Another crochet project for me! I feel like the technique is finally stored in my brain and I could do at least a chain stitch and a double crochet even after a few months of not crocheting anything. This project is from MakeBox & Co and makes a tote bag and a matching purse.
Included in the kit was:
- Cotton yarn (white x5, blue x3)
- Gold lamé yarn
- Bag straps
- Crochet hook
- Needles x2
- Stitch marker
- Snap fasteners x2
- Wooden bead
- Cotton thread
- Keyring base
The pattern was very straightforward, just working in rounds from the base upwards to create the bag shape and increasing the number of stitches every five rows. I made good use of the stitch marker which saves a lot of counting! The bag is two tone, starting with the blue yarn and then switching to the white. Whilst there are some helpful guides at the beginning of the instruction booklet for the basic stitches, there wasn’t instructions on how to change your yarn until it came time to change the colour. This would have been helpful a bit earlier on as the yarn balls were quite small and there wasn’t enough blue in one ball to complete the base of the bag. In fact, it required almost all three balls.
Attaching the straps was a little fiddly as it was sometimes hard to aim the needle through the pre-punched holes from inside the bag, whilst holding it in place. The instructions just had a running stitch to attach them, but I decided to backstitch mine as I thought it gave a neater finish and was more secure. The snap fastener was added in the same way, making sure to line it up in the middle! There was also the option to stitch a letter onto the finished bag and purse using the gold lamé and the instructions included a guide for every letter, which was really useful. I haven’t added a letter to mine yet because I haven’t decided if I’m going to keep them for myself or give them as a gift.
The purse was constructed in the same way as the bag but on a much smaller scale. It was finished with the snap fastener and with the addition of a golden tassel keyring. This box was part of the MakeBox & Co monthly subscription, but isn’t available to buy as an individual kit on their website.
