Crocheted!: blue and pink purses

A month ago I indulged and bought myself a little jewel of technology(which software, sonicstage, is driving me crazy sometimes) and I wanted to provide it with a worthy casket suitable with my wardrobe.
I finally finished the purses I designed for it. In fact I only had a few details to finish but I've been lazy untill yesterday.

So here are my Sony Hi md MZ-RH10 purses.

Pink purse

I started this one in January with the same yarn I used for my daughter's
bolero except I "variagated" it using fingering red yarn and burgundy sewing thread (the latter doesn't show much indeed.I used a 4.5 mm aluminium crochet hook.

the design : the same as the porte-tute the most difficule thing being to create the stripes for which I used this technic, leaving the contrasing yarns aside to obtain a solid color. I also wanted to draw a line in the back, but I didn't manage to do it in the middle, the stitch being a little bit messy, it was hard to follow clearly the process, I should have counted the stitches. I also should have blocked the finished product to avoid that lumpy look... but I don't care teehee .

the button hole is just plain chain stitches.

the strap consists of chain stitches doubled with slip stitches, although the result is less becoming than the twisted one,I do find it nice and it's both elastic and sturdy.

I added a row of slip stitches all around the finished puse so that the back would look like the front.

The only thing left to do was to add a button, I hesitated because I wanted something fun and cute, I eventually chose a square glass bead.

the stitch :
X are single crochet and T are double crochet (which happen to be "half double crochet" in French, or demi bride)

X T X T X T X T

T X T X T X T X

X T X T X T X T

T X T X T X T X

More pictures of the pink purse :

Blue purse

This time I decided to use a simple stitch so that the line in te back would stand out clearly.
I also opted for a triangular closing flap. In addition, I wanted something funny and cute to balance the sobriety of the stitch, I hesitated between pompoms and other decorative motives, I eventually decided to add tendrils...

the yarn : one bobbin of Bouton d'or "Flash" ribbon, I don't recall the name of the color (1 3/4 oz = about 137 yards), unfortuntely there wasn't enough ribbon left in the bobbin to make the strap, I used something I salvaged from a defunct garment... Crochet hook : aluminium 3mm.

the stitch : chain stitches, back loop only single crochet,
back post single crochet (for the line in the back and the stripes in the front), slip stitches.

the tendrils : form a chain of 10 chain stitches, 1 chain stitch to turn,
3 single crochet in every stitch of the previous row. the button hole tendril : chain of 15 chain stitches, 1 chain stitch to turn, 3 x 3 single crochet in the first stitch of the previous row, then 3x4, then 3x5, then 3x6, finish with a chain of 5 and attach to the flap with a slip stitch.

the design : the same as for the pink one, i just did a series of decreases then increases of 3 to create the flap. As you can see the hem is perfectly tidy and neat, unlike all the mean things I've heard about crochet and the way the
borders were always so messy that you always needed to add a decorative border afterwards.

the button hole is just an opening left at the top of a tendril. the button is a blue chrysoberyl cat's eye bead (I love those).

I sew the strap inside the purse all along the inside in fact, for it to be sturdy.

Once sewn I noticed it was too long...
So I cut it in half and as I had a little bit of ribbon left, I decorated the knots to match the purse. It's just a ring of 8 single crochet started in the same circle around the base of the knot, then the next row consists of 4 single crochet (one in every 2) ended together.Et voilà.