My granny square bag...

My latest creation is a combination of two of my favourite things: crochet and sewing! I've been searching out the perfect sized handbag for a while now, one that fits all my bits and pieces in, which can be worn over one shoulder or across my body and which has a nice secure fastening. Oh - and it had to be pretty of course! Rather than buying another not quite perfect bag I decided to make one. I had started crocheting lots of little granny squares together with some wool I had left over from another project and couldn't quite decide what to use them for (a cushion? another mini blanket?) when I realised that I could use them to make a rather snazzy bag. However, I wanted something a bit sturdier than wool alone can offer, so here's what I did....

I crocheted 24 smallish granny squares, each with 4 rounds (keeping the same colour for the first 2 rounds so that you get squares within a square if you see what I mean), and joined them up into the following shape which as you will see in a bit can be sewn up to form the base, sides, front and flap of the bag....
This diagram is rather random, but hopefully you can sort of see what I mean. It will hopefully become clearer when you see what happens next.
Lucy from Attic 24 has a great tutorial on her blog for a really good join-as you go method which I used to connect all my granny squares

Then I traced the outline onto a piece of corduroy fabric that I had left over from a previous sewing project: this fabric provides a sturdy functional lining for my bag in a nice contrasting mustard colour. I also cut out the same shape in interfacing fabric, which is used to strenghten and stiffen fabrics - I wanted to attach this to the back of the corduroy to help the bag keep its shape and to make it a bit hardier...


I attached the interfacing to the fabric by ironing them together. Another bonus of using interfacing means that it helps to prevent the edges of the fabric from fraying so I didn't have to worry about seams...

Then I got to work stiching the reinforced corduroy piece to the crochet shape. First I pinned it to the crochet with my funky heart-shaped pins...
As you can see, I had folded the edges of the corduroy under and attached it to the crochet with the right side (which will what you see when you open the bag) facing outwards. I used some bright red cotton to stich them together by hand (I thought that all that crochet might be a bit unruly for my machine!) using blanket stitch...

When all the edges were stiched, I started joining the bag together - this was really quick and easy! With the crochet facing inwards, I just folded up the front flap (made up of 2 x 3 granny squares) and stitched along the bottom and side of the bag on both sides...
Then I turned it back the right way round....
Ta da! But of course it wasn't finished yet. It needed a nice long strap...

So I crocheted a long chain until it was the desired length and then crocheted five rows of double crochet stitch using some of the same colours as the granny squares
I cut out more corduroy fabric and interfacing to the same length and width and after ironing it together I stitched it to the crochet in the same way as the main part of the bag...
And then attached the strap to the inside of the bag with nice sturdy stitches...And there you have it! One finished bag :)
And here's what it looks like when it's in use!
I love my new crochet bag! All that is left to do now is to sew a nice big button on the front and make a loop on the flap so that it can be safely closed up.