Bag Style!

I recently purchased the most amazing book - Bag Style. The patterns in this book are truly unique. This is my favorite bag pattern. I love the fact that you mix felting with yarn that does not felt. The bottom is crocheted with a 100% wool yarn and the top part with felting yarn.

A close-up of the contrast between the crochet and felted crochet. Love it! And a pair of my very own handles I recently made! They look stunning with this bag. I did a whipstitch around the top edge (before felting), a trick taught in the book Pursenalities, in pink.

This was my first attempt at sewing a fabric lining into a crochet/knitted bag. Not difficult and I did not use any sort of tutorial, but I did learn a few lessons doing it. I wanted to use interfacing on my lining and also wanted a few pockets, so could not use the instructions in the book as it requires you to pleat the lining, same as the outside of the bag. So I just kept trimming and fitting until I had a prefect fit. The pattern also calls for you to make a lose fabric-covered piece of cardboard to give the base of the bag some firmness and shape, which I did, but you cannot really see it in the picture. My favorite bag of all the bags I have made so far!