Simple crocheted bag

When we were in transit, living in temporary accommodation when we first moved to Canberra, I was bored, needed a craft project, and needed a new handbag.  So I decided to combine the two and crochet one for myself.  We had no internet barring a tiny bit on our phones, all my crochet stuff was packed away in a shipping crate somewhere between Brisbane & Canberra, so I had no supplies, and no patterns.  I decided to wing it.

I bought some yarn (cheapie, $2 a ball stuff, but nice colours) and a hook, and started crocheting.

The finished product has had heaps of compliments, so here's what I did.  This is not a proper pattern, but it's so simple that hopefully anyone can follow it if they've done a little crochet before.  I use UK crochet terms, so convert into US if you need to.

I started with a chain roughly as long as I wanted the side of my bag to be.  In my case, it was about 30cm long.  I then worked in double-crochet in rows until it was as high/deep as I wanted the bag to be, and tied it off.

I repeated this, to be the other side of the bag.  So I had two rectangles, about 30cm by 20cm.

I then made a new chain, about 2 inches long, and worked double crocheted rows as long as I wanted the strap to be.  The strap needed to start at the bottom of the bag, pass across the front of my body up over the opposite shoulder, down my back, and around to the bottom of the bag.  It was basically going to be joined in a big loop (ie stitched together end-to-end), and the rectangles joined on either side opposite each other, with the rest of the loop forming the strap, leaving the top edge of each rectangle open.  Hopefully the pictures will help explain what I mean!

In the very middle of this picture, you can see the join of the ends of the strap at the bottom of the bag.

The strap was too long, in my case, and as soon as I put my purse, phone etc in my bag, it stretched.  It got really long!  To shorten it without pulling everything apart again, I worked out where the mid-point of the shoulder strap was, and folded some of the excess back under, and stitched all the layers together to make a padded section at the top of the shoulder.  The strap has stretched a bit more since, but there's only so far it can stretch, so it's OK now.

The padded section at the top of the strap.

I then crocheted a small rectangle (double crochet) which I stitched to the inside of one of the sides of the bag (stitched sides and bottom, leaving the top open to make a pocket).  It's handy for slipping keys or phone into, so that you can find them easily.  Lastly, I found a pattern for a crocheted flower, made one, and stitched it to the outside of the bag, for a little decoration.  Here are some free crochet flower patterns.

Flower detail

Pocket inside.  I stitched it only into the loops of yarn on the inside of the bag, so that no stitches would show through to the outside.

It was really quick to make, and it's still going strong!