I’ve already shared one recipe in this series: my Pink & Green Checkerboard Biscuits, inspired by Rosamund and Posy Li, two of the new characters in Season 4. Today’s recipe is inspired by their mother: Araminta Gun, the Evil Stepmother-esque antagonist of the season, played by Katie Leung (whom you might recognise as Cho Chang from the Harry Potter films!).

Table of Contents

• The Inspiration
• Equipment
• Ingredients
• How to Make Double Chocolate Espresso Millionaire’s Tartlets
  • Making the Chocolate Shortbread Dough
  • Pressing the Shortbread into the Tartlet Tins
  • Baking the Shortbread
  • Making the Espresso Caramel
  • Making the Ganache
    • Microwave Method
    • Hob Method
    • Serving Instructions
• Recipe

The Inspiration

Araminta Gun is the archetypal ‘Evil Stepmother’; she’s twice-widowed, always wearing black and positively brimming with nefarious schemes. When it came to creating a sweet treat inspired by her character, I immediately thought of some sort of double-chocolate tart (I mean, with that all-black wardrobe, it was kind of a must!): chocolate pastry and a dark, chocolate filling for a super moody, but still sophisticated and elegant treat. I actually received some tartlet tins (these ones, from Lakeland!), for my birthday last year, so I decided to make mini tarts instead of one big tart (one of the best decisions I could have made, as it turns out— more on that in a sec!). I also love making my Bridgerton-inspired recipes feel like they could fit right in at a fancy afternoon tea, so tartlets seemed like the perfect choice.

I absolutely could have made a simple, dark chocolate ganache tart with a chocolate pastry, but I wanted something a little bit more unusual for this recipe. I toyed with a couple of different ideas, but eventually settled on something that I was really excited about: a Millionaire’s Shortbread-inspired, espresso-flavoured tart. If you aren’t familiar with Millionaire’s Shortbread, it’s a super popular treat here in the UK: it’s typically served in bar form (like a brownie or slice) and features a layer of shortbread, a layer of condensed milk caramel and a layer of chocolate.

Money plays a key role in Araminta’s storyline, so the whole ‘millionaire’ vibe seemed like a perfect fit. She’s by no means a sweet character though and Millionaire’s Shortbread is (perhaps infamously) a very sweet dessert, so I wanted something that, along with the darker, double-chocolate element, would tone that sweetness down and speak more to the bitterness of her character: enter, the espresso. Chocolate and coffee is such a classic pairing (it even has a name: mocha!), so this flavour combination isn’t anything groundbreaking, but the tartlets still feel pretty unusual and exciting (while still being absolutely delicious and very palatable)!

While you would usually use pastry for a tartlet, I’ve opted to use a shortbread base here for a few reasons. Firstly, I wanted to stick as closely as possible to a typical Millionaire’s Shortbread. Secondly, the added sweetness of the shortbread compared to a pastry actually works really well in this recipe, because both the espresso and chocolate are, well, not so sweet. Thirdly (and finally), I actually have a bit of a mental block about pastry: I just haven’t been able to master it yet! This shortbread base is SO much easier to work with than a classic shortcrust pastry: it’s really great!

So, in summation: my Araminta Gun-inspired, Double Chocolate Espresso Millionaire’s Tartlets feature a chocolate shortbread crust, an espresso caramel filling and a shiny, dark chocolate ganache glaze. All of these elements come together to make the slightly more refined, much less sweet cousin of the Millionaire’s Shortbread and, I have to say, they might just be one of my favourite treats yet!

Equipment

As I mentioned, I used these tartlet tins from Lakeland for this recipe. They’re 10cm in diameter, 2cm deep, non-stick and have fluted edges and removable bases.

If you’re able, I really do recommend making this recipe in tartlet form: I’ve tried it in a couple of different formats (bars, bigger tarts etc.) and the ratio of the different layers is just perfect in the mini form! Plus, they slice so beautifully and look so pretty: I might just have to start developing even more tartlet recipes so we can all justify the presence of specialist tartlet tins in our kitchens…

Ingredients

To make these Double Chocolate Espresso Millionaire’s Tartlets, you will need:

• Caster sugar

I use golden caster sugar here, as I do for most of my bakes, because I think it adds a deeper flavour. If you only have white caster sugar though, that will work absolutely fine!

• Butter

I’m using salted butter here, because the salt really enhances the chocolate flavour and helps to temper the sweetness of the caramel. If you only have unsalted butter to hand, that’s absolutely fine— just add a pinch or two of fine sea salt to both the shortbread and the caramel.

• Plain flour

Don’t be tempted to use self-raising flour here, or your shortbread will puff up too much and you won’t be able to fit the fillings into the tartlet cases!

• Cocoa powder

Cocoa powder is what turns regular shortbread into chocolate shortbread. It is quite a drying ingredient though, so the amount of butter in the shortbread is increased slightly to ensure the dough comes together perfectly.

• Condensed milk

Ah, condensed milk: love of my life, bringer of joy. This is a key ingredient in any Millionaire’s Shortbread and this recipe is no different! It is the main ingredient in the caramel layer.

• Dark muscovado sugar

Typically, Millionaire’s Shortbread recipes use a more neutral sugar in the filling (think light brown soft sugar, light muscovado or even golden caster sugar), but I’ve used dark muscovado here to really enhance the bitter espresso flavour in the caramel and bring a little more depth and darkness to the dessert overall.

• Golden syrup

A small amount of golden syrup is also added to the caramel filling. I find that this helps to give the caramel a smoother, more velvet-y texture.

• Instant espresso powder

Instant espresso powder is the key to getting a really intense, espresso flavour without adding to much liquid to the caramel filling (and it’s readily available in most supermarkets). It is different to instant coffee granules: a bit richer and stronger, so do make sure you get the right product!

• Dark chocolate

Use a high-quality dark chocolate here for the best results— the flavour will really shine through in the finished dessert! You can go as dark as you fancy: I’ve used a 54% chocolate, because I really love the taste, but a 70% one would make for an even more sophisticated flavour.

• Double cream

We’ll melt the cream together with the chocolate to make a rich ganache. If you’re in the US, use heavy cream.

• Glucose syrup (optional)

To make sure the final layer of ganache stays really shiny, even after it’s been refrigerated, I like to add a very small amount of glucose syrup. I have this on hand for a bunch of other baking purposes, but it is a bit of a speciality ingredient. You can substitute golden syrup for the same effect, but I do find that it adds a slightly more intense sweetness to the ganache layer, so you might want to consider using a darker chocolate to balance it out!

• Sea salt

You’ll need to add a little salt to both the shortbread and the caramel if you’re using unsalted butter, just to help all of the other ingredients really shine. I also like to sprinkle the finished tarts with a little flaky sea salt: it’s a really simple decoration but it looks very elegant (and tastes delicious!). I’ve used Fleur de Sel on these tarts, which is extra delicious, but regular sea salt would also be great. Just be sure to sprinkle the salt on just before you serve the tarts, as it can dissolve slightly if it’s left in the fridge, which doesn’t look quite so pretty.

How to Make Double Chocolate Espresso Millionaire’s Tartlets

These tartlets look complicated, and there are a few different steps you need to work through, but each step is super straightforward! The shortbread crust is SO much easier to work with than a typical pastry (and it’s made entirely in the food processor!), the caramel layer is incredibly forgiving and the ganache is truly just a melt-everything-together situation. Take it step by step and you’ll be absolutely fine!

Making the Chocolate Shortbread Dough

To make the shortbread dough, put all of the dry ingredients (caster sugar, plain flour, and cocoa powder) into a food processor and pulse to combine them. I’m using a mini food processor here, because I was making a smaller batch, but I’d recommend using a standard-sized food processor for the full batch!

This ensures that the cocoa powder is well incorporated and your dough is evenly chocolatey!

Add the cold, diced butter to the dry ingredients.

Then pulse again until a chocolatey dough forms. That’s it!

A couple of tips at this point:

• Make sure your butter is cold and diced.

The cold butter helps to make the shortbread really short (hence the name!) and flaky. Dicing it beforehand means that it will combine more quickly with the rest of the ingredients.

• Don’t be tempted to add water.

Because the butter is cold, the dough will take a bit of pulsing/processing before it comes together. You might start thinking that it’s too dry to form a dough, but it’s not! You don’t need to add any extra liquid/butter, just keep processing it and the dough will form. Trust me!

Pressing the Shortbread into the Tartlet Tins

Unlike pastry, this shortbread can just be pressed into the tartlet tins. No rolling out, no flouring the work surface: just pressing in the dough with your fingers.

Start by lightly greasing each of the tartlet tins with butter. This will help you get the tarts out of the tins later on!

Bring the dough together with your hands, then divide it into 9 equal portions: 1 per tartlet tin. This way, you’ll know exactly how much dough each tartlet requires and you won’t have to worry about over-filling one and under-filling another.

Use your fingers to press one portion of the shortbread into one of the tartlet tins. Aim for an even layer of shortbread across the base and up the sides of the tin, leaving a small amount of overhang at the top edge. This doesn’t need to be perfect, as we’ll smooth everything out later, once the tarts come out of the oven.

Use a rolling pin to roll over the top of each tartlet tin. This will remove the excess shortbread dough and leave a super neat, flat edge on the tartlet shells.

The final step before the tartlet shells can be baked is to prick them all over with a fork. The shortbread will still puff up a little in the oven, but this allows the steam to escape and helps to minimise the puffing, so don’t skip it!

Once all of your tartlet shells are filled with shortbread and ready to go, collect all of the offcuts and bring them together with your hands. These offcuts can be formed into a few little chocolate biscuits, which can be baked alongside the tartlets as chef’s treats. Don’t be tempted to press the offcuts back into the tartlets— you want that extra space for the fillings!

Baking the Shortbread

Arrange the tartlets (and the extra biscuits!) on a baking tray, then bake them in the middle of the oven at 175°C (conventional, not fan) for 12-15 minutes, until the shortbread is puffed and the surface looks dry. If you’re still waiting for your oven to preheat, I’d recommend putting the tartlets into the fridge to keep them nice and cold until you can bake them.

At this point, the shortbread won’t resemble a tart shell. However, while it’s warm, it will be soft enough to manipulate, so you can use a metal dessertspoon/cup measure to gently press down on the base to flatten it back down and against the sides to sharpen them up and make it resemble a tart shell once more. This sounds fiddly, but it’s actually so quick and easy to do (and I would still take it over rolling out pastry!).

Repeat this for all of your tarts, so that you’re left with perfect little cocoa shortbread tartlet shells, ready to be filled! Set them aside to cool slightly while you make the espresso caramel filling.

Making the Espresso Caramel

I know, I know, the word ‘caramel’ can send even the most confident of bakers into a spiral, but I promise, this one’s easy! No sugar thermometers, no convoluted temperature tests, just everything in a pot and a bit of light stirring.

I like to use a saucepan with a pouring spout for this, because it makes it super easy to pour the hot caramel into the tartlet shells when it’s ready. If you have one, I’d definitely recommend it.

Place the butter, condensed milk, dark muscovado sugar and golden syrup into the saucepan and set it over a low heat.

Stir the mixture every now and then until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.

While this is happening, dissolve the instant espresso powder in a splash of hot water and set it aside, ready for later.

Once the mixture is smooth, turn the heat up slightly to medium-low and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. The mixture has a tendency to stick, so you need to stir more frequently at this stage to stop it from burning.

Allow the mixture to boil for a couple of minutes, until it’s nice and thick. I realise this is a little vague, but don’t stress about it: a minute or two of boiling and stirring and you’ll be absolutely fine!

Remove the pan from the heat and stir through the dissolved instant espresso powder until it is completely incorporated.

Adding the espresso at this stage ensures that the coffee doesn’t burn while the sugar boils, which would make everything a little too bitter (and much less tasty!).

With that, the caramel layer is ready! Pour it into the tartlet shells, filling each tartlet about 3/4 full (this is to leave space for the ganache layer later).

Set the tartlets aside at room temperature to cool completely (about 30 minutes to an hour) before making the ganache layer.

Making the Ganache

The final layer of the tarts is a simple, dark chocolate ganache, with the addition of a not-so-secret ingredient to make it extra shiny and help it slice really nicely when served. This ingredient is glucose syrup (also known as liquid glucose). If you can’t find glucose syrup, you can use golden syrup instead (though this has a slightly more intense, caramel-y sweetness, so I would recommend using a slightly darker chocolate to balance this out if you do).

You can make the ganache in the microwave or on the hob. I tend to use the microwave, because it’s so easy!

Microwave Method

Finely chop the dark chocolate, then put it into a microwaveable jug with the cream and the glucose syrup.

Heat this in the microwave on the lowest heat setting in 30 second bursts, stirring in between each burst, until the chocolate has melted and you have a smooth, shiny ganache.

Hob Method

Finely chop the dark chocolate and place it into a heatproof jug.

Place the cream and glucose syrup into a small saucepan, then set over a medium heat and bring to just below a simmer, stirring frequently to ensure that it does not catch.

Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate and leave to sit for a minute.

After a minute, stir the mixture until the chocolate has melted and you have a smooth, shiny ganache.

Whichever method you use, once the ganache is ready, pour it over the caramel layer on each of the tartlets, filling them right up to the top, so that the ganache is level with the top edge of the shortbread crust. Give the tarts a gentle shake from side to side to smooth out the ganache layer and ensure that it completely covers the caramel layer below.

Transfer the tartlets to the fridge and allow them to chill for at least 2 hours (though they can be stored in the fridge like this for 2-3 days: the espresso flavour will get even more intense the longer they chill!) before serving.

Serving Instructions

When you’re ready to serve the tarts, carefully remove them from their tins. I find the best way to do this is to gently pull the sides of the tin away from the shortbread all the way around to loosen it, then set the tin on a small jar/tin and press down gently on the top edge to release it, making sure to apply any pressure as evenly as possible around the circumference of the tin. Then, hold the tartlet upside down and use a small, sharp knife to pry the base of the tin off the bottom of the tartlet.

Just before serving, sprinkle the tartlets with a little flaky sea salt (I used Fleur de Sel, for extra fanciness!). You can either slice the tartlets into tiny slices (SO CUTE!) or you can serve them whole for extra decadence. If you are slicing them, I recommend using a small, sharp knife and wiping it off in between each cut so that you can see the pretty layers.

Don’t be tempted to sprinkle the tartlets with salt ahead of time, while they’re still in the fridge, because I find that the salt starts dissolving and looks a lot less pretty if you do this.

Recipe

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Double Chocolate Espresso Millionaire’s Tartlets

Inspired by the character of Araminta Gun in Bridgerton: Season 4, these tartlets feature a chocolate shortbread crust, an espresso caramel filling and a shiny, dark chocolate ganache layer, all topped off with a sprinkling of sea salt.

Course Dessert

Keyword Caramel, Chocolate, Espresso, Millionaire’s Shortbread

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Chill Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 3 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 9 tartlets

Equipment

• 9 x 10cm diameter tartlet tins

Ingredients

For the chocolate shortbread:

• 75 g caster sugar
• 225 g plain flour
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 180 g salted butter, cold and diced, plus extra for greasing (see Note 1).

For the espresso caramel layer:

• 100 g salted butter (see Note 1).
• 1 x 397g can condensed milk
• 100 g dark muscovado sugar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 1/2 tbsp instant espresso powder, dissolved in a splash of hot water.

For the ganache layer:

• 90 g dark chocolate, finely chopped (see Note 2).
• 180 ml double cream
• 1/2 tsp glucose syrup (see Note 3).

To finish:

• Flaky sea salt (I used Fleur de Sel, but any sea salt would work).

Instructions

Make the chocolate shortbread tartlet shells:

• Preheat the oven to 175°C (conventional oven, not fan). Grease 9 tartlet tins lightly with butter and set aside.
• Place all of the shortbread ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until a dough forms (this will take a bit of time— just keep processing and it will come together! Don't be tempted to add any water.).
• Tip the dough out onto a clean work surface and finish bringing it together with your hands. Divide the dough into 9 equal portions, one for each tartlet tin.
• Press a ball of dough into one of the tartlet tins, aiming to get an even layer of shortbread right across the bottom and up the sides of the tin. Leave a small amount of overhang at the top of the tin, then use a rolling pan to roll over the top of the tin to remove the extra dough and leave a super neat edge. The dough offcuts can be used to make a few little chocolate biscuits that can be baked alongside the tartlets.
• Prick the dough on the base of each tartlet all over with a fork, then bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, until the surface looks dry (the shortbread will still puff up quite a bit, but that's okay— we'll fix it in the next step!).
• As soon as the tartlet shells come out of the oven, use a dessertspoon/metal cup measure to gently press the shortbread down on the base and around the sides. The shortbread will still be quite soft when it's warm, so you can easily reshape it to make the perfect little tart shells.
• Leave the tarts to one side to cool slightly while you make the caramel layer.

Make the espresso caramel layer:

• Place the butter, condensed milk, dark muscovado sugar and golden syrup into a saucepan (preferably one with a pouring spout, if you have one). Set over low heat and stir every now and then until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
• Turn the heat up slightly to medium-low and allow the mixture to boil, stirring frequently, for a couple of minutes, until thick.
• Remove the pan from the heat and stir through the dissolved instant espresso powder until completely incorporated.
• Pour the hot caramel into the tartlet shells, filling each tartlet about 3/4 full (you need to leave room for the ganache layer). Set the tartlets aside at room temperature to cool completely (about 30 minutes to 1 hour).

Make the ganache layer:

• Once the tartlets are completely cool, make the ganache layer. Place all of the ganache ingredients into a microwaveable jug and heat on the lowest setting in 30 second bursts, stirring in between each burst, until the chocolate has melted and you have a smooth, shiny ganache. If you don't have a microwave, bring the cream and glucose syrup to just below a simmer in a saucepan, then pour over the chopped chocolate, leave to stand for a minute, then stir until smooth.
• Pour the ganache onto the cooled tartlets, filling them right up to the top, so that the ganache sits level with the top of the shortbread crust. Give the tarts a gentle shake from side to side to make sure the ganache layer is smooth and completely covers the caramel layer below.
• Transfer the tarts to the fridge and chill for at least 2 hours before serving. The tarts can be stored in the fridge for 2-3 days, so you can make them ahead of time (the espresso flavour will also get more intense as they chill).

To serve:

• Carefully remove the tartlets from their tins. Sprinkle with a little flaky sea salt and serve.

Notes

1. You can use unsalted butter instead: use the same amount but add a pinch or two of fine sea salt.
2. I used a 54% dark chocolate, which isn’t super dark, but works really well with the other flavours. If you want a slightly more bitter, intense flavour, use a darker chocolate (a 70% would work well!).
3. Adding a small amount of glucose syrup to the ganache makes it super shiny and helps it slice really nicely. Glucose syrup is a bit of a specialist ingredient though so, if you don’t have it to hand, you can use golden syrup instead. Golden syrup has a slightly more intense, caramel-y flavour and sweetness, so, if you do this, so you might want to consider using a darker chocolate to balance it out.

The first recipe in this series is for these Pink & Green Checkerboard Biscuits: my tribute to the Li Sisters, Rosamund and Posy, who made their debuts in Season 4.

Table of Contents

• The Inspiration
• Ingredients
• How to Make Pink & Green Checkerboard Biscuits
• Recipe

The Inspiration

Season 4 of Bridgerton is, at its heart, a Cinderella story. As part of that, it follows the oft-used approach of having one of ‘Cinderella’s’ stepsisters be, well, nicer than the other: in this case, Posy is an absolute sweetheart and Rosamund is… I guess, whatever the opposite of that is.

Do you guys remember that old nursery rhyme that says something about girls being made of “sugar, spice and everything nice”? These two characters really remind me of it: Rosamund feels very spice and Posy feels very sugar. The official Bridgerton Instagram account ALSO referenced sugar and spice with regard to these characters (you can see the post here!), which made me feel extremely validated, so I figured that the whole sugar & spice thing would be a great concept for this recipe.

Last Christmas, I made Swedish Schackrutor for the first time as part of my Baking Around the World series. These tiny shortbread biscuits have a 2×2 checkerboard pattern, made with a combination of vanilla and chocolate dough. I thought these checkerboard biscuits would be a perfect base for this recipe: two sisters, two completely difference personalities and two doughs, all coming together to make one (delicious) biscuit!

When it came to deciding on the flavours, I was partially influenced by the whole sugar-and-spice vibe, but also partly by colour. In much of the promotional media for Season 4, Rosamund and Posy are seen wearing pink and green floral-print dresses: both fabrics feature the same pattern, but the colours are inverted. This fit so well with the checkerboard biscuit idea, I just had to make these biscuits pink and green, which heavily inspired the resulting flavours. I also love that these biscuits feel super Bridgerton: they’re colourful and fun, but they’re also fancy and delicate.

I’m not opposed to using food colouring, but, if I can, I prefer to use more natural alternatives. These biscuits are food-colouring free, tinted pink and green by the freeze-dried strawberry powder and matcha powder, respectively. Strawberry and matcha not only fit the pink-and-green colour palette perfectly, but they’re also a really delicious pairing, as evidenced by the strawberry matcha lattes that went viral over the past year (or two years? Or five years? I’m not even sure…)! I really liked the idea of these biscuits referencing the time period in which Bridgerton: Season 4 was released, as well as being inspired by the Regency setting of the show, so I ran with the flavour combo.

I did, however, want to incorporate a spicy element into the biscuits, so I opted to pair the strawberry flavour with pink peppercorns. I’ve actually heard of people pairing strawberries with black pepper before, so I figured pink peppercorns weren’t too much of a stretch: they’re milder (though they still bring a little bit of warmth to the dough), with a slight citrus-y note, and fit the pink colour palette perfectly, so I figured they’d be a great option here!

Honestly, I’m not usually the biggest fan of matcha (sometimes I just find it a little too earthy?), but I had a matcha panna cotta once that I absolutely loved and I think the difference was the presence of vanilla in the recipe: it really brings out the sweetness of the matcha without overpowering its flavour. Therefore, I opted to include a small amount of vanilla bean paste in the matcha dough, to make it a little more sweet and a little more delicious (for me, at least!).

Ingredients

The basic biscuit dough is a simple shortbread, using the classic 1-2-3 ratio of caster sugar-butter-plain flour (the same base that I used for my Schackrutor recipe). I’ve used unsalted butter here, but you can use salted butter if you prefer.

This recipe doesn’t make a huge batch of biscuits (they’re pretty tiny!), but you can easily scale it up to make more if you want.

To flavour the doughs, I used the following 4 ingredients:

• Freeze dried strawberries

It turns out that freeze dried strawberries aren’t as readily available as freeze dried raspberries in the supermarkets near me (who knew?), so I purchased mine on Amazon. They’re a great way of getting loads of strawberry flavour into bakes, particularly ones like shortbread that can’t handle too much additional liquid.

I bought freeze dried strawberries slices and ground them into a fine powder myself, using a mortar and pestle. If you can find them in powder form, you can absolutely buy them like that instead.

• Pink peppercorns

Surprisingly, pink peppercorns are not related to the classic black peppercorns we know and love (I’m lying, black pepper and I do not see eye to eye). Pink peppercorns are actually a dried berry! However, because they have a pepper-y flavour, they’re often grouped together with the other peppers of the world. Along with their relatively mild, but still warming, pepperiness, they have an almost citrus-y flavour, which works really well with the fruitiness of the strawberries and the earthiness of the matcha powder.

You can of course leave the pink peppercorns out to make these into Strawberry Matcha biscuits. I’d probably still keep the vanilla in if you do this, just to really highlight the matcha flavour.

• Matcha powder

Make sure you get a high quality, pure matcha powder (not one of the flavoured alternatives) for this recipe. It can be quite expensive, but you don’t need much at all for this recipe.

• Vanilla bean paste

I like to use vanilla bean paste in these biscuits because it adds plenty of vanilla flavour without adding as much liquid as regular vanilla extract would (and without the faff of dealing with a vanilla bean). As I mentioned earlier, I find that adding vanilla to matcha desserts really brings out the sweetness of the matcha, so I definitely think it’s a worthwhile addition to this recipe!

How to Make Pink & Green Checkerboard Biscuits

Making the base dough for these checkerboard biscuits is super easy: you just put the ingredients (sugar, butter and flour) into a food processor (I use a mini one) and pulse/process until everything comes together. That’s it!

Things get a little more complex when it comes to flavouring and shaping the biscuits, but it’s still pretty straightforward once you know what you’re doing.

First things first, split the dough into two equal portions. I like to use a weighing scale for this to make sure that both halves of the dough are exactly the same size.

Add the matcha powder and the vanilla bean paste to one half of the dough. To the other half, add the freeze-dried strawberry powder and the ground pink peppercorns.

Working with one dough at a time, knead in the flavourings until they are evenly distributed throughout the dough and the colour is even.

Once you have both doughs ready to go, you need to split both of them up into smaller portions. Again, I like to use a weighing scale for this to ensure the portions are all the same. Start by dividing each ball of dough into 3 equal portions.

Then, divide 2 of each of those 3 portions in half again. You should be left with 1 large ball and 4 small balls of each dough flavour. The smaller balls will form the checkerboard body of the biscuits, while the larger ball will be rolled out and wrapped around the biscuits to form the border.

Use your hands and a bench scraper (or a clean, metal ruler: anything that will help you to really square off the edges of the dough) to shape each of the smaller balls into rectangular logs (you want the cross section of each log to be approximately 1 cm x 1 cm), making sure the logs are as equal as possible in length. You should end up with four green logs and four pink logs.

Carefully press each green log up against one of the pink logs, making sure they are stuck together, but being careful not to squish the dough out of shape too much.

Place one pair of logs on top of another pair of logs, positioning it so the top green section sits on top of the bottom pink section and vice versa. This creates the checkerboard pattern. Again, press them together, but try not to distort the shape too much. Repeat this process for the second pair of logs, so that you have two short cuboids featuring a 2×2 checkerboard pattern.

Now, it’s time to wrap the biscuits in their final dough layer! This gives the biscuits a really pretty border and makes them feel that little bit fancier (if you’d prefer to make the biscuits sans border, follow the instructions on my Swedish Schackrutor post instead— the dividing of the dough is a little less complicated if you do it that way too!).

Take one of the large dough balls and roll it out between two pieces of baking paper (you don’t want to use flour at this stage, because it will prevent the dough from sticking to the biscuit logs, so the baking paper is there to stop it from sticking to your work surface/rolling pin!). Aim for a rectangle the slightly wider than the length of one of your checkerboard logs, and long enough to wrap around the whole thing (approx. 8cm). Try to keep the thickness as even as possible, so that the border looks super neat.

Peel off the top layer of baking paper, then place one of the logs onto the dough, positioning it at one end.

Use a sharp knife to trim along the back of the log, as well as down both sides, flush with the edges of the log. This will make the final dough layer really neat.

Use the baking paper to help you roll the log down the length of the dough, wrapping it up in the dough as you go and pressing the edges gently to ensure the dough sticks to itself, until you’ve covered the whole thing like a little Battenberg. Trim off any excess dough at the end.

Repeat this process for the second log, using the other dough flavour (the final ball!) to cover it. Wrap both of the biscuit logs tightly in clingfilm, then place into the fridge to chill for 2 hours. This will firm the dough up, so that you can slice the logs without distorting your hard-earned checkerboard pattern.

There’s no need to throw away the dough offcuts— roll them all together and form them into a couple of round biscuits (top left in the photo above!). Aim to make these biscuits a similar size to the cross section of your biscuit logs (approx. 3-4cm in diameter). You can bake them alongside the ‘official’ biscuits as little chef’s treats later!

Once the logs have chilled, unwrap them and use a sharp knife to cut them into slices, approx. 5-7mm thick.

Space the biscuits out on a baking tray, lined with baking paper (they won’t spread too much, so just leave a little gap between them). Bake them at 180°C (conventional oven, not fan) for 6-8 minutes, until they’re just turning golden around the edges (this is usually easier to see in the strawberry-flavoured sections than the matcha ones!).

Allow the biscuits to cool on the tray for 5-10 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely before enjoying.

Leftover biscuits can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3 days before they start going a little soft.

Recipe

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Pink & Green Checkerboard Biscuits

Inspired by the Li Sisters in Bridgerton: Season 4, these shortbread biscuits are the perfect blend of sugar and spice. Two doughs, one flavoured with matcha and vanilla, the other with strawberry and pink peppercorns, come together to make a delicious, checkerboard-pattern treat

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword Matcha, Pink peppercorns, Shortbread, strawberry, Vanilla

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 8 minutes minutes

Chill Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 3 hours hours

Servings 16 biscuits

Ingredients

• 25 g caster sugar
• 50 g unsalted butter, diced and softened.
• 75 g plain flour
• 1/2 tbsp freeze dried strawberry powder (see Note 1).
• 1/2 tsp pink peppercorns, finely ground.
• 1/2 tsp matcha powder
• 1/8 tsp vanilla bean paste

Instructions

• Place the sugar, butter and flour into the bowl of a food processor (I use a mini one). Pulse/process until a dough forms.
• Use a weighing scale to divide the dough in half, then place each half into a separate bowl. Knead the freeze dried strawberry powder and ground pink peppercorns into one of the dough halves, then knead the matcha powder and vanilla bean paste into the other.
• Divide each ball of dough into 3 equal pieces. Then, divide 2 of the 3 balls in half, so that you are left with 1 large ball and 4 smaller, equal balls of each colour.
• Use your hands and a bench scraper (or a clean metal ruler/anything that can be used to square off the edges of the dough) to form each of the smaller balls into short, rectangular logs (the cross section should be about 1 cm x 1 cm) of the same length. You should end up with 4 green logs and 4 pink logs.
• Press one pink log alongside one green log. Make sure they are stuck together, but try not to distort the shape too much. Repeat this for the remaining logs.
• Press one pair of logs on top of another, positioning them so that the top green section sits on the bottom pink section and vice versa. Repeat this for the second pair of logs, so that you end up with two larger, rectangular logs with a 2×2 checkerboard pattern.
• Roll out one of the larger dough balls between two sheets of baking paper. Don't add any flour at this stage. Aim to roll the dough into a rough rectangle, slightly wider than the length of one log and a little over 8cm long, so that it can be used to wrap all the way around one of the logs.
• Peel off the top sheet of baking paper, then place one of the logs on top of the rolled out dough, at one end. Use a sharp knife to trim off the excess dough along the back of the log and down both sides, flush with the edges of the log.
• Using the baking paper to help you, roll the log down the length of the rolled out dough, pressing gently to help the dough stick to itself, until it is completely covered, like a Battenberg. Trim off any excess dough, then repeat the process for the second log with the final, large ball of dough (in the other colour).
• Any offcuts can be rolled together and pressed into little round biscuits to be baked alongside the checkerboard biscuits later.
• Wrap both biscuit logs tightly in clingfilm, then place them into the fridge to chill for 2 hours. This will firm them up, so that you can slice them without distorting the checkerboard pattern.
• After 2 hours, preheat the oven to 180°C (conventional oven, not fan). Slice each log into biscuits about 5-7mm thick, then space them out on a baking tray lined with baking paper. The biscuits won't spread very much, so you don't need to leave heaps of room between them.
• Bake the biscuits for 6-8 minutes, until just starting to turn golden around the edges. Allow them to cool on the tray for 5-10 minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling before serving. The biscuits can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days before they start going a little soft.

Notes

1. If you buy the slices of freeze dried strawberries, this works out at approximately 2g (or 5ish slices). Grind the slices into a fine powder using either a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder. 

If you missed the first 5 parts of the series, you can find them here:

• Bridgerton House Baby Blanket #1: Introduction
• Bridgerton House Baby Blanket #2: Making the Brick Blanket
• Bridgerton House Baby Blanket #3: Adding the Surface Crochet Vines
• Bridgerton House Baby Blanket #4: Making the Rose Pieces
• Bridgerton House Baby Blanket #5: Making the Wisteria Pieces

Table of Contents

• A Note on Child Safety
• Equipment
• Positioning the Elements
  • The Layout
    • The Wisteria
    • The Roses
• Sewing on the Wisteria Pieces
• Sewing on the Rose Leaves
• Sewing on the Roses
• Final Thoughts

A Note on Child Safety

Obviously, because this is a baby blanket, it’s important to make it as safe as possible for young children. When developing this pattern, child safety was always at the forefront of my mind, so I have used specific techniques for sewing on each of the appliqué elements to make sure everything is attached as securely as possible. Having said this, anything handmade will only be as safe and secure as you make it- if any elements are not sewn on securely, they will pose a serious choking hazard. Additionally, accidents can happen- appliqué elements may become loose after repeated use, or as a result of the wear-and-tear of daily life, so, just to be on the safe side I would not recommend leaving a young child/baby with this blanket unsupervised.

Equipment

To assemble the blanket, you will need the following equipment:

• All of the appliqué elements (i.e. the roses, rose leaves and wisteria pieces from parts #4 and #5).
• Sewing needle (with an eye large enough to fit DK weight yarn).
• Scissors.
• Crochet hook (optional: I used this to help position the elements before I stitched them down, to ensure I was happy with the overall look before attaching anything permanently).

That’s it! If you’ve left long ends on each of the appliqué elements, as instructed in the specific posts (one pink end for each rose piece, one dark green end for each rose leaf and two light green ends for the wisteria pieces), you shouldn’t need any additional yarn at this stage. This means that you will end up with fewer ends to darn in (a major win, if you ask me) and the appliqué elements will be attached more securely.

Positioning the Elements

Before you start sewing, it’s a good idea to lay out all of the elements on the blanket, so you can get an idea of how the finished blanket will look. You can absolutely just lay the elements on top, but I found that all of the loose ends lying on top of the blanket made it difficult to visualise the finished product. This is where the crochet hook comes in! Lay the elements out where you want them, then pull the ends through to the back of the blanket using the crochet hook (the size of the hook doesn’t really matter- use whatever you have to hand). That way, you’ll get a much better idea of how the finished blanket will look.

The Layout

You can attach the appliqué elements in whatever layout you choose, but, if you want to mimic my blanket, here’s a rough overview of how I did it:

The Wisteria

The wisteria pieces are grouped together in clusters of 2 (1 long piece, 1 short piece). You should have 10 long wisteria pieces and 10 small, so you’ll end up with 10 wisteria clusters around the perimeter of the blanket. Start by placing one wisteria cluster in each of the four corners. Then place one wisteria cluster in the centre of each short side. Finally, space 2 wisteria clusters evenly down each long side of the blanket. Like this, you should have ten, equally-spaced wisteria clusters all around the perimeter of the blanket.

When it comes to positioning the individual wisteria pieces, make sure that each wisteria piece sits right on top of (or up against) one of the brown, surface crochet ‘vines’. This is important because that surface crochet is supposed to mimic the wisteria branch, so the wisteria flowers need to look as if they are growing from it! Make sure that the leafy end of the wisteria pieces sits closest to the branch, as pictured. I opted to position all of the clusters so that they were pointing inwards, towards the centre of the blanket, as if they are hanging down from the branch.

The Roses

Each of the spaces between the wisteria clusters is filled with a rose cluster, so you end up with a continuous, alternating pattern all around the perimeter of the blanket: wisteria, rose, wisteria, rose, etc.

For the most part, rose clusters consist of two rose pieces (1 large, 1 small) and one rose leaf piece. The only two exceptions to this are the clusters in the centre of each long side of the blanket: these rose clusters consist of three rose pieces (2 large, 1 small) and two rose leaf pieces. You should end up with 8 x 2-rose clusters and 2 x 3-rose clusters.

Much like how the wisteria pieces should look as if they are growing out of the brown surface crochet ‘vine’, the rose clusters should sit on the green surface crochet ‘vine’, so they look like they are growing from it. The roses can be placed in any orientation, but the leaves should always be positioned so that the round end sits on the green vine, while the pointed end points away from it.

Sewing on the Wisteria Pieces

Each wisteria piece should have two long, green ends left attached for sewing onto the blanket. One end will be at the base of the petals, while the other will be at the top of the petals (i.e. the base of the leaves). The end at the base of the petals will be used to attach the purple part of the wisteria to the blanket, while the other end will be used to secure the leaves. This will add an extra layer of security, while also giving you the freedom to position both the petals and the leaves however you would like.

Let’s start with attaching the petals. Each wisteria piece is sewn on individually, one at a time. I prefer to start with a long wisteria piece and create an organic shape with that, then move onto a shorter piece and ‘nestle’ it alongside the first piece. After both petal pieces are attached, I stitch down both of the leaves. We’ll be using a simple running stitch to stitch the central, green chain that runs through all of the petals to the blanket.

Thread the petal end onto your needle, then insert the needle through the blanket, from front to back, as pictured, where you want the bottom of your wisteria piece to sit.

Bring the needle back up in a slightly different spot, so that it comes through the green starting chain, close to the end.

Bring the needle back down to the other side of the blanket, bringing it back through the green starting chain, a little further along the wisteria piece.

Keep going, weaving the needle up and down through the blanket and the starting chain, until you come to the end of the petals. I prefer to wait until I’ve attached all the elements before weaving in the ends, just in case I want to change any positions, but you can sew them in whenever you want. For the neatest finish, I recommend bringing the end to the front of the work and darning it into the starting chain underneath the petals. This way, the petals will hide it from the front and the back will still look nice and neat.

Once you’ve sewn the first, long wisteria piece on, you can attach the second, shorter wisteria piece. The two pieces should sit snugly alongside each other, to give the illusion of a single, full wisteria bloom. Attach the second wisteria piece in exactly the same manner as the first, using a running stitch that is worked through the central green chain.

At this point, you should have one wisteria cluster with all the petals stitched down. Now, it’s time to attach the leaves. Attaching the leaves will add an extra layer of safety to the blanket and allows you to control how they sit.

I like to stitch the leaves down in a wide ‘v’ shape, so that the top of the wisteria petals sits within the leaves.

Use the same running stitch technique as the petal section for the leaves. When attaching the leaves, I like to run my stitches right down the centre of the leaf piece, so that the leaves on either side can still move and stand up, to make them look more natural.

Start by threading the end (the one from the base of the leaf piece/top of the petals) onto a needle, then pull the needle through to the back of the blanket, where you want the top of the leaf piece to sit.

Bring the needle back up through the blanket, coming up through the centre of the leaf piece, near the top edge.

Bring the needle back down, slightly further along the centre line of the leaf piece to make the next stitch.

Repeat this until you have stitched all the way down the centre of the leaf, stopping just before the end, so that the final little leaf is left free to curl up/move. When sewing in the end, I like to darn it into the leaf piece itself, again, to keep the back of the blanket looking tidy.

Repeat this process for both leaves, then you’ll have your first, completely attached, wisteria cluster! Repeat for all ten of the clusters, aiming to keep the shapes of the petals and leaves as organic and natural-looking as you can.

Sewing on the Rose Leaves

The technique for attaching the rose leaves is exactly the same as for the wisteria leaves. The aim is to run a line of stitching down the very centre of the leaf, leaving the sides and pointed top free to give the leaf some dimension. The long end that we left on the leaf pieces should sit at the base of each leaf (i.e. the rounded end, not the pointy end). We’ll use this to attach the leaves to the blanket.

I like to sew the rose leaves on first, before the roses themselves, so that the roses can overlap the leaf slightly- it just makes everything look a bit more natural.

Start by threading the end onto the needle, then bring it down through the blanket, from front to back, where you want the base of the leaf to sit (i.e. on the green surface crochet ‘vine’).

Come back up through the blanket, from back to front this time, a little bit further down the centre of the leaf, sticking to that centre line. Because of how we crocheted these leaves, it’s pretty easy to see where that centre line is, so use that as your guide.

Then, bring the needle back down through the centre of the leaf and the blanket beneath.

Keep bringing the needle up and down, through the work, until you come to just before the end of the leaf. Leaving the pointed end unattached will help the leaf to look more organic.

Now, you have an attached leaf! As before, I like to leave all the sewing in of ends until I’ve attached everything, but, when you do sew in the ends for the leaves, try to sew them into the leaves themselves, keeping the ends at the back of the leaves, if possible.

Sewing on the Roses

The roses are, unfortunately, the trickiest element to attach to the blanket, but, once you get the hang of it, it shouldn’t take too long to attach each one. Each rose piece should have one, long end for sewing in at the back. The aim is to use this end to work a running stitch all around the base of the rose, in a rough circle. This technique will provide the most strength and security.

Start by threading the end onto your needle, then bring the needle through to the back of the work, anchoring the rose wherever you want it to sit.

Next, bring the needle back up through the work, slightly further around the circumference of the rose, and catch a few stitches from the lower side of the rose as you do this.

Bring the needle back down through to the other side of the blanket, slightly further around the circumference of the rose again, catching a few more stitches from the lower side of the rose as you go.

Work all the way around the rose like this, running the stitches through both the blanket and the rose as you go, until you have stitched a wide circle all around the rose. The wider your circle of stitching, the more secure the rose will be. Don’t go too wide, though, or you’ll be able to see the stitches.

Ta-da! Now you have one attached rose!

Attach any other roses in the cluster in the exact same way, with the circle of stitching. However, when you come to the area where the new rose abuts the old rose, push your needle horizontally through the side of the first rose, as shown (you’re not going through the blanket itself at this stage, just the rose!).

Then do the same thing to the new rose, pushing the needle through horizontally, before continuing on your way around the rose, stitching it to the blanket again.

These two stitches just help to pull the roses together a little bit. This is optional, but will help to make the rose clusters look more organic and less like two separate roses, sitting near each other.

Now you’ll have a perfect little rose cluster! Repeat this process for all of the remaining clusters, then sew in all the ends (once you are happy with your finished blanket, of course!). As with the other elements, I recommend bringing the rose ends through to the front of the work and sewing them into the underside of the roses, for the neatest finish.

Final Thoughts

And… that’s it! Once everything’s sewn on, you’ll have your very own, Bridgerton House Baby Blanket ready to be used!

These instructions may seem a little overwhelming, but once you get into the swing of things, the sewing-up part of the process will go really quickly. Of course, you don’t have to follow my instructions- if you have a preferred method of sewing on embellishments, or just think of a better way to do it, you can absolutely go ahead and do that!

In other news…

Now that this pattern is finally complete, I’ve put it on Ravelry! You can find it here (and you can check out some of my other designs here, if you’re interested!).

I’ve had so much fun designing and developing this pattern for you over the past couple of years- I’m so glad it’s finally yours in its entirety! I hope you love it as much as I do!

Gemma

xxx

• Bridgerton House Baby Blanket #1: Introduction
• Bridgerton House Baby Blanket #2: Making the Brick Blanket
• Bridgerton House Baby Blanket #3: Adding the Surface Crochet Vines
• Bridgerton House Baby Blanket #4: Making the Rose Pieces

Table of Contents

• Crochet Wisteria: The Basics
• The Starting Chain (or ‘Stem’)
• Crocheting Integrated Wisteria Leaves
• Crocheting Around a Central Chain
  • Small Wisteria Piece
  • Large Wisteria Piece
• Written Pattern
  • Materials & Tools
  • Small Wisteria (Make 10):
  • Large Wisteria (Make 10):
• Final Thoughts

Crochet Wisteria: The Basics

Each wisteria section on the blanket is made up of two individual wisteria pieces, one smaller, one larger, which are attached to the blanket alongside one another to create a tapered, organic shape.

Each individual wisteria piece consists of a central, green stem, two-tone purple petals and a sprig of green wisteria leaves. The leaves are crocheted immediately after working the starting chain, using the same yarn thread, without cutting it in between. This means there are fewer ends to sew in, but also adds an extra layer of safety to the blanket (as there are fewer small, separate embellishments). The petals are crocheted in a continuous spiral around the central stem, switching from the darker purple shade to the paler purple shade about halfway up. The technique is a little unusual, but is relatively simple to work up, once you get the hang of it.

The Starting Chain (or ‘Stem’)

Each wisteria piece begins with a green starting chain, which will form the main ‘stem’ of the wisteria blossoms. The important thing to remember with this starting chain is that you must use a larger hook than you would typically use for DK weight yarn- I typically use a 4mm hook for Stylecraft Special DK, so I have used a 5mm hook for this starting chain. This is because, when you crochet into the starting chain in a spiral for the petals, it pulls the starting chain much tighter than if you were crocheting into it in the usual manner. Using a larger hook helps to keep the starting chain nice and loose, so your wisteria pieces stay flat.

The length of your starting chain determines the length of your finished wisteria piece. For the smaller wisteria pieces, you will start by chaining 14. For the larger wisteria pieces, you will start by chaining 19.

Much like with the rose pieces from the last post, it’s important to leave a long end (approx. 25cm) at the start of your starting chain, for attaching the wisteria pieces to the blanket later on.

Crocheting Integrated Wisteria Leaves

I specifically formulated the pattern for these wisteria pieces to minimise both the amount of ends that needed to be sewn in (because sewing in ends is the WORST) and the amount of separate, small pieces that needed to be individually attached to the blanket (because this is, after all, a baby blanket and needs to be as safe as possible). Because of this, I integrated the wisteria leaves into the same pieces as the wisteria stem/petals. Although this does require a little bit of mid-crochet hook switching, it does mean that there are fewer ends and fewer separate pieces, so it’s really for the best!

The leaves are created using a combination of chains and slip stitches. The same pattern is used for both wisteria pieces, large or small. The size of the leaf piece does not change, irrespective of whether the starting chain consists of 14 or 19 chains.

The wisteria leaves are crocheted immediately after the starting chain is worked. Once you have completed the starting chain (on the larger, 5mm hook), don’t cut the working yarn. Pull the loop out a little, so it doesn’t unravel mid-switch, then remove your 5mm hook and replace it with a 3mm hook (as shown above). Using a finer hook for the leaves helps to give them more definition.

Start by chaining 6 more stitches, using the smaller hook. This will form the start of the leaf section. I’ve marked the end of my starting chain with a stitch marker, to make it easier for you to see what’s going on, but it’s not necessary.

Next, slip stitch into the 2nd chain from the hook.

Then slip stitch into the next 2 stitches. This creates one, 3-stitch leaf.

Now, we’ll make the next leaf. Start by chaining 5, then, again, slip stitch into the 2nd chain from the hook. Finally, slip stitch into the next 2 chains. This creates a second 3-stitch leaf.

Now we’ll make a third 3-stitch leaf. Chain 5, slip stitch into the 2nd chain from the hook, then slip stitch into the next 2 chains.

Now we’ll make a smaller, 2-stitch leaf. Chain 4 this time, then slip stitch into the second chain from the hook. Slip stitch into the next chain to finish this leaf. This finishes off the left-hand side of the sprig. As you can see, it consists of three 3-stitch leaves and one 2-stitch leaf.

Now, we’ll make the 1-stitch leaf that will sit at the very bottom of the sprig. Chain 3, then slip stitch into the 2nd chain from the hook. This completes the leaf.

From now on, we’ll be working back up the length of the sprig, creating the leaves on the right-hand side. The leaves on the right-hand side will be a mirror image of the ones on the left.

Start by slip stitching to the next stitch, to get to the right position to form the first leaf.

Ch 3, then slip stitch into 2nd chain from the hook. Slip stitch into the next chain to create another 2-stitch leaf, opposite the 2-stitch leaf on the other side.

Skip the next stitch (i.e. the base of the 2-stitch leaf on the other side).

Then slip stitch to the next chain to secure the leaf to the central train.

Make a 3-stitch leaf by chaining 4, slip stitching into the second chain from the hook, then slip stitching into the next 2 chains.

Again, to attach the leaf to the central chain, skip the next stitch (the base of the 3-stitch leaf on the other side) and slip stitch to the next chain.

Repeat this process to make another 3-stitch leaf. After, attach the leaf to the central chain by skipping the next stitch (the base of the 3-stitch leaf on the other side) and slip stitching to the next chain.

Make a final 3-stitch leaf by chaining 4, slip stitching into the second chain from the hook, then slip stitching into the next 2 chains to finish off the stem

Once you’ve done this, you should have a symmetrical sprig of wisteria leaves that is completely attached to your initial starting chain. Cut the green yarn now, leaving a long end again for sewing up (approx. 15-20cm). We will be using the long end from the start of the starting chain to attach the petal section of the wisteria piece to the blanket, while this end will be used to attach the wisteria leaves to the blanket.

Crocheting Around a Central Chain

Once you have the starting chain ‘stem’ and the integrated sprig of leaves, it’s time to add the petals. This is where things get a little… unusual, so stay with me! Essentially, all you’re doing is crocheting into each chain down the stem, but twisting the stem as you go. By doing this, you’ll end up crocheting a spiral of petals that winds it way around that starting chain ‘stem’, mimicking the conical, 3D shape of a wisteria sprig.

We’re going to start at the bottom of the wisteria sprig (i.e., the opposite end of the stem to the leaf). We’ll start crocheting with the darker purple yarn (I’m using Stylecraft Special DK, in the shade Wisteria) and a 3mm hook.

Small Wisteria Piece

Let’s start with a small wisteria piece. Start by laying out a 14-chain stem piece in front of you, with the leaf on the left-hand side and the ‘v’s of the starting chain facing up at you.

Insert your hook through the middle of the first chain, from back to front, as shown in the photo above.

Using the purple yarn, make the first petal in this stitch. Chain 1, then work 2 dc into the same stitch.

Because of how we inserted our hook into that first stitch, you’ll now be looking at the back of your starting chain. Don’t twist the chain, just insert your hook into the next stitch in exactly the same way as before: through the middle, from back to front (as you see it now), as indicated by the needle here.

Slip stitch into this chain.

Then make another (ch 1, 2dc) petal into it as well.

Again, you’ll notice the chain has turned over again, and you’ll now be looking at the front of the starting chain. Again, we’re going to work into the next chain by inserting our hook through the middle of it, from back to front.

Slip stitch to the chain, then work another (ch 1, 2dc) petal into it. You should now have 3 petals.

Repeat the whole process, continuing to insert your hook into new chains from back to front, twice more, for a total of 5 petals.

Now we’re going to start increasing the size of the petals, to give that slight conical shape to the sprig. While the petal instructions will change, the hook insertion method stays the same. That is, you should always be inserting your hook through the middle of the chain, from back to front. After working odd-number petals, you should be looking at the back (bumpy side) of the chain. After working even-number petals, you should be looking at the front (v-pattern) side of the chain. This can be a helpful rule to remember to keep you on track, in case your chain gets twisted and you forget where you are!

For the sixth petal, work the following pattern into the next chain: (Ch 1, 1dc, 1htr, 1dc).

Slip stitch into the next stitch, then repeat this process once more, for a second medium-sized petal (or petal #7).

At this point, cut the darker purple yarn and attach the paler purple yarn (I am using Stylecraft Special DK, in the shade Parma Violet). I attach the pale yarn by pulling it through to finish off the dc from the previous petal, which gives a seamless finish.

With the paler purple yarn, work another 3 medium clusters by working in that same (Ch 1, 1dc, 1htr, 1dc) pattern into the next 3 chains, continuing on with the back-to-front hook insertion method and slip stitching into the next chain as you go.

Finally, we’ll make the large petals. Slip stitch into the next chain, inserting the hook from back to front. (Ch 1, 3 htr) into the same stitch.

Repeat this process (slip stitch into the next stitch, then work (ch 1, 3 htr) into the same stitch) 3 more times, for a total of 4 large petals.

Slip stitch to the final chain, again, inserting the hook from back-to-front, to finish off the final petal.

At this point, you can cut the pale purple yarn and fasten off.

At this point, you can weave in all of the purple ends (both pale and dark). Try to darn them into the petals themselves, matching the end to the petal to keep the colours separate.

I also used the green end at the bottom of the stem to define the bottom petals ever so slightly- just thread it onto a darning needle and pass it through between the two petals, to create a little green ‘stripe’. Keep this end attached for sewing the wisteria piece to the blanket later.

Large Wisteria Piece

To make the larger wisteria piece, all of the petal patterns and hook-insertion techniques stay exactly the same. All that changes is the number of petals and the point at which you change from the darker purple yarn to the paler purple yarn.

Following the instructions for the smaller wisteria piece, lay one of the 19-chain stem pieces out in front of you.

Work 5 small (ch 1, 2dc) petals in the darker purple yarn.

Then work 4 medium (ch 1, 1dc, 1htr, 1dc) petals in the darker purple yarn.

Switch to the paler purple yarn, then work 1 more medium (ch 1, 1dc, 1htr, 1dc) petal in the paler purple yarn.

Finally, work 9 large (ch 1, 3htr) petals in the paler yarn.

Weave in all the purple yarn ends as for the smaller wisteria piece, and define the bottom two petals using the green yarn end as before.

Written Pattern

Materials & Tools

• Stylecraft Special DK in the shades Pistachio, Wisteria and Parma Violet.*
• 5mm hook (for the starting chain).
• 3mm hook (for the leaves and petals).
• Scissors.
• Darning needle.

You can find the specific quantities for each of the yarn colours on the introductory post for this pattern, under ‘Master Material List’.

Small Wisteria (Make 10):

Using a 5mm hook, ch 14, leaving a long end (approx. 25cm) at the start for attaching to the blanket.

Switch to a 3mm hook to make the leaves.

*Ch 6, ss into 2^nd ch from hook. Ss in next 2 chains.

Ch 5, ss into 2^nd ch from hook. Ss in next 2 chains.

Ch 5, ss into 2^nd ch from hook. Ss in next 2 chains.

Ch 4, ss into 2^nd ch from hook. Ss in next chain.

Ch 3, ss into 2^nd ch from hook.

Slip to next stitch, ch 3, ss into 2^nd ch from hook. Ss in next chain.

Skip next stitch on main stem (at base of opposite leaf), ss to next ch, ch 4, ss into 2^nd ch from hook. Ss in next 2 chains.

Skip next stitch on main stem, ss to next ch, ch 4, ss into 2^nd ch from hook. Ss in next 2 chains.

Skip next stitch on main stem, ss to next ch, ch 4, ss into 2^nd ch from hook. Ss in next 2 chains.

Skip next stitch on main stem, ss to next 2 ch.

Cut the green yarn, leaving a long end (approx. 15-20cm) for attaching to the blanket.**

From now on, when working into the starting chain, always insert hook through the middle of the chain, from back to front. This will twist the chain after every petal is worked. After working odd-number petals, you should be looking at the back (bumpy side) of the chain. After working even-number petals, you should be looking at the front (v-pattern) side of the chain.

Attach Wisteria yarn to first chain of initial starting chain (opposite end to leaf).

(Ch 1, 2dc) into first stitch, then ss into next stitch. Repeat 4 more times, for a total of 5 small petals.

(Ch 1, 1dc, 1htr, 1dc) into next stitch, then ss into next stitch. Repeat 1 more time, for a total of 2 medium petals.

Cut Wisteria yarn and attach Parma Violet yarn.

(Ch 1, 1dc, 1htr, 1dc) into next stitch, then ss into next stitch. Repeat 2 more times, for a total of 3 medium (pale) petals.

(Ch 1, 3htr) into next stitch, then ss into next stitch. Repeat 3 more times, for a total of 4 large petals.

Cut Parma Violet yarn. Weave in all purple ends, leaving both green ends for attaching to the blanket later. Define the bottom two (small) petals by threading the green end at the base of the wisteria onto a darning needle, then working a small stitch over the petals to separate them. Do not cut the green yarn after.

Large Wisteria (Make 10):

Using a 5mm hook, ch 19, leaving a long end (approx. 25cm) at the start for attaching to the blanket.

Switch to a 3mm hook and follow the pattern for the small wisteria piece from * to ** to make the leaves.

From now on, when working into the starting chain, always insert hook through the middle of the chain, from back to front. This will twist the chain after every petal is worked. After working odd-number petals, you should be looking at the back (bumpy side) of the chain. After working even-number petals, you should be looking at the front (v-pattern) side of the chain.

Attach Wisteria yarn to first chain of initial starting chain (opposite end to leaf).

(Ch 1, 2dc) into first stitch, then ss into next stitch. Repeat 4 more times, for a total of 5 small petals.

(Ch 1, 1dc, 1htr, 1dc) into next stitch, then ss into next stitch. Repeat 3 more times, for a total of 4 medium petals.

Cut Wisteria yarn and attach Parma Violet yarn.

(Ch 1, 1dc, 1htr, 1dc) into next stitch, then ss into next stitch, to make 1 more medium petal.

(Ch 1, 3htr) into next stitch, then ss into next stitch. Repeat 8 more times, for a total of 9 large petals.

Cut Parma Violet yarn. Weave in all purple ends, leaving both green ends for attaching to the blanket later. Define the bottom two (small) petals by threading the green end at the base of the wisteria onto a darning needle, then working a small stitch over the petals to separate them. Do not cut the green yarn after.

Final Thoughts

Once you’ve made 10 small wisteria pieces and 10 large wisteria pieces, you will have all of your wisteria appliqué elements ready to go for your Bridgerton House Baby Blanket! The next post in this series will include detailed instructions for attaching these, along with the rose pieces from last week’s post, to your blanket, so keep them somewhere safe until then.

Obviously, these crochet wisteria pieces are nowhere near anatomically correct, but, when attached to the blanket, I think they do a really good job of giving the impression of wisteria, which was the aim! They are a little fiddly to make, but that’s more because the spiral technique is quite different to typical crochet, not because it’s particularly hard or fine work! Just remember that, when you’re working the petals, you should always be inserting the hook through the middle of the next chain, from back to front, and you’ll be absolutely fine.

These wisteria pieces were definitely one of the more complicated elements to design for this blanket pattern, but I’m super happy with how they turned out- particularly the integrated leaf section, which not only reduces the number of ends you have to sew in (yay!) but also makes this blanket that little bit safer for young children (double yay!).

I hope you’ve enjoyed this wisteria embellishment tutorial! As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not super experienced at writing crochet patterns, so please do let me know if you run into any problems with this and I will do my best to help you out! I’ll see you next week for Part 6 (the final part!).

Gemma

xxx

• Bridgerton House Baby Blanket #1: Introduction
• Bridgerton House Baby Blanket #2: Making the Brick Blanket
• Bridgerton House Baby Blanket #3: Adding the Surface Crochet Vines

Table of Contents

• Crochet Roses: The Basics
• Making the Large Roses
• Making the Small Roses
• Winding the Roses
  • Not All Rolls Are Made Equal
• Making the Rose Leaves
• Written Pattern
  • Materials & Tools
  • Large Rose (make 12):
  • Small Rose (make 10):
  • Rose Leaf (make 12):
• Final Thoughts

Crochet Roses: The Basics

Each rose is crocheted as one piece, which is then rolled up and sewn together to create the flower shape. The roses are crocheted on a very small hook (2mm). This helps to give the roses more structure and creates a neater finish. If you find using a small hook with DK weight yarn to be too much of a struggle (it can be a bit hard on your fingers!), you can absolutely use a larger hook- just be aware that your roses will be larger in size and less rigid.

For this blanket, you will need to make 2 different sizes of rose: large and small, using 3 different shades of pink. This provides dimension and reflects the roses seen in the show, where the centre of each flower is a darker shade that gradually lightens to the pale pink outer petals. To keep things simple, I’ve opted to use a few different shades to make multiple, plain-coloured roses, rather than incorporate the gradient into each individual rose.

The roses are arranged in clusters around the perimeter of the blanket. For the most part, the clusters are formed of 1 large + 1 small rose, though, in the centre of each long side of the blanket, there is one larger cluster consisting of 1 small + 2 large roses. For my blanket, I made the following number of roses in each shade of pink, but you can, of course, change this to suit your yarn/preference:

• Pale Pink (Stylecraft Special DK in Powder Pink): 4 large, 3 small.
• Mid Pink (Stylecraft Special DK in Pale Rose): 4 large, 4 small.
• Dark Pink (Stylecraft Special DK in Raspberry): 4 large, 3 small.

To help integrate the appliqué roses into the background, rose leaves are crocheted separately and sewn onto the blanket alongside the rose clusters. Each cluster is adorned with one rose leaf, except for the larger, 3-rose clusters, which have 2 leaves. The leaves are crocheted using the same Khaki shade used to make the surface crochet rose vine from the previous instalment. All in all, you’ll need to make 12 rose leaves for this blanket.

Making the Large Roses

You will need to make 12 large roses.

Using a 2mm hook, chain 25. Leave a long end (approx. 30cm) for attaching the rose to the blanket later on.

When starting the first row, work into the 3rd chain from the hook.

Work 4 dc into this stitch. Consider these 4 stitches, combined with the 2 turning chains, as a cluster of 5 dc, or 1 ‘petal’.

Skip the next stitch, so that you will be working into the second chain from your hook.

Slip stitch into that stitch.

Skip the next stitch, so that, again, you will be working into the second chain from your hook.

Work 5 dc into that stitch.

Keep working in this pattern (skip 1 stitch, 5dc in next chain, skip 1 stitch, ss into next) to the end of the row. You should now have 6 x 5 dc clusters (or 6 ‘petals’).

Turn and chain 1 to start the next round.

Skip the first slip stitch, so that you will start by working into the 2nd stitch from your hook (i.e. the first dc stitch).

Htr into each of the next 5 stitches (i.e. into each of the 5 dc from the row below).

Slip stitch into the next stitch (which is also a slip stitch, from the row before).

Continue working in this pattern (htr 5, ss) to the last 5 stitches (or the last petal). Work 4 htr into the next 4 stitches (the 4 dc from the row below), then work one final htr into the top of the ch 2 from the previous row.

Turn and chain 1 to start the next row. From now on, you will be working into the front loops only. This helps to give a delicate shape to the petals.

Dc into the first stitch (the last htr from the row below).

Work 2dc into each of the next 3 stitches, then dc into the next stitch. Finish off this first petal by working a slip stitch into the next stitch.

Work in this pattern (dc, 2 dc in next 3 stitches, dc, ss in next stitch) to the end of the row.

Cut the yarn and sew in this end, leaving the long end from the starting chain to secure the rose after winding/sew the rose onto the blanket.

Making the Small Roses

The smaller roses are made in a very similar manner to the larger roses, except they have fewer petals and are worked up in 2 rows, as opposed to 3.

Using a 2mm hook, chain 17. Leave a long end (approx. 30cm) for attaching the rose to the blanket later on.

Work 4 dc into the 3rd chain from the hook. Like with the larger rose, these 4 stitches, combined with the 2 starting chains, count as a cluster of 5 dc, or 1 ‘petal’.

Skip 1 stitch, then slip stitch into the next. Work in the following pattern: (skip 1 stitch, 5dc in next chain, skip 1 stitch, ss into next) to the end of the row. You should end up with 4 x 5 dc clusters (or 4 ‘petals’).

Turn and chain 1 to start the next row. From now on, you will be working into the front loops only. This helps to shape to the rose petals.

Skip the first slip stitch, then work in the following pattern to the end of the row: (dc, 2dc in next 3 stitches, dc, ss in next stitch) to end.

Cut the yarn and sew in this end, leaving the long end from the starting chain to secure the rose after winding/sew the rose onto the blanket.

Winding the Roses

To take the roses from flat, scalloped pieces to 3D flowers, you need to roll up the crocheted piece.

Start by threading the remaining end onto a sewing needle. You will use this end to secure the roll and it’s much easier to thread it before you’ve rolled up the rose!

Roll the rose up along the inner edge (i.e. the straight, non-scalloped edge), this will form the bottom of the rose, with the scalloped edge forming the top of the petals. Keep the bottom edge level as you roll and aim to roll it nice and tightly, for the most secure rose.

Once you have your roll, you need to secure it. Use the threaded needle and push it through the base of the rose a few times, staying relatively close to that bottom edge and making sure to catch each of layers of the spiral at some point.

Once your rose ‘roll’ is firmly secured, you can remove the sewing needle. Do NOT cut the yarn at this point- you will still need it to attach the rose to the blanket! Just set the rose aside as it is, ready for when you assemble the blanket.

Not All Rolls Are Made Equal

The direction in which you roll the rose does make a difference! Luckily, it just changes the appearance of the roses ever so slightly- so you can roll whichever way you prefer. I’ve used a combination of the two styles for my blanket, but you can do whatever you like!

Consider the initial, flat crocheted piece. Because of the way we worked the final round, working into the front loops only, there is a clear distinction between the two sides of the fabric.

If you roll the rose with the right side facing inwards, you’ll end up with a rose that looks a little like this- it’s got a slightly cupped, bulbous shape, as if the rose hasn’t quite fully opened yet.

If you roll the rose with the right side facing outwards, you’ll end up with a rose that looks like this- the spiral effect is slightly more prominent and the rose looks like it is a little more ‘open’ and ‘in bloom’.

As I mentioned, you can roll your roses whichever way you prefer- or you can be like me and use both! I did choose to roll all of the small roses outward, because they are so tiny I found that, when rolling them inward, they lost a little of their structure and rose-like appearance. Again though, it’s entirely up to you!

Making the Rose Leaves

For the rose leaves, you’ll be glad to hear that it’s very much a one-size-fits-all kind of situation! I used a slightly larger hook for the leaves, compared to the roses, to a) give my fingers a rest and b) allow the leaves to look a little more organic and natural looking (i.e. less stiff). It’s still a pretty small hook (2.5mm), to keep the leaves in proportion to the roses, but it won’t be quite as tight as the roses!

Using a 2.5mm hook and Khaki yarn, start by chaining 7. Leave a long end (approx. 25cm) to attach the leaf to the blanket later on.

Start by working into the 2nd chain from the hook. You’ll only be working into the top loops of the chains for this first part.

Work one dc into the 2nd chain from the hook.

Then, work a htr into the next stitch.

Work a tr into each of the next 2 stitches.

Then work another htr into the next stitch.

Work a dc into the final stitch.

Then, slip stitch into that same stitch.

This will allow you to curve around the base of the leaf, so that you can work back up the other side of your starting chain.

From now on, you’ll be working into the back loops of your starting chain (i.e. into the same stitches as before, just from the other side of the chain!

Work in the same pattern as before (dc, htr, tr 2, dc) all the way back up the starting chain.

To finish off the leaf and create the ‘pointy’ end, slip stitch to the top of the first dc.

Cut the yarn and weave in this end, leaving the long end from the starting chain for attaching the leaf to the blanket later on.

Written Pattern

Materials & Tools

• Stylecraft Special DK in the shades Powder Pink, Pale Rose and Raspberry (for the roses) and Khaki (for the rose leaves).*
• 2mm crochet hook (for the roses).
• 2.5mm crochet hook (for the rose leaves).
• Scissors
• Darning needle

* You can find the specific quantities for each of the yarn colours on the introductory post for this pattern, under ‘Master Material List’.

Large Rose (make 12):

Ch 25, leaving long end to attach onto blanket (approx. 30cm).

R1: 4dc in 3^rd ch from hook (counts as 5dc). Skip 1 stitch, ss into next. (Skip 1 stitch, 5dc in next chain, skip 1 stitch, ss into next) to end (6x 5dc clusters). 

R2: Turn and ch1. Skip first ss. (Htr in next 5 stitches, ss into ss from previous round) to last cluster. Htr in next 5 stitches, working the final htr into the top of the ch 2 from the previous round. 

R3: Turn and ch1. Working in front loops only, (dc, 2dc in next 3 stitches, dc, ss in next stitch) to end.

Cut yarn and sew in short end. Roll and secure (using long end) to form rose (inward or outward). Leave this end attached to sew rose onto blanket later.

Small Rose (make 10):

Ch 17 leaving long end to attach onto blanket (approx. 30cm).

R1: 4dc in 3^rd ch from hook (counts as 5dc). Skip 1 stitch, ss into next. (Skip 1 stitch, 5dc in next chain, skip 1 stitch, ss into next) to end.

R2: R3: Turn and ch1. Skip first ss, then, working in front loops only, (dc, 2dc in next 3 stitches, dc, ss in next stitch) to end.

Cut yarn and darn in short end. Roll outward and secure (using long end) to form rose. Leave this end attached to sew rose onto blanket later.

Rose Leaf (make 12):

Ch 7, leaving long end to attach to blanket (approx. 25cm)

Working in top loops only, dc in 2^nd ch from hook. Htr, tr in next 2, htr, dc. Ss into same stitch.

Work back down the chain (working in back loops now). Dc, htr, tr 2, dc. Ss to top of first sc.

Cut yarn and weave in end. Leave the long end attached to sew leaf onto blanket later.

Final Thoughts

Once you’ve made 12 large roses, 10 small roses and 12 rose leaves, you’ll have all of your rose appliqué pieces ready to go! I’ll be providing detailed instructions for attaching all of these elements onto the blanket in a later post, so keep them safe until then.

I really love these roses, because they’re actually pretty straightforward to make, even though they look a little complicated. They’re also super customisable- you can use any colour of yarn you want, you can roll them up in different directions, make as many/as few as you like and vary the sizes as much as you need. I admit, crocheting DK weight yarn on a 2mm hook is a bit of a trial, but it makes for such neat, structural roses that I really do think it’s worth it. If it’s not feasible for you, absolutely just increase the hook size- a slight improvement in structure and appearance is obviously NOT worth any sort of crochet-induced insanity!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this rose embellishment tutorial! As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not super experienced at writing crochet patterns, so please do let me know if you run into any problems with this and I will do my best to help you out! I’ll see you next week for Part 5!

Gemma

xxx

Let’s get into it, shall we?

Table of Contents

• Surface Crochet: Explained
  • Surface Crochet vs Chain Stitch
• How to Surface Crochet
• Seamlessly Joining a Surface Crochet Loop
• Crocheting into Surface Crochet
• Interweaving Surface Crochet Paths
  • Weaving the Vine Over
  • Weaving the Vine Under
• Mapping Out the Curved Path
• Pattern
  • Materials & Tools
  • Surface Crochet Vines: Written Pattern
  • Pattern Note
• Final Thoughts

Surface Crochet: Explained

Surface crochet is a crochet technique that can be used to create decorative lines of stitching on top of a piece of crocheted/knitted fabric. It produces a very similar effect to chain stitch in embroidery. Essentially, surface crochet is just a series of slip stitches that are worked onto the surface (hence the name) of an existing fabric. Once you get the hang of it, it’s super easy to do!

Surface Crochet vs Chain Stitch

As I mentioned, surface crochet produces a very similar effect to the embroidery technique known as ‘chain stitch’. If you’re a seasoned embroiderer, or find the surface crochet technique difficult to master, you can absolutely make this blanket using chain stitch, with a sewing needle instead of a crochet hook. However, I prefer using the surface crochet technique for a couple of reasons:

• Unlike with embroidery, when you surface crochet, you work directly from the ball of yarn (i.e. you don’t have to keep cutting new pieces of yarn to work with). I would do anything to minimise the amount of ends I have to sew in, so this is a real plus for me! Additionally, because the colour is visible on the back of the blanket, fewer ends to sew in also makes for a neater finish, so it’s a win-win!
• Although the basic shape of the stitches is the same, there is a slight difference in appearance between chain stitch and surface crochet. Embroidered chain stitches can look a little lacy and ‘gappy’, whereas surface crochet stitches are naturally a little less open, which makes for a bolder, cleaner line of stitching.
• It’s easier to keep an even, controlled tension with surface crochet. To adjust the tension when surface crocheting, you can simply adjust the hook size (where a bigger hook gives you a looser tension). When using a sewing needle, you have to be more mindful of your tension for each stitch. This is particularly important for this blanket, because the surface crochet stitches have to be quite loose, so that a) they don’t distort the blanket and b) they can be crocheted into.

How to Surface Crochet

When surface crocheting, the yarn should always be held at the back of the fabric, while the hook is held at the front.

Always use a larger hook when surface crocheting, to help keep the tension loose and prevent the fabric from warping. For this project, I’ve used a 5.5mm hook (with DK weight yarn, which I would normally use a 4mm hook for).

Throughout the process, hold the hook in your dominant hand and tension the yarn using your non-dominant hand, just like you would for regular crochet.

Start by inserting your hook into the fabric, from front to back, like so.

Pull up a loop of yarn from the back of the fabric.

Insert the hook into the fabric again, from front to back, a short distance from the entry point. This distance will be the length of your stitch- for this project, my stitches were about 0.5-0.75mm long, but you want to try and mimic the length of the chain that you would make with the same hook size/yarn weight.

Draw up another loop of yarn from the back of the fabric, then pull it through. You should now have two loops on your hook.

Pull the top loop through the bottom loop to make a slip stitch. Don’t pull this too tight- keep your tension nice and loose throughout the process, to prevent the fabric from warping.

This is your first surface crochet! As you can see, the ‘v’ of the slip stitch sits on top of the fabric, while, on the back of the fabric, you’ll see something more akin to a running stitch.

Keep making surface crochet stitches, following your desired shape, until you have finished your design.

To fasten off the surface crochet, cut the yarn at the back and pull the loop on the needle through from the front. At this point, you can either join your surface crochet line into a continuous loop (see the instructions in the next sections), or sew in the end.

If you plan to sew in the end at this stage, thread it onto a sewing needle. Insert the threaded needle into the fabric, from front to back, over the top of your last surface crochet stitch to secure it, before sewing in the end on the back.

At first, this technique will feel very counterintuitive, but, once you get into the swing of things, you’ll fly through it! I find it helpful to treat it as if I’m ‘doodling’ on the fabric and ‘drawing’ lines of stitches. Remember that you can always rip out some of the stitching and start again if you’re not happy with the shape of the line/stitch length.

Seamlessly Joining a Surface Crochet Loop

For this pattern, we’ll be making multiple continuous chains of surface crochet around the perimeter of the blanket. To make a seamless join between the start and end of the surface crochet line, follow these steps:

Finish your surface crochet line when you’re about one stitch’s distance away from the start of your line. Fasten off the surface crochet, leaving a long end.

Take a blunt darning needle and insert it under both legs of the first surface crochet stitch, like so. Pull the yarn end through, so that it runs underneath both legs of that first stitch.

Insert your needle into the fabric, down through the centre of the last surface crochet stitch (i.e. between the the two legs).

Pull the yarn end through to the back of the fabric. You’ve now made a ‘faux’ surface crochet stitch, which joins your first and last stitches and gives your surface crochet line a continuous appearance. Darn in the end on the back of the fabric, and you’re done!

Crocheting into Surface Crochet

For part of this pattern, you will need to crochet into one of your surface crochet paths. This helps to add thickness and texture to the surface crochet vines, an effect that I’ve used in my pattern to differentiate between the thicker wisteria branches and the more delicate rose vines. Crocheting into surface crochet might sound a bit complicated, but it’s really not!

When crocheting into surface crochet, switch back to your regular hook size for your yarn weight (for this project, I’m using a 4mm hook). From now on, we’ll always be working from the front of the fabric, so you can hold the hook and the yarn on the same side of the fabric.

Insert your hook underneath both legs of one of the surface crochet stitches, like so.

Pull through a loop of yarn.

Make a chain, by pulling another loop of yarn through the loop on your hook.

Now you’ve attached the yarn, you can work into the surface crochet. Any time you work into a new surface crochet stitch, make sure to insert your hook under both legs of the stitch. Continue stitching with the working yarn as you work your way around, following the pattern. For this project, the pattern is a simple repeat: (Ch 1, ss) into every stitch.

Once you have worked around the entire line of surface crochet, you can cut and fasten off the yarn.

You can then follow the above instructions on ‘Seamlessly Joining a Surface Crochet Loop’ to join this round of crochet into a continuous loop as well. Instead of working into the surface crochet stitches though, just insert the needle under the round of stitches you have just worked.

Interweaving Surface Crochet Paths

For this project, you’ll also need to know how to interlace your surface crochet paths. In total, we’ll be making 3 rounds of surface crochet: 2 brown, ‘wisteria’ rounds and 1 green, ‘rose’ round.

For the wisteria rounds, because we’ll be crocheting into the surface crochet, this isn’t important. You can just work the second round of crochet over the top of the first round any time the two rounds intersect. For the rose round, you’ll need to do a few extra steps, so that you can give the vine the appearance of ‘weaving’ in and out of the wisteria branches!

To get this woven effect, I like to alternate between the vine going over and under the vine below.

Weaving the Vine Over

To make the vine go over the vine below, just work the surface crochet over the round below. Start by making one stitch that ends just before the vine below.

Make the next stitch by inserting the hook into the fabric on the other side of the vine.

The new stitch will sit over the top of the vine.

Weaving the Vine Under

To make the vine go underneath the wisteria branch, you’ll need to remove the hook. Once you’ve made the last stitch before the vine below, pull the loop to enlarge it a little (so that it doesn’t unravel!), then remove your hook.

Insert your hook underneath the vine below, from left to right (i.e. so that the hook is pointing towards the open loop). I like to switch to a finer hook for this step, just to make it easier to get the hook through the stitching, but this is optional.

Pick up the loop you left open and pull it through to the other side of the vine.

Switch back to your larger hook and continue surface crocheting as usual until you get to the next intersection, where you will be working over the vine.

Again, this is a technique that sounds much more complicated than it is- once you get into the swing of it, you’ll be flying around. The switching of hooks makes it a little bit finicky, but you only need to do that every second intersection.

Mapping Out the Curved Path

Unfortunately, with surface crochet, you can’t really give specific instructions as to where to insert your hook to make the perfect path. Ideally, for these vines, you just want to create organic, wavy lines that go all the way around the perimeter of the blanket.

When I made my blanket, I used the mortar lines as a general guide- I tried to keep my lines largely within the outer bricks to keep the border even (though I did occasionally go a little way past them, just to make it look natural). Try your best to make your curves as gradual as possible- you don’t want any sharp points or corners! Otherwise, I found it easiest to just be guided by the fabric and where you can insert your hook. The first round will be the trickiest, because for the second, you can just be guided by the first to create a rough mirror image.

Ultimately (and unfortunately), this stage of the blanket involves lots of unavoidable, mini decisions. If you’re worried about this, you can always make yourself a guide by using lengths of yarn to map out your surface crochet path beforehand. If you lay the yarn on top of the blanket, you’ll be able to get an idea of what your vines will look like and adjust the waves/position to your liking. You can then use lockable stitch markers/safety pins to mark the peaks and troughs of each wave, to guide you as you crochet.

Pattern

Because of the complexity and discretionary nature of surface crochet, this written pattern is not extensive or overly specific. It should be referred to in conjunction with all of the above information- together all of these elements form a complete tutorial for the surface crochet vines on the Bridgerton House Baby Blanket.

Materials & Tools

• Stylecraft Special DK in the shades Mocha (for the wisteria branches) and Khaki (for the rose vines). For a breakdown of approximate yarn quantities needed for this project as a whole, please see the ‘Master Material List’ on the original Bridgerton House Baby Blanket post.
• 5.5mm hook (for the surface crochet).
• 4mm hook (for working into the surface crochet).
• Darning needle.
• Scissors.

Surface Crochet Vines: Written Pattern

Round 1 (surface crochet): Using a 5.5mm hook, join Mocha yarn for surface crochet. Working in surface crochet, make a continuous wavy line around the perimeter of the blanket (see Pattern Note below).

Round 2 (surface crochet): Continue with Mocha yarn and a 5.5mm hook and work another continuous wavy line of surface crochet, creating a rough mirror image of the first line.

Round 3: Using Mocha yarn and a 4mm hook, work into the surface crochet from round 1. (Ch 1, ss) into each stitch around. When you come to the end of the round, cut the yarn and follow the above instructions on ‘Seamlessly Joining a Surface Crochet Loop’, working under Round 3, instead of the surface crochet, to join the round.

Round 4: Using Mocha yarn and a 4mm hook, work into the surface crochet from round 1. (Ch 1, ss) into each stitch around. Whenever you come to an intersection point between the two vines, continue working in pattern over the top of the round below. When you come to the end of the round, cut the yarn and follow the above instructions on ‘Seamlessly Joining a Surface Crochet Loop’, working under Round 4, instead of the surface crochet, to join the round.

Round 5 (surface crochet): Using a 5.5mm hook, join Khaki yarn for surface crochet. Work in surface crochet, making a continuous wavy line around the perimeter of the blanket, weaving the khaki vine over and under the wisteria branches (see instructions above). When you come to the end of the round, cut the yarn and follow the above instructions on ‘Seamlessly Joining a Surface Crochet Loop’.

Pattern Note

For rounds 1-2, you can either complete each round individually, joining a new thread of Mocha yarn and fastening it off after each round (using the above instructions on ‘Seamlessly Joining a Surface Crochet Loop’) OR you can work continuously. If you want to do this, please refer to the following instructions:

• When attaching the Mocha yarn for Round 1, join the yarn at an intersection point (about halfway between what will become a wave peak and trough). If you haven’t mapped out your path and are just freehanding it, I recommend joining the yarn at a centre point of a brick.

• When you come to the end of Round 1, insert your hook for your final surface crochet stitch into the first surface crochet stitch (i.e. between the legs of that first stitch).

• To start Round 2, insert your hook a stitch’s distance away, perpendicular to the path of the round before (to make the intersection point)Work all the way around, then follow the instructions for ‘Seamlessly Joining a Surface Crochet Loop’ to fasten off the yarn.

Final Thoughts

Once you’ve completed all 5 rounds of crochet, you’ll be left with a fully vine-d blanket, ready for all of your appliqué florals and leaves! Like I said, if you’ve never done it before, the surface crochet technique will seem quite counterintuitive and weird, but, once you get used to it, it’s a really useful skill to have under your belt!

As I mentioned in the last post, I’m not super experienced at writing crochet patterns, so please do let me know if you run into any problems with this and I will do my best to help you out! I’ll see you next week for Part 4!

Gemma

xxx

The brick blanket is predominantly worked in linen stitch– a squidgy, easy-to-work stitch that gives the blanket a lovely texture, feel and professional look. The blanket also utilises some colourwork (using yarn bobbins) to achieve a ‘bricks and mortar’ effect-. This post contains a full tutorial for all of the techniques and stitches used in the pattern, so please do not worry if you haven’t done some of the techniques before- it’ll just be a fun challenge!

Once you get the hang of it, the pattern itself is quite straightforward and nicely repetitive (even though the written pattern, I admit, might look a little daunting!). I have also included a photo tutorial to help demonstrate some of the techniques and to help you visualise the slightly trickier elements of the pattern, in the interest of making this pattern as beginner-friendly as possible!

Table of Contents

• Linen Stitch: The Basics
• Using Yarn Bobbins
• Materials & Tools
• Pattern Notes
• Abbreviations
• Written Pattern
• Photo Tutorial

Linen Stitch: The Basics

Linen Stitch, or Moss Stitch, is a simple crochet stitch made using a combination of two basic elements: double crochet and chains. Rows are worked in the following pattern: (Ch 1, skip the next stitch, dc in the next stitch), where, after the first ‘setup’ row, the dc stitches are worked into the ch spaces from the row below. The result is a fabric that is slightly denser than standard double crochet and has a fine, even texture.

I love linen stitch, but it can sometimes be a little bit tricky to maintain a consistent tension when working in it. Luckily, with this blanket, the vertical mortar lines (which are worked in plain double crochet, not linen stitch), act as ‘pillars’ which help to keep the linen stitch bricks even. If you’ve had trouble with linen stitch before, this would be a great project to give it another go!

Using Yarn Bobbins

Yarn bobbins are essentially flat ‘spools’, onto which small amounts of yarn can be wound, to make the colourwork process easier. For this blanket, there are times when you need 5 working threads of Walnut yarn at once, so yarn bobbins are a necessity (unless you fancy buying 5 balls of yarn, which I wouldn’t recommend because a) it would be expensive and probably wasteful, b) you’re much more likely to get into a tangle and c) your project will be super heavy and difficult to manoeuvre while you work on it!). There’s a slight learning curve when it comes to working with yarn bobbins, but once you’ve got the hang of it, it will make your life so much easier!

There’s a couple of things you need to keep in mind when you’re using the yarn bobbins for this pattern:

• Don’t overload the bobbins.

This is a general rule for yarn bobbins! It can be tempting to wind as much yarn as possible onto each bobbin, to minimise the number of ends you’ll have to sew in later. However, overloading yarn bobbins can lead to tangles and distorted fabric (because of the added weight). I found that winding about 3g of yarn onto each bobbin was perfect- it was enough that I wasn’t constantly having to refill them, but not so much that I ran into problems.

• Once you’ve worked with the yarn from the bobbin and re-joined the brick colour, always move the bobbin to the front of your work.

Keeping a consistent bobbin placement routine will make your work look super neat, and keeping the bobbins at the front of the work makes it easier to crochet the next row. Trust me!

Materials & Tools

I listed all of the materials and tools you need to make the complete Bridgerton House Baby Blanket in the previous post, but, if you would just like to make the brick blanket (sans floral embellishments), you’ll need the following equipment:

• 4 x 100g balls Stylecraft Highland Heathers DK in Marmalade.
• 1 x 100g ball Stylecraft Special DK in Walnut.
• 4.00 mm crochet hook.
• 3.50 mm crochet hook (for the starting chain only).
• 5 yarn bobbins.
• Darning needle.
• Scissors.

Pattern Notes

• This pattern uses UK crochet terminology.
• Gauge: Each full-sized, linen-stitch brick should measure approx. 13 x 6cm. Worked at the this gauge, the finished blanket will measure approximately 90 x 65cm.
• The blanket is worked back and forth, using a combination of linen stitch (for the bricks and horizontal mortar lines) and double crochet (for the vertical mortar lines). As a general rule of thumb, a dc should be worked before each vertical mortar line and a ch should be worked after each vertical mortar line. Use this rule as a handy checkpoint to keep yourself on track!
• Colourwork techniques are used to create the vertical mortar lines, for which yarn bobbins are used. You will need 5 bobbins, each wound with about 3g of Walnut yarn, for the mortar. Keep the main ball of Walnut to hand for rewinding the bobbins and crocheting the longer, horizontal mortar lines.
• A 3.5mm hook is used only for the initial starting chain, to ensure a neat edge. The rest of the blanket is worked using a 4mm hook.

Abbreviations

• MC = Main colour: Stylecraft Highland Heathers DK in Marmalade.
• CC = Contrast colour: Stylecraft Special DK in Walnut.
• ch = Chain: yarn over and pull through. 
• dc = UK double crochet: insert hook into stitch, yarn over and pull through. You will now have two loops on your hook. Yarn over and pull through both loops. 
• ss = Slip stitch: yarn over and pull through loop on hook.

Written Pattern

Using MC and 3.5mm hook, ch 178.

Row 1: Change to 4mm hook. Dc in 2nd chain from hook. (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in next stitch) 16 times. Join a CC yarn bobbin. Dc in next 2 chains using CC yarn, making sure to crochet over the MC yarn. Rejoin MC yarn. Bring CC yarn bobbin to the front of the work, then continue with MC yarn. (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in next stitch) 17 times with MC yarn. *Join new CC yarn bobbin, dc 2 with CC, working over MC yarn. Rejoin MC yarn, bring bobbin to front of work, then (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in next stitch) 17 times* to end.

Rows 2-16: Ch 1, turn and dc in next ch space. (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space) 16 times. *Rejoin CC yarn from row below, dc 2 with CC, working over MC yarn. Rejoin MC yarn, bring bobbin to front of work, then (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space) 17 times* to end.

Cut MC and all CC bobbins, leaving ends to darn in later. Attach main ball of CC.

Rows 17-18: *Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space* to end.

Cut CC, join MC.

**Rows 19-34: Ch 1, turn and dc in next ch space. (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space) 7 times, then *Join CC bobbin, dc 2 with CC, working over MC yarn. Rejoin MC yarn, bring bobbin to front of work, then (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space) 17 times* 4 times. Join CC bobbin, dc 2 with CC, working over MC yarn. Rejoin MC yarn, bring bobbin to front of work, then (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space) 8 times.

Cut MC and all CC bobbins, leaving ends to darn in later. Attach main ball of CC.

Rows 35-36: *Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space* to end.

Cut CC, join MC.

Rows 37-52: Ch 1, turn and dc in next ch space. (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space) 16 times. *Join CC bobbin, dc 2 with CC, working over MC yarn. Rejoin MC yarn, bring bobbin to front of work, then (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space) 17 times* to end.***

Repeat from ** to *** 5 more times, working the last 2 rows of the blanket as follows:

Rows 231-232: Ch 1, turn and dc in next ch space. (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space) 16 times. *Join CC bobbin, (ss in first stitch, dc in next) with CC, working over MC yarn. Join MC yarn, bring bobbin to front of work, then (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space) 17 times* to end.***

Cut all yarns and darn in all ends. Steam gently before adding surface crochet details and appliqué embellishments.

Photo Tutorial

This photo tutorial is designed to be used in conjunction with the written pattern above. Hopefully, it will help to illustrate some of the techniques and help you to visualise the brick pattern (which will make the pattern feel much more intuitive!).

First, you need to make the starting chain. Using a 3.5mm hook and the Marmalade yarn, ch 178. Using a slightly smaller hook for the starting chain will help to keep the bottom edge of the blanket neat and uniform (typically, I use a larger hook to form my starting chains, but, when working in linen stitch, I like to use a smaller hook).

Switch to a 4mm hook and work 1 dc into the 2nd chain from the hook. This counts as one (ch 1, dc) in the linen stitch pattern repeat.

*Ch 1, skip next stitch, dc into next stitch* 16 times. Alongside the initial (ch 1, dc), that gives a total of 17 times, which equals one brick. All of the full-sized bricks throughout this pattern are made up of 17 repeats (or 34 stitches), like this.

When you get to the final stitch in the first brick, pull through Walnut yarn (from a yarn bobbin), instead of Marmalade, to join the new colour. This makes for a neat colour change.

Using Walnut yarn, dc into the next 2 stitches, making sure to carry the Marmalade yarn. To do this, lie the Marmalade yarn along the top of the work and crochet over it with the Walnut yarn. This will conceal the Marmalade yarn, while ensuring it is in the right position to be picked back up for the next brick. Remember that the vertical mortar stripes are not worked in linen stitch- they are worked in standard dc.

Pull the Marmalade yarn through at the end of the 2nd dc, to rejoin the brick colour. Don’t forget to bring the Walnut yarn bobbin to the front of the work at this point- this will make the next row easier to crochet and doing this every time will make the blanket look super neat and consistent.

Set up another linen stitch brick. *Ch 1, skip next stitch, dc into next stitch* 17 times.

Make the vertical mortar line as before. Join another bobbin of Walnut yarn in the final dc of the previous brick and dc in the next 2 stitches, carrying the Marmalade yarn so that you can seamlessly rejoin it for the next brick.

Repeat the brick + mortar pattern to the end of the row. You should end up with 5 full-sized ‘bricks’, separated by 4 vertical mortar lines.

Continue in the 5-brick pattern for 15 more rows. Ch 1, turn and dc in next ch space. (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space) 16 times. *Rejoin Walnut yarn from row below, dc 2, working over Marmalade yarn. Rejoin Marmalade yarn, bring bobbin to front of work, then (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space) 17 times* to end.

Once the first brick row is finished, cut all the working yarns, leaving the ends to sew in later. That includes the Marmalade yarn and all 4 Walnut strands! You can either sew the ends in as you go along, or be like me and leave them all to sew in in one (hellish) sitting. The choice is yours.

Join the main ball of Walnut yarn and work in linen stitch for 2 rows. *Ch 1, skip next stitch, dc into next stitch* to the end of the row. Turn and repeat. This will act as the first horizontal mortar stripe.

Start setting up the first offset brick row. For the next row of bricks, you’ll be working in the following pattern: 1 half brick, 4 whole bricks, 1 half brick. To make the first brick, Ch 1, turn and dc in next ch space, then (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space) 7 times (this gives an 8-repeat brick, which is just under half as wide as the regular, 17-repeat brick).

Add the first vertical mortar line after the half brick. Do this in exactly the same way as you did in the regular brick row, joining one of the Walnut bobbins for the colour change.

Finish the offset brick row. Work 4 regular, 17-repeat bricks, with mortar in between, then finish off the row with another 8-repeat brick. You should have 2 half bricks, 4 whole bricks and 5 vertical mortar stripes.

Complete 15 more rows in the offset brick pattern. Ch 1, turn and dc in next ch space. (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space) 7 times, then *Join CC bobbin, dc 2 with CC, working over MC yarn. Rejoin MC yarn, bring bobbin to front of work, then (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space) 17 times* 4 times. Join CC bobbin, dc 2 with CC, working over MC yarn. Rejoin MC yarn, bring bobbin to front of work, then (Ch 1, skip one stitch, dc in ch space) 8 times.

Cut all the working yarns, join the main ball of Walnut yarn and work in linen stitch for 2 rows. *Ch 1, skip next stitch, dc into next stitch* to the end of the row. Turn and repeat. This will act as the second horizontal mortar stripe, made in exactly the same way as the first.

Work in pattern, alternating between the regular, 5-brick pattern and the offset brick pattern, until you have 13 rows of bricks in total. Each row of bricks is 16 rows of crochet deep. You should begin and end with a row of the regular, 5-brick pattern. Pause before completing the final 2 rows of the blanket.

Work the final 2 rows of the blanket. When crocheting the vertical mortar stripes on the final 2 rows, instead of working 2 dc as usual, ss into the first stitch, then dc into the second. Do this for each vertical mortar stripe, on both rows. This will give you a straighter edge along the top of your blanket.

Cut all working yarns and weave in any ends. Give the blanket a gentle steam to help it lie flat before attaching any embellishments/decorations. Because the yarn I’ve used is acrylic, it won’t ‘block’ the same way a natural fibre was, but it will loosen out ever so slightly with gentle steaming. Just be careful not to over-steam the blanket, or you might end up with a too-floppy blanket (which, unfortunately, there’s no way back from!).

Once you’ve done all that, you’ll be left with a lovely, brick-pattern blanket that you can decorate however you like- whether that’s in the same, Bridgerton style as mine, or something different entirely!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial- I’m not super experienced at writing crochet patterns, so please do let me know if you run into any problems with this and I will do my best to help you out! I’ll see you next time for Part 3!

Gemma

xxx

HAPPY BRIDGERTON SEASON 3 (PART 1) RELEASE DAY!!!!!!

Phew, now that’s out the way- it’s time to celebrate! Bridgerton Watch Party Week may be over, but, evidently, my thoughts of the show never end. This post is the first in another Bridgerton-inspired series, which will be coming out in weekly instalments (interspersed with other, non-Bridgerton posts, though- so please don’t be put off if Bridgerton isn’t really your thing!). Over the next 5 weeks, I’ll be sharing my new, original (and free!) crochet pattern, inspired by Bridgerton. This is my…

🌸🧱BRIDGERTON HOUSE BABY BLANKET🧱🌸

This pattern has been 2 whole years in the making (yep, you read that right. Can you tell I’m somewhat of a perfectionist?). One of the things I love most about Bridgerton is the aesthetic- the effort and thought that goes into the costuming, the settings and the symbolism just makes my heart so happy. This pattern is a direct consequence of that love- it’s me, letting myself be inspired by something that genuinely brings me joy and creating something I’m truly, truly proud of. I can’t wait to share it with you.

In this post, I’ll be introducing you to the blanket and giving you a little bit of backstory on the design process, as well as a roadmap for how the rollout of this pattern will look. I’ve decided to split the pattern up into several posts, to ensure that I can give all of the elements enough attention and consideration (without overwhelming everyone with an insanely long post). Once all of the parts are out, I’ll release the pattern on Ravelry, so that you can save it/link your own projects to it more easily!

Also: this blanket is actually a super versatile pattern- even if you’re not a die-hard Bridgerton fan like me, you can still use the basic brick blanket pattern as a basis for all manner of projects and baby blankets. The possibilities are endless!

Let’s get into it, shall we?

Table of Contents

• Inspiration
• The Design Process
• Trialling Techniques
  • The Brick Blanket
  • The Flowers
  • The Vines
• Putting It All Together
• Master Material List
• Pattern Release Roadmap

Inspiration

As I’m sure you can tell from the name, this blanket is inspired by Bridgerton House, one of the buildings in the show and, unsurprisingly, the home of the titular family. Its deep, red brick stands out among the other, more neutral, stone buildings of the ‘ton’, and purple wisteria runs along the facade. The front courtyard is surrounded by a wrought iron fence, which is decorated with rose bushes that add little splashes of pink, here and there. The building itself is actually Ranger’s House, in London- though, in real life (sadly), the wisteria and roses are nowhere to be seen.

For the blanket, I opted to include three of the most iconic elements of the house: the red bricks, the purple wisteria and the pink roses. One of the most interesting things about Bridgerton is how it blends the regency and modern eras, so I really wanted the blanket to reflect that dichotomy- to seem ornate and opulent, but also simple and elegant- almost minimal.

The Design Process

I first started dreaming about this blanket when I was struggling through some withdrawal symptoms after finishing Season 2. I have a little book where I jot down little notes or sketches of ideas I have for crochet projects and I drew this (super precise and accurate) sketch in the throes of my Bridgerton-induced fever:

I spent a bit of time muddling around with the general concept- trying out different arrangements, designs and elements that I could try to incorporate, until I had a clearer idea of what I really wanted to achieve with this blanket. I then created a slightly more detailed sketch on Procreate, which is an iPad drawing app:

I ended up with this design, which I think really encompassed everything I had hoped to achieve- the blanket itself is fairly simple and minimal, but the flowers and twisting branches add that sense of over-the-top, floral opulence.

Sketching my design like this also meant that I could easily try out different arrangements of the elements- I wanted the wisteria to be pointing downwards (because, you know, gravity), but I also wanted it to go right around the perimeter of the blanket. By fiddling around with my sketch on Procreate, I could try out different options super easily, until I finally came to this half-and-half design, where the top half of the blanket is always pointing downwards. I did end up deviating from the design ever so slightly, here and there, by adding wisteria leaves and positioning the roses in clusters, but, otherwise, I stayed pretty true to my original idea!

Trialling Techniques

Ah, finally. We come to the bit of this project that took me the longest (most of the 2 years, to be exact). Trialling the techniques to work out the pattern for this blanket- to turn my sketch into a reality!

The Brick Blanket

I decided pretty early on that I would create the brick blanket first, then crochet some wisteria and rose embellishments separately to appliqué onto that blanket. Truthfully, I expected the flowers to be the trickiest part of this, but, no, no- it was the bricks!

I started by deciding on what stitch to use for the bricks. I wanted something that had a little bit of texture (because bricks are not perfectly smooth), but also something that looked professional and neat. After a lot of sampling, I settled on using linen stitch (sometimes called moss stitch), which produces a lovely texture and feel- it’s soft, squishy and looks really neat. It’s also super easy to work up, so you can really get into a mindless, crochet rhythm (my favourite thing).

Initially, I had planned to make the bricks separately and crochet them together with a darker yarn (acting as the ‘mortar’) but, ultimately, I just wasn’t happy with the end result. I desperately wanted to leave the edges of the blanket as they were, without a border, for a more minimal, modern vibe, but the edges weren’t smooth enough for that. I tried so many things to get around this, but it just wasn’t working for me, so I had to go back to the drawing board. Eventually, I worked out a way, using colourwork techniques, to make the whole blanket in one piece, bricks and mortar together, which gave perfectly straight, neat sides. It was so perfect (and so much easier), I almost couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it in the first place! Not only does this method make for much neater edges, it also drastically reduces the amount of sewing required for this blanket (which is a huge win, by my standards!).

The Flowers

As I mentioned, I was pretty sure that developing the patterns for the flowers would be a tricky undertaking. Truthfully, it was a challenge, but, after the whole brick saga, it honestly felt pretty straightforward! After (quite a lot) of samples and lots of trialling different hook sizes and petal numbers and colour combinations, I ended up with two different sizes of both the wisteria fronds and the roses. Admittedly, the wisteria isn’t anywhere near anatomically correct (my apologies to all of the botanists and wisteria-worshippers out there), but I think it still gives a pretty good impression of it!

I did also want to include some greenery here and there, so I moved on to trying to create some leaves for each of my flowers. Again, this took a bit of trial and error- the rose leaves were pretty straight forward, but the wisteria leaves took a bit more work. In the end, I worked out a way to crochet the whole wisteria flower, leaves and all, as one piece, which makes sewing the blanket together that little bit easier (a big win)! The rose leaves, on the other hand, did have to be made separately, but I suppose you can’t win them all.

The Vines

Another thing I had to figure out was how to make the vines (is it accurate to call these vines? Or is that just for grapes? Gah- my plant knowledge is severely lacking)- I wanted to include both the woody, twisty, branches of the wisteria plants and the green stems of the roses weaving all around the perimeter of the blanket . After some research (and more testing), I opted to use a technique called surface crochet for this. This is a great technique that produces a similar result to the embroidery technique ‘chain stitch’, but you can use yarn straight from the ball, instead of having to cut a certain length (and recut, when you inevitably either run out or get into a major tangle).

To add even more dimension, I opted to crochet into the surface crochet for my wisteria branches. This allowed me to make the branches thicker, providing some differentiation between the two ‘vines’, and to add some texture to the branches, to make them a little bit more realistic (though I do, of course, use that term very loosely).

Putting It All Together

After months of testing, trialling and researching, I was finally ready to make my blanket. It came out… perfectly. As in, I was kind of amazed at how similar it looks to my design- I’m SO proud of it! Usually with crafting, you’ll have an idea in your head of how something will look and it will turn out completely different- not bad, just different. This blanket looks exactly like the design I had in my head and I’m still kind of baffled by that. Honestly though, for 2 years of work, it probably should, so I won’t complain.

All in all, the final blanket measures approximately 90cm x 65cm. I designed it as a baby blanket, but you could use it as a lap blanket, or perhaps even a wall hanging (if that’s your vibe), instead.

Master Material List

While I will include a list of everything you need to make each stage of the Bridgerton House Blanket in their individual posts, I wanted to include a master post of materials and notions here as well.

To make this blanket, you will need:

• 4x100g balls Stylecraft Highland Heathers DK in the shade Marmalade.
• 1x100g ball of Stylecraft Special DK in the shade Walnut.
• Small amounts of Stylecraft Special DK in the shades: Khaki, Mocha, Pale Rose, Parma Violet, Pistachio, Powder Pink, Raspberry and Wisteria.*
• Crochet hooks (2.0mm, 2.5mm, 3.0mm, 3.5mm, 4.0mm, 5.0mm).**
• 5x yarn bobbins.
• Darning needle.
• Scissors.

For this blanket, I’ve used Stylecraft yarn. Stylecraft is always my (acrylic) yarn of choice- it’s so soft and easy to work with, plus it comes in a great range of colours! You can use a different DK weight yarn, if you prefer, though, for all of the embellishments. I would recommend using the Stylecraft Highland Heathers (specifically in the shade Marmalade) for the main blanket though, because it is the perfect brick-red shade and quite a unique yarn!

* In the interest of being as informative as possible, I did actually work out exactly how much of each of each colour you’ll need for this project, so you can work out if any scraps you may have lying around are large enough. If you are a little under the listed quantities, I would recommend seeing how far you can get with what you have, before buying another ball. Because each element is so small, you don’t need to worry about dye lots/changing colours, so you can always buy more yarn later on, if needed!

** I can only apologise for the ridiculous number of different hook sizes- a number of the elements require multiple different sizes in order to come together properly, so it just kind of happened. I have this set of crochet hooks, which includes every hook size needed for this project. The hooks themselves are really good quality (and ergonomic!), so it’s a great option for this project (or just, you know, in general).

Pattern Release Roadmap

Finally, then, after 2 whole years, this pattern is ready to be shared! As I mentioned, I’ll be releasing it in weekly instalments. I’ll be coming back to this ‘master post’ as each instalments is released, to link in the new posts and make it super easy for you to find all of the sections). Without further ado, though, here’s the roadmap (along with some little sneak peaks of what each post will encompass), so that you can stay in the loop:

• Week 1: Making the Brick Blanket

Linen stitch, main blanket pattern & colourwork using yarn bobbins.

• Week 2: Using Surface Crochet to Add the Vines

Surface crochet, working into surface crochet & interlacing surface crochet paths.

• Week 3: Making the Rose Pieces

Making large and small roses, working with a fine hook & making rose leaves.

• Week 4: Making the Wisteria Pieces

Crocheting a spiral of petals around a central chain & making attached leaves.

• Week 5: Assembly

Positioning, sewing on the elements & child safety tips.

And that’s it! As I mentioned, once all 5 instalments have been released, I will be creating a pattern page for this project on Ravelry, so that you can save it for later, or link your own projects to it.

UPDATE: 

This pattern is now on Ravelry! You can find it here.

I hope you’re as excited as I am for the next 5 weeks- I’ll see you back here soon!

Gemma

xxx

My theme for this month is, of course, Bridgerton (I swear, I swear, there will be some non-Bridgerton-themed posts coming SOON… alongside a couple more Bridgerton-themed ones (#sorrynotsorry)…). With Season 3 coming out this month (in 6 days, to be precise!), I didn’t really have a choice in the matter- I just had to honour the occasion with a bullet journal theme. I did actually do a Bridgerton theme for my May setup last year, as well, but I’ve gone for a very different vibe/colour scheme this time around, so it doesn’t feel too similar!

Table of Contents

• Inspiration
• Equipment
• Cover + Quote Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Blog Planning + Daily Sunshine
• Weeklies
  • Week 1
  • Week 2
  • Week 3
  • Week 4
  • Week 5
• May Review
• Final Thoughts

Inspiration

As I mentioned, my theme for this month was Bridgerton– specifically, Bridgerton Season 3, the first half of which is set to be released on 16th May. I wanted to go in a completely different direction to my previous Bridgerton-themed bullet journal setup, so I really tried to focus on some of the themes and colours associated with the upcoming series.

Firstly, I went for a dark green and gold colour scheme. This was inspired by the new logo that the Bridgerton social media accounts have been using, in honour of the upcoming season. I opted to use POSCA Paint Pens for this, to get deep, opaque colours without risk of bleeding or ghosting. It did mean my spreads took a little bit longer to create, because I had to wait for each layer of paint to dry (and the pages did curl up a little bit, too), but, all in all, I think it’s made for a really successful setup.

I also took inspiration from several other themes/symbols from the show. These include:

• Wallflowers

The tagline for the upcoming season of the show is ‘Even a wallflower can bloom‘, which, of course, refers to the leading lady of Bridgerton Season 3 (and OG wallflower): Penelope Featherington. It’s clear that the concept of the wallflower will be integral to the plot of the upcoming season, so I really wanted to incorporate it into my setup somehow. In the end, I opted to create these green ‘brick wall’ backgrounds, then layered over some golden flower doodles, as if they were ‘growing’ up the walls.

• Mirrors

The so-called ‘mirror scene’ from the books has been all any Bridgerton fan can talk about in the run-up to this new season, so the mirror has, of course, become an iconic symbol that has been used throughout the promotional content. Because of this, I wanted to incorporate some mirrors into my setup, so I gave drawing a couple of ornate, golden mirrors a go!

• Bees

Bees are a running motif throughout the Bridgerton series, so it felt only right to include them in my setup. Every now and then, I’ve included a little, golden, bee doodle as a nod to that.

• Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers

The gossipmonger Lady Whistledown is a central character throughout the series, but will (for obvious reasons, if you’ve seen the first two series) really come to the forefront in the upcoming season. While I do have a whole page inspired by the iconic scandal sheets, I also reused the decorative border from those sheets in my weekly setups, to link my spreads together and give Lady Whistledown the recognition she deserves!

Equipment

Despite being quite an involved, ornate setup, I kept the equipment that I used for this setup fairly minimal:

• POSCA PC-5M Paint Pen, English Green.
• POSCA PC-3M Paint Pen, Gold.
• Sakura Pigma Micron, black (sizes: 01, 05, 08, 10 and Graphic 1- I bought mine in this pack).
• Ruler.
• Scissors.
• Pencil.
• Eraser.

Cover + Quote Page

For my Cover Page, I really ran with the wallflower design and created a whole page of bricks and golden flowers. I put the ‘May’ heading in the centre of the page, written in a block capital font (as my little nod to the classic, minimal font used in the show).

For my Quote Page, I created a green and gold border, then drew an ornate hand mirror in the centre of the page, using my gold pen. Inside the mirror, I wrote ‘Dearest Gentlereader’ (though I could not for the life of me decide whether it should be Gentlereader (one word) or Gentle Reader (two words)- everywhere online seems to use two words, but surely if it’s a play on gentlemen, it should just be one?! I just don’t know). To further decorate the page, I added my first little bee doodle, along with some swirly corner frames, inspired by the promotional content for Bridgerton Season 3.

Monthly Calendar

As always, I like to use a double-page spread for my Monthly Calendar, because I like to have plenty of space to write in any events/notes. For this spread, I used that same wallflower-inspired background, but, instead of doodling the wallflowers randomly across the background, I drew the flowers around the calendar grid. I placed the ‘May’ header in the top left, using the same, golden block capital font, and added another bee doodle in the bottom right.

Also, let’s absolutely not discuss the fact that I just… completely missed off 1st May in my calendar…? I have no idea how it happened, but I truly did not even notice until I was writing in the dates after I’d decorated the whole spread. Whole thing. Luckily, because I’m so late with my journal this month, it won’t affect me anyway!

Blog Planning + Daily Sunshine

Another spread that uses my wallflower-inspired background, my Blog Planning page has 4 boxes down the left-hand side, for any quick notes on my upcoming posts. I have also included a larger, more detailed box for a super fun, upcoming project I have planned, so keep your eyes peeled for that one! To keep a sense of ✨mystery✨, I haven’t added the subheading for this section yet, but I will be writing that in with a black fineliner.

For my Daily Sunshine page, I opted to forgo the wallflower background and instead tried my best to replicate the design of the Lady Whistledown scandal sheet, as seen in the show, using just my Sakura Pigma Micron pens. The layout does mean that I’ll have limited space to note down my happy memories from this month, but I think it’s worth it (I can always write super small, anyway!).

Weeklies

I typically use tabs to separate out my Weekly Spreads, but, recently, I’ve been experimenting a little with different methods/styles of doing this. Back in January, I tried out waterfall-style tabs, where you cut away the whole edge of each page, increasing the width of the pages as you go to get a staggered effect. I decided to do something similar for this setup, but I alternated between wavy floral and straight dark green edges, to achieve a pretty, striped effect. So that my spreads looked fully-decorated no matter what page I was on, I decorated the left-hand side of the first page with more of my green brick pattern.

Although I varied the orientation of each of my Weekly Spreads, I tried to keep the style/decorative features quite consistent throughout. In general, I used the same Lady Whistledown border that I used on my Daily Sunshine spread to section up the pages, wrote the subheadings in black script and highlighted them with a line of gold, then used the same font/style for the green and gold headings (except for the first page, where I accidentally drew an extra box… oh well).

Week 1

The first 5 days of May run from Wednesday-Sunday, so I only needed 5 daily task list spaces on this spread. I used the remaining space for my task list/heading.

Week 2

I think this might be my favourite layout from all of this month’s weeklies: 4 vertical boxes along the top, 4 along the bottom and the heading right across the middle.

Week 3

For this spread, I split the right-hand page into 6 sections (a 3×2 grid). I then used the bottom of the left-hand page for the remaining daily task list and the rest of the space for the heading/task list.

Week 4

For my fourth weekly, I put the heading along the top and split the remaining space into 8 (one 2×2 grid on each page).

Week 5

As usual, with my final weekly, I like to include all the days from Monday-Sunday, regardless of whether they fall in the right month or not, just to help me visualise the whole week. To set up this spread, I divided each page in two horizontally, then used vertical boxes for the days in May and horizontal boxes for the days in June, to distinguish between them. I also included a (slightly wider) task box.

May Review

For my May Review page, I’ve included all my standard sections: places to list out the ATP & WTA Top 10, to write out my top memory for the month, to note down my top 6 songs from the month and, finally, to stick in a polaroid picture. As always, I’ve placed the polaroid section on the right-hand page, along with the header, then fit the other sections into the left-hand page.

To decorate the left-hand page, I went back to my brick background (minus the wallflowers, because a) there wasn’t enough room and b) my wallflower tab gave enough floral decoration for me!). I decided to make a ‘frame’ for the polaroid this month (for the first time in a long time) and tried to mimic an ornate, rectangular mirror with my gold pen, by using lots of swirly details. Admittedly, this could just be a picture frame, but I’ll know that it’s meant to be a mirror, so I’m happy. To finish off the spread, I added two, final, little bee doodles.

Final Thoughts

This setup brought a lot of firsts for me: it was my first time using a dramatic colour scheme like this, my first time using paint pens and my first time (attempting to) draw mirrors! Overall, I’m really happy with how it turned out- it’s a very different style for me, but it’s exactly the kind of opulent, Bridgerton-y, #polin vibe I was going for!

When it comes to the paint pens, I was really happy with how they worked here. I didn’t get any bleeding or ghosting (minus one tiny patch on one of my weeklies) and the colour is pretty opaque. I did find it could be a little patchy if I didn’t press the nib down frequently enough, but I think that’s a case of user error. It was a little bit tedious having to wait for each layer of paint to dry on each page, which is part of the reason this setup took me so long to create, but honestly, it was so worth it. If I had created this setup with regular markers/gold ink pens, the colour would absolutely have transferred to the opposite pages while I was setting it up, which I feel would have ruined the effect. Long story short, it required a little extra time and effort, but the end result was better for it!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my May 2024, Bridgerton Season 3-inspired Bullet Journal setup! I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments- including whether or not you’ll be watching the new season of Bridgerton on 16th May!

Gemma

xxx

Table of Contents

• Food + Drink
  • Sweet Snacks
  • Drinks
• Wallflower Backdrop
• Crochet Wisteria Decoration
• Signage
• Table Setting
• Final Thoughts

Food + Drink

Sweet Snacks

Over the past week, I’ve been sharing recipes for Bridgerton-inspired sweet snacks. You can find all of those recipes here:

• Pear & Almond Scones

• Lavender Shortbread Hearts

• Bitesize Coffee Éclairs

• Lemon & Elderflower Butterfly Cakes

• Mini Orange & Olive Oil Layer Cakes with Greek Yoghurt & Honey Icing

• Earl Grey Macarons

For my watch party, I made a batch (or half-batch, where possible) of each of these recipes, but you can do whatever works for you! You might want to try out just one or two and buy some other snacks to fill up your dessert table- whatever works best for you!

When looking for store-bought snacks, think small and dainty: things like Fondant Fancies, mini cupcakes, mini tarts and pastries would all be fit perfectly into this afternoon tea theme- just head to your local bakery/supermarket and see what’s on offer. You might even be able to find direct substitutes for the recipes above- éclairs are common bakery staples and I know that Waitrose has its own Lavender Shortbread Hearts available for purchase.

If you’re feeling particularly fancy, Bridgerton does also have a couple of collaborations with some pretty high profile bakeries going on at the moment! Biscuiteers is selling a collection of Bridgerton-themed iced biscuits (which come in a fancy Bridgerton tin- I’m oBsESsed!) and I believe that a box of Bridgerton-inspired macarons is being released by the famous macaron brand Ladurée tomorrow!

Drinks

For my watch party, I opted to serve store-bought, cloudy lemonade in these pretty little glasses. Lemonade is frequently mentioned throughout the show and is often served at the balls, so it’s right on theme. I chose to buy mine, but if you want to make your own, go ahead!

Tea would also be a great, on-theme choice- pick your favourite brew and serve it in a teapot, for maximum effect, or go a little more modern and serve it iced, as a refreshing summer beverage!

I’m not a big alcohol drinker, so I didn’t serve any alcohol at my watch party, but you could absolutely go down that route! Sparkling wine, served in pretty champagne flutes, would be lovely, or, if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you could always make your own Bridgerton-inspired cocktails to really set the mood.

Wallflower Backdrop

A little while ago, I came across this post on Instagram, which showcased this gorgeous ‘floating flower’ backdrop. I thought it was so pretty and, when I was planning my Bridgerton Watch Party, it immediately came to my mind. The concept of the ‘wallflower’ comes up a lot throughout the Bridgerton series, and, with Penelope Featherington taking the lead this season, I’m sure that it will be particularly significant in Season 3. I loved the idea of making a flower backdrop that sits against the wall- quite literally, a wallflower backdrop- to add some decoration, colour and extra theming to my dessert table.

In the original post, the creator used artificial flowers to make their backdrop. I looked into this, but I quickly discovered that artificial flowers are very expensive (and, obviously, not so good for the environment- especially if you’re using them for a limited-use craft project like this!). I did some more research and found that you can get pre-dried flower heads, which I thought would be a perfect, cheaper & more environmentally friendly approach. I purchased the 50-piece Dried Flower Craft Box from woodfarmdriedflowers on Etsy (the seller is currently taking a short break, so I can’t link to the exact product, but it should be easy to find once the store is back up and running!). This box was so affordable and contained lots of beautiful dried flowers for me to choose from for my backdrop. It does include some longer stems that didn’t quite work for what I had planned, but I can use those for other projects later.

Another change I made from the original tutorial was how I attached the flowers to the clear thread (I used 0.25mm clear nylon thread that I had leftover from my foray into jewellery making). Instead of threading the thread through the flower stems with a needle, I used a hot glue gun to secure the thread to the back of each flower. The reason for this was because the dried flowers are much more brittle and delicate than the artificial flowers, so I just couldn’t find a way to pierce them with the needle without crushing them at the same time! I found hot glue was the best adhesive for this- I did try super glue as well, but it wasn’t strong enough and the flowers just fell off the string. I just added a dollop of glue to the back of each flower, then held the string taut and pressed it into the glue for about 5-10 seconds. I then let the glue dry completely before hanging up the garlands (you can’t see this in the photo, but my garlands are suspended from a bar above my dessert table! If you had more patience, space and flower heads, you might want to make your garlands longer and hang them from the ceiling/a picture rail, for a more seamless effect).

I was really happy with how this wallflower backdrop turned out! The only slight downside to using the hot glue was that the backs of the flowers do look a little bit messy, so I did end up using a very small amount of white tack to attach any flowers that refused to face the right way to the wall! Now that I’m writing this, does that mean I could have just tacked the flowers to the wall in the first place? Probably… but I’d rather not think about that. If you want your flower backdrop to be more 3D and organic, you might want to use artificial flowers and a needle & thread, to ensure that the garlands look pretty from all angles!

Crochet Wisteria Decoration

Okay, back before I decided to make my Wallflower Backdrop, I had my heart set on a Wisteria Garland (because, after all, Bridgerton and wisteria are practically synonymous at this point). However, I really struggled to find one I liked. Either they didn’t come in the traditional, lilac/purple colour, or they were just very plasticky and stiff (and falling apart, but that was a whole other story). Long story short, I had (reluctantly) given up on my wisteria dreams, when I came across this pattern for crocheting a miniature wisteria twig on Etsy. I love to crochet, so I bought it, thinking maybe I could make some (slightly less miniature versions) and make my own wisteria garland! The instructions are super detailed- I’ve never made anything even remotely like this, but I think I did okay (which is a testament to the pattern, I feel).

As you can probably tell, I did not get quite as far as a garland, but I was able to make one single wisteria twig to use as a little accent decoration for my dessert table. I can’t even begin to tell you how much work went into this single twig though- I’m not even exaggerating: I spent hours and hours on this thing, but I’m kind of okay with it because LOOK AT IT! It’s so pretty and perfect and dreamy. I used the following materials to make my twig:

• Malabrigo Lace, in the shades 034 Orchid and 037 Lettuce.
• 2mm crochet hook.
• 0.5mm jewellery wire.
• Round-nosed jewellery pliers.
• Super glue (copious, copious amounts).
• Needle.
• Scissors (both for yarn and wire-cutting).

I did make mine a little differently to the pattern though, so here’s a quick list of the changes I made:

• I used a thicker yarn (lace weight) and larger hook (2mm), to make a larger twig.
• I used coloured yarn, rather than painting the white petals and leaves.
• I did not stiffen my petals- instead, I used a combination of sewing and super-glueing to shape the individual petals.
• I did not crochet the leaves over the wire, but threaded the wire through afterwards instead (I just could not get the hang of crocheting over the wire!).

Some rather drastic changes, but I followed the instructions exactly for all of the individual crochet elements.

Was this project a labour of love? Absolutely. Is it a requirement for a Bridgerton dessert table? Absolutely not. Would I do it again? … I think I would?! I just love how it turned out, and it was so out of my comfort zone that it makes its success even sweeter! Also, I think it looked so pretty on the table and in the photos, so I’m really happy I did it.

Signage

I wanted to include some sort of signage on my dessert table, just to really drive the Bridgerton-theme home. I went for a simple ‘Welcome Back to the Ton…’ but I also think it would be nice to include a little menu of sorts, listing all of the delicious sweet treats on offer so your guests know what’s what!

I used Adobe InDesign to create this sign and tried my best to mimic the design style of both the Season 3 promotional content and iconic Lady Whistledown pamphlet. If you don’t have an Adobe subscription, Canva is a great, free alternative for projects like this! If you don’t want to go to quite such extreme lengths for your signage, you could absolutely just type out your message/menu on Word or Pages, perhaps change the font to something cursive and classic, and print that off! You could even handwrite something onto a nice piece of card, if you wanted to show off your lettering skills. Essentially, you can do as little, or as much, as you want here.

I propped my sign up on a wooden iPad stand, but you could purchase a small easel/stand, if you (understandably) don’t have one to hand! To keep your sign stiff and ensure it stays upright, you might want to stick an extra piece of card to the back of it. I used double-sided tape to do this, but you could use glue, if you prefer.

Table Setting

The final step in setting up a beautiful, Bridgerton-themed dessert table is, of course, setting the table! I was very lucky, because my granny has an extensive collection of fancy tea sets, which meant I had lots of options for how I wanted to style this table. In the end, I opted to use these white and gold teacups and saucers, along with this leaf-pattern tiered cake stand. You can often find vintage afternoon tea sets/cake stands online (try Ebay or Etsy!), or at flea markets/charity shops. If you don’t want to buy a whole new set of china just for one event (probably for the best), then just use what you have! One of my favourite things about Bridgerton is how it fuses the modern period with the regency era, so you can just channel the modern side of things and use tableware you already have.

Instead of a tablecloth, I opted to use this Mountmellick table runner, which was a gift given to my mum. I just think that the white, floral embroidery has such a classic, regency vibe to it, so it matched in perfectly with the traditional, afternoon tea vibe I was going for! Again, use whatever you have (or can find!)- a simple white tablecloth or paper doilies would look lovely, or you could just leave the table plain and let the props and food do the talking!

To make your dessert table look extra fancy, try to vary the heights of the elements across the table. This will add depth and interest, which will elevate the dessert table from a classic buffet to a extravagant display! Some items will naturally give height, like a tiered cake stand, but you can create extra height by yourself with a simple trick. You might be able to see from the photos that I have set some of the plates containing the sweet treats on upturned bowls/tea cups, from the same tea set I’ve used throughout. By doing this, you can make a variety smaller ‘cake stands’, which will give your table lots of dimension! I just balanced the plates on top, because I knew they’d be safe with my guests, but if you’re worried about them toppling over, you could always use a small amount of white tack to secure the top plates to the upturned items beneath.

Final Thoughts

So that’s everything I did to set up my Bridgerton-themed, afternoon tea-style, dessert table for my Bridgerton Watch Party. I hope this post has given you some ideas, but the most important thing is that you pick a style that works for you and use whatever you have at hand that can fit into your chosen aesthetic! There’s no point buying all-new items, because, be honest, how often are you going to need to set up a regency-style dessert table? Ask your friends and family what they have, get thrifty and challenge yourself to make things that you might otherwise buy (and never look at again!).

And remember, when all is said and done, you’re there to watch Bridgerton with your friends, so just enjoy the process and the experience!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series as much as I’ve enjoyed creating it. Now we just have to wait for May 16th, when Part 1 of Bridgerton Season 3 finally comes out!

Gemma

xxx