Did you ever make something and just could not believe how well it came out? 🙂  I *love it* when that happens!  My little God-daughter’s sixth birthday was coming up and I wasn’t sure what to get her.  Then I learned she was having a fairy themed party because she’s taken a liking to fairies…

I had this lovely little fairy doll that I decided would be perfect to give her.  The fairy has bendable arms and legs.  I found a website for the company that sells them: http://fromtheretohereimports.com/?page_id=6  The fairy dolls are actually designed and made by a family business in Thailand. It is an interesting story, but I’m getting a bit off-topic!

But wouldn’t it be nice to have a ‘fairy doll’ handbag to carry the fairy doll? Such is the way my brain works, and thus the idea was formed.  The doll inspired the colours for the handbag; that and the fact that I had the yarn to hand so I was happy to use those colours! I have to say that the Caron ‘Simply Soft’ yarn is fantastic.  I have done a few different projects with it now, and every one is that bit nicer because of the softness of the yarn.

The ‘passion’ colour is definitely my favourite. The soft pink did a nice job of breaking up the sameness of the two main colours. The lime green yarn is not the Caron brand. In fact, it was some scrap yarn I bought to only make flower petals with.  But I loved the way it really brightened up the passion colour!

Those two buttons were in my button collection, just waiting for a neat little project like this!

So… my least favourite thing to do is sew. That is probably because I am not very good at it.  This small task of creating a lining should have been a very quick and easy job on a sewing machine.  But I don’t have a sewing machine, and borrowing one was going to take longer than just getting to work and sewing it myself. I’ll chalk it up to being ‘good experience’!  (But next time I think I’ll make the effort to borrow one!)

I was really surprised with how it came out. It even fit! 🙂

I spent many, many hours on pinterest looking for pattern ideas for the handbag.  I could lose so many hours on Pinterest, it is not even funny. I love getting new ideas there!

 

I designed the handbag myself, based on a couple of different styles I found.  I challenged myself a bit with the top flap.  It would have been easier to just leave the top open.  But sure, then all of the little princess’ things would fall out! 😉

It all just fell into place. (read: I figured it out as I went along!)

The handle is called a ‘granny strap’ and involved learning “foundation single crochet”. But it is really easy to find instructions on-line and videos, too!  It was worth learning as I really like the look that it gives.

I was quite happy with the finished project.  I had used my 11 year old daughter to roughly gauge how long to make the strap.  I think it worked out O.K. based on how cute it looks on the little princess.

Go on, try making something new! You just might end up making something beautiful and having fun, too!

With crocheting needle,
Dana

The websites I used for inspiration:

http://koalakidsfashion.blogspot.ie/2012/03/crazy-flowers-purse-crochet-pattern.html

https://www.etsy.com/listing/85170392/crochet-pattern-purse-garden-scene?ref=shop_home_feat_2

http://www.futuregirl.com/craft_blog/2011/1/granny-straps.aspx