Made this for the Go Bananas swap…
… but it’s kind of a long story. My partner (the fabulous @kittykill) loves retro/vintage things and I found a cool 1940’s or 1950’s crochet pattern for a tiny, cute basket bag.
But when I ordered the instant download from a seller on eBay, I was disappointed to discover that it called for a vintage craft supply that is no longer available, a “basket bag bottom.” I searched for a basket to use, but I was trying to craft from stash and couldn’t find anything that would work. Even when I looked online, I couldn’t find anything that looked the right size and shape. Bummer!
I did end up finding some jute rope in my stash, but it was too thick to crochet into a small basket. Undaunted, I pried and untwisted the 3 strands of rope apart to get a thinner jute strand I could crochet.
With no pattern to work from, the shape of the basket came out different … and the rougher-looking jute basket didn’t look quite right for the original idea, either. Plus I suspected that the pattern for the top part would not match up correctly with the stitches in my basket.
So I scrapped the original idea and decided to do the top part in fabric instead. Because I wanted a coordinating lining, it wasn’t as easy to figure out as I had hoped, and consequently the lining is a little wonky!
Oh, well. I didn’t think it looked too terrible, so I soldiered on. I found a really cute vintage doily (slightly stained and damaged) in my stash. I cut off the edging (which was still in good shape), treating the cut areas with some fabric glue to prevent unraveling. I stitched the edging to the top edge of the basket.
The bag feet are some vintage buttons from the 1940’s or 50’s that I had bought long ago at an estate sale.
In my stash, I had a couple of pom poms and a vintage red soutache trim in the color “Atom Red”. Perfect! Before sewing the lining in place, I had set some grommets to run the drawstring through. But unfortunately, when I worked the drawstring through the grommets, it ended up pulling one of the grommets halfway out and frayed the fabric. Oh no! What to do?!?!
After a few fretful moments, I set to work removing both grommets. Careful application of more fabric glue should stop any more fraying. Then I crocheted a couple of small flowers, ran the ends of the drawstring through them, and stitched them in place where the grommets had been.
I was satisfied with the fix, and ended up being happy with the bag, which can be used as a project bag, small purse (if you leave the drawstrings long as handles), or even a basket if you tuck the top part inside and just leave a cuff of the fabric at the edge.
I couldn’t stand to throw away the middle part of the doily, so I trimmed off the damaged bits and used it to create a lid for a Mason jar full of whimsies!