Done: Vasarely Crochet Bag

Today I finally finished a crochet bag that I've been working on for quite a long time. I crocheted it using a design by Victor Vasarely and it has a nice 3D look. And here it is hanging proudly on my bedroom door:

It all started with Pinterest (Daaahhh...). I stumbled upon a gorgeous blanket that was done using this design and I really liked it. I immediately started working on my own version for such a blanket, according to the colors I had lying around. I quickly realized that it's gonna take me a small forever to finish an entire blanket, so I decided to turn it into something that will take a little less time to finish and will also be more useful than a blanket. At first I was still under the illusion that it will be more simple to crochet a bag than an entire blanket, but I didn't take into account that I will have to make a strap, find a way to close it, not to mention make a lining for the bag. But, all well that ends well and I'm very pleased with the end result.

You can take this bag to other directions too, if you change the height or the weight. At first, I thought about doing only one row of "elements" and create a shorter kind of a clutch, but something didn't look right to me in the proportions. Perhaps if I did some sort of a plan in advanced and make the elements smaller it would have work better. I'll have to give it a try sometime. Anyway, I went ahead and made two rows of 3D elements which gave the bag a good height and structure.

Can you see the 3D effect? Kind of a cube, that each color is representing one of it's faces.

After the body of the bag was done by attaching all the elements together I made an edge with a different color to have a little contour, and while doing that I set up the loops for the buttons. Fixing the buttons in place was the next step, and finally I had to tackle the strap.

The strap was the part that took the most time thinking about, since I was unsure of what I wanted to achieve. At first I wanted to get a ready made strap from some kind of thick canvas, but couldn't find any in the right colors. All I could find was Black or White, either of which are totally wrong for this bag. Then, and while working on a different bag (which I'll have to dedicate a different post to), I considered attaching a metal string belt, but that wasn't the look that I wanted to achieve. Since the bag is supposed to be an every-day-bag, the metal strap will be too fancy for it, plus I wasn't sure that it will be comfortable on the shoulder if the bag will be stuffed with every day things and will become a bit heavy. So, keeping all that in mind and consulting with Pinterest, I decided on a simple yet time consuming solution of crocheting my own strap using the Royal Blue that is in the bag. This way the color coordination is perfect and the strap is wide enough and comfy enough for the possible usage of the bag. 

Last step was to sew a lining which I think really finishes off the bag and gives it a professional look.

And that's it. It's done, and I'm so proud :)

This design will also look great in any other color scheme that you can think of. I can really imagine it done in Greens, Purples, earth tones, and even in Black & White using Grey as the middle tone.

The bag, as well as other items, is available for sale on my etsy shop. Just click here: ShimraDesigns.etsy.com

UPDATE: Since I've been asked a number of times about the pattern of this amazing bag, I made a photo tutorial for making a crochet diamond. You can use this tutorial to make the 3D Vasarely Cube the I used in this bag. Click here for the tutorial.

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Thanks for stopping by,
Shimrit