How to make your own knitted handbag

Last year I blogged about Dolce & Gabbana's beautiful knitted handbags, and how I wanted to make my own based on their models and ideas.

Well, I didn't copy any one of the three handbags listed in that post, but I went for something simpler and more appropriate for summer.

I used a similar pattern to one of the D&G bags: a simple 1 knit 1 purl each row, and alternating it to 1 purl 1 knit on the next row. Can't go any simpler than that, but the result is always interesting and cool to the touch.

I made it as long as I felt was enough to double it over. As for how many stitches on a row, it really depends on how thick is the yarn, and for a project like this you want to use thick better than thin yarn. For this bag I used just 30 stitches.

Once I had my rectangular piece of yarn done, I started playing with different shapes... did I want a square bag?

Or maybe a pointy one?

Or an elongated one? 

The elongated one won. :)

Next, I picked an old pillow case to use as the lining of the bag. This yarn bags need a lining, otherwise anything you put in the bag will stretch the yarn.

I cut the pillow case to match the shape of my bag and started sewing all around the sides.

I then folded the rectangle in two, and sewed the sides of the bag together (on the inside out side). 

Here is the bag all sewed up and with the lining inside.

Now I needed a handle. I actually crochet the handle, because I think it's much faster when you need to get a long strip like this. What I did was I started with a chain of many stitches (I don't even remember how many, I just kept checking if it was as long as I wanted it to be), and then worked the chain a few times over with half doubles until it was as wide as I needed it to be.

Lastly, I attached the handle to the bag by sewing the ends of the handle to the sides of the bag. As of right now I haven't decided yet if I want it to have a zipper or just a button to close the opening. 

I realize this is a much simpler bag compared to the Dolce & Gabbana's ones, but it is an easier start for someone new to knitting. And you could still add plenty of your own ideas, for example you could add a few flowers in front, or embroider part of it, anything else that would make this your own project. 

I am still working on another bag, still knitted, and still from Dolce & Gabbana's inspiration, but I need more resources to complete it (plastic handle and leather corners at least), and if I ever finish it, I will share the results with you. 

Happy knitting!  :)