The Flower Garden Purse Pt 4

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
Part 3, The Liner
Part 4, Construction (you are here!)

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

Let's make our straps and then put it all together!

The straps are made from a chain of blue and a chain of green twisted together. You want a nice lengthy piece of chain, around 200-250 stitches long. Hold the chains together and knot each end. Get a volunteer (or a hook) to hold one end, while you hold the other. Put a pencil through your end holding the length fairly taut twist, twist, twist! You will know when it's tight enough when you slacken the tension a little and you can see it's starting to twist back on itself. When it reaches that stage bring the two tied ends together and allow it to twist back on itself, and tie off.

Do this twice, so you have two handles. Honestly it sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is!

Pin your flowers into place on the outer bag so you get a good spacing. I had three large flowers across each side at the top and three across each side at the lower edge. Once you have the spacing you are happy with, stitch them into place.

Closeup of the flowers, stems and leaves.

Using green yarn, create stems and leaves for each flower.

Slip the liner into place and slip stitch across the top of the bag with blue yarn.

Bag, liner and handles ready to be assembled.

Slip the ends of the cords through the decorative finish and fasten off.

Slip the end of the cord that does not have a knot through a loop on the right hand side of the bag, pull it through...

Slip it through a hook on the left hand side of the bag and knot.  Voila!  A handle.

Stand back and admire!

The Flower Garden Purse Pt 3

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
Part 3, The Liner (you are here!!)
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 liner for the bag. The original pattern did not include a liner, however I felt it was necessary to finish the bag.

You can see here the stems and leaves of the flowers, which could easily catch on keys if left unlined.

Once the flowers and stems get attached there are quite a few threads on the interior that could catch on things like keys. You could sew a liner if you prefer, but the double layer of crochet I felt would make the bag sturdier. I made the liner one stitch smaller in dimensions than the outer bag. You could also, if you prefer, make the liner one solid colour rather than the two colours as I did here.

Row 1: With green, chain 11, sc in 2nd chain from hook, sc in each remaining chain across, turn (10 sc)

Row 2-23: Ch 1, sc in each sc across, turn. At the end of row 23 do not turn.

This is where you begin working in rounds now rather than rows:

Round 24: Chain 1, sc across the long edge into the end of each row (23 sc), sc across the short edge (10 sc), sc across the long edge into the end of each row (23 sc), sc across the short edge (10 sc).

Now remember on the outer bag we worked in the bag loops to form a right angle so the bag would sit nicely, for the liner we want to work in the front loops, so that the right side of the crochet is facing the inside of the bag, which will allow us to put wrong sides together when we stitch the lining in.

Round 25: Working in front loops for this round only, ch 1, sc in each stitch around, do not join in beginning sc.

Round 26-29: Sc in sc around.

Also remember on the outer bag when we switched colours we worked into the back loops again, no need to do that for the liner, simply switch to blue at the start of row 30 and continue in sc rounds until your liner matches the height of your bag and finish off.

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.

The Flower Garden Purse Pt 1

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 (you are here!!)
Part 2, The Bag
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 12 flowers, 6 large and 6 small. The flowers are basically a circle, so start with a chain 4 and then double crochet around until you have the size that you want, and then slip stitch to close. Leave a nice long tail on the flowers, you can use that to attach them to the bag later.