Flower/denim bag – free tutorial

Hi,

I didn’t know what to do with all the sorts of quality cotton leftovers I had at home. I’m sure many of us, crocheters, have the same problem. 

Since I really love to make bags and purses, I decided to combine the leftover cotton with denim and try to make some bags bigger and smaller. For the denim parts I used jeans (preferably not stretchy) from charity store.

I understand it may look difficult at first, but I only have minimal sewing skills and I –with some help from Google –managed it. So don’t be scared. Google up how to sew simple bags (there are so many good tutorials on Pinterest for free) and go for it.

I have to admit sewing the first bag took me around nine hours, the second one was ‘’only five hours’’. I know a professional tailor would be probably be crying at the time I used and the fiddling around I did. But I’m very pleasantly surprised with the outcome. The sewing is not absolutely perfect, but it looks clean and professional enough for me.

The only advice I can give you is to make the front/flower part first. That way you can adjust size of the denim parts easily.

The smaller bag you can see right below is measuring: cca 37cm x 36cm(14,8” x 14,4”).

The bigger bag you can see further below is measuring: cca 39cm x 41cm(15,6” x 16,4”).

First you have to make flower squares (30 for small one, 36 for the bigger one). One square is cca 6cm x 6cm (2,4” x 2,4”) if you work with crochet hook G/4mm.
I used a free flower square pattern I found here:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/flower-pillow-2 

You can use any flower square as long as you like it. It is your choice. You need to crochet the squares together, I used sc’s.
I made two fully crocheted bags with a similar front some time ago. You can use it as a guide and you will find it here:
http://emmhouse21.blogspot.cz/2015/03/soft-flower-purse.html
http://emmhouse21.blogspot.cz/2016/05/another-pretty-flower-bag-pattern.html

You should have the front crocheted before you start with the sewing. Now sew the back using this crocheted part as a front side.

It is great way to use leftovers and recycled jeans to make a beautiful and eye-catching bag. Color combinations are endless and the price of materials very moderate. I just hope I will get faster with sewing, but they say practice makes perfect. I most certainly hope so because I have got so many ideas for new bag designs.

Have a nice week

Clara