Crochet this cute bottle bag for your summer drinks—perfect for picnics!
This bottle bag is the sweetest picnic accessory or gift to bring to your friend’s summer cottage. The four-bottle bag is crocheted following the pattern from craft artist Molla Mills.
Bottle bag
Size: approx. 16 x 18 cm.
Bottle bag—materials:
- Lankava Mini tube yarn (80% recycled cotton, 20% polyester, 1 kg = approx. 355 m): 300 g Natural white (2) and 300 g Baby pink (29)
- a 5.5 mm (US I-9) crochet hook or size needed for gauge
- a 65 cm-long, approx. 1.5 cm-wide leather belt, and unbleached 15-ply cotton twine
Tapestry crochet
The bags are crocheted in the round using two colors. Carry the second color inside the stitches as you work. Switch colors by completing the final yarn-over of a single crochet with the new color. Keep both yarns at an even tension throughout the work so the yarn carried inside the stitches doesn’t become too loose.
Gauge: 11 rounds = 10 cm.
How to crochet the bottle bag
Make four identical bottle bags. Begin by crocheting the round bottom of a bag.
Round 1: With the pink yarn, make a magic ring around two fingers. Insert the hook through the ring, draw up the working yarn, yarn over again and pull through the loop on the hook, and make 15 single crochets (sc) into the ring. Tighten the ring by pulling the yarn end. Continue in a spiral, without closing the round with a slip stitch.
Round 2: Add the natural white yarn. Work 2 sc into each stitch while carrying the white yarn and the yarn end inside the stitches, for a total of 29 sc.
Then begin the colorwork following the chart.
Round 1: Work 1 sc in pink, *3 sc in white, 3 sc in pink*, repeat from * to * three more times, then 3 sc in white, 1 sc in pink.
Continue following the chart for 14 more rounds.
Round 16: Work 3 sc in pink, then make a buttonhole: with white, crochet 2 sc around the pink yarn, skip 2 sc, then continue following the chart to the end of the round. Work one more round, then fasten off all yarn ends.
Finishing
- Cut two straps from the leather belt, one 15 cm long and one 50 cm long. Leave the buckle on the longer strap.
- Punch two sets of holes in both ends of the short strap: one set at 0.5 cm and the other at 2 cm from the ends. Then thread the strap through the holes in two of the bottle bags.
- Overlap the ends of the strap to form a loop, and sew them firmly together with twine as follows: Leave a tail of about 20 cm of twine at the start for a knot. Bring the needle from under the loop through the corresponding holes to the right side, over the edge, and back up through the holes, then over the other edge and again through the holes. Move to the second set of holes, bringing the needle through them to the wrong side and make similar stitches as above.
- Sew the stitches twice, then knot the twine ends tightly under the strap.
- Finally, feed the long strap through the remaining bags and secure it with the buckle. Place the short-strap bags in between the long-strap bags. The long strap now supports all four bags, which rest against each other when carried. The bottle bag holds four 0.5-liter bottles.
Here’s a tip!
Carrying your drinks in a bottle bag is convenient and eco-friendly. As it’s worked with two strands of yarn, this bag is sturdy, and it’s also easy to make: because the four bottle bags support one another, there’s no need to sew them together—fastening them with belts is enough. Search for suitable belts at thrift stores or at shoemaker’s shops.
