Little Filet Crochet Bag/Pouch

It was a co-workers birthday so I decided I wanted to make a litle bag for her. Initially I wanted to go with Victorian-esque vintage look but I could not find any nice patterns,  So I decided to go with her love of cats instead.
In this post I will give the pattern for the pouch as well as how to sew the lining inside.
Here is what it looks like:

 

 I worked this in simple filet crochet, if you don't know what that is this is a good source, it is working in little squares which you can choose to fill in or not.

What you need:

Size 10 thread

Size 2 steel crochet hook

Needle and Thread

Fabric (I used muslin) 

No embellish knit, i replaced the cords with a braid 

I made the pouch 14 squares long and 18 high.
I started from the top of the picture side and continued to make the back side at the same time (ended with 14x36)

Here is the cat I used, I get it from somewhere online but I could not find it again so I recreated it

I had no idea how to do the triangles so I don't know if this is the proper way, but I crocheted 4 dc into one st, like this:

When I had finished the rectangle I did not cut off the end but just folded it in half and started joining it from the top.

To join: sc 2 in gap (chain/dc) , 1 sc in the row.

After the round of sc's, go back with the shell stitch, dc5 in one st, skip 2, sc, skip2, 5dc...

It was off by maybe 2 stitches so I shortened 2 skip2 spaces into skip1, only do this if necesarry   

Once this is done go in with single a row of single crochet (2 in space, 1 in dc) , ignoring the shells

2 rows of dc 

1 row in filet, with every other one filled

2 more dc rows

Shell stitch up top

Fasten off.

BLOCK

Pin it down (I used a pillow) while stretching it at the same time, take an iron and put it on the highest steam setting, go over it with the steam, you don't actually have to iron it down

To  make the inside:

Measure out what size you want it to be, add a half inch on every side that you are going to have a seam 

Sew 2 rectangle together (use one big one and fold in half if you can so you only have to sew 2 side. Leave about enough space at the top to make another seam. Make 2.

To sew them together so that there are no visible seams you want to have the right sides together on the inside (Turn 1 right side out and put it inside the other)

Sew the top seam together, but make sure to leave a hole so that you can turn it right side out. 

Once you have turned it, sew up the hole left over, it should look like this:

Iron it down, so that it looks presses and more professional.

To sew it in I used the method from this tutorial, using the 1st sc row at the top  

I ended up going with braids, not the i-cord seen in the picture, but you can use anything ribbon etc. 

Weave in a cord so that it hang out of one side, do to the same with the opposite side, this way when you pull on both sides it closed up nicely,

Final Notes:

-You can use any design, just get a piece of graph paper and  play around

-I should have used more contrasting thread and fabric combination to see the picture a little better

-I would have made it a little bigger, this in only good for maybe a cell phone and a small wallet

-I'm going to add a strap so that it becomes an over the shoulder purse 

Hope this was helpful

~Fifi