Cupcake Purse Samples

Everyone needs a cupcake purse, right?  After seeing crocheted cupcake purses on Ravelry I just had to make my own.  I started out with the basic pattern (this pattern is for a cradle purse, I just skipped all the interior elements and made a plain purse) and added an extra fuchsia frill around the middle.  I really like how the bottom part looks, the front and back post double crochet really mimics a knitted look, but is sooooo much faster.  The bottom did seem a little wimpy though and once it’s filled with girly stuff it doesn’t stand up as nice, hmmmm, I guess I’ll make another one and add some more frills, oh and beads too! I made two bottoms for this one and added plastic canvas in between the layers to make a nice sturdy bottom that would stand up and help the cupcake keep its shapes.  I added pony beads to my yarn before I started to crochet and then crocheted them into the “frosting” at regular intervals.  I also did more single crochet through the back loop only to allow me to add extra frills around the center and at the top.  This is exactly what I going for, now who needs a cupcake purse?

All I Can Do Is Crochet

Wednesday morning at 10:30, while trying to decide what I was going to write about for my blog, I decided that I needed to make Little Miss a cute summer top, something with knitting or crochet.  I popped over to ravelry and 10 minutes later was printing the pattern and picking the yarn.  By lunchtime the crocheting was done (we had lunch a little late) and it was time to start the sewing.  The sewing was going well, but I had to stop to go pick up Little Sir from school, and that’s when things started going wrong. 

Apparently I had left the lights on in the car all day and the battery was dead, did I mention that I am a week from my due date and walking is not something I want to do?  Oh well, so we walked to pick him up, luckily it’s not to far to his school and we got there right on time.  Back at home snacks were eaten and kids were playing and I was Googling to find a repair shop that would come and jump start the car when something went horribly wrong with the computer, a virus attack, oh nooooooo, but I just renewed my anti-virus!  Yeah, so now the computer is pretty much useless (I have managed to fix it, but it took me a couple of days and a lot of cussing).

I won’t bore you with more about all this, but there has been a lot of walking and a lot of whining (from me).  Anyway back to the crochet, the top is finished and cute, yay, something went right.  Wow, crocheting is a lot faster than knitting, maybe I should make something else, like that cupcake purse that has been on my list for a while (that was yesterday).  By yesterday evening the purse was almost finished (must weave in ends) and another idea had hit me, what if I made this with crochet thread and a tiny hook and made it into a bottle cap pin cushion? I can’t find my brown thread, but oh well, white will work, and before bedtime I had this, almost finished, but it still needs something…like a cherry…hmmmm, use a bead or crochet one… Oh and now that I’ve made it once I want to make it again, only different and better, with felt and beads and I really need to get started on it now so I can finish up before dinner.  And a giant one would be cool too, with sprinkles and glitter, I could use a vinegar bottle for a hard base and paint it brown, and speaking of glitter I want to glitter some shoes, and that reminds me, I need a shoe rack, and, and, and…

Yeah, and this is exactly how my mind works, is this how everyone’s brain works or am I “special”?  And before I forget, I used the top half of this crochet halter top pattern (PDF) as my base and added the fabric and I used this cupcake cradle purse as a starting point for my cupcake purse without cradle.

Have a super crafty weekend!

Pop Tab Purse – The Insanity Continues

I have been really obsessed with this project.  It was a challenge to figure out how to make the motifs and then to get all of the pieces to fit together from just looking at a picture and guessing.  This was what kept me up at night and once I did go to bed it’s what I dreamed about and now I have finally fitted all the pieces together!  I still need to put a lining in and figure out the type of closure I want to use, but I think I’m going to have to put this down for a little while and work on something beside pop tabs before that happens. Yeah, I need to finish weaving in the ends too. 

I learned a lot from this project:  The original bag, that I have copied, sells for $120-$130 and that is a steal for the amount of work involved in making one of these (even if you have done it a hundred times), size 18 nylon is really to big a smaller yarn would look better, weaving in ends sucks, and sometimes you have to walk away from a project for a while to be able to finish it without loosing your mind.

Would anyone like to volunteer to put a lining in this bag for me?, I think it may be a pain because of the shape.  I guess I’ll figure that out later!  Have a crafty weekend everyone.

Work In Progress – More Pop Tab Insanity

I’m briefly checking to say that this is what I have been working on this all day, finishing up the last five motifs and making the handle. I just need to finish putting everything together and then figure out how to make a lining and what sort of closure I want to use.  I’m soooooo excited at how this is coming together, look for the finished purse tomorrow, I’m going to have some dinner and finish crocheting this together!

Pop Tab Purse Prototype - Completed

I have finished my pop tab purse prototype (ahem, I know I said a week, note to self be more vague about time on blog).

I really like how the red fabric looks showing through the holes in the tabs!

I added a zippered pocket on the inside, just a little something I really like in a purse. I also like the round zipper pull. I found this zipper in my stash of reclaimed zippers, I don’t know if I will be able to find something similar that is in the budget for this piece, but I can always adapt a zipper pull.

I would say my satisfaction level is about 85%, not bad for the first try of this style. What I learned putting in the linings: the inner lining would be easier to add before sewing the ends on, I’m not sure that the ends need to have pop tabs (they just make the bag hard to turn and the side seams of the lining shows through), need to crochet the top of the bag a bit taller so I can sew the zipper in using the sewing machine instead of by hand, and I need to add a strap or handle to the bag. Now I need to make a “real” one, I’ll take plenty of photos along the way, maybe I’ll even make a tutorial (some day ;-D).

There is also an interesting post on craftster about pop tab purses with hexagons that I’m looking at, I may have to give it a try, I really like how the strap looks where it attaches to the bag.

Pop Tab Purse Prototype

I wanted to share some of the processes that I use when working on a new design.  I think a lot of times we forget how much time and effort go into producing a new product and I wanted to show a little of how my mind works. 

I have been assembling the pop tabs for this bag for three days (pop tab crochet is a little hard on my hands, so there are a lot of breaks ;) and there have been snow days from school and that means less design time).  I will probably take the rest of the week to get the linings installed and the zipper put in. 

Once I finish a prototype I reassess how I put the bag together and see if I can find a more efficient way to assemble it and if there are any constructions steps that need to be changed.

Here is what the outside of the purse looks like and now I will begin working on sizing the linings.  I really like how it is turning out so far.

This one is a clutch style, I might add a removable strap to the final design.  I used 240 tabs and nylon thread.  The tabs are crocheted into rows and then the rows are slip stitched together.  I already know that I need to find a better way to connect the rows together to reduce the amount of ends that I have to finish.  I attached eleven rows and then crocheted a border around the edge.  Strips of tabs were attached to the ends to finish the outside.  Turning the final bag was difficult and I need to make sure that I don’t bend any of the tabs (see top photo, right side.  I was able to bend it back, but I need to be careful).

I will be putting in a double lining.  There are gaps in the tabs for fabric to show through, so I’m using plain red for the interlining to peek through these holes.  I will be using a floral with black and red for the lining you’ll see when the bag is opened.  I am also thinking that a heavy duty zipper with silver teeth and black tape would look really good, instead of just a regular black zipper.

I am going for a couture styled bag, not a crafty/folksy look and will achieve this look by using quality fabrics for the lining, super clean finishes on all seams and edges, and unique details like a custom zipper pull.  I will be testing this bag myself and once that is finished I will tally up how many hours it takes to produce one, cost of supplies, and research similar bags and formulate a price and maybe with luck I will have one listed in my etsy store in a month, whew, makes sewing from a pattern sound simple. 

I am always super excited to finish a new design and try it out and this one is no exception.  My last pop tab bag was a one of a kind and never made it to “production”, it just wasn’t quite right, this time I think I have it. 

What do you guys think, any suggestions?  Look for the finished bag next week.

The Kelly bag

I admit it, I joined ravelry (everyone else it doing it) and now I can super organize my knitting projects and find new friends and patterns. BTW my user name is crafterella, if anyone wants to add me to their friends :).

To start off my new, super organized knitting I whipped up The Kelly Bag a super cute felted bag. I love the way the handle goes through the flap!

Here it is pre-felted (it's in the washer right now).I decided to add a swiss darned initial (can you tell it's a K?). I'm anxious to see how that felts up. If it looks silly Plan B is to put an applique or something over it. I also mitered the bottom corners of the bag to give it a little dimension. I am planning on lining the bag to give it a bit more structure, I have made felted bags before and they are just to floppy for me, and I need a little pocket on the inside.

This is a nice straight forward pattern and definitely easy to knit, it was really fast too! Once it's done drying and lined I post a finished picture.

Jayne's AP Bag

While I was in the swap for knitters on Craftster I visited my local yarn store in Lincoln(Nebraska) and I bought 3 skeins of lamb's pride wool. I knew I wanted to make a felted purse, but I did not have a specific pattern in mind. I spent about a week looking for the perfect pattern and I found Jayne's AP bag pattern and immediately knew this was the pattern for me. The pattern uses four different colors of wool and I only had three, I just used orange for color A and color C.

This is all the yarn I had left, I guess I cut it pretty close.

Here's the final product, I have felted it, but I may felt it more I haven't decided. I think that I will make a lining for the purse, I like to have a small pocket on the inside of my purses and I think that a cardboard liner in the bottom would help the bag hold its shape and set better.
I really like how this pattern knits up, there is no seaming, just a lot of ends to weave in. When I was knitting the flap I accidentally knitted the stripe pattern wrong so the stripes on the flap don't match up like they should. I should also mention that I used a "bulky" wool and in hindsight I should have used larger needles(10.5 was recommended for the yarn) and that would have made the knitting looser and I think the bag would have felted better. I also like look of the leather strap on the original pattern better than my knitted version. I really enjoyed making this purse and I plan to make this pattern again.

Hiding Out

For anyone wondering where I have been, I have been hiding. Actually I have been a little under the weather, but never fear, I have still been crafting. In the past week my crafting ADD has produced this.A stack of record bowls. These are fun and quick, you just put the record in the oven at 250 for a few minutes and once they are soft you shape them. I am also working on a record purse, but so far it is just a stack of jaggedly cut vinyl.
Some crocheted scrubbies made from nylon netting that I bought last weekend at the city wide yard sale.Tawashis that are knitted and crocheted. I had never heard of tawashis until I joined the swap for knitters only at craftster and one of the other swappers mentioned making these with acrylic yarn. After searching the "net" and learning how to read the Japanese patterns these are what I came up with.A crocheted cupcake pincushion made from a plastic bottle cap. As you can see I'm still finishing the ruffle of icing.The start of some pop tab chain maile to make a purse. I purchased instructions from aluminus publishing.And finally, some more shrinky dinks for my swap partner. These are stitch markers and yarn bobbins to hold yarn tails modeled after bread ties. These are a practice run. I had a hard time getting them to shrink without sticking. When I make more I may shrink them with my heat gun so I have more control.

Finished Pop Tab Purse

I finished my pop tab purse, it was a good learning experience. I guess you would call this a prototype. I like how the tabs look woven together and I also like the crocheted edges. I think the strap needs something, I'm just not sure what. I sewed the two pieces together on the sewing machine when I added the zipper and lining and I like the look of that, I'm going to have to think on it some more, refine it a bit.