Folk Art Shoulder Bag- A finished project

 Hello all! I hope you are all happy, healthy and safe in your part of the world.

Here in Kangarooland we are seeing an increase of Rona cases which has sent the eastern states into lockdowns. 

In my little patch I am just enjoying the short walks, crocheting and the warmer pre-Spring weather.

In Melbourne we are in Woiwarrung country and the Wurundjeri people used to recognise not 4 but 7 seasons here. Which makes perfect sense to me. The warmth and beginning of the blossom season doesn't happen magically on the 1st of September. I notice signs of spring as early as the 2nd and 3rd weeks of August. According to the local indigenous calendar it's currently Guling or Orchid season in August. It is characterised by orchids flowering, the silver wattle bursting into colour and male koalas bellowing at night.  Well I can say there are no koalas around here, but the other 2 make sense. 

Wattles are looking freaking fabulous on my morning walks and smell amazing.

I bloody love wattle. Always have. Each little ball is super soft and fluffy. And most wattles have this intoxicating sweet scent that smells like nothing else. I just shove my face in a bunch like this and INHALE!

The lemony yellow ones above (maybe Acacia vestita?) doesn't really have a scent but the species below Acacia pycnantha (Golden Wattle) smells glorious.

Yes they really are THAT yellow. There is no filter or photo tampering in these images.

The local swans have fluffy little babies.

And there are classic signs of Guling season in my own garden.

And Waring Wombat season from April to July with it's cold, rainy days and misty mornings is finished.

This weekend has been a glorious 20+ degrees celsius.  I was able to spend the day out yesterday getting the vegie garden ready for summer crops, planting out potatoes and sowing tomato seed in pots.

But that's not why we're here. I ticked the first project off my list of WIPs. 

Get ready for some serious crochet bag porn.

This little shoulder bag is decorated with leftover flowers from my Jardin D'ete pot cosies. I also made extra daisies and leaves.

I used Flinders cotton 4 ply yarn for the main body of the bag and strap and Scheepjes Catona 4 ply for all the flowers, leaves and vines. I adore the glossy, vibrant colours of Scheepjes Catona. I only had small little skeins to use, otherwise I would have used Scheepjes for the entire bag. It's not easily available here in Australia.

The bag was a simple rectangle crocheted in single stitch. Then I crocheted two small narrow rectangles for the sides, and a long shoulder strap long enough to hang diagonally across my body.

Once I whip stitched these 3 elements together, I used surface slip stitches to work green vines around the straps and on both sides of the bag.  After that I hand sewed all the flowers and leaves over the piece.

So yesterday I caught Chuck sleeping on the bag and I thought I had picked off each and every one of his manky dogs hairs. But the camera found all the ones I missed.

I purchased some fabric from Spotlight to line the bag and handles. Now I know lining the handles might feel like overkill BUT one of the main problems with crocheted handles is they tend to stretch. Lining them with fabric stops this completely.

I also lined it inside including a pocket on one side. The pocket is a little too big and gapes out so I added a snap stud thingo.

I hope you like my little bag. I really really like it. I think it's my new go-to bag.

Some flowers were deliberately scraped together using last remnants of yarn. I like this crazy look.

There are lots of technical errors with the lining but it's fine. It works and I really adore the folk artsy look!

I hope you've enjoyed visiting and letting me show off my new bag. Why don't you make one for yourself?

Louise

Red Haired Amazona