African Flower Square Crochet Bag

Having had a break for a while I'm sort of playing catch up.  I was able to do a little crafting from time to time so am sharing a crochet bag I made for the summer.

I came across this lovely pattern and tutorial for an African Flower Square and immediately fell in love with it.

I'm sure there are lots of uses for this pattern but I decided I would make a bag for the summer.  I began searching for a bag pattern and came across an interesting page showing 'plans' for arranging squares to make granny square bags.

I chose this 13 square pattern and set about making my squares.   I used Sirdar dk cotton, which was very easy to work with.  I just love these colours although the pink, I already had in my stash.

All squares completed and blocked I set about stitching them together as the template above.  I used mattress stitch as this produces neat invisible seams.

Lining this bag presented a few problems as I wanted a bright pink inside but didn't want it to show through the little holes in the squares.  I solved it by double lining, using a cream on the inside and a pink on the outside of the inside - if you see what I mean!

I then needed to work out how to add the handles.  They needed to be long enough to wear over my shoulder and I didn't want them to be stretchy as crochet could be.  I solved this problem by crocheting over window sash cord and am pleased to say having used the bag regularly it has worked really well.

And here is the finished result .....

I've had some really lovely comments on this bag, even my youngest daughter who isn't a crochet fan thought it was pretty!!  Trouble is now, it has been so well used it needs a wash!!

I am looking forward to seeing what has been going on over at Handmade Monday, see you soon :)