Blue Gilet in Adriafil Tulip - Downloadable PDF

Blue Gilet in Adriafil Tulip – Knitted Waistcoat Pattern (Free Downloadable PDF)

This free downloadable PDF pattern provides full instructions for knitting the Blue Gilet, a stylish sleeveless waistcoat designed using Adriafil Tulip super chunky yarn. The finished garment is a classic shaped gilet featuring a neat neckline, armhole shaping, and a luxurious decorative border worked in crochet. It is an excellent project for knitters who are comfortable with basic shaping techniques and want to explore a combination of knitting and crochet finishing in a single design.

What Is Being Made

The Blue Gilet is a sleeveless knitted waistcoat — sometimes called a vest — worked in three main pieces: a back panel, a right front, and a left front. The fronts and back are shaped at the sides and armholes to create a fitted silhouette. Once the knitted pieces are seamed at the shoulders and sides, a decorative crochet border is applied around all edges to give the gilet a polished, textured finish. The pattern is available in three sizes: IT 46 (42–44), equivalent to US 12 (10–8) or UK L (M–S), making it suitable for a range of adult figures.

Materials Required

• Yarn: Adriafil Tulip, colour number 24 — 650 g total required
• Knitting needles: Size 8 mm
• Crochet hook: Size 4.50 mm
• Tapestry needle for seaming
• 5 cm ruler or stiff cardboard — used as a guide for forming the mink stitch loops in the crochet border

Adriafil Tulip is a super chunky weight yarn, which means it works up quickly on large needles and produces a fabric with excellent warmth and visual impact. Its substantial weight makes it ideal for a structured garment like a gilet, where the fabric needs to hold its shape without the added weight of sleeves.

Knitting Techniques Used

• Casting on — the back begins with 52 (48–50) stitches; each front begins with 26 (24–25) stitches
• Side shaping — decreases of 1 stitch on each side every 10 rows, worked twice, to create a gently tapered waist
• Armhole shaping — stitches are bound off every 2 rows in a stepped sequence: 2 stitches twice, then 1 stitch, mirroring the back shaping on each front panel
• Neckline shaping — on each front, stitches are bound off at the neck edge every 2 rows in a graduated sequence of 3 stitches, then 1 stitch twice, to create a smooth curved neckline
• Shoulder slope shaping — stitches are bound off at each shoulder end every 2 rows to create a neat, angled shoulder seam
• Seaming — shoulder seams and side seams are joined using a tapestry needle after all knitted pieces are complete

Stitches Used

• Purled stitch — this is the primary stitch pattern used throughout the knitted body of the gilet. Worked on size 8 mm needles, the gauge is 9 stitches and 11 rows to 10 x 10 cm. The purled stitch creates a smooth, dense fabric well suited to a structured waistcoat.
• Double crochet — worked with the 4.50 mm crochet hook as the first row of the border trim around all edges of the finished gilet
• Mink stitch — a decorative crochet stitch worked as the second and final row of the border. Each stitch is worked in double crochet while simultaneously wrapping the yarn around a 5 cm ruler or stiff cardboard to form a long, uniform loop. This creates a