cherishables: The Most Cheerful Purse in the World

Monday, March 26, 2012

The Most Cheerful Purse in the World

Lately, I've been obsessed with granny _____ (fill in the blank.) First it was granny squares and then granny stripes. I think it's the bright colors and the fact that I've finally embraced Sheep(ish) yarn, which comes in marvelous colors. Everywhere I look granny this & that in pretty, bright colors.

I've been contemplating a granny stripe bag when I came across a tutorial for a granny stripe afghan at Attic24, I knew it was time. Out came the Sheep(ish) yarn and here is the final result.

I just love it! All that color! I just need to line it & it's complete.

Since this is a purse, and the tutorial is for an afghan, I did a few things a bit differently. First of all, I started with a foundation single crochet stitch (fsc.) This stitch allowed me to be able to immediately judge how large the purse would be. I made this first row twice as big as I wanted the purse. This way I could fold it over and have one seam. If you don't know how to do the fsc stitch, there is a fab tutorial on futuregirl. There are also good videos on YouTube. For this first row, make sure you count out the stitches and that the number is divisible by 3. This purse is 102 stitches across.

After I finished making all the rows, there are 25 rows total (2 of each color) I folded the bag in half and used the tails from each set of rows to stitch up the seam. This allowed me to match the color and weave in the ends. It's a pain weaving all those in, but it didn't take too long.

This gave me a really pretty & colorful tube. My purse needed a bottom. Having no idea what to do here, I just started double crocheting around the bottom. I thought that might give me enough room to sew the row together & form a bottom. Not quite. It needed two more rows. For each subsequent row, I decreased on the both sides (where the bag naturally folds) so that the bottom didn't bow out. Once I had 3 rows, they almost touched. When I finished off the last row I left a long yarn tail & used it to sew the bottom together. I will hand sew in a piece of plastic canvas on the bottom, so I wasn't too worried about durability. The plastic canvas and the lining will hold everything in.

Now that I had a tube with a bottom, I decided the top needed a little flair, so I did a little scallop at the top.

Next come the handles. I thought about using a set of purchased handles. But I wanted something a little more...lively. I rejected crocheting tube-like handles for lack of a place to attach them. Then I remembered the really pretty handles from the Hex Tote Tutorial on futuregirl. They are perfect for this tote.

In all, I'm really pleased with how the purse came out. It was really fun to make and went so quickly. In fact, I've already started on a 2nd purse, but this time I did the math (hurt my brain!) and figured out how big the base should be so I can granny stripe in the round. If it works (so far, so good) I'll blog about it and maybe post a tutorial if anyone is interested. It should be finished in a few days.

So, what about you? Do you like the return of the granny? Stripes not squares? Squares, not stripes? Only in certain colors? Share you thoughts in the comments.

Happy crafting!
Cherish