Simple-Crochet-Tote-Bag-Tutorial

Today we're making a basic tote bag. This pattern uses only one stitch and it's very simple so it's great for beginners. When you make bags, you want to use cotton yarn because it's very strong and I will be using just under 200 grams of Lion Brand's 24-7 cotton. It is a number 4 or medium weight yarn and it's 100% mercerized cotton in the color Cafe. And I will be using a 4mm Clovermore crochet hook, some scissors, and a yarn needle. First, a quick overview of this project. There are three main steps. First, we'll make a base out of just a rectangle. And second, we'll work around that rectangle in rounds to build up the height of the bag. And third, we'll add in the straps. Sorry for the bad drawings, but I hope they can help you visualize the process of making this bag. First, we'll make a slip knot. And to make a slip knot, grab the end of your yarn and put it over the palm of your hand with the tail end at the bottom. And make sure you have at least about 5 inches of yarn. Then hold your thumb down, grab the top, and wrap it around two fingers to form an X. Then use your hook, insert it under one side of the X, then go over, grab the other side of the X, and pull it through. Then remove your fingers and tighten the knot. And now we have a slip knot. And now we're going to chain the width of the bag. So that's the horizontal length. So to chain, yarn over, and pull through. Here's our first chain, it looks like a sideways V. Again, yarn over and pull through. And we're going to continue chaining until we get the width that we want. So here we have 5 chains, and I'm going to continue until I have 51 chains. So now I've done 51 chains, and that measures to be about 27 centimeters. And you want to do about 1 centimeter over the actual size you want, because the chain might shrink a little bit. This might end up being about 26 centimeters when I finish. And this whole bag is going to be made out of single crochets. So to do a single crochet, insert your hook into the second chain from the hook. So this is the first chain, and this is the second chain. So insert your hook through that V, and grab only the top loop. And then we're going to yarn over and pull through. Now you should have two loops on your hook, and we're going to yarn over and pull through both loops. And that's a single crochet. Let's do that again. Insert your hook into the next chain. Again, go into that V, grabbing only the top loop. Yarn over, pull through, yarn over, and pull through those two loops. And now we're going to keep doing single crochets until we reach the end of the chain. And once we reach the end of the chain, we should have 50 single crochets. And you can count them by the V's on the top. So once we have 50 single crochets, we're going to start our second row. So we're adding these rows to make the base at the bottom of our bag wider. So to start a new row, we're going to chain 1, and then turn. And now we're going to work back across. Now to start our second row of single crochets, we have to first find the first stitch. So if you look at it from the top, you can see this row of V's. And the first V to the left of the hook is the chain that we just made. And then to the left of that is the V of the first stitch. So we're going to insert our hook under that V. And then we're going to yarn over, pull through, and yarn over, and pull through our two loops. So again, we're just doing single crochets, but we're going under the V's of these stitches. And we'll do that all the way across. And once we reach the end, make sure that you don't miss this last stitch, because it can be a little hard to see. Just make sure that you end up with 50 stitches. And this is our second row. So now we're going to start the third row by chaining 1 and turning. And then we're going to single crochet all the way across. So now we're going to keep going until we get the width of the base. And I ended up doing 8 rows, and this made it about 4 cm wide. So to recap, my base is about 26 cm long and 4 cm wide. Now that we have our base, we can start doing rounds to build up the height of the bag. So first, we're going to turn our work to the side, and we're going to be working along the side of the rows that we just made. So we have 8 rows, and we're going to do 8 single crochets into the side of these 8 rows. So first, let's chain 1, and then we're going to do our first single crochet into the side of the first row. So this part, we don't have those Vs to go under, so we're just going to grab a loop along the side of the rows. So here's my first single crochet into the side of the first row, and we're going to use a stitch marker just to mark our first stitch, so when we come back around, we don't miss it. So let's just loop our stitch marker into this stitch, and if you don't have a stitch marker, then a bobby pin or a safety pin works too. Now I'll move on to my second single crochet, and once we reach to the end, we should have a total of 8 single crochets along this side. And now we're going to rotate again and work along this side of the base. So this is the other side of the chain that we made in the very beginning, and you can see these little bumps for each chain, and we're going to go under the 2 loops on each bump. So if you remember in our chain, we went under 1 loop, and we left these 2 loops. So go under the 2 loops on the first chain, and then do your single crochet. And we're just going to keep going across, doing our single crochets under the 2 loops of each chain, and you'll see that the corner starts to bend, which is good because we want it to be building up instead of laying flat. So just do this all the way across, and you should have 50 single crochets along this side. Now that I've done a single crochet into the very last chain, I'm going to make sure that I have 58 total single crochets. So again, that's 50 single crochets along the side we just finished, and 8 along the side we did earlier. And now we're going to rotate it again and do 8 more single crochets along the other side. Again, 1 single crochet into each row, and then once we do those 8 single crochets, we're going to rotate again and do 50 single crochets along this side. And this side, it has the defined stitches, the Vs, so we're going to go under every V. After our 50 single crochets, we should end up at the stitch marker that we put in the first stitch of this round. So for round 1, you should end with a total of 116 single crochets all the way around. And now we can close off our round by slip stitching to our very first stitch. So remember that we put our stitch marker in our very first stitch to make it easier to find, and now we can take out our stitch marker, and use our hook and insert our hook under those 2 loops of the V of our first stitch, and then we're going to yarn over, pull through, and then pull through the loop on your hook. And then we're going to pull our slip stitch tight. So this is a slip stitch, and it's how we're going to end every round. So this is our first round finished, and we can move on to round 2. And at the start of every round, we're going to chain 1. And then instead of working in this same direction, we're going to work along the other direction. So we're going to turn after we chain 1. And this keeps the slip stitch seam straight. So here you can see the V's of the chain we just made, then the slip stitch we just made, and then the first stitch that we're going to work into. And once we do our first stitch, remember to put your stitch marker back in, so that you can see the first stitch clearly and know when to stop the next round. But once you get used to where it is, you might not need it anymore. And now we're going to do our single crochets all the way around like we've been doing. Once you go all the way around, you should still have a total of 116 single crochets. If you have more, then you might be adding stitches somewhere, and when you add more rounds, the top of your bag will be bigger than the bottom of your bag. And if you have less than 116 single crochets, then you might have skipped a couple of stitches, and the top of your bag will be smaller than the bottom of your bag. And remember at the end of every round, we're going to slip stitch to the first stitch of the round. So again, to slip stitch, remove your stitch marker, insert your hook into the first stitch, yarn over, pull through, then pull through the loop on your hook. And then pull the slip stitch tight. And now to start round 3, we're going to chain 1 and turn again. And remember for the first single crochet of every round, we're going to skip the chain and the slip stitch and go into the third V and start our single crocheting all the way around. And this is how we're building up the height of the bag, so just keep making these rounds until you get the height that you want. And remember that your rounds should grow the bag straight up. The opening should be the same size as the base of your bag, and it shouldn't be getting bigger or smaller. If you're having problems with that, then you might be adding extra stitches or skipping stitches. So make sure that you always have 116 single crochets in every single round. And I ended up doing 52 total rounds, but you can do more or less for a shorter or taller bag. And here's how it looks with 52 rounds, and the final dimensions of it laying flat like this are about 25 centimeters tall and 30 centimeters wide. And also you can see that the seam here is straight because we turn after every round. And here's how the inside of the bag looks. And now we can start on the straps of the bag. First, let's start with a quick overview of how we'll incorporate the straps. Here's the diagram for our bag so far, and we have this box-like shape from crocheting in rounds around a rectangle. And here the arrow points to the start and end of every round, which is where we do our slip stitches. And for this round, first we'll chain 1, do 15 single crochets, then we'll chain 50 for the strap, and skip 20 stitches. Then in the 21st stitch, we'll do 38 single crochets around the side of the box. So 38 is the 15, 8, and 15. And then we'll chain 50 again for the next strap, and then we'll skip 20 stitches and single crochet until the end. And that should equal 23 single crochets. Now let's start crocheting this round. So step 1 is to chain 1 and do 15 single crochets. Now that we have 15 single crochets, we'll move on to step 2, which is to chain 50. So let's start chaining. And if you want a longer strap, then you can chain more. And if you want a smaller strap, then you can do less. And now that we have 50 chains, we're going to skip 20 stitches. So starting from the stitch to the left of our 15 single crochets, we will count and skip 20 stitches. So we will leave a gap of 20 stitches. And in the 21st stitch, we will put a single crochet. And then we will continue single crochets until we have 38 single crochets after those 50 chains. So I've just finished my 38 single crochets after my 50 chains. Now we are at step 4, and we will chain 50 again, and then skip 20 stitches. And just to make it a little bit clearer, I have a stitch marker in the first stitch, and then a stitch marker in the 20th stitch. And we're going to work our single crochet into the stitch to the left of the 20th stitch. So basically the 21st stitch. Once we do that single crochet, we're going to continue single crocheting until the end of the round, and that should be 23 stitches. And once we reach the end, we'll slip stitch. Chain 1, turn, and start the next round. For the second round, we will single crochet all the way around. First, we'll single crochet until we reach the chain 50 from last round. In these 50 chains, we'll single crochet into each chain. And once we reach the end, we can single crochet around until the next chain 50. Then here, we'll also do 50 single crochets into the chain. Then we'll continue single crocheting until the end of the round. And then we'll do a slip stitch, chain 1, and turn. And from now on, we're going to continue these rounds, but we'll also be decreasing at the sides of these straps. So first, we'll single crochet until we reach the side of the first strap. And once you reach the side of the first strap, you can hold the strap straight up, and you can see these two stitches that form the corner. And in these two stitches, we'll do a decrease. So to do a decrease, insert your hook into the first stitch, yarn over, pull through, then insert your hook into the next stitch, yarn over, and pull through. And now you should have three loops on your hook. And now we'll yarn over and pull through all three loops. So that combines those two stitches into one stitch, and it'll keep your bag laying flat instead of being floppy on the sides of the straps. Now we'll single crochet along the strap. And once we reach the other end, we'll hold the strap straight up again and look for those two stitches that form the corner. And again, in these two stitches, we'll do a decrease. So again, to do a decrease, insert your hook into that first stitch, yarn over, pull through, then insert your hook into the next stitch, yarn over, and pull through. And now we have three loops, and we'll yarn over and pull through all three loops. And now we'll single crochet until we reach the side of the next strap. And we'll do the same thing again, and decrease on the first side of the strap, then we'll single crochet across the strap, then decrease at the other side of the strap. Then we'll single crochet until we reach the end of the round, and we'll do a slip stitch. And now we're going to repeat that same round over and over for however wide you want the strap to be. And I ended up doing five more rounds after that round with the 50 chains. Now we'll cut off our yarn, which is also called fastening off. So to fasten off, we're going to put our hook back into the loop, and then we'll chain one, and we'll cut our yarn about five inches. And then we'll pull on our hook, and pull the yarn through, and tighten the knot that it makes. Now the last thing we're going to do is hide our loose yarn ends. So we're going to grab our loose end at the top where we just finished, and a yarn needle, and we're going to thread that loose end into our yarn needle. And then I'm going to insert my yarn needle under this loop to pull my yarn down to our round of stitches. And then we'll go towards the left under the loops of a few stitches. And once you've gone through a couple of inches, you want to turn your work to see the other side and make sure that your needle isn't poking through. And then if that's good, we're going to pull our needle through. And then we're going to move down to the next round of stitches, and go towards the right under a few of the stitches. And once we have a good length, we can pull the yarn through. And if you still have some extra yarn, then we can go down another round, and go to the left a few stitches again. If you use up the whole loose end, then you don't have to worry about snipping off the last bit. And if you do have a little bit left, just trim it off, but make sure not to cut your bag. And we'll make sure to do that for every loose end that we have. So here is the finished bag, and here are the straps. And they might be a little bit curly, but it's not a problem when you're holding it. But if you do want it to lay flat, then you can look into blocking. And here's the inside of the bag. And that's all for this tutorial, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, please leave a like and subscribe. And comment if you have any questions at all, I'd love to answer them. And thank you so much for watching, I'll see you next time.