Have you ever made one of those purses that have a metal frame with holes for sewing it to the fabric? I showed you my first ever frame bag on January 26th – I used cotton fabric, lined and padded and found it very tricky to sew together. However I decided not to let it put me off, and bought another frame with the intention of crocheting a bag this time.

I started it this morning and finished it this evening, on a work day, so it’s a quick project. I don’t think it took even half a ball of Knit Picks Dishie (colour: Begonia). I’ll show you the step-by-step method I used. I didn’t follow a pattern but I did watch a minute or two of a YouTube video where the lightbulb went on when I saw the shape that was made to fit the frame.

I used this cotton worsted (medium) weight yarn and a 4.5mm hook. It’s a good idea to go down a hook size from that recommended on the ball band.

The frame I used was about 10cm by 4cm when closed. It does come with some basic instructions but they aren’t that helpful, in my opinion.

A square frame is probably the easiest shape to use. When you open it out it’s easy to make a crocheted bag base to fit.

With my hook and yarn, I needed 14 scs to make a piece wide enough. Then I worked 15 rows of single crochet.

Once you have the base made, you don’t turn your work to go back across for another row. You start working down the side edge, across the foundation stitches, and up the other side. You can just keep on doing scs or change to a fancy stitch pattern for the sides. If you’re doing single crochets, it’s simple to work 1sc into each row end and each stitch around the base. I chose to do a stitch pattern where I increased into every other stitch. In other words (2sc into next stitch, skip 1) around. On the next round I’d work the 2sc into the first sc of each pair from the previous round. But any dense stitch pattern would do. (Don’t increase at the corners because you want the sides of the bag to start forming straight upwards, not outwards.) I did joined rounds, but it did create a diagonal “seam” effect which I could have avoided by just working in a spiral.

When my bag was about 3.5″ tall, I fastened off then squished it to find the outer central points to match them up with the hinges on the frame. I used a couple of stitch markers to mark the spots.

I then used a doubled strand of sewing thread and a sewing needle to attach the edge of the crochet to the frame, pushing it up inside the hollow part as I stitched. This went a LOT better than the fabric one I made before. No swearing, no unpicking and redoing. Positively a breeze.

A lining would make it look even prettier but that would add bulk so I’m not sure I want to try that. I hope this helps if you decide to make one of your own. Since I took my fabric one to work, people have been a lot more interested in buying them.