Marguerite Bag

Hello and thanks for visiting! Its been ages since I did a "proper" blog post - all my recent ones have just been to tell you about my podcast, but I've really missed chitty chatting so I thought I'd rectify that with a post today.

We're just back from a lovely dog walk at Greys' Court, which is a National Trust property. We didn't go into the house, or take many photos, as we had a reluctant teenager with us, and had to keep moving, but here are a couple of pics of the bluebells, which was our primary reason for choosing Grey's Court.

Back home, in making news, I have finished a beautiful bag, the Marguerite Bag. It's a pattern by Emma Wright, as featured in issue 166 of Inside Crochet magazine.

The pattern called for Wool Couture Cotton but I used Drops Muskat, which is a mercerised cotton, in colours Denim, White and Sunflower.

I blocked all the squares on my lovely wooden blocking board, by simply spraying them with water and leaving to dry. Once blocked I was able to really easily assemble them into the bag shape, which is such a clever design.

The next job was to add the straps. I went a bit off piste here - the pattern called for a chain of 64 stitches for each strap but I wanted my straps longer so I did 130 chains. Then I felt like it needed to be wider than the one in the pattern, so I added a row of trebles all around. 

Finally I chose some lovely bright fabric with which to line it.

I used the sewing machine to make a rectangle taller than the bag, then I cut down in a big zig-zag around to mirror the points and dips of the squares (diamonds ?). I ironed a seam allowance and then hand stitched the lining in place.

And here is the lovely Brenda modelling the final result...

I'm totally in love with this bag, I love how summery and bright and sunny it is. Now we just need some weather to match!

Til next time,

Jillxxx