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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

View an Etsy Front Page Treasury List - The Vault on Craft Cult

Two Front Pages in one day! WOW! I'm over the Moon!!!

View an Etsy Front Page Treasury List - The Vault on Craft Cult

View an Etsy Front Page Treasury List - The Vault on Craft Cult



View an Etsy Front Page Treasury List - The Vault on Craft Cult

I woke up to being on the Front Page of Etsy! What a wonderful thing to wake up to :) And what's more, the Retro Triangle Bag that was featured in it was my first Triangle Bag design. The first one I ever made! My heart is so full right now!
This is my second Front Page feature, the first one was in May 29th. You can see a picture of that one below:


Saturday, June 18, 2011

Finishing touches to my Crochet Triangle Bag

I will try to explain here the process of connecting already crocheted pieces into a finished triangle bag. I won't write a pattern here, because I am selling a finished bag in my Etsy. All I ask of you is not to copy my bag design. I'm sure we are all capable of thinking something original and uniquely our own :)

First thing I do is I crochet 2 triangles. They are exact same size, although I crocheted each of them differently. By that I mean I crocheted the second one like a mirror image of the first one, so that the RIGHT side of the triangle stays the same. You can see how those triangle parts look like on Picture 1.

Picture 1

Then I make a stripe in one piece. The stripe is used to connect both triangle parts and add the bag that 3D look. It also has a space where the zipper will go. You can see the stripe on Picture 2.



Picture 2

I also crochet one small square piece and sew it on the lower part of the zipper hole, which is just a practical thing to hold while closing the bag with a zipper :)

Then I proceed with making two handles. They are filled with fiberfill and I stuff them while I crochet them. It's much more easier than stuffing them in the end, believe you me, lol, I tried! You can see a handle on Picture 3.


Picture 3

And on Picture 4 you can see the fiberfill peeking, lol. I also leave a few cm (or inches) of thread at each end of the handles so I can sew them on the stripe later.


Picture 4

Now I block both triangles and the stripe and then I work around the zipper hole and sew in the little square on the stripe, like seen on the Picture 5.


Picture 5

And now for the hard part, sewing the lining, lol! I'm not a sewing expert, far from it, so when I finished my first triangle without any trouble, I was very proud of myself. Although, you should see the first two tries for my Teardrop Shape purse! That was an interesting experiment, lol! It's much easier to sew straight lines than the round ones, that's for sure, especially for someone who is not used to sewing at all. I'm self taught and I can only sew things that are not visible, it's safer that way, lol! On Picture 6 you can see the lining part as best as I could show it.


Picture 6

What I showed so far is all pretty easy to do, but then it comes the connecting part. I must say that's something I don't like to do because I always puncture myself with needles and you shouldn't be in my vicinity when I do that, lol. I found a great tutorial of how to add the lining to crochet bags here: Sew a Lining into a Crochet Bag. And on Picture 7 you can see my pins and the sewing part in process.

Picture 7
Now I sew the handles around the zipper hole. It's a bit tricky because they can't stand still and I can't pin them down, but they look more than fine in the end, like shown on Picture 8.



Picture 8

And now I do one more step before connecting the triangle parts onto stripe and that is I sew the crocheted triangle onto the lining sides. I do this step because I don't want my lining to move around the bag, I want it to stay fixed so when you wash the bag everything looks perfect :) See how it looks like when I sew the triangles on the lining on Picture 9.


Picture 9

On Picture 10 you can see the back of the bag. I start to connect the stripe to triangles from the top using a reverse stitch because it adds something-something to the edges.


Picture 10

And the finished bag looks like this:


Picture 11

The process for Two Colored bag is the same. I choose one color for the lining and the zipper and when I connect the parts together, I use one color for one side and the other for the other side. The connecting part can be done in one swoop. You start at the top of the bag, crochet rs all around one triangle, then crochet the upper part along the stripe (connecting the beginning of the stripe with the end) and then crochet along the next triangle. I hope I haven't ruined the magic of my triangle bags by showing you the process it takes to make it. I really enjoy crocheting them, not so much connecting them, lol, but it's all the part of the handmade work.

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