Instead of doing the blocking and then unravelling and reconnecting the squares (which seems like a lot of extra work), I just connected the squares in all the places (including the side seams) and blocked it double-layered like that. I think it worked really well. After that I added the edgings (which I screwed up by not turning after the first row the first time, and had to frog)-- I changed the ruffle edge to sc in next 2 sc, ch 3, sc in next 2 sc; rep from around, and I worked it continuously around the front/neck/bottom as I saw no reason to separate them. I also made ch-2 button hole s(instead of ch-1) since I wanted slightly larger buttons. I’m very pleased with how this turned out, and it only took 5 skeins of yarn (with lots left over on the last one).

My shop owner and I thought I could make this top to inspire the “closet” crocheters that come in to the shop. :)

I Used an F hook and still ended up with a 6.5” square (for the large size) so I’m going to go with that and use the small/med layout, I think. There’s such a big jump from M to L sizes that the L would be much too big anyway. I’m excited to get going on this one!