A New Handbag

The happy event of my friend Lucy marrying her fiance, Jamie, last Friday, meant that I had an excuse to purchase a rather beautiful dark, peacock green silk dress to wear to their wedding. I had a pair of shoes (Boden, leopard print heels, I LOVE them) but needed a bag. I didn't want a clutch bag because, while I like a clutch, they are a pain when you are trying to also hold a drink, canape, camera etc, and so a bag with a strap was necessary. It also needed to be big enough to hold a pair of flat sandals so that I could change shoes and do some dancing later. Can you tell I thought this through? Honestly, if only I was this thorough when planning everything in my life.

Happily, while browsing Instagram recently, I found this lady and then the pattern for this, her Half Moon Bag. It looked perfect, and I knew that I could use it time and time again after the wedding, so I bought and downloaded the pattern. 

It calls for Bobbiny 5mm Cotton Rope, which I'd not used before, but comes in a great range of colours. I chose peach which I thought would go well with the dark green, and bought mine from here.

The pattern is really easy and clear and, with a 10mm hook, fast to make too. You could easily make one in a couple of hours from start to finish. I always love the stitch definition you get from a large hook and chunky yarn.

The strap I ordered from eBay  and, with pattern, yarn and strap, the whole thing came in at around £20 which I thought was pretty good for a new bag.

Something I really liked about this pattern was the inclusion of a free, extra suggestion for the leftover yarn. Around a quarter of the ball was left, not enough to do anything with, but the designer had given a simple pattern for a crocheted basket which I thought was a nice touch.

Without that, it would've sat in my leftover yarn basket until I forgot all about it. 

But instead, I have a pretty peach basket for my little succulent.

I foresee more moon bags in my future, in different colours too. I like their cross-body, slouchy style, but could do with one slightly bigger. I wonder if I could modify the pattern slightly....

For now I'll leave you with a couple of photos of me and my bag. 

The wedding was completely and utterly lovely by the way, in the most beautiful setting deep in the West Sussex countryside, and I had so much fun sharing their happy day.