Crocheted drawstring bag?

Question

So I know the holidays are coming up and I was thinking of making something crocheted for my cousin. She enjoys playing volleyball and I thought of making her a drawstring bag/backpack of some sort to put her clothes in. Does anyone know of any patterns for this? Thanks!

Answer 1

I did something like this in a smaller bag for my grandmother, so I'm modifying the pattern without testing. You might want to do this in cheap yarn before you do it in something nicer for your cousin in case something doesn't transfer size well.

1.chain 4, slip stitch back in the first ch to make loop

2.ch 2, 10 dc in the loop (make sure you are marking the end of each round with a piece of contrasting yarn or those little plastic clips for place holding)

3. ch 2, 2 dc in each dc (should end with 20 stitches on this row).

4. ch 2, 1 dc in next dc then 2 dc in next dc, continue pattern around circle to start)

5. Continue above pattern, adding one more 1dc between the 2dc for every row (i.e. the next will go 2dc then 2 dc in next dc, the following 3dc then 2 dc in next dc, etc) until the circle you are creating is as large around as you want the bottom of the bag to be.

6. 1 dc in each dc until the bag is as tall as you want it plus 2 rows.

7. working in the opposite direction from before, fold over the 2 top rows and slip stitch the top row to the body of the bag, forming a tube. Make sure you leave a gap between the last and first stitch (this is where the drawstring will go).

Drawstring:

chain enough to go around the rim of your bag + 18 inches, single crochet in the chain and tie off. Thread this through the tube in the top of the bag, making a knot at the back end large enough to stop it from going into the bag (add a bead if so desired for decoration), once the other side is through do the same to it.

Straps:

Chain roughly 6 feet and do 6 rows of single crochet. Stitch together your first and last rows to make it a rope.  

sew one end of your crochet rope to the bottom of the bag 1/4 of the way around the bag from the drawstring opening.

pass the rope through 2 stitches at the top of the bag on the opposite side from the drawstring opening.

Sew the loose end to the bottom of the bag on the opposite side from the other end.

NOTE: If you want the straps longer, crochet the rope to whatever length you think suits best.  

Answer 2

Be sure to look at www.lionbrand.com and www.coatsandclark.com and any other yarn manufacturers' websites you can find.  They have a nice selection of good free patterns available.  They always have bag patterns.  They tend to have usable patterns mainly so we'll buy more yarn, hopefully theirs.  They don't care, however, if you are a customer or not.  The free patterns are available to anyone.