Several months ago, I was browsing Pinterest and found this really cute handbag that I thought would be a great Christmas present for my sister-in-law.  The pattern was simple and straight forward. How hard could it be???

I chose to use a simple, purple Red Heart yarn along with some sparkly buttons and a purple print, cotton fabric for the lining.  I figured it wouldn’t be that big. After all, I had read the finished dimensions and looked at the picture and it looked like a nice, small purse.

Well, I crocheted and crocheted and the bag got bigger and bigger. I was doing everything like the pattern said. Then I realized that when I was looking at the pattern, everything was written in centimeters and not inches. Oops!!!  Yes, the bag was coming out exactly how the pattern was written but I had not calculated that it was written in centimeters. The cute little handbag was suddenly a large, all-purpose, utility type bag.

After it was all said and done, the bag came out great.  I loved how wide the top of the bag opened so you would easily see the contents of it.  The lining was a bit of a challenge to fit in.  Although I cut it according to the pattern size, it was still a bit small for the actual bag. That made the actual fitting of it a little of the hard side.  The pattern also didn’t clearly state whether the lining should be machined stitched into the bag or if it should hand sewed in.  I ended up sewing in with the machine the ends of the lining but finished it by hand stitching the lining into the bag.

The bag is completely machine washable making it even more useful!

This was a lot of fun to make and if you are looking for a nice gift to make, this is definitely a nice one.

The FREE pattern can be found HERE!