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Intro

I have created Gloria winter bag so it will go with the many different coloured boots I have for the winter. It will match all the colours I own. I have used acrylic yarn I have already had in my stash. The colour palette is mainly earth muted tones.

As Earth tones are most suitable for autumn and winter I have used this palette. If you are making this bag for the summer, use bright colours that will reflect the season and of course cotton yarn.

If you are not familiar with the Earth tones colour scheme I have enclosed a photo of different shades. The colours are muted:

Yarn used

For this project I have used double crochet yarn by many brands available as I had all yarn at home as a leftover from other projects. However, I have included only Stylecraft which has a large palette of colours

No.

COLOUR

Brand and code

Write your alternatives

1.

Stone – main colour

Stylecraft special dk - 1218 Parchment

2.

Burgundy

Stylecraft special dk -1035 - Burgundy

3.

Purple

Stylecraft special dk - 1425 – Emperor

4.

Dark brown

Stylecraft special dk - 1054 – walnut

5.

Light brown

Stylecraft special dk - 1064 – Mocha

6.

Beige

Stylecraft special dk - 1710 – stone

7.

Warm beige

Stylecraft special dk 1420 – camel

8.

Brown mustard

Stylecraft special dk - 1806 – gingerbread

9.

Mustard

Stylecraft special dk - 1709 – gold

10.

Yellow

Stylecraft special dk - 1856 – dandelion

11.

Dark lime

Stylecraft special dk - 1712 – lime

12.

Brick

Stylecraft special dk - 1029 – copper

13.

Coral

Stylecraft special dk - 1836 – vintage peach

14.

Dark coral

Stylecraft special dk - 1083 – pomegranate

15.

Dark orange

Stylecraft special dk 1723 – tomato

16.

Lake green

Stylecraft special dk - 1725 – sage

17.

Green

Stylecraft special dk - 1824 – cypress

18.

Army green

Stylecraft special dk - 1027 – khaki

19.

Bottle green

1009 – bottle green

20.

lake blue

Stylecraft special dk - 1722 – storm blue

21.

dark blue

Stylecraft special dk - 1302 – denim blue

22.

strong blue

Stylecraft special dk - 1003 – aster

23.

navy

Stylecraft special dk - 1011 – midnight

24.

dark mint

Stylecraft special dk 1842 – spearmint

25.

mint

Stylecraft special dk 1820 – duck egg

26.

light grey

Stylecraft special dk 1203 – silver

Yarnage: total – 400 g - - 1288yds/1180m

322yds/295m per 100g

18 colours - 10 g

Stone 70g

7 colours -20g

Mustard 20g

Green 20g

Purple 20g

Brick 20g

Blue 20g

Brown 20g

Burgundy 20g

Dimensions

One motif is 5.5cm

Width – 33cm

Height 33cm

Border 9cm total height 42cm

Depth 11cm

Handle 55cm – only 50cm are visible

Stitches used

Stitch

USA terminology

UK terminology

Chain

ch

Slip stitch

Sl st

Sl st

Linked single/ double crochet

Linked single crochet lsc

Linked double crochet ldc

Hdc/htc

Half double crochet hdc

Half treble crochet htc

Dc/tc

Double crochet dc

Treble crochet tc

Tc/dtc

Treble crochet tc

Double treble crochet dtc

Motif

Pattern below

Written pattern

Round

USA terminology

UK terminology

Chain 4 and slip st in the first ch to make a ring

Chain 4 and slip st in the first ch to make a ring

1

Make 16 dc in the chain and slip st in the first dc

Cut the yarn and weave end

Make 16 tc in the chain and slip st in the first tc

Cut the yarn and weave end

2

Attach the yarn in any dc.

(Make 2 dc, 1 tc, 2 dc in one stitch to make the corner of the motif

Make a hdc in the next 3 stitches)

Repeat this pattern for 3 more times

Slip stitch in the first dc of the round.

Cut the yarn and weave the ends

Attach the yarn in any tc.

(Make 2 tc, 1 tc, 2 tc in one stitch to make the corner of the motif

Make a htc in the next 3 stitches)

Repeat this pattern for 3 more times

Slip stitch in the first tffffc of the round.

Cut the yarn and weave the ends

Instructions for the bag

We need to make 36 motifs for the front of the bag

36 motifs for the back of the bag

And

36 motifs for the sides and bottom of the bag

The front and back of the bag are made with motif A - beige – round 1 and contrast colour round 2

The motifs for the sides and bottom of the bag are made with motif B– contrast colour – round 1 and beige – round 2

Joining the motifs

I have joined the motifs with Whip stitch.

If you are not familiar with this sewing technique please read below.

You will need a sharp large eye needle to thread the yarn in.

We use the stone main colour yarn for the sewing.

We align both motifs with the wrong side out i.e. the right sides of both motifs are facing each other.

The tc/dtc from one motif should align with the tc/dtc from the other motif, the dc/tc should align with the dc/tc and so on.

We put our needle through the 2 Vs on the top from both motifs. Leave a long tale for weaving.

We always put the yarn through the Vs from the same side.

We join all sides of the bag as shown above in order to make a large rectangle i.e. a bucket bag.

Bag handles

We chain 80 and work linked sc/dc

Colour palette for handles

Mustard

Green

Purple

Brick

Blue

Brown

burgundy

We attach the handles to the bag by sewing them into the border of the bag. More on joining the handle is included in the border section.

Border

For each motif we make 9 sc/dc.

We have 162 stitches in our first row.

We attach each additional colour and work linked sc/dc. We work the colour palette twice -14 rows.

Colour palette for handles

Mustard

Green

Purple

Brick

Blue

Brown

Burgundy

Openings for the handle

In our first round of colours for the border as we finish as the burgundy colour we need to make the opening for the handle.

At the burgundy colour we need to make opening for the handle. They are placed above the first and the second motif i.e. for the front/back we have 9 motifs x 9 sc/dc we have 81 stitches per side

Make 5 linked sc/dc make a chain of 8 and skip 8 stitches. Continue with 37 linked sc/dc.

Do the sides (18 stitches) and we start the other side of the bag = make 5 linked sc, chain 8, skip 8, 37 linked sc/dc, chain 8, skip 8, make final 5 linked sc/dc.

The stitches of the border are included in the below diagram.

We then continue with the second set of rows of our colour palette.

Attaching the handles is quite easy.

We place the bag flat. We put the ends of our handle through the slip openings of the border. With pin we attach them to the bag.

Plastic canvas bottom

For the bottom of the bag I used plastic canvas. The plastic canvas can be purchased on amazon as a set of 1,2,5 or 12 sheets size A4.

I cut the canvas to match the dimensions of the bottom of the bag i.e. the size of 12 motifs.
I have doubled it by joining the two cut plastic canvases together:

Then, I lined the plastic canvas with material i.e. I simply wrapped the canvas in the fabric and secured the fabric with whip stitch. I then, attach the fabric plastic canvas by making a knot for the 4 corners of the canvas to the 4 corners of the base of the bag. The stitching should face the bottom of the bag i.e. the side of the bag that does not have stitches is the one that will face upwards.

Lining – optional.

For this, you can use any fabric. I strongly recommend upholstery fabric as it gives firmness to the bag.

We first double the fabric making a large rectangle with the right side facing in. We cut the fabric into shape including the bottom of the bag.

The size of the doubled fabric should measure the height, width and depth of the bag plus an inch and a half. We add plus in the dimensions in order to have space to sew the fabric together.

We attach the yarn at the far bottom corner of the fabric including both pieces of fabric.

We go up and down on both pieces of fabric making a straight line as shown below: