Easy Crochet Bag Tutorial | Beginner-Friendly Crochet Crossbody/Shoulder Bag

Today we're making a simple crossbody or shoulder bag. This is a great pattern for beginners because it uses only one stitch and is just a folded and sewn rectangle. You can find the free written pattern at vivcrochets.com or linked in the description. And if you find this tutorial helpful, please leave a like or comment to let me know. Thanks so much and let's get started. For this project, I'll be using 156 grams of Lion Brand's 24-7 cotton yarn. This is a medium weight cotton yarn and cotton is good for bags because it's less stretchy than other yarn fibers. I'll also be using a 4mm hook, some scissors, and a yarn needle. And stitch markers are optional and everything will be linked in the description. First, we'll make a slip knot. To make a slip knot, place the yarn over the palm of your hand with the tail end at the bottom. Then wrap the top around two fingers to form an X and hook it around your pinky. Insert your hook under one side of the X, then over and grab the other side and pull it through. Remove your fingers and tighten the knot. Then we'll chain. To chain, yarn over and pull through. Again, yarn over and pull through. And we'll continue chaining to determine the final size of the bag. To calculate how long the width of your rectangle should be, take the length of the bag you want. For example, 31 centimeters. Divide it by 1.4. This gives me 22.14. That means, to get a final bag length of 31 centimeters, my rectangle width needs to be about 22 centimeters long. The foundation chain might get longer when you put your stitches in, so you might want to chain about 20 centimeters instead or make a gauge swatch, which is a little more advanced. For me, 40 chains is about 19 centimeters long, but stretches to 22 centimeters when I put in my stitches. So here I have 40 chains, and we'll chain 2 more for the turning chain we do at the start of every row. Then we'll skip those 2, and in the 3rd we'll do a double crochet. To do a double crochet, yarn over, insert your hook into the V of the 3rd chain from the hook, so just go under the top loop of the sideways V. Yarn over, pull through. Now you should have 3 loops on your hook. Yarn over, pull through just 2 loops. Then yarn over and pull through the last 2 loops. Then we'll move on to the next chain. Again, yarn over, insert your hook under the top loop of the V of the next chain. Yarn over, pull through. Yarn over, pull through 2 loops. And we'll do double crochets into every chain across. Now we should have 40 double crochets, and we'll start the second row. To start every new row, we'll chain 2 and turn. Now we'll be working under these V's on top. For our first stitch, we'll skip these 2 V's from the chain we just made, and do a double crochet under the next V. So we'll yarn over, go in from the side, under the V, yarn over, pull through, yarn over, pull through 2, yarn over, pull through 2. Then we'll move on to the next V. And again, we'll yarn over, go under the next V, and complete our double crochet. And we'll double crochet all the way across. Once you reach the end, make sure you don't miss the last stitch, which can be a little hard to see. You should always have 40 double crochets at the end of every row. To start a new row, we'll chain 2 and turn. And we'll double crochet across under the V's. And we're going to continue adding rows until the length is 3 times the width. And my width is 22 cm and I'll keep adding rows until the length reaches 66 cm long. And to make the sewing part easier, make sure the number of rows you do is a multiple of 3. So I've done 69 rows and now my rectangle is 22 cm wide by 66 cm long. The length is 3 times the width and we can fasten off. So chain 1 and we'll cut the yarn extra long for sewing. I'll do twice the width of the rectangle plus about 10 cm. Pull through with your hook and tighten the knot. Now I have my rectangle with the end we just fastened off in the bottom left corner. For this part, I'll use stitch markers, but you can use clips like bobby pins or safety pins. And we're going to split the number of rows in 3. Since I did 69 rows, I have 23 rows in each of these sections. And I put the left stitch marker along the bottom and the other along the top because it'll end up at the bottom point of the bag when we fold it. Now we're going to fold this side up to meet this side. So we'll take the bottom left corner and fold it up. And as long as you made the length of the rectangle 3 times the width, the edge should end up along your stitch marker. Then we'll take the top right corner and fold it down so it lines up with our stitch marker. And finally, we're going to take the bottom right corner and fold up so that this edge meets this edge. Now you should have your bag shape. And I'm going to add additional stitch markers to make sure that these rows are lining up perfectly. And I'll turn it over and do the same for the back. And when we have these two lines sewn, it'll form this pocket. We can start sewing the bag with the long loose end we left. First, we'll thread it into our yarn needle. And you can use whichever sewing method you prefer, but I'll show you the whip stitch method. We'll take our yarn needle and the edge closer to us and go under it and up through the side of the edge and pull the yarn through. Now the corner should be connected. Then we'll go to the further edge and a little lower left and go down through the side of that edge and back to the closer edge and under it and up through the side. Make sure you're pulling it taut, but not too tight. And we'll continue sewing in this sort of spiral, going down through the further edge and up through the closer edge. And I'm sewing through each row about two times. And make sure you're sewing all the way down to the corner so there isn't a hole left. And then we'll tie a knot so it doesn't come undone. We'll go under a loop and pull the yarn through a little and insert our needle into this loop and pull it tight. Then we'll flip this over and do the same to this side. First, we'll need to cut a strand of yarn. We can measure it by doing twice the length we'll sew plus about 20 centimeters. Then we'll cut it and attach it to this corner. I'll use my hook and go into this corner and pull the yarn through. Then we can double knot it, making sure to leave a loose end about 10 centimeters long. Now we can start sewing like we did before. Again, we'll first go under and up through the closer edge, then whip stitch across in that spiral motion. And we'll tie another knot when we finish. Now we're going to make the bag strap. We'll crochet a rectangle again, just much thinner. And again, we'll start with a slip knot. Place the yarn over the palm of your hand with the tail end at the bottom. Hold the yarn with your thumb and make sure the tail end is about 12 centimeters long this time for sewing. Wrap the top around two fingers to form an X. Insert your hook under one side of the X, then over and grab the other side and pull it through. Remove your fingers and tighten the knot. Then we'll start chaining the length of the strap we want. I want my strap to be about 70 centimeters long, but I'll chain maybe 60 centimeters to account for when I put my stitches in and for stretching when I wear the bag. And you don't have to count all of your chains unless you want it to be exact. And if you want to see how the bag will look with a strap being this long, what I like to do is pin the foundation chain onto the bag and try it on. So here I have 120 chains and I'll chain two more for a turning chain. Now I'll double crochet across, starting with the third chain from the hook. And you can keep adding rows until the strap is the width you want. If you want to use the tail ends for sewing instead of attaching a new strand of yarn, do an even number of rows. I only did two rows and my finished strap is 64.5 centimeters long and 2 centimeters wide. Now we can fasten off, leaving a slightly longer loose end for sewing. So chain one, cut our yarn a little longer. You really don't need this much, just 12 centimeters is enough. Pull through with your hook and tighten the knot. Now we can sew the strap to our bag with the same technique we used before. Since the strap is a little wider than the points of the bag we're attaching it to, the strap will pinch in a little. So I'm going along the edge of the strap but staying at the one point on the bag. And once the side of the strap is fully attached, we can tie a knot. Before you start sewing the other side, make sure the strap isn't twisted. Then we'll attach the other side of the strap the same way. The last thing to do is weave in all of our loose ends. So thread one of your loose ends into your yarn needle. And to hide it, we'll go over to a row of stitches and go under the stitches in the row. Then pull the yarn through, go down to another row, and go under the stitches in the other direction. Then we can go down again and repeat. Then if you have any loose end remaining, snip it off and hide your other ends. And your bag is finished. The final dimensions of the bag are 31 by 31 centimeters with the shortest part being 16 centimeters. If you plan to use it for anything heavier than your everyday essentials, I would recommend lining the bag with fabric and reinforcing the strap. That's all for this video. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if you did, please leave a like, comment, and subscribe. And let me know if you have any questions. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you next time.