Only two weeks after the last crochet tutorial (an asymmetric granny stitch cowl) and here are two more that show you how to make a granny square bag! Sorry, I’m flooding you with granny stitch designs at the moment. I swear I do have other crochet ideas that involve different stitches!

By the way, my YouTube channel is HERE. Please feel free to visit for podcast watching, as well as finding helpful crochet video tutorials.

Crochet a Granny Square Bag

Here are all the things you need to get crocheting…

1. To make your own crochet granny square bag you will need lots of lovely yarn in all your favorite colours. Mine is very much a stashbuster using double knit acrylic yarn. No need to buy yarn for this sort of project when you probably have plenty in your collection.
2. You will also need a hook that matches the yarn weight. I used my trusty 4mm crochet hook. You may even try going down a hook size to ensure that your bag has decent structural integrity. You don’t want a floppy bag, do you?!
3. You will also need some matching fabric (a polycotton will do nicely) and something to sew it (a machine is preferable but there’s nothing stopping you from sewing by hand). Along with, have some pins at the ready too. It’s also a good idea (but not essential) to get some interfacing to add to the sturdiness of the bag.
4. Bag handles, don’t forget bag handles! You can cut them from old knackered bags, or, I have found them by googling “long bag handles” before and up they popped. You can get all kind of bags handles for around a fiver.

Video Tutorials

Join As You Go Granny Squares

This tutorial is based on a granny square bag I made a couple of years ago. The original blog post can be found HERE. There are lots of details in that post that will be super useful here. However, this is a slightly different version. I’ve made this new crochet bag a bit less fussy, which is always a winner for makers.

There are two video tutorials for this project. Firstly, there’s How to Crochet Join As You Go Granny Squares. I start by making one granny square and then at the time stamp of 5.25 I begin to join them together. At first this can seem a little daunting but once you get your head around the construction, joining as you go is really good fun. Not to mention a huge time saver!

When I crochet my grannies, I don’t add chains between the clusters. This comes in handy a bit later, which I explain in the second video tutorial….

Turn Granny Squares into a Bag

The second video tutorial talks you through how to crochet the bag together so that it goes from basic rectangle to a functioning, useful project.

My helpful vid link is here:How to Put the Granny Square Bag Together. When I watched it back that noticed I dismissively say “whatever” a bit too much! Oops.

My rectangle piece of crochet is 4×6 Join As you Go Granny Squares. Once the ends have been dutifully sewn in, it’s time to turn it into a fab bag. At the two short ends I added some crochet rows that will become the handles. Then work UK dc stitches / US sc stitches down both long sides, popping stitches into the trebles of each cluster.

Fold the whole thing in half and slip stitch the sides together. This is the basic pocket created and a few extra steps are needed to finish off. Next is to attach the handles. You’ll see from the tutorial that I am not precious about my stitches but I would gently suggest you take more care than me.

Once you have the handles in place you could absolutely stop there. I make no judgement about this as sometimes it’ll be perfect right here. However, let’s say you want to keep a crochet WIP in your fancy new granny square bag, what’s going to fall through those lil holes?

There is no way that I am prepared to lose my crochet hooks so I am fully prepared to sew a pretty lining to make it super sturdy and structurally sound.

Lining a Crochet Bag

I use a similar technique each time I choose to line my crochet bags. I used it in my Hotchpotch Granny Stripe Purse, for example. And if you’re tempted to go one step further, I have a video tutorial for How to Attach a Zipper to your Crochet too!

When I suspect that you might be able to see through crochet stitches of a bag, I like to add a double lining. This is so that you can only see prettiness between any gaps. I am quite laid back in my approach to measuring for lining and don’t often get the tape measure out. The lining technique is demonstrated in the second video from about 17 minutes.

Please see below for some accompanying pictures. Not quite step by step photos but they will help you put your own crochet bag together, especially for when you get to add the bag lining. Like I said, I would always advise lining a granny square bag. How else do you stop things falling through the holes!?

xxx

An Easy One-Skein Crochet Market Bag

On Monday, I began recording a video tutorial on my older method for making an easy crochet market bag. Crochet market bags are massive at the minute and, jumping on the bandwagon, I hit record and started crocheting.

I completed a few rounds of my old crochet market bag pattern before I started to question its construction. It became quite clear that I was trying to be way too fancy with the crochet pattern. Quite simply, there are some unnecessary increases included, and two years ago, I didn’t ask myself if there was an easier way. I’ve updated the pattern.

What we have here is a much simpler version of that old crochet market bag. However, it pretty much looks the same.

Here is the video tutorial for how to crochet an easy market bag using only one skein of cotton yarn. The written crochet pattern is below.

How To Crochet An Easy Mesh Market Bag

Notes & Things You Need To Make A Crochet Market Bag

• 3mm crochet hook
• 1x50g ball of DK cotton. Try DMC Natura Just Cotton (155m/170yds). Or, Rico Essentials DK works well, but it’s slightly less meterage, so you might want to remove a round of the main body, just in case).
• The 3ch at the beginning of the first 4 rounds counts as a UK tr/ US dc
• If you have very loose tension, it would be better to go down to a 2.5mm hook
• The pattern is written in UK terms. Where it says “dc”, that’s a US sc and a “tr” is a US dc. So htr is hdc! Easy peasy.
• No turns are made when making the main body of the bag.

Crochet Market Bag Pattern

Start with a magic ring (or ch4 and join with a slip stitch).
Round 1: 3ch, 11tr into ring, join to top of 3ch with a sl st, pull the magic ring to close. [12 sts]
Round 2: 3ch, 1tr into same stitch, 2tr into each stitch, join to top of 3ch with a sl st. [24 sts]
Round 3: 3ch, 1tr in same st, 1tr in next st, *2tr in next stitch, 1tr in next; rep from * around, join to top of 3ch with sl st. [36 sts]
Round 4: 3ch, 1tr in same st, 1tr in next 2 sts, *2tr in next st, 1tr in next 2 sts; rep from * around, join to top of 3ch with sl st. [48 sts]

The Mesh Section Begins

Round 5: 1ch, 1dc in same st, *ch3, miss 1 stitch, 1dc in next; rep from * around until the second to last stitch.
At this point, ch1 and work 1 htr into the beginning dc. Refer to the chart above to learn how the rounds are joined.  Placing a stitch marker on the last stitch of each row from here will help enormously. [24 chain spaces].
Round 6: *4ch, 1dc in next ch sp; rep from * around until second to last ch sp, 2ch, 1htr into the top of the last st of the previous round (ie, into the top of the htr of the previous round).
Round 7: *5ch, 1dc in next ch sp; rep from * around until second to last ch sp, 2ch, 1tr into the top of the last st of the previous round.
Round 8: *6ch, 1dc in next ch sp; rep from * around until second to last ch sp, 3ch, tr into the top of the last st of the previous round.
Round 9: *7ch, 1dc in next ch sp; rep from * around until second to last ch sp, 3ch, 1dtr into the top of the last st of the previous round.
Rounds 10 – 25:  Repeat Round 9.
Round 26: Repeat Round 8.
Round 27: Repeat Round 7.

Add Stitches Around The Top of the Market Bag

Round 28: 1ch, 1dc in same stitch, 2dc in space, 1dc in dc, *4dc in each ch-sp, 1dc in top of each dc of previous round; rep from *, 2dc in last sp, sl st to join to 1st dc. [120 sts]
Rounds 29 – 30: 1ch, 1dc in same space, dc around, sl st to join.

Adding a Crochet Handle

Row 1: 1ch, 1dc in same space, 1dc in next 6 sts, turn [7 sts]
Row 2: 1ch, 1dc along the next 7 sts, turn [7 sts]
Repeat Row 2 until the desired handle length is reached, or until only half a metre of yarn remains. (I made my handle approximately 18″).

Turn your bag inside out.
To attach the handle to the opposite side of your market bag, count the stitches around the top of the bag. I had 120 stitches. You want your handles evenly spaced, so I counted 53 stitches along from the right side of my handle, and the next stitch (see pic below) was where I started to attach the other end of the handle. Make sure there are no twists!

The hook should be on the right-hand side. If it isn’t, add another row or remove one.
Insert the hook through the first stitch on the handle and the chosen stitch on the other side of the bag. Yarn over and pull through all loops/stitches. Repeat for the last 6 stitches. Fasten off and securely sew the ends.

This crochet market bag pattern has been designed by me, and I really hope that you like it! I think it is such a useful bag, I have made loads; they are just perfect for shoving in the bottom of your bag for quick visits to the supermarket!

And if you enjoyed making your crochet market bag, why not take a look at my other free crochet patterns.

Show me your makes on Instagram  #zeensandroger

Cheers! xxx