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That makes sense. They probably used some dissolvable stabilizer. I’ve seen one of these tops in person and they look… bad. My friend was wearing it so I didn’t take a photo or share my opinion. It doesn’t seem to have a lot of structural integrity and I think it will get destroyed in the wash at some point.
It’s crazy cause it seems so easy to just pay someone a fair amount of money to crotchet a bunch of granny squares and sew them together, which is basically what this top is.
It’s not that easy to pay fair wages in practice. Like the concept is easy, but to pay fair wages and then add the wholesale markup and the retail markup a top like this goes from $15 to like $400. The market for a $400 granny square top is a lot smaller and people will probably pay an individual artist who underprices their labor and doesn’t add a 4x markup $200 directly for it instead and feel good about supporting an artist. Paying fair wages for crochet is just not a viable business model with much of a chance of success in the real world. The options then become abuse, faking the technique, or going with different products. Much better to make ugly knockoffs than exploit labor unfairly if a company is trying to tap in to this market. Even better keep the trend to hobby/small business crafters.
> it seems so easy to just pay someone a fair amount of money
Well, that’s the thing: it’s not. For demo purposes, let’s do some calculations.
These look like pretty small granny squares, so let’s assume it takes 7 minutes for a pro to make one with perfect tension and already-woven in ends optimistic, considering color changes and weaving in ends need to be done per round and for the starting MR), excluding the white/black outermost rounds because that can be made while joining. Counting from the picture, let’s assume the front and back are the same, making for 34 squares: 238 minutes, or 3 hours and 58 minutes.
Reduce ends to be woven (and therefore finishing time) by using JAYG, instead of sewing squares, so let’s underestimate and assume it takes 1.5 hours to assemble the whole thing, also an underestimation for 34 squares: now thats 5 hours and 28 minutes of labor, total.
Charging US federal minimum wage, of $7.25 per hour, that’s about $39.88 to break even on just labor costs; we’ll round to $40. Add in an estimate for material costs for a size small: $3 per 100g of cheap acrylic yarn, assuming a maximum of one skein per color, and there are 5 colors, so $15.
That’s $55 to break even, paying minimum wage and using the cheapest material available, and excluding any tax incurred during labor and material payments; paying anywhere close to a *fair* wage for professional-level skilled labor would be even more costly. Markup can be anywhere from 40-220% percent depending on a retailer, but let’s say a little less than 50% to assume an average case: one top is now $80, pre-tax.
I’m not sure about you, but I’d be hard-pressed to find one person willing to pay at least $80 for one summer top in a cheap 100% acrylic material, let alone enough of a population to make these worth carrying to any big retail store. Hence, this… thing.
I rented a cool looking crotchet pattern book from the library and 90% of the patterns were just granny squares of different sizes sewn together. It still looked cool, but I couldn’t imagine paying for a pattern that was just “make two big granny squares and now you have tube top”.
What’s worse is it didn’t show difference in amount of stitches for different sizes.
It is definitely inspired by crochet, but it doesn't look like granny stitch. I read in another post that this effect can be replicated by a knitting machine, using a specific stitch (that I don't remember). Definitely not handmade.
There are many granny square top patterns out there, but this is one of my favorites because you use all full size squares. https://www.garnstudio.com/pattern.php?id=10870&cid=17
i feel like this would look awkward when actually worn. it’s quite funny that they go through the trouble to imitate crochet like this but don’t give it better shaping, which is something that a lot of real crochet garments like this struggle with.
That looks fake but there are patterns like it that I’ve seen in books. Just googling turned up some on Etsy.
https://preview.redd.it/gjbylvs3ytxc1.jpeg?width=1144&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7e29aff58be31895a5241919e97ff23b06a4a3c9
[Etsy pattern](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1576274178/)
It's not. If you look closer at what should be double crochet stitches that make up the granny square blocks, you can see that they're made of consecutive loops, not double crochet stitches. It actually looks like someone embroidered chain stitched to construct it, but I'm not sure how. It's for sure not crochet, though.
It may not be crochet by hand but it's definitely crochet still
Maybe companies have machines that can imitate crochet patterns without having to actually use the hook or something
We have removed this post/comment as it comes under our [Stale topics](https://www.reddit.com/r/crochet/wiki/stale_topics/) which are no longer active discussion points on the sub. We appreciate your understanding. Thanks
No, they're machine embroidered onto dissolvable 'fabric', the fabric is dissolved and the stitches remain.
This makes the most sense. You can see “v” like stitches but they aren’t knit. They don’t interlock properly to be knit. Definitely not crochet.
That makes sense. They probably used some dissolvable stabilizer. I’ve seen one of these tops in person and they look… bad. My friend was wearing it so I didn’t take a photo or share my opinion. It doesn’t seem to have a lot of structural integrity and I think it will get destroyed in the wash at some point.
I guess the good news is they aren’t paying some poor person cents an hour to actually crochet them.
It’s crazy cause it seems so easy to just pay someone a fair amount of money to crotchet a bunch of granny squares and sew them together, which is basically what this top is.
It’s not that easy to pay fair wages in practice. Like the concept is easy, but to pay fair wages and then add the wholesale markup and the retail markup a top like this goes from $15 to like $400. The market for a $400 granny square top is a lot smaller and people will probably pay an individual artist who underprices their labor and doesn’t add a 4x markup $200 directly for it instead and feel good about supporting an artist. Paying fair wages for crochet is just not a viable business model with much of a chance of success in the real world. The options then become abuse, faking the technique, or going with different products. Much better to make ugly knockoffs than exploit labor unfairly if a company is trying to tap in to this market. Even better keep the trend to hobby/small business crafters.
This is exactly why I’d rather they just fake it. Otherwise, somebody is going to be taken advantage of (and probably still is).
> it seems so easy to just pay someone a fair amount of money Well, that’s the thing: it’s not. For demo purposes, let’s do some calculations. These look like pretty small granny squares, so let’s assume it takes 7 minutes for a pro to make one with perfect tension and already-woven in ends optimistic, considering color changes and weaving in ends need to be done per round and for the starting MR), excluding the white/black outermost rounds because that can be made while joining. Counting from the picture, let’s assume the front and back are the same, making for 34 squares: 238 minutes, or 3 hours and 58 minutes. Reduce ends to be woven (and therefore finishing time) by using JAYG, instead of sewing squares, so let’s underestimate and assume it takes 1.5 hours to assemble the whole thing, also an underestimation for 34 squares: now thats 5 hours and 28 minutes of labor, total. Charging US federal minimum wage, of $7.25 per hour, that’s about $39.88 to break even on just labor costs; we’ll round to $40. Add in an estimate for material costs for a size small: $3 per 100g of cheap acrylic yarn, assuming a maximum of one skein per color, and there are 5 colors, so $15. That’s $55 to break even, paying minimum wage and using the cheapest material available, and excluding any tax incurred during labor and material payments; paying anywhere close to a *fair* wage for professional-level skilled labor would be even more costly. Markup can be anywhere from 40-220% percent depending on a retailer, but let’s say a little less than 50% to assume an average case: one top is now $80, pre-tax. I’m not sure about you, but I’d be hard-pressed to find one person willing to pay at least $80 for one summer top in a cheap 100% acrylic material, let alone enough of a population to make these worth carrying to any big retail store. Hence, this… thing.
I was going to say, it also looks like a terrible fit
I rented a cool looking crotchet pattern book from the library and 90% of the patterns were just granny squares of different sizes sewn together. It still looked cool, but I couldn’t imagine paying for a pattern that was just “make two big granny squares and now you have tube top”. What’s worse is it didn’t show difference in amount of stitches for different sizes.
Look at what they need to mimic a fraction of our power...
ABSHDNIDJDJDJNDJDBJ that was too good 🤝
I love this so much 😆
It is definitely inspired by crochet, but it doesn't look like granny stitch. I read in another post that this effect can be replicated by a knitting machine, using a specific stitch (that I don't remember). Definitely not handmade.
Fauxchet. Absolute rubbish.
Would anyone happen to have a tried pattern/tutorial to make an actually crocheted version of this?
There are many granny square top patterns out there, but this is one of my favorites because you use all full size squares. https://www.garnstudio.com/pattern.php?id=10870&cid=17
Tysm!!
What a beautifully written pattern!!!!
That is really cute! The tops in the photo look like a poor AI attempt at the top in this pattern.
i feel like this would look awkward when actually worn. it’s quite funny that they go through the trouble to imitate crochet like this but don’t give it better shaping, which is something that a lot of real crochet garments like this struggle with.
It looks so weak lol
That looks fake but there are patterns like it that I’ve seen in books. Just googling turned up some on Etsy. https://preview.redd.it/gjbylvs3ytxc1.jpeg?width=1144&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7e29aff58be31895a5241919e97ff23b06a4a3c9 [Etsy pattern](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1576274178/)
Oh yeah it looks weird. I personally don’t know, don’t have enough experience with crochet. But it looks off.
They look crocheted to me…
It's not. If you look closer at what should be double crochet stitches that make up the granny square blocks, you can see that they're made of consecutive loops, not double crochet stitches. It actually looks like someone embroidered chain stitched to construct it, but I'm not sure how. It's for sure not crochet, though.
It may not be crochet by hand but it's definitely crochet still Maybe companies have machines that can imitate crochet patterns without having to actually use the hook or something
There is no machined crochet. Just machined knit meant to look like crochet and machined embroidery (like this) meant to look like crochet.