The Flower Garden Purse Pt 2

Technique: Crochet

Materials:
8 ply yarn in various colours;
blue and green for the bag
3 complimentary colours for the flowers
4mm hook
tapestry needle

The original pattern for this purse appeared in Crochet World Magazine 2007. I'm sure I'd get in trouble for republishing the pattern here, but I can take you through what I did step by step.

If you would like the original pattern I can highly recommend subscribing to Crochet World. It is $16 per year for a digital subscription, and that instantly gives you access to several years worth of back issues. Fantastic Value.

OK onto the instructions, and mine differ somewhat to the original. The instructions are part of an ongoing project, see the related posts below if you have come across them in the incorrect order:

Part 1, The Flowers
Part 2, The Bag (you are here!!)
Part 3, The Liner
Part 4, Construction

In total you will be constructing:
12 flowers
1 bag body
1 bag insert/liner
2 straps

Today, I made the the body of the bag. The base is rectangle, worked in short rows. By this I mean choose how deep you want the bag to be (ie 8, 10, 12 stitches deep) and create a foundation chain. Let's assume you want it to be 10 stitches deep, so your first and second rows will look like this:

Row 1: with green yarn, chain 11 stitches, sc in 2nd chain from hook, sc in each remaining chain across (10 sc) and then turn.

Row 2: chain 1, sc in each sc across (10 sc), turn.

Now you will add as many rows as you want until you reach the desired width. This will form a rectangle that will serve as the base to your bag. When it is the size that you want, don't turn the next row. Instead of working in rows, you are now going to start working in rounds (which means don't slip stitch to join, just work in continuous rounds.

Lets assume that you made your bag 20 rows wide. Row 21 will look like this:

Row 21: Chain 1, sc across the long edge into the end of each row (20 sc), sc across the short edge (10 sc), sc across the long edge into the end of each row (20 sc), sc across the short edge (10 sc).

So you will have a round that comprises of 60 stitches. Make sense?

Now to set the base up so it sits nice and flat, and that the sides form a right angle to the base, on the next row you are going to sc around in only the back loops.

Continue working in green yarn until the 'garden bed' is as high as you would like it, 5 or 6 rows should do it and fasten off the green

Attach the blue yarn, and on this joining row work only in the back loops again. So join, chain 1, work in back loops only and sc around. Then you can work as many rows of sc in blue as you want until the bag is the height that you wish. 18-20 rows should do it. Slip stitch to join on the final row.

The decorative top edge is made by alternating fdpc and bdpc, so you would chain 3, fpdc around the sc post below, then bpdc around the next sc post below, all the way around, then slip stitch to join in the 3rd chain of the beginning ch-3, and fasten off.

As an additional trim, on both the rows where we worked into the back loops, you can sc crochet around in the front loops to create a decorative rim.