Shhh.. its a secret, AGAIN!

I joined in round two of the Secret Tote Bag Swap, and this time we had a theme, 'nature'.  It could be anything from animals, flowers, trees, seasons, sceneries or anything we could think of associated with nature.

Once the signups were closes and I received my partners info, I got excited at her preferences.  Lucky for me, she is not fussy, and one of her likes was crochet bags.  So I immediately jumped at the opportunity to try and make a crochet bag.

It was much simpler to make than I originally thought, and I would love to make another for myself.  To make the African Flowers I used Heidi Bears tutorial, and for the rest of the bag I used Gunilla Karlsson's pattern I found on Ravelry.

I added three pockets to the bag lining, which by the way is a piece of 'recycled' table cloth, I hope my partner will forgive me for using that, but the colour fit the bag perfectly, its strong and will definitely handle a lot of wear and tear.

This bag is very big, measuring 19½ inches high, 16 inches wide at the bottom, and when the drawstring is completely pulled together it measures 9 inches wide.

The only thing I am a bit concerned about is the strap.  My partner wanted a long strap to carry the bag across her body over her shoulder, but I fear it might be too long. I tied a knot at the top, for the purpose of taking photos, but think it looks pretty this way too, so should the strap be too long the knot works well too... I think?

'Partner, I really hope you like your bag!  It was a pleasure to make...'

If you'd like to see the bag I made in Round 1 of the Secret Tote Bag Swap, click HERE.

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Shhh.. it's a SECRET!!

...I am taking part in Lia's Handmade Secret Tote Bag Swap.

My partner, who lives far far away, will be receiving this tote bag.  I cant tell you who she is and for those taking part, the guessing game continues.

My partner did not give a lot of specifics except that she liked modern, big, bold and bright colours.  We all had a chance to add a photo mosaics to the flickr group to show our preferences in bag types, colours and designs, so I tried really hard to make a bag that she would like.  

I was very lucky that my sponsor, Dot from Dot's Quilts, jumped to the opportunity when I mentioned this swap to her.  So she sent me a variation of these beautiful fabrics from Anna Maria Horner's LouLouThi collection.

The moment I saw it, I knew I had to try and incorporate all of them, without cutting it up too much and not slice away the beautiful flowers and prints.  

The body of the bag has batting between the layers, and the outside pockets are lined with a medium weight iron on interfacing for added stability. 

I've added a photo of myself with the bag over my shoulder, just to give you an idea of the size.  I added a single side strap instead of two.  The final dimensions of this bag is 14 inches wide, 16 inches high and 4 inches wide.  I really like the size of this bag, I am definitely going to make one for myself,... oh no wait, my partner already did :-)

If you'd like to see all the other completed bags, please visit the flickr group, or this link up from Lia's blog.  Thank you Julia aka Lia for hosting this swap, and Dot for the beautiful fabrics.

Happy sewing.