Dopp Kit Travel Bag

Hi everybody. Welcome to our live events. My name is Brenda Kaby Anderson. I'm a crochet designer and instructor, and today I'm going to be sharing with you guys the process for making the Dop kit travel bag. So if you'd like to follow along, there is a free download, free to everybody.

Um, the download link is in the description, so you can go ahead and uh check it out and follow along if you like. Otherwise, you can always download it later if you decide you want to wait, that's fine too. Um, so as you guys may know, Father's Day is coming right up, um, and I have one of those dads that's like super impossible to figure out what to get him for Father's Day. So when I think about Father's Day gifts, I usually opt for something that's very practical. My dad is a very practical fellow.

Um, and so that's kind of what inspired this gift. I wanted to make something that, you know, most people could use whether you're a father or not a father doesn't matter. Um, I just want to make something that's really useful, something of course that looks nice, um, but emphasis on something that's sturdy, useful, does what it's supposed to, um, and then as an added bonus is, of course, handmade by you so that it kind of has that extra feeling of, you know, I thought about you when I made this, right? Um, So, yeah, so we're going to be working our way through this project. It is very simple in single crochet, worked and turned rows.

I'm going to show you how to construct it and we're probably going to be spending a larger amount of the time um focusing on the actual building of the bag once we get our piece crocheted. So, um, we'll start at the beginning. Uh, but before we do that, let's, we're gonna talk about materials. So you, I really only needed one skein of the yarn that I had linked in the pattern download, um, if you want to see exactly what that is, but let me tell you how many yards that is. Uh, let's see.

110 yards um of this t-shirt style yarn. Now, you do not have to use t-shirt style yarn. I chose this t-shirt style yarn. Here, let me pull the project in here actually, so you guys can see what we're making. Um, so here it is.

This is the dot bag, has these nice little personalized tags on it, um, and I'll talk more about those in just a minute. Um, but I, you know, I use this t-shirt style yarn because this particular yarn does not peel. It has really nice stitch definition when you crochet it up, it makes a very firm fabric. This is not at all lined or anything like that, but it has plenty of structure just as is. Um, there right now I have a few things in the bottom of this bag.

I can pull them out though. So you guys can see, this is what the bag looks like with nothing in it. There's nothing stuffed in there. It's just the structure of the fabric. So, that's why I chose this particular yarn, because it just lends a lot of structure, and it looks really nice and clean.

Um, and it's easy to stitch up. So the thing about this t-shirt yarn, oftentimes t-shirt yarn can be difficult for people to crochet with. It can hurt your hands, um, because it's a little bit grippy, it doesn't slip on itself very much. But this particular brand, the style of yarn, it has Spandex in it. So you can see right here, I can stretch it quite a bit and it's also slipperier than other t-shirt yarns I've used.

So for this reason, I thought I would try this, this yarn out so that it'd be a little bit easier on people's hands. And indeed, I felt that like it was very easy on my hands, um. You know, it is a little bit slippery, so that it kind of, there is a little bit, you know, when you're crocheting it up, you do have to be, you know, and be taking your time. You can't just whip through it like, maybe if you had a worst weight acrylic or wool or something like that. You do have to go a little bit slower, but it's, it's for me, it was a very easy on my hands.

Um, so that's why I chose this particular yarn, but you can completely, you know, can absolutely substitute with something else. It just has to be something that when you crochet it up at a tight gauge, it gives you a very firm fabric. It could be cotton, it could be, um, another t-shirt yarn, it could be, I feel like uh those like beginner yarn or the the like ooble's yarn, that sort of tube. Structured yarn. I think that that would look very, very similar to this yarn once this is crocheted up.

um, you could try something like that, although those might be a slightly thinner gauge, so your bag might end up just a little bit smaller if you use that. Um, but I think that there are varying widths of that type of yarn, that tube structure yarn, so you might be able to find something that would meet this gauge, um. Yeah, so, you know, you can definitely do a little gauge swatch, test it out, see if whatever it is that you want to use is going to give you a very stiff fabric and not a lot of holes between your stitches, and then you should be just fine. OK, so you're going to need the yarn, you're going to need a hook, whatever hook you need to, in order to get gauge. For this particular project, I'm using an H hook, which is a 5 millimeter hook, um, because that's what I needed to do in order to crochet up this particular yarn and get a nice firm gauge with that.

You are going to be needing a zipper, so you can use a separating zipper or a non-separating zipper. Um, it doesn't really matter. You can also, if you don't have the proper length zipper, you could, as long as it's longer, you know, as long as you need it to be or longer, you can certainly shorten a zipper up to be the right size. Um, so if you don't know what to get, you can always buy an extra. Or you know, a longer zipper than you think you're going to need, and then you can cut it down.

And we'll talk more, a little bit more about that once we get to, um, working on the zipper. But you're going to need some sort of a zipper. Um, I like this kind of heavy duty. I think this is a number 5 is what I think the teeth are, but, um, I like a metal zipper, um, but you know, you could use plastic or some other kind of zipper as well. That's fine.

And then I special ordered, I talked a little bit about these already, but I special ordered these little tags. These are like a faux leather tag, and you can have them personalized to say different things. So, I, I put, um, best dad since 1974. Um, that one is from my dad, um, because that's when he had his first kid. And then this one, this is for my husband.

It just says best dad ever. And then there's a little paper airplane because my husband is a very fun dad. He loves playing with the kids and I just wanted something to kind of symbolize that. So both of these tags, they both came from Amazon. I have links for them in the pattern download in case you're interested in ordering these.

They do take a little while to arrive. Um, that's why we have this pattern available already for a while in case people wanted to get those before they started on the project. But this is the kind of thing you can add it right at the end of your project, so you could work on your project first, crochet it all up, and then just add these later. Um, you can even add them after your project is finished if you need to. So, um, in case you're wondering the difference between these two, this, this one seems like the letters are a little bit indented almost, and the printing is very dark and it's black, and I feel like this shows up a lot better than this.

I do like how this looks as well. It's just a different style. Um, I prefer this. This is a little bit thick. A little bit sturdier, but I wanted to give a couple of different options and try out some different places to get these um full leather tags.

So in your download, this one, this one that I like a little bit better, this one is listed first. The link is first in the download, and this one is 2, just in case you're wondering, um. OK, so these come with little rivets, these little brass rivets. And that's how you can attach them to your piece. However, the problem with attaching with these little teeny tiny little rivets is so you have the cap on each end and you're crocheting this up at a fairly bulky gauge, so the holes between your stitches are pretty large.

So those rivets just. Going to pop right through and your label's not going to hold, unless you do something on the back of your label. So, what I did was I created this little washer. I don't know if you guys can see this because it's plastic. I'll try to tilt it around so maybe the shine on it, you'll be able to see, or maybe I'll put it in front of the black.

But here's a little plastic circle that I made a little hole in, and this is um just made out of like a takeout lid or, you know, yogurt container lid, just a thin plastic, and we'll be making these. I'll show you how to do this. So I'm using this as a washer on the back of my the the strap that we affixed it to. Here, let me pull this in. So, here's my label, and on the back, you can see I have this little washer, and that's what keeps the head of the washer from popping through between your stitches.

You just have to have something bigger than the space between your stitches, so it can't come out. All right, so these are completely optional. You don't have to have these tags, of course, to make this project. Um, you also don't have to use the rivets if you don't want to. You can just simply use your yarn and stitch through the holes on each side, and that would look really nice too.

I just really like that extra kind of, I don't know, that little. Extra detail of the little brass rivets. I just thought it looked really nice and polished, and I really wanted to um be able to use those. So, um, let's see, I think that that is it as far as materials. Oh, and actually, um, I'll talk about this just for a minute more.

These plastic little plastic washers that I made, I just used scissors to cut them out of the lid. I used a lighter to heat up a needle and to melt a hole in the center of it. Um, so I also needed those materials as well. Um, so you only need that if you're using the labels and you're using the rivets in the labels. All right, so, um, and I forgot to mention, of course, you guys, this is a live event.

Hello. So if you guys want to say hi to me, you can drop that in the chat if you guys have any questions, uh, if you have advice for other crafters you want to put in there, um, you know, anything that you're wondering about or if something isn't clear, you want me to go over something. Uh, you know, a second time or explain something further, then definitely let me know. Um, yeah, so I'm, yeah, I look forward to hearing from you guys in the chat. All righty, so let's get started.

I'm working up this project here. Um, I am gonna be using this gray t-shirt yarn. For the demo. And we're gonna just start with a slipknot and place that on our hook. And we're gonna chain 41.

So 12345678. 9, 1011, 1213, 1415, 1617, 1819, 2021, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 5, 36, 37, 38. 39, 40, 41. OK, so here is our chain. You can see how much this stretches.

It's quite a bit. It's very stretchy. Um, if you are using a t-shirt you're on that does not stretch, do not fear it is fine. It's not going to affect your bag at all. In fact, it'll probably be even more structured, um, but it is, you might want to have, you will probably have to take some breaks and stretch your hands a little bit because it can be kind of hard on your hands.

All right, so if you take a look at this chain, there's a whole bunch of little V's going in this direction. It kind of looks like a braid. And if we roll that over, so that is touching the table, you can see all these little horizontal dashes on the back, and that's where we're going to be working under. So we're going to skip the first dash, which is right here up next to the hook, and we're going to go underneath the second one. So we're going to insert there.

Yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, and pull through to. That's our first single crochet. I'm going to throw a stitch marker in there. If you're newer to crochet, definitely, um, stitch markers are your friend. Marking the first and last stitches can really help you out um in keeping track of your the ends of your rows, so they're neat and tidy.

So there's our first stitch, and we're going to do a single crochet into that bottom, uh, the bottom of the chain all the way across into each chain. OK, so we're gonna end up with a total of 40 single crochets. And you can probably see as I'm working this up, that this yarn is fairly thick for this hook. I think the hook that is recommended is actually 2 sizes up from this hook, um, but this really got me the best fabric for this, for this bag. So I needed to crochet it up at a very tight gauge so that way, um, it just, it has a bunch of structure.

Looks like you guys are popping in here already. That's awesome. Um, OK. Oh. Let's see, we've got someone from Kazakhstan.

Awesome, and Toronto, Colorado, we've got hellos coming from all over the place. Austria, excellent. Oh, thank you for the compliment on my sweater. Um, this is, this is actually something that I taught a class on for at, um, on Craftsy and also I think it might be available on the Creative Crochet Creative Crochet Corner website as well. It's called the Garland Top.

It's very easy. Um, and we've got a hey from Leah. Hi, and Hannah. Hi from Alabama. I'm going to try and make one of these before we go on vacation next month.

Awesome. Yeah, and then you can bring your stuff with you in your bag. And Bell says, good morning to everyone. And Bella's here again. I remember you.

Ah, And Chiki says hi from the UK. Cheeky Sprite, I love that. And good morning to Mary. Thank you guys so much for saying hi. It's very nice for me when you guys pop in there and say hello because then I really feel like I'm not just talking to um nobody.

I'm so glad you guys are there. OK. So I'm about halfway across, um. And I just wanted to kind of show you what this, you know, what this looks like. I know I'm just doing single crochet here and it's not very exciting, but I wanted to get this row in here so that you guys could see what it looks like, what this fabric is doing here because I just find it very interesting, especially on the next row, it's probably going to start rippling a little bit, which is normal for this.

So, um, I do want to point out to you, if you don't check your gauge and your gauge is a little bit bigger than mine, you know, definitely after a a few rows, just be monitoring your gauge because even if you like the fabric that it's turning out to be, if you only bought one skein of this particular yarn and you're trying to, you know, work from my pattern, if it's too big, you might run out of yarn, because I find that this yarn, it's I feel like it's very easy to start crocheting a little bit looser, and then you, you might get pretty close on the the yarn amounts there. OK, so there is our first row, and it does kind of have like a little bit of a mind of its own. It just sort of wants to get, let's see if it does it on the next row, but it, it's was starting to kind of get a little bit wavy because I was crocheting it up pretty tightly, but that's completely, I just wanted to show you because at first I was like, oh, is this gonna make an OK fabric? This seems weird. Like, see how much it's curling already?

It just wants to curl up. I think it's just a combination of this, that this is t-shirt yarn, also that it's got that stretch in it. Um, and also that I'm crocheting it up at a very, a very tight gauge here. But it doesn't feel like as tight, you know, because, because of that stretchiness in the yarn, when you're stitching with it, it's not as big of a struggle as, you know, if you were using a, a non-stretchy t-shirt yarn. You can see it, look at this.

It's already, it's like this little tight spiral here that it's wanting to curl right up. So this is normal. And later on, um, you know, towards the end of your project, you can steam block it, and that's going to help it relax a little bit, but I found, I'll show you later on the piece that I have that hasn't been blocked yet and how it compares to the bag that has been blocked. All right, so, basically, you're just gonna work, like, see, look at that. It just wants to.

Just curl right up. Um, so, this piece, we've got, um, almost 2 rows here, like 1.5 rows, and you're gonna end up working a total of 6 rows back and forth. So, 1 stitch into each stitch across. And I should mention, here, let me get to the end here. When you are starting and stopping your rows, especially if you are new at crochet, you have to be paying attention to whether you are really working into that last stitch of the row.

Also, you're going to make a turning chain at the end of the row. You're just going to chain one and turn, and then you don't work into that turning chain, OK, for this pattern. I almost never work into my turning chains, um. Especially when it's a single crochet fabric. All right, I've just got a few more and then I will show you that, just in case you're a little newer to crochet and you don't know, you're not, you're unfamiliar with working back and forth and turn rows.

All right, so here is my last stitch, which I had marked. Go to work into that stitch, doing my last single crochet, and then I will chain one and turn my work, just like I'm turning a page in a book. You can see how much this wants to just curl up and do funny things, but as you stitch, um, you know, more layers, it's the curl is not going to be quite so tight, but you will see that it does still want to curl up um until later. So, like I said before, you're gonna do 6 rows of single crochet, and your piece will look like this when you're done with those 6 rows. OK.

So here is our Our last stitch that we worked. So, um, in order to count your rows, you can see every time where there's these kind of prominent grooves, like there's one here and there's one here, that's two rows. So 123456. All right? And your turning or your beginning tail should be kitty corner opposite of where your last loop is, your last working loop.

So then we're just going to cut this off. So just give yourself enough so that you can weave it in later and just pull through. And then we're going to turn our work just like we're going to work another row, OK, as if we hadn't fastened off. So we're going to grab that ball of yarn, and we're going to count 6 stitches from the right. So, 123456, and the 7th stitch, that's where we're going to insert our hook.

So we're going to insert into the 7th stitch. We're going to pull up a loop right there. Then we're going to chain one just to anchor everything. That's not going to count as a stitch. We're not going to work into it.

We're going to make another stitch into that same stitch where we pulled up our loop. And I like to just bring this yarn tail, get this one out of the way, so it's not so confusing. I like to bring this new yarn tail onto the top of my work here and encase it as I work across. So again, we're going to insert our hook into that same spot, insert yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over and pull through to. There's our first single crochet of this row.

And we're gonna work all the way across until there are 6 stitches left. OK. So, this will be a total of 28 stitches across that we're making here, including that very first one we did. See how I'm crocheting over that yarn tail. You don't have to do that.

I just find it, you know, it's just easy enough to do and then later on, you don't have to weave that in. So I will do that for a few inches here. And then I'll just let it kind of hang out. You can let it hang out on the front or on the back, doesn't really matter. You're just gonna cut it off later, so.

So we're just doing those single crochets across to the other side, and we're gonna stop when there are 6 single crochets left. Oh, hello Creative Minds from Spain. Hi. Let's see. Cheeky Sprite is saying if, if double, I use the stacking single crochet.

Oh yes, uh-huh, so. Um, a stacked stitch at the beginning of the row that makes it a little bit wider, and then it looks a little bit more like a stitch. Cheeky Sprite is talking about how they are using, they use a stacked single crochet instead of doing a turning well, instead of doing a, a regular turning chain, and then they end up working into that stitch because it looks a little bit more like a regular um double crochet. Thank you for the compliment, Janie, that's so nice. Um, Cheeky Spread says I have some t-shirt yarn and find it difficult to work with, but going to try this.

Yeah, it is, it is, it can be kind of hard on your hands. There's a lot of drag when you're pulling it through, a lot of friction. So it can be, unless you crochet it up in a very loose gauge, but oftentimes when we're using that t-shirt yarn, a lot of times we're making home decor, like baskets or purses or other things that we want to be sturdy. Um, and so, when we're doing that, we usually use a tight gauge, and then it makes it a little bit tricky. All right, so here we have 6 stitches left, There's 6 stitches right there.

So we're going to stop, and we're going to chain one, and we're going to turn our work. And then we're gonna work back and forth, OK, for a while. So, um, you can refer to your pattern, how many rows to work, but it's row, so row number 7 was that first row where we added it, we, we actually added it over here. Um. And worked across just those 28 stitches that was row number 7.

So we've got row number 7. Now we're doing row number 8. And you're gonna keep working back and forth and back and forth into those in in those um interned rows until you've got a total of 19 rows that you've worked, including, um, including the 1st 6 rows. OK? So let me show you what that looks like.

So here we have, see how much it wants to curl? It's very stiff. Um, here we have Those 1st 6 rows that kind of stick out here, and then in the middle, we've got just those 28 stitches that we're working across right here. And we have worked 90 up to row 19. OK, so we've got 19 rows and then.

Let me put my hook in here. So just imagine I just completed row number 19, so this would be row number 789, 1011, 1213, 1415, 1617, 1819, and then we're going to cut our yarn, just leave, you know, a few inches so you can weave that in later and pull it through to fasten off. Then you're going to flip the whole piece over, so you're looking at the other side. And now we're going to add A chain, so we're gonna start with a chain this time, so we're gonna. Put a slipknot on her hook.

And we're gonna change 6. So 12345, and 6. And now, We're going to just start stitching right here in that very last stitch that we worked. So you might be wondering why didn't you just chain at the end and turn and start working across, which you could certainly do, and we would be doing that on the next row. This is basically like laying the foundation chain for the next row to work into.

And the reason that I do this where I fasten off and then chain a bunch and now I'm going to stitch across here and then I'm going to change them at the end. The the only reason I do it that way is because it actually is symmetrical from side to side. If you do the thing where you're working back and forth and back and forth, and then you do a chain here, and then you work into it, then you can work all the way across, and then you do a chain here. You end with the chain and you don't end with the single crochets, so it's off by just a little bit, which is not a big deal, but this is crocheted at a fairly, you know, it's got lots of stitch definition and it's a fairly large um stitch to it. It's a tight gauge, but the stitches are pretty big.

So I just didn't know if um if I would like how that looked. So, I changed 6 and now I'm going to start by working into that very last stitch right before we fastened off. So I'm going to insert yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, and pull through 2 to do my first single crochet. So you can see, here's my 6 chains, single crochet, and now we're going to single crochet across. Each of the remaining 27 stitches in this little group here.

All right, we just have a few more left before we get to the corner. Just making a single crochet into each of those stitches across. And here is our last single crochet. We've gotten to the last one, and now we're going to change 6. So, 123456.

All right. Then we turn our work. So we can crochet in the opposite direction. I'm going to change just one more, and that is going to count as a turning chain. And now, on the next row, I'm going to work into each of those 6 stitches.

OK? So, we skip the turning chain, and we're going to work underneath the top two loops, just like how you normally would. Making a single crochet into each stitch across. Now, sometimes, you know, some people like to work just into the back loop or the front loop. I like to work under both here so that it's a little bit sturdier.

So if you're finding it tricky to get your hook underneath those two loops, you can rotate it so that you're actually placing your hook underneath from Right side to wrong side, basically, or like top to bottom almost, underneath that one dash that's on the bottom of your stitch, and see how there's the two loops on the top. That makes it a little bit easier for me to do. So, if I actually can see that stitch on the bottom like that. OK, we've got 12345. Here's number 6.

And then we're gonna work all the way across. So, we're gonna do a single crochet in each of these 28 stitches, and then when we get to the other end, we're gonna work into those 6 chains that we had first started with on the at the beginning of the previous row. Oh, the cicadas are loudly buzzing in Pennsylvania. That's what, um, Cindy is telling us. Huh.

I don't know if I've heard them yet this summer here. Oh, cheeky Sprite is saying, Cindy, I remember when I visited Malaysia hearing those little bugs, they're loud. Yeah, they are loud. I remember when I was a kid, I always thought that it was like some kind of noise from the overhead street lights or something. I don't think I even realized that it was a bug making that sound for a long time.

Mm. Exciting. Oh, Cindy's saying that that these would make great notions or small project pigs. Yeah, it would be really. Um, that's actually what I was using mine for before I put the, the best dad label on it and then I felt like, OK, maybe I shouldn't just start taking over this project because this really needs to go to my dad.

Um, but yeah, they're, they're like perfect for like a hat or socks or mittens style, you know, project. Size, I should say size project. All right, so here we are working our last couple of single crochets. Into those um 28 stitches across, and now we have that little chain that we made at the beginning. So, I'm going to work a single crochet into each of those chain stitches.

There's our 3rd 13. For 5 And 6. So this is definitely the most awkward part is working into those chains, but that's like pretty much everything in crochet. It's always awkward at the beginning. OK.

So there we have those little tabs sticking out, and now we can just chain one, turn our work, and we're gonna work back and forth and back and forth in turned rows, as your pattern states, I believe it's until you get to maybe row 34 or something like that. Um, and then you're going to repeat sections. So, then you'll fasten off. Here, let me actually bring out this piece so you can see what it looks like. After you've done the repeat.

All righty. OK, had to untangle that a little bit there. OK. All right, so we need to see this piece here. I am, what I'm gonna do, I think, is I'm gonna, I've got a little piece of foam here cause I knew this would be tricky to see.

And I'm just going to lay this here and put this piece on top so I can pin it out so you can see what the whole thing looks like all at once. All right, let's see if we can get this whole thing. Into view here. All right, so you don't, um. I'm just pinning this right now just so that you guys can actually see this, because I can't hold it.

I can't keep it from curling while I'm showing you guys. Um, but then we're just gonna talk a little bit about the shaping here, because you've already learned everything you need to know in order to make this shape. OK, so here we have. This is the section where we started with those 6 rows. I just showed you how to do this and then how to add on, you know, so that you can extend the two sides, and then you work this back and forth and back and forth as the pattern states.

Then you fasten off. Um, here's my little yarn tail from fastening off, and you turn your work and you join up right here and you're going to do exactly the same thing we already did. Remember, we joined our yarn and worked only across those 28 stitches. You will do that again here, and then Again, fasten off, and then you'll do that little chain of 6 stitches, work across the 28, chain 6 more, then make that little turning chain, and then you're able to work back and forth at the wider section, which is, so these wider sections are 40 stitches, these are 20. 8, and you already know how to make the shape.

So, um, once you are finished with that, then we're going to do uh a board of single crochet. So I'm going to show you this before I actually um let this come off the board just so you can see where we're going. Here's my working loop. I just have like 2 stitches left to make right over here in the corner, so I'm going to go ahead and do that before I start. Then I'm going to just start crocheting along this edge.

OK. I'm going to crochet crochet here, and then you have to add some extra stitches at that corner just to allow it to be flat. So you may end up adding just 2 extra stitches, sometimes there's 3 at the corner. It's just, you know, whatever you need to in order to crochet around and I will show you this in just a minute. But then when you get to these corners, these sort of concave corners are like, you know, where the um.

Where it's going in into the piece, those two corners, that's where you're going to do like a single crochet 3 together or a single crochet 2 together would also work. It just depends on, um, you know, what it looks like and if it can lay flat. And the reason is you're kind of doing. That decrease is so that it can lay flat there. You're kind of gathering the stitches together.

You'll see that in a minute, but these areas here on the inside, that's where we're going to be doing those decreases, and the corners on the outside, that's where we're really doing an increase and adding some extra stitches. And it does not matter exactly how many stitches. You, you don't need to worry and be like, well, I need to put exactly 2 extra stitches in each corner. You're just gonna crochet around it and see if it lays flat or mostly flat, and it will be fine. And I will show you that.

I just wanted you to understand how that works. So you're going to crochet along this edge all the way along down to the bottom here, and when you work your way across the bottom edge, we're just going to do a slip stitch in each stitch across. We don't want to add any width to it, and we want to add this kind of nice slip stitch that sits on top and it looks like a corded edge, and I'll show you that once I get there. And then we're going to go back up along this single crocheting up, and then we're Going to end with slip stitches into that very last row that we worked, OK, before we started doing the edging. So slip stitches go on the long ends here and here, the foundation chain and also the last row we worked, and then it's single crochet all the way around the rest of the piece.

Um, and this is all in your download. I have this little diagram picture so you can just kind of glance at that just to remember what you're doing, um. Yeah, and it's very, it's very simple. It took a lot of explaining for how simple it actually is. All right, so I'm going to pull this off of my board here.

So you can actually see me working on it. Get this out of the way here. OK, so here we are finishing up that very last row. I've got 2 stitches left. And here we are kind of already at this corner.

So we're just going to add some more stitches in here. Until it turns. See how you just need to add a couple stitches, and then it'll be able to turn that corner. And then we're going to work single crochet stitches across this edge. You don't have to put them into a super particular spot.

You just can kind of go for it, and if it doesn't look right, undo your stitch and try it in a different location. OK, here's the next corner. And I try not to put too many stitches into one stitch. So when you're adding a bunch into the corner, if it starts making a gap there, find a different place to put your hook, slightly different place, or go under two strands this time instead of 1 or something like that, so that keeps you from creating a big hole in your project there. All right.

And now, here we are working along the bottom of this section, and there are actually, you know, stitches that you can work into here. We're working into the bottom of those chains that we made. OK, and here we are at that corner. So I'm gonna just grab a couple of loops. And crochet them together.

Yarn over and go through those loops. OK? And I'll show you that again in case you missed that, but basically, I pulled up loops from a couple of locations around that corner and crocheted them all together. By just doing a yarn over and pulling through everything at once. I'll show you that in a minute when I get to the next corner.

And now I'm just working single crochets all into these row ends here. And you just want to make sure you're not putting so many stitches in that it's starting to ripple. That means there's too many stitches, and you also don't want it to be pulling really tight and puckering. So, that means there aren't enough stitches and you have to do them closer together. All right, so here's our next corner, and we're just gonna pick up a loop here, pick up a loop here right at that corner.

I'm gonna pick up a loop in the stitch, and yarn over and draw through all three, and do that nice and tight when you do that, so that we're not leaving a big hole there. And then we'll do a single crochet right next to it, and you can see that's allowing that corner to be flat, OK? Basically, we just want to put an edging all the way around this whole piece, and it should be able to lay flat. And I mean, lay flat, this thing is curling up like crazy, you guys. I don't mean that it's not gonna curl.

It's not gonna keep the piece flat. I just mean it's not gonna ripple, it's not gonna pull in. It's, you know, once you straighten it out and hold it down, it's going. To look like, you know, like it just kind of takes that nice corner, nice crisp corner there. OK.

And then when you get to yarn tails, there's going to be quite a few yarn tails. You can go ahead and just lay them across the top of your work and crochet over them. That's just going to make things a little bit easier for later. You don't have as many ends to weave in then. All right.

So you're just going to continue working all all your way around, um, all the way around this piece, and then when you get to this edge, I'm just going to kind of skip ahead here. We'll just kind of cut that off for now. Just imagine I kept going, was going all neatly around all these little corners, and here, here I'll just kind of pull up a loop over here so you guys can see what it looks like when you get to the corner. So, just imagine, I was just still crocheting along that. And here I am at this corner.

I'm just gonna kind of work into this corner a little bit so I can turn the corner. And then That's pretty good. When I get to that very first stitch, I'm gonna start doing a slip stitch, OK? So that means I just insert. Yarn over, pull through, and pull through the loop on my hook.

And you want to make sure that these slip stitches are not being made too tight. If you need to go up a hook size or so, then go ahead and do that. You, you, you know, you don't want it to be stretching the edge out. You don't want it to be too loose. Again, you just, this is just one of those points where you just have to be looking at what you're making and making sure that you're not.

Um, making that edge tight. You don't want it to start curling up. And you can see that slip stitch just sits right on the top surface as we make it, and it makes this edge look really nice. It just makes it look really crisp, like a very finished looking edge here. So that's why I wanted to use that slip stitch on the two longer sides, because those sides are going to be visible.

Those sides are going to be right next to our zipper. OK, so you're just going to do those slip stitches all the way across, continue doing your edging. And you'll go all the way up to that very last row that we worked, and then you're going to do a slip stitch into each of those stitches across, and then fasten off at the corner. All right, so let me show you what that looks like. So here we have the edging on.

Doing the last slip stitch here. And then I'm just gonna slip stitch into the next stitch and fasten off right here. You can cut your yarn, I've already done that, and then just pull it through. And it's nice if you have an extra length here, like half a yard or so, because we're gonna use that for seaming. All right, so this crazy curly thing here is going to get seamed, and I'm just going to try and hold this out for a second, so I don't have to pull out the yellow blocking mat again, so you guys can see what we have here.

OK. We've got that same shape again. Now, we're going to be stitching this edge right here. is going to go to this edge right here, OK? So I'm going to turn it sideways, and these two edges are going to get stitched together.

OK? You want to see that one more time? I'm bringing those little tabs that stick out and they're going to be stitched together. I'm going to use my stitch markers to hold them together so you guys can see what I'm doing. I usually actually Don't usually use stitch markers to pin this, but um if you are newer to sewing, newer to crochet, I definitely recommend using stitch markers or pins.

Safety pins are great here. Anything to just kind of hold those edges together, so you can actually see what you're matching up before you start to stitch. Oh, and here's the next side. So we're doing the same thing on the bottom. OK.

Let me try to open this up so you guys can actually see what I'm doing. OK, so those are the two edges we just pinned. And you can see, here's another short tab. This one is going to go right next to the one that we just pinned, OK? So, like this.

And we're gonna pin this here. OK. So you can kind of start to see our bag starting to take shape here, right? We've had these little gaps, and these are fine. We're going to leave those for right now.

We're gonna use this yarn tail. And a tapestry needle. To stitch those two little ends together. Well, actually, there's 3 pieces here together. OK, so our piece is coming right out of the the middle of this.

So I'm gonna go directly across, and we're just gonna use a whipstitch here. Like that. I'm gonna remove that stitch marker. We're just going underneath both edges, and this does not have to be a perfect seam because later on, we're going to stitch a little strap over it. That's the strap for carrying it and hanging on to it while you're zipping and unzipping.

Um, so that's going to kind of cover this up. I mean, you know, you want to make it as neat as you can, but you don't need to stress out about how perfect it looks. All right, we made it to that corner. I'm gonna just work my way back across. You don't have to stitch this twice, but sometimes it's easier just to sew something uh twice rather than to fasten off, weave in your ends, and then join another yarn tail.

So, just gonna be moving my way across. All right, here we are at the other piece. And don't worry if you've got more stitches on across one edge than the other. That's normal because we just, we didn't counter stitches, we just worked an edging. So if you have to work through a stitch twice on one side and just once on the other side, you know, when you're stitching them together, that's completely fine.

It's better, it's preferable to do that than to skip over a stitch. So if you just kind of keep that in mind, you want to work through every single stitch, and some of them you'll just have to work through more than once. All right, now, if you want to, you could use this yarn tail and stitch this closed here. I like how it looks a little bit better. I did some experimenting and I like how it looks a little bit better when I crochet those two edges closed, and I'll I'm going to show you that next.

I'm just going to kind of weave in my yarn tail here. All right, this is a little bit slippery yarn, so I like to be really careful when I'm waving my tail to go in a couple of different directions at least. OK, so once you have this edge stitched up, then you can use a strand of your yarn and crochet these two little holes up. OK, so just let me see if I can kind of help orient you to where we're at. We just stitched these two seams.

Right across here, and now we're going to fold that that seam should hit right in the middle of this piece, OK? And we're going to fold it in this direction and we're going to just stitch it across using crochet. So I'm going to just insert my hook through both layers here. At the corner And don't worry if you end up skipping a stitch there on the very end, that's fine. However, that kind of works out, it's really fine.

So, I'm gonna grab a loop. And then I'm going to just start um doing a slip stitch. So I'm going to go under both layers, grab a loop, and pull it through the loop on my hook. Going through the next two stitches, and again, you may not have the same amount of stitches on each side and each layer here. So it's OK if you have to go through one of the stitches twice, and here there isn't really a stitch here, but I'm just going to kind of make one up there.

I'm just kind of going through that that layer. So I'm just grabbing the yarn and slip stitching it through, and this makes kind of a a more prominent seam here, but I felt like it looked really nice and it gave me something to stitch the strap to later, so I'll show you that in just a minute. So that's why I opted for this route of attaching this section here. You could do that here, but I felt like the bulk there. That wasn't working for me.

Um, so this is, you know, if you are working on it and you're like, I don't know if I like how this looks here, um, you can certainly change that, you know, you can, as long as you see it in some way, you can either crochet it together like I'm doing with a slip stitch or you can whipstitch it together, that's fine too. So when you're done, you're just going to fasten off. And then you can weave in. That yarn tail. So this helps to have, especially when you're working with a t-shirt yarn, helps to have a very blunt needle, and it also helps to have a metal needle because the metal needles slide much easier than the plastic needles do.

And having that blunt end, most yarn needles are pretty blunt. Um, that's gonna help you not not be sewing through your t-shirt yarn, because if you can get your whole needle through, that's fine, but sometimes you accidentally catch You know, going through that t-shirt yarn and then it gets stuck right here on the needle and you can't actually pass it through. All right. And again, just because this is sort of a slippery yarn, I'm really going back and forth in a couple of directions here. And I'm gonna cut that off and then I'm gonna do the same thing with this side.

So, we go ahead and weave in that tail as well, then you're going to do the same thing with this seam. So I like to hold it so that this seam is facing me both times. OK? So that seam is facing me this time, the seam is facing me this time, and I can really see what I'm doing here, and I'm going to go ahead and slip stitch across that just exactly as I already have, um, and then, You're gonna repeat that whole process on the opposite edge, OK? So, you're gonna start by placing these two little ends.

Onto that seam. And if this is looking confusing to you, just know that um in the download, there is a diagram that has things labeled that says A to A, B2B, things like that, so you can picture it, and then just know that you're going to do exactly the same step on the opposite end as you would hear, OK? So you're going to be stitching across here. Once you stitch that, then you're going to fold this flat, and you can do a slip stitch seam here and the same thing on this corner as well. So, once you get all that put together, Um, let's see.

Actually, maybe we will just get that put together so that I can show you how to get that zipper in there. So let me just do that real quick. So you can see how I lay the zipper in, otherwise, um, yeah, because you guys might have might have some questions about that. I did put a link. I know that zippers are kind of scary for a lot of people.

Um, so I did put a link to a video that's on the Creative Crochet Corner website. That's all about zippers. It's about how, you know, how to shorten your zipper, how to sew it on, um. You know, different types of zippers. It's just sort of like a little crash course and the things you need to know in order to use zippers, um, just to kind of take a little bit of the panic out of it.

I know sometimes when I design things, I feel like people avoid making it just because they see the zipper and they think, oh, I could never do that. But really zippers are not as scary as you think and they do, it does help to have a little bit of practice, of course, you know, a lot of things, including crochet and a lot of sewing. Has to do with, you know, the awkwardness, um, makes it difficult when you're first learning how to hang on to something or where to pin something or, you know, all that, you know, just, it's just kind of the unfamiliarity that makes things a little bit stressful sometimes. You don't feel like you don't know what you're doing, you don't know how to hang on to it. The person who's demoing it has done it many times, so they make it look so easy sometimes and then you get your materials out and you're like, what is happening?

But just know, you know, part of that is just practice really and taking your time and that doesn't mean that you know you can't do it. You can totally do it. OK, let me get back to the comments. I feel like I'm missing some here. Or maybe not.

Oh yeah. OK, Cindy had commented, best not to make those chains too tight. Yeah, on any, any part of this to not make the chains too tight, cause then it's, it just makes it a little trickier to get into. Um, yes. OK.

And Cheeky Sprite was suggesting using a smaller hook to get into the chain stitches and use a 5 millimeter to finish the stitch. So, um, Cheeky Sprite is talking about when we start adding our stitches into our chain stitches. That's a good idea. As long as you can kind of make them a little, yeah, and then you switch to the bigger one to finish the stitch. Yeah, I see what you're saying.

OK. All right. Oh, OK. Oh, I'm not sure now, right or wrong side. I think we'll wait for confirmation.

OK, sorry. There was a question about whether we were working on the right or wrong side, so I, I think, were you asking about when I started assembling this piece whether we're working on the right or the wrong side or whether we're doing the edging. So the edging determines which side is the right and the wrong side. As you're creating the edging, the side that's facing you, when you're working that edging, that is going to be the right side of your piece. So that's what you will see when you look at this.

This is that slip stitch seam sitting right on top of my work. That is the right side. I hope I answered your question, but if I did not, cheeky Sprite, definitely come back in and let me know, um. Oh, and Cindy's saying, I'm thinking a lining would be nice for this bag. Would you sew that to the project before starting the seams while it's still flat?

You could definitely do that. Um, that makes things a little bit easier. You can also, when your piece is totally flat, you can trace it out on a piece of paper or directly onto your fabric, then add seam allowance to like all the way around, maybe like a half inch seam allowance or so. Then you can cut that out with that half inch seam allowance included, and then you can sew it together with the same types of seams I have here, although you'll have your seam allowances, um, you know, this obviously doesn't have any seam allowances, but, um, But yeah, you would have the seams in the same places and then you could slip that into your bag. The nice thing about doing it that way is that once you have your bag together, you put your zipper in, then you can slip your lining in and you can use your lining to cover up the inside zipper tape, so it looks super professional and really, really nice.

Um. So that is definitely an option for you if you're putting a lining in. That would look really, really good. I oftentimes try in my crochet projects to get away without aligning or to do the lining and sort of an more, um, let's see, what's the word? Just for somebody who doesn't have as much experience with sewing, I try to find like little trip tricks.

Um, I did a bag on a live event for Craftsy that was a Valentine's Day bag. It has some little hearts on it. And in that video, because I know there's lots of people who do not really enjoy sewing, it's a little intimidating, and they just want to crochet a thing. So I did a lining there that was a crocheted, it was made out of fabric, um, a t-shirt actually, uh, but you crochet into it to create the lining. You can line it mostly flat, I think, if I'm remembering right.

Um, but it doesn't, the lining itself does not involve sewing. So, but you end up using fabric in it. So that's kind of an interesting, if, if anybody's interested in learning a little bit more about that, some of those things could be applied here with this project as well. It looks like lots of people are agreeing with the lining thing. Um, that's cool.

Usually, I feel like, um, people are very intimidating, intimidated by the, the sewing aspect to things. So that's why I oftentimes will try to keep Sewing, or like, you know, extra fabricy sewing out of my projects, but, um, I actually come from a a very strong sewing background. I worked in the costume industry, um, developing costumes and sewing for more than 20 years. And so to me, uh, you know, when I'm making something like this, if I was making something for myself and I wasn't going to be teaching it or I wasn't thinking about a bigger audience, I would just, you know, pattern myself a little fabric linings, sew it on the sewing machine and put it in, um. That's just kind of like second nature to me, but it's interesting for me to hear that so many people are would be into that.

And, you know, another thing that I, um, I did a live event on. Um, making a fleece lining for crochet hat. So that's on the Creative Crochet Corner website. If you guys are interested in learning about that. I know Cindy was at that.

I remember Cindy being at that live event, or maybe she watched it later. I can't remember. Um, but for those of you who don't know about it, you know, it's for like if you make a hat and it's kind of itchy or maybe you make a hat. I think the whole reason I did this was because I wanted to make a granny square. Hat, but I, I live in Minnesota where it's very cold, and so I wanted to have a fabric lining, a fleece lining on the inside to make sure that it was warm because granny square fabric is just not very warm.

Um, so, yeah, so I, I did a little tutorial on how to pattern that, how to create that pattern to go on the inside, how to cut it out, how to put it together with two different options, um, on how to actually assemble it. So, if you guys are interested in that, um, that's another thing where we're, where I was combining sewing with crochet. It's, it's very exciting to hear that people are not afraid of that. That's great. OK.

All right, now I'm gonna do my. Slip stitch seams here real quick. And I probably just won't weave in my ends because I think we need to keep moving along. So you guys can see, the next step where we're adding the zipper in. OK.

So, here I am just pulling up a loop, and I'm just going to be slip stitching these two layers together all the way across here, just like we did before on the other end. Almost there. Just a couple more stitches here, and we'll do the other side. And we'll see this little opening up as well. And I did, I think I mentioned this already, but I did, I did link to that, yeah, I did mention it.

The Creative crochet corner website where there is a video on working on the zipper. So if you need a little extra time, um, a little more detail on zippers and setting them in, you guys have that resource. It's in the pattern download. But I will show you kind of how I get the zipper set in, and um I will go through just a little bit of how to steam it in place. So you guys can see that.

All right. I'll be weaving in those tails later. So here we have our bag taking shape. And I've got a zipper here. So this zipper, um, this is a zipper that's like by the yard, and then you add your own zipper pole to it.

I don't have time to get into that right now, but I think on the crafty. TikTok, on on the TikTok for craftsy, I think I do have like a little tutorial on how to add a new slide to just zipper by the yard, if you've ever purchased that before. But you can definitely just buy a zipper that's just a little bit longer than what you would need here, and you can cut it down. I'm going to show you how to cut your zipper down. So I'm just going to lay this on my bag.

And laying it on the outside, that's going to give you a little extra that you're not going to need because the inside curve takes up a little less space. So I can see now, I can get rid of about 1 inch or so. Of the zipper, and before I do that, I'm going to stitch this end closed because I'm not using any top stops. Normally I put top stops on my zipper, but this is just going to be in a pouch and I don't need them, so I'm not going to, um, I'm just not going to add stops. I'm going to stitch it instead.

So this. This is just um. Oops, I kind of snagged a little part of that zipper there. There we go. Um, you can just use regular all-purpose thread here if you have a thicker thread like a button thread that works great as well.

So I just figured out how long I need my zipper to be. This is where I need my zipper to stay closed, and I'm just going to stitch it shut, and you, I, I already stitched the bottom edge of it. Shut as well. Um, if you purchase a zipper that's just a little bit longer, you don't need to do either of these steps. It does not need to be attached to itself at the top.

You don't need to stitch them together if it already has top stops on it. So like, if you zip your zipper up and it doesn't, you know, if it's a finished zipper, you purchased it that way, you're not going to need to do this step here. This is just if you're kind of messing around with the length of your zipper and you cut off the top of it or something. All right. And then, I like to stitch just a little ways away so that it can't wiggle.

I don't like it to shift back and forth, so I'm just gonna kind of jump over here. And Just do that whipstitch. I'm just stitching around the teeth to kind of hold them in place. And you would be doing this in a thread that matches, of course. I just chose this kind of yellowy orange thread, just so you guys could see what I'm doing on the black zipper.

It's not really gonna look the best on the inside, but that's OK. OK. And I don't need all of this tape here, so I'm just going to cut this off. When you do this, you're just cutting through between where the teeth are. You're not actually cutting, you know, a tooth, you're just cutting between them.

And then you can use a lighter to melt the end of your zipper so nothing frays. Almost all zippers are synthetic, and they will melt like this. Every once in a while, you'll get a cotton zipper and it'll just smoke or light on fire. So just be aware of that, but it's not very common. And then to get your zipper in, you're just going to place your zipper and use some pins to Keep it in place.

And you want to have what you're what you're trying to do is you're trying to line up. So that your teeth are just a little ways away from that slip stitching, OK? You want to have a little bit of a space between the slip stitching and the teeth because you gotta have enough space to run the pole back and forth, and you don't want your teeth to get caught in your fabric. So I'm just kind of holding this in place and I'm pinning in. And it's going through the tape.

Let me show you here. I'm pinning through that fabric, it's coming out through the back of the tape there, and then it's going in through the tape and back out. And I leave the tip kind of buried in the thickness there, so I don't stab myself. Um. So this is, it's basically like sewing, but with pins, OK?

Sometimes when people are first learning how to use pins, they just kind of like poke it through like that and think something will stay, but it never does. You have to act, basically use a pin as though you're acting like you're sewing, going in and out of your fabric. And then I'm going to stitch the other side. Um, sorry, not stitch, but pin, pin the other side. And you may find that this is, you know, this fabric does have a little bit of a mind of its own because it's pretty stiff and you know how it was curling up.

It just wants to kind of shift to the sides. You really have to hold this in place. As you pin it. um, if it's driving you crazy and you're having such a, like a hard time getting it to stay in place, you can fold up a towel into like a little cube shape, put it inside there, and then steam it so that it kind of relaxes the fibers a little bit, and it'll stop being quite so, I don't know, obstinate. It's just, uh, feels like you're working against it when you're trying to get it pinned in here sometimes.

So, um, you can also unzip this so that this can be opened up. But then you just have to double check and make sure you're evenly distributing the the tape, and I'll show you that in just a minute. You can go ahead and pin it, and then you just have to zip it up and look at it, and make sure that it looks good from one side to the other. OK, I'm just trying to keep that nice edge away from the zipper teeth, just a little bit. OK, so let's zip it.

See how this this bag is wanting to go like this, it's torking. That's what I'm talking about, that whole curling thing that it wants to do. That is just gonna keep on happening until you steam it. And so, let's see if that looks OK. Looks pretty good actually.

Just looking to make sure this is a little bit wavy in here. See how the zipper, maybe you guys can't see, but it's kind of waving in and out. Sometimes it happens just with the pins, and sometimes that is the zipper telling you that it's a little too long and you can shift it over. So, We'll do that a little bit. So I'm gonna be pulling the zipper in this direction compared with.

The edge of my. Peace. The edge of my crochet piece. I'm just pulling it, see how there's like a little waviness here that's happening. It's kind of going whoop.

Um, so I'm just pushing that down, and bringing the zipper, the extra. Length of the zipper, I'm bringing it, you know, down into this part of the bag here. I'm gonna do the same thing with this side. So I'm bringing this this way. So the pinning of the zipper, this is the part that takes a long time because you, you know, it takes a while, it's kind of fiddly.

This is, this is normal though. It doesn't matter how many times you put a zipper in, it's still going to take, you know, a decent amount of time. See there's, it's less wavy now. I don't know if you guys can tell, but that's because I shifted that extra um length of the zipper down into this part of the bag, like down into there. OK.

Um, it just takes a while to pin, kind of readjust, you know, you just have to keep kind of working on it for a while until you feel like, you know, it's in a good place. All right, so now, actually. Looks like my zipper's a little extra long here. You can see I pulled so much of the excess of the zipper down in here. I could probably cut that off and do a little stitching up here higher.

Um, so let's see. I'm gonna get grab a new little bit of thread. Here we are. So I am going to stitch my zipper edges together. And also stitch them to the inside of the bag right here, because um that'll just sort of keep things out of the way.

I'm gonna make sure I do that down past where the zipper would need to open to. So right about here, just maybe a half an inch below. That area where the two pieces come together, OK? And I'm taking a little bite out of the gray fabric as I'm doing this whip stitch here. So that way the zipper gets stitched to something.

It'll make it a little bit sturdier. All right, so I'm using a double strand here. I recommend a double strand, especially if it's just a regular sewing thread. And then, my next step would be to, and you can grab a new strand of thread if you like, or you can just go ahead and start right here because I have a little bit of a length. And I am going to be stitching.

Across the outside, right, and what I'm aiming for. I want to stitch, do you see those, that little V underneath here, not the slip stitch seam that's sitting on top, but the V that's on the very edge. I'm catching that fabric and going down into the zipper and taking a little stitch. I'm coming back up, kind of grabbing onto that. Um, or piercing through.

That V. So the, that's on the top layer, not the V that's on the slip stitch. We're going to leave that alone, so it looks really nice. And I'm going in, stitching that into the tape, and I'll show you the inside in just a minute. And this is a back stitch, so I always have my needle facing in this direction.

I'm going to go in behind where I came out, go through a little bit of that that fabric from the zipper tape, and come back out here. OK, and I would stitch my way all the way across, doing both sides, and this is going to be what's keeping the fabric close to those zipper teeth. OK, you can kind of see those little lines on the back. Those are my my little stitching lines there. So I'm going in behind where I came out.

Taking a little bite of that zipper tape and coming back out in front of where my thread is. And you can do this however you like. If you've put zippers in before, you just can go ahead and install your zipper however you want to. This is just my method here. OK, so you're gonna do that all the way across and all the way across the other edge.

After you've finished that, Then um if you're doing a lining, like we had talked about before, you can set your lining in and you can stitch your lining right up to just barely on top of those little stitches um and you can sew those together with like um maybe like a tiny whip stitch or you could do a blind stitch or a slip stitch, not a, not a crochet slip stitch, but a sewing one, to kind of stitch your lining in if you wanted to use your lining. Um, but if you're not using a lining like I am here, you can just um finish this up, add a little bit of extra strength, and keep this zipper tape from flapping around by just doing a little whipstitch right along the edge. This is going to make your zipper so much sturdier. OK, so we're taking these little bites and just doing a whip stitch right here. Along the edge of the tape.

OK. So, that's gonna keep your tape. And if you did this in a color that actually matched your tape, um or matched your fabric, if they're very different, that's fine too. Um, it would look a lot more neater, a lot lot neater and tidier there. So, you would do that all the way around your whole zipper.

All right. And so your piece would look like this. This one's already been stitched in and I stitched it in black, so you can't actually see my stitches, but you can tell that it's very neatly done, where that tape is. And then, oh, I wanted to mention too, I didn't talk at all about these little straps. These are just um 12 stitches across made in single crochet, 4 rows, and then you're going to leave a little bit of a yarn tail on each end, and that's going to be used for sewing.

So these are the straps that go on the end of your bag like this. So you're gonna make 2 of those. And then we're gonna attach our our our sort of faux leather pieces. Let me grab one of those. And See here.

I've got these little tiny rivets that I'm gonna be using. Alright, I'm gonna get to those in just a second here. So in order to make the little plastic uh washer, you're just gonna take your little bucket lid. And I know that this is like saying, oh, hey, can you see this invisible thing, but basically, you're going to just cut, you can cut around a nickel or a penny or trace it out in a Sharpie, or you can just eyeball a little circle. So I'm doing here.

Like that. And then if the edge feels really rough to you, like it's not very smooth, you can use a lighter and just kind of very quickly melt that very edge. Probably do this by a window. It's not stinky or anything, but, you know, I don't really like the idea of people melting plastic and breathing that in. Um, but it's just a tiny, teeny tiny little piece.

So that kind of softens it up. And then if you have a yarn needle that is not a blunt tip, like a sharp tip needle here, like this, um, you can use that to melt a hole right in the middle of that piece that's big enough to put the rivet through. So I'm just going to heat up. The tip of my needle here, a little bit. And then pierce it right through the center.

It should be pretty easy to get it through there if you've heated it up enough. I think I need to heat it a little more. Here we go. I'm kind of just moving it around to make that hole a little bit bigger. I don't know if you guys can see that little hole, maybe if I shine it.

Um, basically, you just need a washer that is big enough so that it's not going to uh pop through between the stitches in your, in your piece. All right, so To add that, I like to place. One of the sides of the rivet through that hole, so I'm just poking that through through my little washer, and that's gonna be on the back of my work. And then here on the front. I'm going to place a rivet.

Right through that hole in the faux leather piece, and push it through my crochet piece, you can kind of see it like right there. And then we're gonna put this the backing on, and these are made so that they kind of snap in place, but I find that they don't really want to stay with this thickness of fabric, it just really does not want to stay. So if I tap it with a hammer that kind of distorts the the piece itself, um, and then it doesn't want to come apart. So I'm just gonna bring this in here. And give it a little tap.

And then that's nice and sturdy. It's not gonna be coming out of there. So then you would do the same thing over here. And um actually, and I'm gonna show you, I think we'll just skip that side of it and I'll do it later. Um but I just want to show you how this gets seamed in real quick because we're running out of time.

And I wanna make sure I'm catching up with your. Oh, yeah, I missed a lot of stuff, you guys. OK, I'm sorry. Uh, let's see. Oh, Cindy saying I would love to read a book about your experiences in the costume industry.

Oh, well, maybe we could do like a little chat about that sometime if other people are interested in learning about that, put that in the comments and let me know. I'm always interested in what you guys want to learn about, um, that I mean I can tell you some things, some things have to be a secret because I was working for a company that was sort of, um, had a lot of, uh, I guess I don't know, intellectual property that I can't really discuss, but some of it I can definitely talk about. Um, Cheeky Sprite says I have a bobble hat with a fleece lining and it's really comfy. Yeah, I like back to the fleece lining thing, yeah, I like, um, I like putting those in my crochet hats. It just makes it all that much more warm.

OK. Let's see. Can you use yarn instead of thread? Oh, just, I'm guessing you're talking about sewing bits together, sewing the zipper in, and I don't think that yarn would work very well unless it was very thin crochet thread. That would probably work.

Um, you could try that. But I do have a video on crocheting. you're basically making like a little pouch. But you don't need to sew the zipper in. You actually crochet into it.

That's on the Creative Crochet corner website. You could actually use a smaller hook and pierce through and crochet along the edges of the tape, and then you can use yarn to stitch that crocheted edge to your to your piece if you want it to. So that that's an idea if you want to get around that. Um, Let's see, Cindy saying, would there be any benefit to blocking the crochet fabric while it's still flat? Yes, you can definitely block it before you sew it together.

Yes, thank you for bringing that up, Cindy. I'm not really sure. I think I steamed it a little bit, but then I just moved on to the next step and I didn't really let it rest long enough, so I still felt like I needed to block it kind of towards the end. But that's a really good point, Cindy. I think that blocking it beforehand would help with the torquing that was happening when, um, when I was trying to get the zipper put in.

OK, so let me, I'll, I'll be looking at more comments here, but I want to get this start getting this stitch. But this is the edge. Of my bag here. OK, this is the end of it. And what I'm doing is I'm lining up the end of each piece of the strap with that slip stitch seam that I made, OK?

And then I'm also lining the strap up with that whipstitch seam that I stitched across here to cover that right up. So just imagine I put the rivet in here and that's finished, and then we would go ahead and just stitch right into the slip stitch seam. So I don't like to whipstitch a Around the slip stitch seam because I feel like that shows. So I kind of go underneath the slip stitch seam. So I'm going underneath these edges here and into my work and I'm whip, I'm whipping over the edge of the strap, but I'm just going underneath this nice smooth edge here of the bag in order to make that really look really nice.

OK, so I'm going underneath all those Vs coming out over here. Into my strap. And catching the edge of that. OK, so I'm whipping around the edge of that. This is kind of hard to explain exactly what I'm doing, but I'm going around the edges of that strap and then underneath this whole section of all these layers here with those bees to make it look really nice.

And then it just sort of blends in, it looks really good. Um, yeah, when you're sewing this, when you're working with this kind of t-shirt you're on that shows absolutely every little, you know, this, it's just so much stitch definition. You want to make sure that you're doing really tidy seams because those kinds of things are gonna show. Like if I stitched around here, you would see that line there and it wouldn't look very good. Would just be sort of distracting.

OK. Yes, and so, and Cindy's saying wet or steam block. So I would steam block this because this is actually a synthetic, this yarn. It is not cotton like some t-shirt yarns are. I think this might be polyester, but I'm not 100% sure, but that, that is in your download exactly what it's made of.

Um, but for this one, I would definitely steam block. If it was cotton, you could do, you could wet block or you could steam block either way. I'm, I feel for something like this, I would probably just steam block it though, since it isn't wool. OK, um, yes, and Cheeky Sprite is saying blocking does usually correct the curling. It would definitely help, for sure.

And once you get that zipper in, it's not going to be able to curl anymore because you're putting that structure in it, so you don't have to worry too much, but you are going to be fighting that curling as you are putting the zipper in unless you do a little blocking first. OK, and so cheeky spread is wondering if it's, is that like through the back stitch only? I think, I wonder if you were talking about when I was sewing, um, when I was sewing the zipper in through that edge. Is that maybe what you were talking about? Um, let me know.

But I, that you could go through the back loop only, um, but I was going underneath both loops of that top surface and underneath the slip stitch. If that's not what you were asking about, then I, uh, sorry, and then you can, um, let me know. Let's see, do not heat a plastic yarn needle like this. Oh, yes. Uh yes, Cindy, thank you for pointing that out.

We definitely only want to heat up the needle to pierce through that little plastic disc if your needle is metal. Yeah, definitely don't do that with plastic because you'll just ruin your needle and it'll be a sad day. All right, so I got my one side stitched in. I'm just going to kind of pull my yarn through here. I'll weave it in a little bit better later, but I want to show you what that seam will looked like, see how it just blends in really well, and then you can go ahead and stitch that other side.

I'm going to leave. it open because I still have to fasten the rivet, um, to this piece. But let's pull this in here. This is the one that's already finished. You can see what it looks like when it's done.

And I did actually steam block this bag with that sort of folded up towel in the shape of this brick, and it seemed to really make it look a little bit more polished. It just seems like it sits a little bit better. Um, it's not doing any crazy rippling. This one isn't too, too bad, but it, I feel like it could use a little like right here where the corners are. I just feel like if you steamed it a little, it would look a little bit more professional.

See, it wants to just dip in right here, and I think that that would just be fixed with a little bit of steaming. So thank you guys so much for being super active in the chat. I just love that when we can all just share ideas and suggestions and questions. I really, really appreciate that you guys. That was super awesome.

Um, yeah, thanks for being here and I'll be teaching you another tutorial in about a month from now. I think there's a little bit of a gap. Um, but thank you guys for being here. I really enjoy having these live events with you guys. Thanks so much, everyone.

Bye, everybody.