Waching daily Feb 2 2018

Hi! In addition to having loved doing this bag I found it very cute.

The faux leather base, the drawstrings, the rope handle, the lining, in short,

all the details gave it a very professional look and I also liked the

classic color combination. But of course in this part you can choose

the ones you prefer. The materials I used to make this bag were:

two 100m and 50g skeins of 100% cotton yarn.

Just a remark: there was very little left of the skeins, which I worked with double thread

so I recommend you buy a slightly larger amount just in case.

A faux leather rectangle of 20 by 12 centimeters + a small strip.

1.70m of faux leather 2mm strip,

1.40m cotton rope,

in this case 8mm width.

Two rings like these for

the handle (this one has two centimeters) and 2 lobster clasps,

preferably matching the rings. I did not find it matching, so these ones

will do.

Approximately 75cm by 30cm cotton fabric for the lining and:

a 5mm crochet hook, super strong glue, ruler, tape measure,

pencil and / or fabric marker, fabric scissors, iron,

tapestry needle with sharp and round tip, pins, thread and needle,

and if you have a sewing machine, even better

Starting from the base I will position the ruler about 2 mm from the edge and

make a mark every centimetre around the base.

Then to soften the corners, I will do some cuts like so with the scissors ...

And re-mark the dot I cut.

Now with the tapestry needle with the sharp point I'm going to make some stitches that

will be the foundation for crochet stitches.

You can start anywhere you want, I only recommend it not be on one of the corners.

I insert the needle in one mark

And I have to go back through the next one. But to make the stitches in the right place,

First I stab the faux leather inside out, which is where it is marked.

And take it off to pass through the hole from the outside.

Now I go back to the first stitch and stab the needle through the same space.

And go to the next mark.

Working with big yarn so it's annoying but in this case I found it better

than run out of thread midway sewing.

Notice that back here you have to take the needle always on the same side,

since as it is the side that is going to show it has to be well organised.

Pay attention to this especially when you are on the corners.

If you are familiar with sewing or embroidery, you already know that I am making a back stitch

and on the right side is creating a stem stitch.

I've already completed the round and I'm going to finish off with a little knot.

Short leaving a large-ish tip so it doesn't undo.

No need to worry about that

because the lining will cover it.

Now comes the easy part, the crochet.

As I said before, I am using double string and

I start doing a slip stitch and leave it on the hook because it will count as

the single crochet first loop.

From here I insert the hook...

Pull the yarn and finish the single crochet as normal.

Then just keep doing it all the way around.

Pay attention only here on the finish part

to insert the hook through both loops.

Finished the last stitch and now I will not join the round.

I'm going to go straight to the first stitch and make the single crochet using the back loops only.

And that's all, didn't I say it was easy?

I continue with the single crochets working on back loops only....

Same thing on the next round...

Until I get to 20cm.

As we are working with continuous rounds, it becomes more difficult to know

when it's finished , so remember to measure both sides.

Now that I'm going to fold the middle lining up straight.

And in the center stitch of each side

I'll put a stitch marker.

Then I continue to work to one stitch before the marker,

that I won't need anymore so I can take it off.

And then Il get the metal ring

and align it with the next three stitches.

And do the single crochets like so: around the ring.

You may need to adjust the number of stitches according to the size of your ring.

I do the same thing on the other side and then continued until I get to 25 cm,

which will be about five more rounds.

Then I make a 2 sleep stitches, which is to soften the edge that forms when

we work with continuous rounds.

And finish with an invisible join.

To make the drawstrings I'll use the faux leather strip folded.

I'm going to find the middle of the bag ...

And run the stripes through like so with the help of the crochet hook

every three other stitches, give or take.

I am now doing it on the third round from top to bottom,

but latter I had to go a round up because of the liner that got taller then I'd calculated,

I'll show you in a moment.

Now I'll make a little knot and trim the ends.

For the handle I'll use the rope.

I pass one of the ends like so through the lobster clasp ring and tie a knot.

That's why is important for the rope to be

at least the same width as the ring or slightly larger,

so it doesn't go through it.

Then to adjust the size you pass the other clasp by the other end

and run the rope over your shoulder, so you can adjust the height that you want

the bag to be and tie a knot.

Now I'll trim both ends with the same size...

And to give it a little extra cuteness

I'm going to fray it with a brush, so it looks like a tassel.

This part is optional and if you don't want it just cut the tips shorter.

Just don't cut too close to the knot, so it doesn't undo.

Okay, now all I need is the lining, which I had to do three times until I got to a pattern

that didn't have any loose fabric.

Here I am placing the patter on the fabric and I

forgot to tape it but I drew it with a pencil.

Because I need two peaces like this one,

I align two pieces of the fabric (the one with the drown pattern on top)

And so the fabric doesn't move and the cut get super straight I'll pin both sides of the

line before I cut it.

After that I stil had to make some adjustments,

but the pattern that is on the blog post is already corrected for you to copy

And the sewing steps are the same.

Oh, and I'm going to use a sewing machine, but it works by hand too.

I've already cut all four sides and the bottom and now I will sew them, one side

at a time, to the bottom

The first one is the easiest: just align it and make

a straight stitch with 1cm seam allowance.

To make it easier to sew the other sides

you can cut off these corners.

I position the next side and fold this other part out like so, so I don't sew it together.

Pay close attention to this at the time of sewing.

The last part is the trickiest because you have to pay attention

not to sew two sides.

Bottom done, now lets do the sides.

There is no secret here, you just have to line the fabric and make a straight line until

almost get to the bottom, where you have this angle.

Getting there I stab the needle to hold the fabric,

put the foot up, spin the fabric to align the pattern line, put the foot down

and finish sewing like normal.

Like I said before I had to make an adjustment and so I'm cutting some

excess fabric, but if you copy the pattern you won't have to.

And because cotton fabric frays so much, I'll zig-zag stitch around the edges.

If you have an over locker, even bette, but you can stitch it by hand as well.

When you finish the 4 corners, it will only miss the hem,

First I make a one-and-a-half cm fold and press it with the iron

I fold and press all the way around.

Here in the part of the seams I will face them

all to the smaller sides.

Then I make another fold over the first one and they also press it with iron.

And then you just have to sew the hem.

Lining done, finally, now it's time to sew it in the bag.

I'm folding it like this find the four central points:

One on each side, one on the front and one on the back.

And I do the same thing with the bag.

Then I insert the lining in the bag, aligning the pins...

Remember to straighten the bottom and be careful not to pierce you fingers with the pins as it happen to me

a couple times.

As I said before I needed to remove the drawstrings because lining

turned taller than I expected.

Now I have everything aligned and I will use these pins to hold the

lining in the bag so doesn'y keep moving while I sew.

To sew I'll use regular needle and thread.

I'm going to start by stabbing the needle here through this seam and running it through the fold of the hem.

Then at the same level it gets out, I insert it inside the crochet yarn.

Then again through the fold of the hem ...

And so on.

I run the needle through the crochet yarn so the thread doesn't show on the

right side of the bag, but even so it can happen. So that's why

I recommend you to use a thread the same colour of the yarn

if you choose to make a different colour lining.

To finish I make a knot like so...

And run the thread through the hem to hide the end.

I already put the drawstrings back, one round up,

and decided to make a finishing with some faux leather left overs

using glue.

And it's done!