Made Marian: Oozing Crafty Goodness

This crochet clutch bag is for a wedding I’m attending next month. The wedding is in Finland but we’ll be traveling for almost a week before the big day so I’m packing a wrinkle free dress, unfortunately my only one of those is black, so the pink accessories will hopefully jazz the outfit up a bit. It was a quick and easy project that got me reintroduced to some sewing as well as being my first proper crochet project. The pattern is from Debbie Stoller’s iconic Stitch ‘n’ Bitch crochet book “The Happy Hooker”. I am somewhat worried about the Google searches that might lead people to this post, but anywho, lets continue.

The yarn is Sirdar Snuggly Double Knitting purchased from The Singer Sewing shop on Fox’s Bow here in Limerick and I used a 5mm addi hook purchased online from This is Knit.

You don’t need much crochet experience for this project, as it’s mostly the half double crochet stitch, which is explained very clearly in the book. I sewed up the sides using the back stitch.

Stage two was adding the lining. The fabric came from Hickey’s on Cruise’s Street in Limerick. I cut it to size and hand sewed the sides up with a matching thread. That’s then slotted into the bag and I tacked it in place first and then hand sewed it on, I only sewed across the top (you can see the stitching in the photo).

Finally, the flower. I didn’t use the pattern that came with the bag, I used the six petal flower pin pattern from later in the book.

I stitched the flower onto the bag, but I’m not entirely convinced that I shouldn’t have attached it a bit higher.