Rope & Tire Basket Lunch Bag

A while back, I decided to make a lunch bag to transport my daughter’s various boxes and bottles to daycare. The requirements were – something pretty, something big, something tall enough to carry her Dr. Browns feeding bottles. After looking around, I found this free design – the basket bag design by Pierrot. The design looked very pretty and do-able. The great challenge with this pattern – this design is a Japanese pattern. Meaning: there are no row by row instructions written in words – instead, there is a pictorial representation of what needs to be done.

However Pierrot have made it easy to understand how to decipher their design with very useful, minimal explanations on the side. I also found two other links which i have since bookmarked:

Craft Minx – https://www.craftyminx.com/2011/11/crochet-school-lesson-21-reading-crochet-charts.html

Dancing Barefoot – https://dancingbarefoot.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/japanese-pattern-reading-tutorial-lesson-1/

Here is what my bag looks like:

Basket bag – 1

Another View:

Basket Bag – 2

Here is the summary of my pattern:

Ravelry Link to my bag – https://www.ravelry.com/projects/ropeandtire/basket-bag

Pattern Link in ravelry – https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/basket-bag (by Pierrot (Gosyo Co., Ltd) – 213ss-39 Basket bag )

Direct Link to PDF – https://gosyo.co.jp/english/pattern/eHTML/ePDF/1304/213ss-39\_Basket\_Bag.pdf

Yarn Used –

Lily Sugar n Cream Solids and Denim – Stonewash (2 skeins)
Lily Sugar n Cream Scents – Aloe (2 skeins)

Crochet Hooks Used

Turn of the Century – Purple Heart in 5mm (H)
Lantern Moon – Ebony in 3.5mm
Turn of the Century – Bloodwood in 3.75mm

Total Time to make bag – Large ~ 10.5hrs

Crochet body of bag – 2hrs 07 mins (over many days)

Crochet handles – 34mins

Crochet Lid – 1hr 50 mins

Lining for body and lid, attaching lining and button ~ 6 hrs

Pattern Modification Notes:

For the large lid, the loops to loop around the button: the design called for a ch 10. Instead I used Foundation Single Crochet of 10. Here is a great tutorial on Foundation Single Crochet by futuregirl
For the large lid, I used ‘Aloe’(green) for the center chain, the sc row attached to the center chain and rows 1,2 (on both sides). The rest were in ‘Stonewash’(Blue)
The body of the basket needed to be taller – So instead of 20 rounds, I did 25 rounds.
I used two colors for the body as well. The bottom of the bag, plus side rows 1-7 were in ‘Stonewash’ (blue). Rows 8 to 18 were in ‘Aloe’ (green). Rows 19 to 25 were in ‘Stonewash’ (Blue)

I wanted the basket bag to be tall enough to hold feeding bottles – however I did not make it tall enough. for this purposes, I wish I had crocheted 5 more rows – bringing the number of rows on the basket side to 30.

Basket Bag – 4

After the bag was done, I blocked the bag and made the handles. I used some rope as a strong insert for the bag handle interior.

Blocking the Basket Bag

The design and pattern however did not specify a lining. And I definitely wanted a waterproof lining. So I went to my local Ross and bought a Vinyl tablecloth, flannel backed for less than $5.00 – which will provide lining for many many lunch bags or other projects I can think of in teh future.

Lining Table Cloth

I used this tutorial by futuregirl as a launching point to make my lining. I decided to cut out an oval, double it up and sew it as the lining bottom. When doubling, the two pieces of flannel were back to back – such that the bottom is waterproof from both sides. Here is my bottom lining cut out – one piece