crochet hook
a darning needle
scrap yarn for embellishments or appliques if desired
a six inch piece of Velcro
The hot water bottle I give with the covers is available HERE on Amazon. And yes, this is a link on which I make a small commission. This water bottle is reasonably priced, which is why I chose it. However, the dimensions for this are 10 x 0.78 x 6.69 inches if you want to look elsewhere or want to know if this cover will fit a bottle you already have. It holds about 2 liters.
The crochet stitches used for this pattern are: chain, slip stich, single crochet, half double crochet and double crochet. This pattern is written in US crochet terminology.
Hot Water Bottle Crochet Pattern
Back of cover
Start with a slip knot and loosley chain 39 stitches. Turn.
Half double crochet in the second chain from hook and in each of the next 38 stitches. Chain one and turn. Chain one does not count as a stitch throughout the pattern unless otherwise indicated.
Continue working in rows of half double crochet, chaining and turning at the end of each row for 43 rows and fasten off.
Front of cover
Repeat as for back of cover, crocheting only 35 rows and fasten off.
Assemble the cover
One of my bigger failures was when I tried putting them right sides together and seaming the cover and then turning it right side out. As cute as the elephant applique is I was pretty unhappy with this cover. However, Bugs loved the elephant and so it went to her house and family lol. I think a contributing factor was that the yarn was a light worsted, and it just ended up with the sitches being too loose or something. It is functional though.
I decided that I would assemble the cover using single crochet to join the front and back.Working only across the bottom of the front piece, single crochet across. Now place the front and back of the bottle covers wrong sides together lining up the tops. The bottom will be longer.
With the front of the cover facing you, skip the first 26 stiches on the top and slip your hook through the 27th stitch of both the back and front and draw your yarn through both and chain one. Work in a single crochet joining border around the cover, one single crochet in each stich except for corners, where you will want to make 3 single crochets. Work all the way around the cover ending in the 12th stitch of the top. This will leave you with 14 stitches for the opening. Single crochet around this opening, working one single crochet in each stitch as well as a sigle crochet in the top of the single crochet stitch at the begining and end of the join. Join with a slip stitch,
Now chain three, which will count as your first double crochet and then double crochet in the same stitch. Work 2 double crochets in each single crochet atitch around and join with a slip stitch. This will make the neck of the bottle cover widered to accomodate the top of the bottle. Chain 3 (counts as a stich) and then double crochet in each stitch around the neck. Repeat that row 2 more times. Chain one and then single crochet around the top of the neck opening. Slip stitch in the first single crochet and finish off. Weave in all your ended
Cut your velcro to fit and attach one side to the inside of the bottom flap one the other to the front of the cover. I’ve found it is easier to remove the bottle when there is the larger opening at the bottom.
I played around quite a bit with colors, making some of the bottles striped and adding various appliques to some of them, depending on the recipient.
I hope you enjoy using this free crochet hot water bottle cover. I used a bunch of scraps and was able to give my family as well as a few neighbors a useful gift. I don’t go to sleep without it now that it is cold at night!
