22 April 2013

Hooked: Bag Obsessesd

Confession: I. LOVE. BAGS.

Small bags. Big bags. Clutches. Messenger bags. Tote bags. Sling bags.

I love them all.

Except maybe backpacks. I am not a big fan of them.

Before going on vacation, I made myself a new beach bag to take with me for all my beach essentials. The bag was mostly a success. I loved the colors. It ended up being the perfect size to schlep all my stuff from the hotel room to the pool and/or beach. But.....and this is kind of a big but, the pattern I used made for a super "stretchy" bag, which I knew I just didn't think it would stretch that much. Plus, it was the first time I had made anything with straps and it was kind of a big time fail. By the end of vacation the damn thing stretched out way more than I had anticipated it would and hung down below my knees. Not cool bag. Not cool at all.

Needless to say, it was back to the drawing board for a new beach bag.

Thanks to the wonderful world of Pinterest, I came across a pattern for the London Crochet Bag over on Crochet Dynamite. I immediately swooned over the style/look of the bag and then nearly feel over when I read the pattern. It was absolutely something I could make.

I did deviate a bit from the original pattern. I knew since I'd be using it as a beach bag, it didn't need to be quite as big as the bag in the pattern. At most, it would be used to haul around a notebook, couple pens, Kindle and sunscreen. And maybe a bottle of water. I made it a few inches shorter than the pattern calls for and ended up changing the strap a bit.

I used Lily Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn for the project, which I had picked up for super cheap--$1.00 per ball! Because I wanted something that screamed summer, I went with Hot Pink (not pictured), Hot Orange and White. I think I used two balls of pink, one full and a little bit of a second ball in the orange and less than one ball of white (the white was left over from another project).

 

I opted to use the pink and orange as my main colors and the white as the accent. I am planning on making another bag but reversing the colors: an all white bag with the orange as the accent color. 


For the handle of the bag, I followed the direction in the original pattern but then folded it in half, stitched the two edges together and pulled it inside out (to hide the seam) before attaching to the bag. I wanted to have a really sturdy strap and this seemed like the best way to accomplish that.


I really love the way this bag turned out. I think it is going to be the perfect size for summer excursions to the beach and our families cottage. Now we just need summer to actually get here so I can try it out!

Happy crocheting!

5 comments:

  1. I love the colors you chose, they are so bright and fun! Orange and pink are one of the best combos in my opinion.

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  2. You are so talented, lady... I love the bag you made! Great colors too. :)

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  3. That looks great! Perfect beach bag. I have been wanting to do a bag for a while.

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  4. *Gush! Love it! Great colors!

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  5. Me likey! :) Awesome!

    Mikie
    shikimikie.blogspot.com

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Thanks for reading!

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