Crocodile Stitch Clutch

Hey everyone! My apologizes for such a lengthy time between posts. Sometimes it just takes me a while to create things! In this case, I made the Crocodile Stitch Clutch as seen on My Merry Messy Life. It actually didn’t take too long for me to make–only a day or two. I, however, thought it would be good to wash it before adding a lining and blogging about it, and THAT took just over two days to finish air drying. I suppose I could have thrown it in the dryer (both fabrics are machine washable and dry-able, after all). It’s just a stubborn thing I have, believing that air drying is better for these things. Perhaps I am just paranoid that it would shrink like crazy (the top bit being 100% cotton.) Anyway, enough ranting about that for now.

I began this pattern, not really knowing anything about the crocheted crocodile stitch. This is me learning it:

 

So far, so good! After the first row of crocodile stitch, I realized it’s not as hard as it sounds. The most challenging aspect I found was attempting to line up where each crocodile stitch was supposed to go each time (as it’s supposed to basically stagger, more or less, to make it look “scaly”). But I figured it out (I think). Here is the finished front of the purse:

 

I didn’t take a picture of the finished back. It was a pretty simple straight half double crochet that didn’t take very long to finish at all. Once it was done, I sewed the front to the back (with some difficulty as I’m not used to sewing things together that don’t line up. I figured this was likely an issue with my crocheting, as I am not at all an expert. Or, the fact that it’s a purse, and there has to be somewhere for the contents of the purse to go.)

Once that was done, I switched colours and crocheted the handle section. A lot easier to do than I expected, and took no time at all! After that I washed it (waited a couple days), then sewed a lining, sewed the lining into the purse, and sewed on some snaps to the lining to keep it closed. Here are some final shots:

 

Now the avid crocheters visiting this blog (or anyone, really, paying close attention) probably have noticed my mistake. Unfortunately I didn’t until my stitching job was complete. (That is….I sewed the back and the front together upside down. lol. Big whoops!!) After I calmed down, I decided to just go with it, as it still looks cool in my eyes, anyway. I think it worked out well and I hope you enjoyed this post 🙂 Despite all my rantings this time around. My frustration had nothing to do with this wonderful pattern, but more to do with my impatience and the fact that I tend to freak out a little when I mess up any given pattern 😉

Next on the to-do-list….We will have to see. I am currently working on a pair of socks (almost done sock #1), so that may be my next post. If not, it will be whatever I decide to create between sock #1 and sock #2!