Apart of my In My Reading Era Book Sleeve Collection, this cute ruffle book sleeve is so adorable and easy to crochet! With plenty of photos included in the tutorial, this book sleeve is so simple to crochet and is the sweetest sleeve for protecting your books.

This book sleeve is apart of my In My Reading Era Book Sleeve Collection (I know, I know, it’s a long name lol😅). I highly recommend reading my blogpost about the collection first before continuing with the free pattern below. I share more pattern structure details that are important to understand before crocheting the book sleeve.

Believe it or not, the inspiration for this book sleeve originally came from the frilly, white ruffle socks that I’m sure many of us wore growing up. With my first attempt, I crocheted the sample with just the ruffle around the top, and while I loved the ruffle detail, it felt plain and incomplete. I asked my lovely Instagram followers about what the sleeve needed, many suggested adding some type of closure to the book sleeve. After a lot of brainstorming, I came up with the idea to add a cute bow closure, and I truly couldn’t be more happier with how this book cover turned out! The bow adds the finishing touch that this book sleeve needed, and I’m absolutely obsessed!

Skill Level

Easy

Materials

Yarn

Approximately 65-120 grams of yarn. See the 2nd note under pattern notes for a detailed explanation But you can use any weight of yarn for this project. The yardage will vary based on the yarn weight and how big or small you will make this sleeve.

Hook

I recommend using the recommended hook size for the yarn you are using OR sizing down one hook size

notions

• Tapestry needle
• Stitch marker

Notes

• The pattern is worked in US crochet terms.
• SPECIAL NOTE: This pattern does not have specific stitch and row counts. That is because the nature of a book sleeve is every book is a different size, so the stitch counts would naturally change from book sleeve to book sleeve. Instead, this pattern is more of a detailed guide on customizing the sleeve to fit your book. A perk of this style of pattern is you can use ANY weight of yarn! I’ve personally used weights from DK-bulky, but fingering and super bulky would also work well with these patterns!
• This sleeve is designed to fit a book vertically

Gauge

Because this pattern is totally customizable with the book size and what yarn you use, guage is not important as far as sizing. I recommend doing a quick swatch just to see what hook size works best with your tension.

abbreviations

St: Stitch

Sl st: Slip Stitch

Ch: Chain

Sc: Single Crochet

Tr: Treble/Triple Crochet

Hhdc: Herringbone Half Double Crochet

Yarn over, insert hook into st, yarn over, pull through st AND first loop on hook (this is similar to a slip stitch). 2 loops on hook. Yarn over, pull through both loops.

Pattern

Base

Ch an amount of stitches that is just slightly shorter than the width of the book. The base will increase in size so it’s importantly to make the foundation ch slightly smaller than the width of the book

Row 1: 1 sc in second ch from hook, 1 sc in every ch across. Ch 1, turn.

Row 2: 1 single crochet in every st, Ch 1, turn.

Repeat row 2 until the length of the base is just shorter than the height of the book

sleeves

Now we will be working in the round, around the base.

Round 1: Ch 1, evenly hhdc around the base working 2 hhdc in each corner (photo on left).

This portion of the sleeve is worked in a continuous spiral, meaning you will not join with a sl st at the end of each round. Instead place a stitch marker in the first st of the round to keep track of the beginning of round.

Round 2: 1 hhdc in every st

Repeat round 2 until the book sleeves just covers the book.

For the last row on the middle of the front, ch 1, skip 1 st, 1 hhdc in the next st (right photo) and work 1 hhdc to the last of the round.

Sl st into the first st.

Ruffle

Ch 3, work 3 tr in every st. When you reach the ch space, work 3 tr into the space.

Sl st into first tr, fasten off, and weave in loose ends.

Bow

Ch until your ch measures approximately 19 inches. Work 1 sl st in 2nd ch from hook and in every ch across. Fasten off and weave in loose ends.

Thread the crochet string through the center of the back (right photo).

To use the bow closure, place your book in the sleeve, thread both sides of the string through the opening in the front, and tie a bow.

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I hope you enjoy crocheting the Jane Book Sleeve! Be sure to tag me on Instagram with your cute book sleeve, I would love to see it!

xo, Grace